Josh Allen is known for his physical traits, from his size to his powerful arm to his running ability. However, many people miss how good he’s become at the subtle aspects of playing the position. And in the Bills’ historic 4th-quarter comeback win against the Ravens, the growth in his game was on full display.
Allen was seeing the field, processing quickly, playing with good timing, manipulating defenders, and in complete command of everything around him.
On his first TD pass of the night, the Bills motioned Khalil Shakir across the formation. When no one followed, it was a good indicator that Baltimore was in some kind of zone coverage:
Allen wanted to target Dalton Kincaid’s vertical route from the #3 position to the right side. With the Ravens showing a 2-high look, Allen knew he just needed to worry about the back-side safety. So he looked left at the snap to hold him, then he hit his back foot and delivered a strike for the touchdown:
There was no panic in the way he executed. No over-excitement. Allen knew exactly what the defense was doing, knew exactly what he wanted, and knew exactly how to get it.
Allen played well throughout the night, but that didn’t have an impact on how easily the Ravens were moving the ball against Buffalo’s defense. The result was that the Bills trailed 34-19 at the start of the 4th quarter.
With 14:06 remaining, they faced a critical 3rd-and-6 and needed to convert just to keep the game from getting completely out of hand. Good thing for them, offensive coordinator Joe Brady had a great design dialed up, and Allen executed it flawlessly.
First, the Bills came out in a formation to try and get an indicator of what the Ravens Defense was doing. Tight end Dawson Knox aligned on the perimeter to the right. The Ravens matched up with safety Kyle Hamilton, an indicator of man coverage:
Running back James Cook shifted out to the slot to the left. Safety Malaki Starks went with him:
Allen then motioned wide receiver Khalil Shakir across the formation and cornerback Marlon Humphrey followed:
Allen now had a pretty good idea of all the matchups. The Ravens had 5 defenders to account for the 5 eligible receivers and every other defender was up near the line of scrimmage. There was no deep safety. This looked like a cover-0 blitz:
Now look what they did with James Cook. He shifted back to the middle of the formation. But he first went up right behind the center, where a back might go if he’s staying in to protect and help block the A-gap. Then Allen called him back:
I don’t think this was an accident. Rather, I think this was some great gamesmanship by the Bills to fool the Ravens.