Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has grown in his ability to not force plays.
Make no mistake that he can still have the big, splashy, highlight-reel plays, but offensive coordinator Joe Brady says every now and then, he loves to see a good checkdown from the franchise quarterback.
“Those are things that they’re not sexy, but it’s really good play, and it frustrates the defense,” Brady said.
In the Bills’ 31-21 win over the Miami Dolphins, Allen relied on a shorter passing game. Part of that focus was what the Dolphins’ defense was showing.
“They do a unique job of a bunch of versions of split safety and showing and then dropping out, getting a lot of depth, right, trying to put an umbrella to the defense,” Brady said Friday. “And that’s not to say that there’s not plays out there that are to be had in those situations, but (Allen) did a really good job being efficient with it, especially on a short week.”
Allen finished 22 of 28 for 213 passing yards and three touchdowns. His longest play was a 30-yard reception by wide receiver Elijah Moore. He had six passing plays that went for 15 yards or more, but he only attempted one pass over 10 air yards, per Next Gen Stats.
“Look, I think if teams want to play split safety and give us the opportunity to be able to run the ball, and Josh shows that he can be efficient to take what’s underneath throws, at some point, they’re going to have to switch that up,” Brady said. “And then, it opens up the deep throws, and as long as we don’t get greedy and feel like we got to make plays.
“I think you want to be an explosive offense, so you got to be able to push the ball on the field. I think that’s a given, but I think Josh is doing an elite job right now of, if it’s not there, checking it down, finding the open, getting our guys RAC and be able to convert first downs.”
But Brady isn’t slowing Allen from those big plays when they’re there.
“Look, I would have loved for some of those balls to go farther (Thursday), but I thought he did a great job playing efficient and doing what we needed to do to win that football game,” Brady said.
Running back usage
In a question about running back James Cook’s snap counts (67% on Thursday), Brady brought up his other running backs somewhat unprompted.
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“I’d love to get Ray (Davis) going in there, get Ty (Johnson), get them all mixed in there,” Brady said. “Sometimes, if we’re not getting a lot of reps, or if we’re not getting a lot of plays, I don’t want to just hey, spot a drive, just to spot a drive, right?”
Brady noted that there are specific plays tagged for Davis and Johnson, but he didn’t want to get away from Cook based off the flow of the game. Davis didn’t have a touch on Thursday; he had one throw targeted his way that was incomplete.
“I’m sure if you’re Ray, you’re like, ‘Man, I want the rock,’ ” Brady said. “So, I’m sure he’s frustrated from that standpoint, but he doesn’t show it, doesn’t voice it – you don’t sense that. And again, I think it’s just the type of people and the culture that we have that I don’t think our guys care about anything besides winning.”
High praise for tight ends
The first two touchdowns for the Bills on Thursday each went to a tight end.
Third-year tight end Dalton Kincaid started off the scoring with a 20-yard touchdown. Kincaid finished the night with five catches for 66 yards. Brady sees Kincaid as “a spark” for the Bills offense.
“I’m excited that he’s playing confident,” Brady said of Kincaid. “He knows he’s feeling healthy again. And you can see it for sure.”
Bills rookie tight end Jackson Hawes notched his first NFL touchdown on Thursday, a 5-yard score that Allen nearly ran in himself. Brady expressed frustration that the Bills had to burn a timeout right before the play, but it all worked out.
“I thought (Hawes) did a great job staying with the play,” Brady said. “Josh Allen can do some incredible things when he’s on the perimeter, and it’s like you can never take your eye off of him. But you also, the reality is, a lot of those situations, he’s going to run for a touchdown. And for a rookie to know, ‘Hey, I got to stay with Josh in this situation,’ and Josh to be able to be Josh Allen, flick it in there and have a touchdown.”
Third-down defense
Head coach Sean McDermott had already addressed third-down defense by the time defensive coordinator Bobby Babich sat down for his news conference on Friday. Babich said there were discussions during the game as well, on how to improve the mark. The Bills’ defense allowed the Dolphins to be successful on 10 of 15 third downs, and Miami converted one fourth down (fourth-and-4) as well.
“To get ’em into 16 third and fourth downs, that’s excellent, but we got to get off the field and our guys know it’s not good enough,” Babich said. “We knew it the whole game, and certainly I’ll do everything I can to put ’em in position to do that and do a better job there.”
Babich thinks there’s two factors at play.
“I could help ’em with calls, and we’ve got to be able to execute and make sure our rush and coverage is working together,” Babich said. “It starts with me, I got to put us in the right position, and then we got to be able to execute. We know what the weaknesses are of every call that we’re in and if they attack one of the weaknesses, it’s my job to put us in a different call. And so, we’ll certainly address that, get it corrected and look to be better next time.”
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Katherine Fitzgerald
Sports reporter
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