Josh Allen’s status as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL is undisputed. What makes him such a dangerous and productive player is not just his arm talent, size and versatility, but how he uses a combination of his rare skills to become arguably the most frustration-inducing player in all of pro football.
As long as he has the ball, after all, the Buffalo Bills have a chance. And the 30-year-old is making sure to keep that chance alive for as long as he can on every single play.
This, in turn,
puts immense pressure on opponents to keep defending even when a play otherwise would be long over. It is precisely what the New England Patriots have been harping on all week.
“He’s going to extend plays. We know that’s going to happen. You can’t necessarily stop it, you only can contain it,” said safety Kevin Byard.
“As DBs, we have to be able to cover for as long as it takes. Ten seconds — it doesn’t matter. Especially on the backend, it’s not necessarily the play that’s called, it’s the second or third play within the play. So, we’re going to have to be very mentally, but more than likely physically exhausted in this game because this team and Josh, they have no quit.”
Defending the “second play” has been the Patriots’ defensive theme of the week. On the flip side, making said play has been Allen’s bread and butter since entering the NFL as a first-round draft choice out of Wyoming in 2018.
“It’s kind of like recess football in terms of, ‘If you have a man, you have to cover your man. And if you’re free, then you have to figure out a way to get this guy with the ball either down or out of bounds,’” said Patriots cornerbacks coach Justin Hamilton. “He’s elite, and he’s as good as I can remember seeing in my lifetime. I’ve watched a lot of NFL football. I don’t know of a guy that’s better at play extension.”
Allen is able to make the so-called second plays because of his size, strength and vision. He can simply evade pressure or fight through tackle attempts, all while keeping his eyes downfield for either a rushing lane or receiver to open up downfield. This is why he is typically ranked high in time-to-throw metrics and also one of the most effective scrambling quarterbacks in the league.
None of that is nothing new, of course. Defending it still remains a challenge, though — one the Patriots are going up against twice a year, including this coming Sunday.
“It’s the hardest thing, in my opinion, in football to have to defend,” said defensive coordinator Zak Kuhr, who referred to Allen as an “MVP-caliber quarterback playing MVP football.”
For him, the secret to countering the extended play lies in the preparation. The goal is not just to know what is going to happen, but be capable of reacting in an instant without much hesitation.
Kuhr used two words to describe the approach: muscle memory.
“We try to rep it in practice. Tommy [DeVito] and Behren [Morton] are giving good looks,” he said. “We talk about our rules within it and we harp on it every single day, we show the film of it. Everybody’s got to know it. Everybody’s got to be on the same page. Everybody’s got to understand it, so it becomes muscle memory because he’s a special cat and he’s a different cat. You know you get to see that twice a year and it just looks different, so we have to do everything we can to make how we execute the second play muscle memory.
“There can’t be any lapses of, ‘I thought the play was over.’ No, the play is never over. We have to do it for 60 minutes too — that’s the hardest part: this guy does not go away. No matter what the score is, he does not go away. So, we have to have the competitive stamina for 60 minutes, understand what our rules are to defend the second play, and we all have to be on the same page doing it, make it muscle memory.”
Muscle memory is one part, game-day execution another. And for the Patriots, the latter will be difficult this week given their personnel situation.
Two of their best defenders, cornerback Christian Gonzalez and defensive tackle Christian Barmore, will miss the contest on Sunday due to shoulder injuries. Under normal circumstances both would play valuable roles in keeping Allen contained through tight coverage and resetting the line of scrimmage, respectively.
Without those blue-chip players, the task will be even more daunting than it already is.
“It’s going to be a 60-minute ball game,” said Byard. “We could be up 35 points and he’s going to find a way to try to come back and score 40 points. This is going to be a tough challenge for us and we’re going to have to play a 60-minute complete ball game.”
