Josh Allen silences critics with surgical performance as Bills throttle Raiders

ORCHARD PARK - Last Monday night, Josh Allen sat in front of his locker at MetLife Stadium, towel draped over his head, a glassy, what-just-happened look clouding his eyes, and the pain of that deplorable loss to the New York Jets was so abundantly evident.

Allen looked like a broken superstar after his four turnovers gift-wrapped the emotional season opener for the Jets, and even when he spoke to reporters on Wednesday, it didn’t appear that his typical swagger had returned.

But then Sunday afternoon rolled around and wow, Allen was back to being Allen as he put forth a vintage performance to lead the Bills to a rollicking 38-10 blowout over the Las Vegas Raiders.

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“The thing is with this game, man, it gives you the lowest lows and it gives you the highest highs,” Allen said after throwing for 274 yards and three touchdowns with no turnovers. “I love feeling how I felt last week, I really do, because it makes the good feel that much better.

“It forces us to be better and I want to be the best I can be playing this game and being the best quarterback I can be for the Buffalo Bills. So I take the bad with the good, I understand it, and I’m just trying to let it fuel me and use it to my benefit.”

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For us mere mortals it’s hard to comprehend how anyone could enjoy the feeling Allen must have had after stinking out the joint on Monday Night Football. Jeez, a root canal seems like it would have been less painful.

I saw it with my own eyes how numb he looked in his post-game press conference, then how inconsolable he was as he sat at his locker, almost refusing to hit the showers, as if he didn’t feel like he deserved to wash off the smell of that game.

No, I did not think he was enjoying it. But we saw Sunday an example of why the great ones are great in the way he filed that debacle away, moved on, and made sure he got the Bills right back on track with a nearly flawless performance.

Allen claims he didn’t see any of the media coverage of the Jets game, and all the barbs he received, and I don’t believe that for a second. These guys see almost everything, and don’t ever think that they don’t. So I think that was part of what drove Allen to be great against the Raiders, the joy of spitting it right back in everyone’s face. You thought I was terrible? Well, watch this.

“I think more than anything it’s humility and when you approach every week with humility, you start in the right spot mentally and that’s important,” coach Sean McDermott said. “Not that he normally doesn’t do that, but when you have games like last week, it forces you to be rather humble. I know I keep talking about humble and hungry, I just believe in that and the minute you get out over your skis in this league is the minute you get bit and, again, today’s a great teacher.”

Besides, as center Mitch Morse said, no one in the media or fan base was any harder on Allen than Allen was on himself.

“No one was a harsher critic of themselves than Josh was after the last game,” Morse said. “I think this represents his tenacity as a competitor and also that he understands who he is.”

Sunday was exactly the catharsis Allen, the Bills - and yes, their fans - needed after spending the week leading up to the home opener wondering how in the world they found a way to lose to Zack Wilson again.

This was a different Allen than the frenetic version we saw in New York. He stayed patient, didn’t force anything into trouble, was accurate, and just took what the Raiders were giving him. And let me tell you, he took plenty.

“Just us getting back to who we feel like we are,” Allen said after the Bills rolled up 450 yards, 29 first downs and 40 minutes of possession time. “Stayed pretty balanced, I thought (Ken) Dorsey called a great game in terms of switching it up and giving our guys some options and guys went out there and executed at the end of the day.”

It was impressive how the Bills got off the deck after a less than inspiring start. The Raiders took the opening kickoff, converted a third-and-2, and on their fifth play Davante Adams was cruising into the end zone on a 16-yard TD reception. And when the Bills went three-and-out on their first possession, the crowd was already in nervous mode.

But then came the play that, despite being so early in the game, really flipped the script. DaQuan Jones got great push up the middle which got Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo off his spot, and when he tried to throw over the middle, Greg Rousseau tipped the ball into the air and Terrel Bernard made a diving interception at the Las Vegas 28.

“Yeah, probably the turning point, momentum-wise there,” McDermott said.

To which Allen agreed.

“For sure,” he said. “Turnovers in this game, we know it well; they have the most impact on the game and when your defense can go out there and force turnovers, I think they forced three today, it puts your offense in great field position and we got to go out there and convert on those turnovers and make sure we take advantage of that.”

The Bills did. They scored four minutes after the Bernard pick as Allen converted a fourth-and-1 with a sneak inside the 5, and Latavius Murray plowed into the end zone from the 4.

Allen followed that with a superb 11-play, 84-yard drive, helped by a 25-yard pass interference penalty on cornerback Nate Hobbs against Stefon Diggs in the end zone. That set up Allen’s two-yard pass to Dawson Knox and the Bills were never headed.

The Raiders answered with a Daniel Carlson field goal, and when they stopped the Bills on fourth-and-goal from the 1, they were still very much in the game, down just 14-10. But another key moment arrived as the Bills forced a three-and-out, the Raiders punted from their end zone, and the Bills had great field position for a two-minute drill.

Allen proceeded to execute it with sheer precision and capped it with a neat little 11-yard TD pass to Khalil Shakir as he was being surrounded by Raiders which gave the Bills a 21-10 halftime lead.

Buffalo then took the second-half kickoff and put together a mammoth 15-play, 75-yard drive that consumed the first 9:01 of the third quarter and put the game out of reach. Allen was 7 of 8 for 38 yards, the last pass a two-yarder on fourth-and-goal to Gabe Davis who made an excellent catch in heavy traffic to bump the score to 28-10.

Matt Milano’s outstanding interception a few minutes later led to Tyler Bass’ 29-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter. And Allen put the finishing touches on his get-well game by putting together another outstanding, well-called, well-executed drive, this one an 11-play, 95-yard masterpiece that chewed up another 7:32 and made the score 38-10.

“I think it shows the resiliency of this team,” Morse said of the Bills’ bounce back from Monday. “No one liked the taste in the mouth we had this week, I think we brought a certain edge to this week’s practice and preparation. It’s a beautiful thing and it was just awesome to see and be a part of this week, especially Josh going out there and finding his mojo.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which will come out every Friday during training camp, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Josh Allen silences critics as Bills rebound to throttle Raiders