Another week, another record-setting day for quarterback Josh Allen in the Buffalo Bills’ 44-34 win in Week 9 over the Seattle Seahawks.
The Bills (7-2) had ups and downs in regard to getting the ball into the end zone in recent weeks. Yet scoring is exactly what came early and often for Buffalo in Week 9, so much so that the Bills and Allen were on the right side of some history that the Seahawks won’t like to hear about.
The Bills’ 44 points were the most-ever allowed by the Seahawks (6-2) under Super Bowl winning coach Pete Carroll, giving the former AFC East coach a chilly welcome back to Orchard Park.
Allen lit up receivers for his second 400-plus yard game of the season, attacking a Seattle squad who was last in the league in total defense. The impact was immediate as he opened the game with a touchdown on only three passing plays.
The first quarter was the best of his career, going 13-for-15 passing with 154 yards. On the day he matched a career-high of 415 yards, going 31 for 38 with a 138.49 passer rating, while tossing three touchdowns in the first half before adding another with his legs in the fourth quarter.
While fielding questions about his personal performance after the outing, the quarterback quickly credited his teammates.
“As a whole team we took care of business today, we played really good complementary football,” said Allen via video conference. “Our special teams gave us a couple short fields, our defense gave us a couple short fields… I think they had three or four forced turnovers, and any time you’re winning the turnover battle by that much, you’re going to have success.”
Allen’s arm helped him again in finding his way into the record books, throwing scoring tosses to Isaiah McKenzie, Gabriel Davis, and John Brown along the way. While the Bills improved to 7-2 for the first time since 1993, Allen set the franchise mark for career games with a passing and running touchdown at a total of 14. In fact, his day was not only historic to the team but also to the rest of the league.
Per NFL Research, Allen became the first-ever QB in the Super Bowl era with 400-plus passing yards, three-plus passing TDs, no interceptions & a 130-plus passer rating in multiple games in a single season.
“Whatever it takes to win, is what we’re willing to do, what I’m willing to do… Whatever the case is, I trust in coach (Brian) Daboll and our offensive staff in developing a game plan,” Allen added. “We understand that each week is a different challenge that we got to be prepared for, and have a good week of practice and try and go out there and execute.”
With the win, Allen also set a new career-high in completion percentage at 81.6 percent, surpassing the previous mark of 79 percent in last Thanksgiving’s game against the Dallas Cowboys. In doing so, Allen accomplished all these feats with a bit of a heavy heart, too.
It was revealed after the game that the quarterback’s grandmother, Patricia Allen, had passed away the night before the game at the age of 80. Allen looked up and pointed to the sky in tribute after running in his touchdown, and the quarterback’s performance under emotional circumstances in beating one of the league’s top teams was not lost on his head coach.
“Josh played a heck of a game. He was under pressure at times, he was able to escape, was smart with the football, and got it where he needed to get it,” head coach Sean McDermott said. “It was a big win and a great thing for him to play like he played, just a mentally tough young man.”
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