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The Buffalo Bills shut out the Houston Texans 40-0 in a rain-filled contest in Western New York Sunday.
While at first glance the win against Houston may have seemed like a pure blowout, rain reared its head early and often throughout the game, causing three fumbles and an intercepted pass by Allen in the first quarter.
The Bills QB, who contributed six carries for 41 yards as well, spoke after the game about how the elements created opportunities for improvement.
“Too many balls on the ground, too many ways the ball was in harm’s way,” Allen said while addressing the media. “There’s a lot of things to clean up, but this was a good win.”
Though the Texans also had four interceptions and two fumbles to help Buffalo’s cause in the victory, the QB persevered the elements to go 20 for 29 for 248 yards with two passing touchdowns to TE Dawson Knox while leaning on 199 yards in the run game, and on the foot of kicker Tyler Bass who added 16 points.
Bills RB’s Devin Singletary and Zack Moss shared 14 carries apiece. Singletary would finish with 79 yards, and Moss would add 61 and a TD.
The Bills RB group had been in question during the offseason, but Allen spoke to the importance of the run as well as the impact of the weather on Sunday’s game.
“Very important, weather, you can let it affect you if you think about it too much,” the QB said. “We still wanted to throw the ball and do what we needed to do, but when teams get one-dimensional and just start running the ball, especially when the weather and teams force you to throw the ball, you got to be able to throw it. You look at some of the runs that we had with Zack and Motor, bouncing off tackles, putting their nose down, and just going and getting yards and they did a great job.”
Head coach Sean McDermott was happy with the run game as well.
“I did like the way we ran the football today,” McDermott said during the post-game press conference.
“You want to have the ability to be a two-dimensional offense,” the coach added. “The guys get mad when I make them practice with a wet football when it’s really sunny outside. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t I guess. You’ve got to be able to play in this weather. You guys all know where we live here in Buffalo, so you got to be weatherproof that way.”
Buffalo advanced to 3-1 on the year with their third consecutive high-scoring victory. The team now sits atop the AFC East division ahead of next week’s AFC Championship game rematch with the Kansas City Chiefs.
When asked what he’d learned about the team with four games and a month of gameplay under their belts, Allen spoke to one quality and one coach that both make a difference in games like this.
“I think resiliency is one of the words that comes to my mind,” he added. “Didn’t start the season how we’d like to, didn’t start off today how we’d like to. It’s Coach McDermott, like I said, does a great job of teaching situational football and complementary football, and I think that’s one thing we’re doing a really good job of right now.”
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