It was only a matter of time before he let it out.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is the Harvey Dent of the NFL - trying so hard to be the buttoned up, ball-protecting, no chaos quarterback while the voice in his head is telling him to throw laterals at mid-field in an effort to keep a drive alive. In this particular case, though, the roles are reversed. Allen leaning into the chaos isn't the issue for the Bills, it's their universal solvent - and they need to lean on it more if they want to win a Super Bowl.
The Bills Need Josh Allen To Be Himself
Telling Josh Allen to play conservative is like taking the venom out of a cobra. The Bills don't pay Allen $55 million a year to be conservative, they pay him that much because he can take over a game like no one else in the NFL can.
This past week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the perfect example of what All Systems Go Josh Allen looks like. Yes, he threw a horrible interception in his own end zone that looked like a seventh grader learning how to toss a chest pass. And later on, he launched a lateral to Ty Johnson, who was clearly expecting his quarterback to throw the ball even though he was halfway down the field. He also totaled six touchdowns for the second time in his career, and is now the only player in NFL history to have two games of three passing and three rushing touchdowns in the same game.
It's one thing when Jameis Winston throws 30 interceptions in a season. It's completely different when Allen throws a couple of picks in a game because we all have seen what he can do to cancel out those mistakes.
You know how many interceptions Justin Fields has thrown this year? One. You know where he ranks in EPA per dropback? 28th. In 2021, Matthew Stafford threw 17 interceptions -he also threw 41 touchdowns and the Rams won the Super Bowl. Protecting the ball is not directly correlated to being a good quarterback the same way turning the ball over more than league average is not directly correlated to being a bad quarterback. The only people who still care so much about turnovers with elite quarterbacks are salty Ravens fans with Lamar Jackson profile pictures still crying that Allen won MVP this past year before beating Lamar and the Ravens in the playoffs again.
When you have a Ferrari, it comes with the understanding that you're going to get some speeding tickets every once in a while. But you also know you can drive faster than anyone else on the road. You don't drive a Ferrari like a Nissan Altima, the same way you don't tell Josh Allen to play like Tua Tagovailoa.
Considering how bad the Bills' defense is (29th in EPA per rush, 16th in EPA per play) along with the lack of elite weapons on the boundary for Allen to throw to, there are times where they flat out need him to put on the cape. That doesn't mean he needs to score six touchdowns every week. If that were the case, they may as well put their heads between their legs and kiss their butts goodbye because that isn't happening. But in a close game, especially come January, the Sean McDermott and Joe Brady need to be more comfortable breaking the glass and hitting the "Josh Allen Be Unstoppable" button; because if they want to win a Super Bowl, they're going to have to lean into Chaotic Josh Allen rather than try to take away his powers.
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