Don’t let an impressive come-from-behind victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1 fool you into thinking that the Buffalo Bills are still legitimate contenders in the AFC.
Buffalo beat Arizona 34-28 on Sunday, crawling out of a 17-3 hole that it had fallen into in the second quarter. Bills star quarterback Josh Allen led the charge, throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for two more.
It took a near-perfect performance from Allen—and a ferocious rally—for Buffalo to edge an Arizona team that has gone 4-13 in back-to-back seasons. While the Cardinals have seemingly improved, they are still far from a powerhouse in this league.
Let’s also keep in mind that the Bills were playing at home. So yeah, this should have been a cake walk.
But it wasn’t, and it gives us reason to believe that any time Allen doesn’t put together a sparkling stat line, Buffalo is going to lose.
Fortunately for the Bills, there’s a very good chance that Allen will thrive more often than not. However, how in the world is a dual-threat signal-caller who has the ball in his hands as much as Allen going to possibly play at a high level for a 17-game season when he isn’t getting help elsewhere?
He’s already proven he can do that, though, hasn’t he? Well, he has, but not with the workload that he is set to take on this season.
On paper, this is one of the weakest receiving corps that Allen has ever had to work with, meaning the 28-year-old will likely be opting to use his legs a lot more. We saw that on Sunday, when Allen rushed nine times.
Should that pace keep up, Allen would be in uncharted territory, as he has never averaged more than 7.8 carries per game in a single season.
Buffalo also has a brutal schedule—two games against both the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets and one apiece against the Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers.
All of those meetings are sure to put Allen through some wear and tear, and four of those contests are set to be played over the next five weeks. There’s a very good chance the Bills could enter Week 7 with a 2-4 record.
We really can’t see the Bills ending up with anything other than a third-place finish in the AFC East. The Jets or Dolphins should take the division, while the New England Patriots will finish fourth.
Notice how we aren’t overreacting to New England’s 16-10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals last week.
A middle-of-the-pack defense isn’t coming to Allen’s rescue. What Buffalo really needs is a breakout season from running back James Cook or for Keon Coleman or Khalil Shakir to cement himself as a true WR1.
The only way the Bills make any noise in the AFC is by getting a superhuman season from Allen. And if Allen does somehow will this team to a playoff berth, then kudos to him.
But he can’t do it by himself, and it’s looking like he’s going to have to. Cheer up, though, Buffalo fans—at least you’ll still get to look down on the Patriots. That’s worth something, right?