The Buffalo Bills entered Week 4 as one of the NFL’s few undefeated teams, but they were humbled by the New England Patriots as second-year signal-caller Josh Allen struggled mightily.
Josh Allen came into Week 4 with two quality performances against the New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals under his belt, but the Buffalo Bills were facing an entirely different caliber of opponent this week in the New England Patriots.
Both the Patriots and Bills won their first three games of the 2019 season, but they couldn’t have looked any more different on the field in this one. Although both Tom Brady and Josh Allen struggled in a game where defense ruled, the Bills second-year quarterback had more profound issues with avoiding turnovers.
Allen threw two interceptions in the first half, as his early interception to Devin McCourty, who now has four picks in four straight games to start 2019, set the tone for what was to come. Worse yet, Allen couldn’t overcome his miscues by making plays, as he completed just 5 of 17 passes in the first half for a paltry 60 yards.
That’s an average of 3.5 yards per attempt, as the Bills were far more effective running the football with Frank Gore. The ageless wonder turned 9 carries into 88 yards behind a 41-yard rush, which allowed him to join an exclusive group of players with 15,000 career rushing yards.
Despite Gore’s success on the ground and Allen’s own 25 yards on four carries, the young quarterback failed to find any openings against a stingy Patriots defense. Yes, the Patriots are a tough team and Bill Belichick is a genius at confounding young quarterbacks, but Allen’s mistakes and lack of accuracy were hard to excuse.
On top of that, Allen hurt his team even more by taking unnecessary sacks, holding onto the ball for far too long with time to throw. Allen is better a improvising than when he has time to throw, and one of his sacks forced his kicker to take a 49-yarder that he would miss.
Allen and the Bills were down 13-3 at the half against a Patriots team that surprisingly wasn’t clicking on offense. The good news is that if the Patriots offense were to continue to struggle against Micah Hyde and the Bills defense, then any sort of a second-half rebound from Allen could put the Bills back in business for an upset.