After five seasons of the Buffalo Bills making the playoffs but falling short of the Super Bowl — painfully short in some cases — quarterback Josh Allen knows what needs to happen for the team to finally climb over the hump.
This week, the quarterback spoke out against the team’s postseason disappointments, which included three consecutive seasons of winning the division but failing to advance past the divisional round. The Bills fell short again this season, forcing the Kansas City Chiefs to travel to Buffalo for a playoff game but failing to defeat the Super Bowl champs.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated published on February 20, Allen made a bold stance about what the squad should do in the future.
Josh Allen: ‘It’s Heavy on My Shoulders’
Allen believes there isn’t much separating the Bills and the Super Bowl. They’ve lost excruciatingly close games to the Chiefs in two of the last three seasons, including the infamous “13 seconds” game in which the team failed to hold on to a late lead after Allen led them to a go-ahead touchdown with 13 seconds left, but Allen believes they can overcome that.
Allen admitted to Sports Illustrated that he bears a significant amount of responsibility for the team’s failure to win. He stated, “We keep saying we’re close. We’re right there. It comes down to making one or two more plays. We need to. It’s heavy on my shoulders.”
Despite struggling with turnovers during the regular season, Allen has emerged as one of the league’s most effective playoff quarterbacks. Allen has 2,723 passing yards, 21 touchdowns, and four interceptions in ten career playoff games, giving him a 100.0 passer rating.
Allen has done a little bit of everything for the Bills in the playoffs, contributing 543 running yards, five rushing scores, and a 16-yard reception touchdown.
Bills Quarterback Not Hung Up on Chiefs Rivalry
Though the Bills have lost to the Chiefs in three of Allen’s five postseason appearances (twice in the divisional round and once in the AFC Championship game), the Bills quarterback has dismissed the notion that he has created a rivalry with Patrick Mahomes.
“It’s another game for me,” Allen said. “Whether it’s him over there, whether it was (Baltimore Ravens quarterback) Lamar (Jackson), whether it was (Cincinnati Bengals quarterback) Joe (Burrow), you name it. … It doesn’t matter who’s over there playing. We get so caught up in the quarterback vs. quarterback controversy. I’m not playing him. I’m playing that defense.”
Allen attempted to maintain perspective during the recent playoff defeat to the Chiefs, telling reporters in January that there are worse things than losing a football game.
“Losing’s never fun,” he told reporters. “It is part of the game. It is the second worst aspect of the game, with injuries being the worst. It’s the reason you play this game; you don’t want to feel like this. But when you feel like this, it makes winning even more precious, and we’re not going to run away from it. We’re not going to hide from this. We have to take it in stride, keep learning, and improve.”
