Magical Start Continues As Buffalo Bills Move To 4-0 For First Time Since 2008

The magic continues for the Buffalo Bills.

Behind a 288-yard, two-touchdown passing performance from quarterback Josh Allen, Buffalo defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 30-23 on Sunday. And the 24-year-old Allen continued to throw himself into the conversation for league MVP, along with Seattle’s Russell Wilson, Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and others.

The Bills are 4-0 for the first time since 2008 and Allen has thrown 12 TD passes, second most in the league, with only one interception. Who could have predicted that hot start? Very few. That’s why there is a flood of people on social media saying they were wrong about Allen and the why the I-told-you-so contingent has earned the right to crow.

But a word of caution.

That Buffalo team in 2008 shouldn’t be exactly the team you want to emulate. That season, the Bills fell apart after that hot start. They moved to 5-1 before suffering a 2-8 stretch to finish the season. Their record of 7-9 was not good enough to make the playoffs, so nothing is assured for these Bills at the quarter pole.

Those Bills were led by Dick Jauron as coach. Jauron would be fired the next season after a 3-6 start.

Trent Edwards was the quarterback. Lee Evans was the club’s top receiver and Marshawn Lynch was the club’s leading rusher. Evans and Lynch both had 1,000-yard seasons, but despite those strong performances, those Bills never really recovered after Edwards suffered a concussion in Week 5.

But so far, it doesn’t appear the Bills are the type of team that will fold down the stretch, although you can never predict injuries. That 2008 team should also serve as a warning. You want to be playing your best football in November and December. Not September and October.

Again, quarterback Josh Allen was the author of this victory against the Raiders, although defensive back Josh Norman was the defensive hero in the fourth quarter by forcing a fumble and recovering it. On the next play, Allen hit Stefon Diggs with a 49-yard bomb to the Raiders’ 11-yard-line, and three plays later, Devin Singletary ran into the end zone to put Buffalo up 30-16.

Also credit to offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, whose play calling has been aggressive to say the least. It’s the reason why the Bills are averaging 30.75 points a game, which puts them into the top five in the league in scoring.

What a turnaround that is from a year ago. Last year, the Bills never crossed the 30-point threshold once in their first four games. This season, Buffalo has eclipsed 30 points in three of the first four games, including three in a row.

Overall, Diggs caught six passes for 115 yards, and is now tied with D.K. Metcalf of Seattle for the league lead in yards by a receiver with 403.

In fact, what’s interesting to note is how Allen is spreading the ball around. He connected with nine different receivers against the Raiders.

Allen is firing darts all over the field, using his big arm to put the ball in tight spaces the way Tom Brady and other elite QBs do. That 49-yarder to Diggs and the 11-yard TD pass to Cole Beasley were thrown into tight windows, but Allen trusted his receivers to come down with the ball.

You hear the word “trust” a lot with these Bills. They trust the process, and they have trust in each other. They trust head coach Sean McDermott and they trust Daboll.

What sticks out is how aggressive the play-calling has been this season. There is no sitting back. The Bills have shown they like to get out front early and put defenses back on their heels.

Allen is evolving into an elite QB. Few could have expected the transformation to take place so fast. In the last couple of years, Allen has been roasted for being too inaccurate and trying to do too much, which led to too many interceptions.

The 2020 Josh Allen is more comfortable and confident, and understands that he has to use the assets around him. That’s led him to increase the accuracy because he trusts receivers will get open and come down with the ball.

Former great quarterbacks like Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason can’t say enough good things about Allen. When you get that kind of blessing, you know there’s something special going on.

This Josh Allen is not without flaws. He still sometimes tries too hard to extend plays and that’s when he got hurt near the end of the first half, when he escaped the pocket and shoveled an eight-yard left-handed toss to Diggs and fell awkwardly on his left shoulder. Seeing Allen go down like that sent ripples of fear through BillsMafia. But Allen has a high pain threshold, and he continued in the game.

The Bills are a little nicked up heading into Week 5. Defensive back Levi Wallace suffered an ankle injury in the first quarter and left the game. Beasley has a sprained ankle, and Allen needs to rehab his left shoulder this week.

It appeared at first that the Bills would have an extended time to recover because their game against the Tennessee Titans seemed in doubt after an outbreak of Covid-19 on the Titans.

But late word on Monday morning was that the Titans were clean in the latest round of testing, and this is a big step in having their facility reopened.

The season doesn’t get any easier for the Bills. After a road game against the Titans, the Bills are home to face Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday, Oct. 15.

The Bills could very drop the next two and fall to 4-2. Perhaps a split would be more realistic, putting them at 5-1. The dream scenario for Buffalo would be a 6-0 record, but perhaps that’s just too lofty of a goal.

After all, none of the four Super Bowl teams of the 1990s started 6-0. But the 1991 Bills came closest. They started 5-1, so these next two games are going to be interesting territory for the 2020 Bills.

After the Chiefs, the Bills face the New York Jets, New England Patriots, and then the Seattle Seahawks on Nov. 1.

By then, you can rest assured we will know with much more certainty what Josh Allen and the Bills are really made of.