Don’t let a formidable come-from-behind victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1 idiot you into considering that the Buffalo Payments are nonetheless official contenders within the AFC.
Buffalo beat Arizona 34-28 on Sunday, crawling out of a 17-3 gap that it had fallen into within the second quarter. Payments star quarterback Josh Allen led the cost, throwing for 2 touchdowns and dashing for 2 extra.
It took a near-perfect efficiency from Allen—and a ferocious rally—for Buffalo to edge an Arizona staff that has gone 4-13 in back-to-back seasons. Whereas the Cardinals have seemingly improved, they’re nonetheless removed from a powerhouse on this league.
Let’s additionally needless to say the Payments have been enjoying at dwelling. So yeah, this could have been a cake stroll.
Nevertheless it wasn’t, and it provides us motive to consider that any time Allen doesn’t put collectively a glowing stat line, Buffalo goes to lose.
Happily for the Payments, there’s an excellent probability that Allen will thrive as a rule. Nevertheless, how on the planet is a dual-threat signal-caller who has the ball in his arms as a lot as Allen going to presumably play at a excessive degree for a 17-game season when he isn’t getting assist elsewhere?
He’s already confirmed he can try this, although, hasn’t he? Nicely, he has, however not with the workload that he’s set to tackle this season.
On paper, this is among the weakest receiving corps that Allen has ever needed to work with, which means the 28-year-old will seemingly be opting to make use of his legs much more. We noticed that on Sunday, when Allen rushed 9 instances.
Ought to that tempo sustain, Allen could be in uncharted territory, as he has by no means averaged greater than 7.8 carries per recreation in a single season.
Buffalo additionally has a brutal schedule—two video games in opposition to each the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets and one apiece in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens, Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers.
All of these conferences are positive to place Allen via some put on and tear, and 4 of these contests are set to be performed over the following 5 weeks. There’s an excellent probability the Payments may enter Week 7 with a 2-4 file.
We actually can’t see the Payments ending up with something aside from a third-place end within the AFC East. The Jets or Dolphins ought to take the division, whereas the New England Patriots will end fourth.
Discover how we aren’t overreacting to New England’s 16-10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals final week.
A middle-of-the-pack protection isn’t coming to Allen’s rescue. What Buffalo actually wants is a breakout season from working again James Cook dinner or for Keon Coleman or Khalil Shakir to cement himself as a real WR1.
The one method the Payments make any noise within the AFC is by getting a superhuman season from Allen. And if Allen does one way or the other will this staff to a playoff berth, then kudos to him.
However he can’t do it by himself, and it’s trying like he’s going to should. Cheer up, although, Buffalo followers—at the very least you’ll nonetheless get to look down on the Patriots. That’s value one thing, proper?
