Billy Buffalo
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- Mar 16, 2019
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Josh Allen started his first career playoff game just over a year ago.
In some ways, he’s still not over it.
Buffalo lost its wild-card matchup to Houston 22-19 in overtime. Allen and the Bills were ahead 16-0 in that game before the Texans stormed back to take a 19-16 lead. Allen got the offense in position for a game-tying field goal as time expired in the fourth quarter. But in OT, Allen’s frenetic play saw him attempt a deep pass to a fullback on second-and-12 from his own 28.
He finished that game 24-of-46 passing for 264 yards, taking three sacks and losing a fumble.
Allen has improved considerably, one example being his improvement in completion percentage. That figure was at 58.8 percent in 2019 and was 69.2 percent in 2020. He threw for 4,544 yards with 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions this season. He had eight rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown, too.
But as he’s preparing to face the Colts in Saturday’s wild-card matchup, Allen admitted he still has some bitter feelings about last year’s playoff loss.
“It still lingers a little bit just knowing the situations in the game, things I could’ve done differently, reads I could’ve changed. If I could change it, I obviously would,” Allen said in his Tuesday press conference. “But I’m glad I can’t. I’m glad [for] the lessons that I’ve learned throughout that game and, really, throughout the three years I’ve been playing so far. Without failure, people don’t know success. So we’ve got to find ways to put our best foot forward on Saturday and go try to go get a victory.”
Buffalo will host its first playoff game since the 1996 season this weekend. The entire city will hope Allen’s strong play from the regular season carries over to the playoffs.