{"id":682520,"date":"2026-01-16T19:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T19:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/682520\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T19:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T19:40:15","slug":"broncos-can-beat-josh-allen-bills-by-daring-him-to-be-peyton-manning-not-john-elway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/682520\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos can beat Josh Allen, Bills by daring him to be Peyton Manning, not John Elway"},"content":{"rendered":"

You carve Josh Allen in the playoffs the way you carve a turkey at Thanksgiving. Cut off the legs.<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let him be John Elway in John Elway\u2019s house. It\u2019s bad enough that Allen comes into Denver with Disney dropping rose petals at his feet<\/a> and the NFL blowing sweet kisses at his back.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the best player left in the postseason. He\u2019s the last generational quarterback standing in the AFC. He\u2019s the only sexy name still swinging at a party that usually has Patrick Mahomes<\/a>, Lamar Jackson or Joe Burrow waiting to break his heart.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s his turn, they say.<\/p>\n

Fine. Make him earn it.<\/p>\n

Make him throw.<\/p>\n

Turn The Millennial Elway<\/a> into Peyton Manning.<\/p>\n

Take away the feet.<\/p>\n

Score enough points to force the arm.<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s got an 8-6 lifetime record in the NFL playoffs. He\u2019s also 2-5 when he\u2019s had to pass it more than 36 times in a game. Allen\u2019s 0-3 when he\u2019s chucked it 40 or more times.<\/p>\n

The talking heads want to make Saturday\u2019s AFC Divisional tussle at Empower Field complicated. It isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Want to beat the Bills? Don\u2019t let him run. Don\u2019t let them run.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think, with him, it\u2019s just understanding the type of player he is,\u201d Broncos defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers, who saw plenty of Allen as a member of the New York Jets, told me earlier this week. \u201cThat\u2019s a physical football team. That\u2019s a physical player. (He\u2019s) a big guy also \u2014 you\u2019re talking about a guy that\u2019s 6-foot-5 and 250 (pounds), so he\u2019s bigger than every linebacker in the NFL and half of the ends in the NFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you understand that the brand of football they\u2019re going to play. And you have to match it. You have to be willing to match it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was too easy for him last January. Too easy for all of them. The Bills brought baseball bats and two-by-fours to last January\u2019s AFC wild-card tussle. The Broncos brought a happy stare.<\/p>\n

James Cook\u2019s first carry went for 16 yards around his right tackle, the Broncos were gashed, Bills Mafia smelled blood, and the tone was set. Buffalo ran it 17 times on first down in a 31-7 rout a year ago before their game-ending kneels. The Bills averaged an unsightly 6.5 yards per carry on those first-down runs. In terms of execution and physicality, it was like watching the JV tackle the varsity.<\/p>\n

Allen did the rest. On third-down-and-3-yards-or-fewer, he converted all five of the chances he faced vs. Denver \u2014 four of them on QB runs. The Bills\u2019 signal-caller was 2 for 2 on fourth-down-and-2-or-less, with one conversion turning into a 24-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a special player, obviously,\u201d Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph noted earlier this week. \u201c(There are) certain guys in this league that can take over games, and (Allen is) one of those guys. But we knew to win the championship here, it was going to go through Patrick (Mahomes) and Lamar (Jackson) and Josh and Joe Burrow. I mean, that\u2019s the AFC side. Unfortunately, that\u2019s where we live. So we knew we (had) to face one of those guys eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n

In hindsight, maybe we should be a little thankful. Allen and the Bills reminded the Broncos of what they weren\u2019t. What they lacked. So coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton went out and added steel to the spine last spring, signing away safety Talanoa Hufanga and linebacker Dre Greenlaw from the 49ers.<\/p>\n

Hufanga was a heat-seeking missile who came exactly as advertised. Even though Greenlaw was hurt much of the year, Denver allowed the fourth-fewest average rush yards on first down (3.91 per carry) in the NFL during the regular season. (The Bills\u2019 offense, meanwhile, ranked sixth in yards per rush \u2014 4.84 \u2014 on first down.)<\/p>\n

The Broncos had the NFL\u2019s No. 3 defense in average rush yards allowed on third-and-3-or-less (2.75 per carry). Denver allowed just one 100-yard rusher all year (Jonathan Taylor, back in Week 2). That hadn\u2019t happened since 2015. The Broncos\u2019 defense had allowed an average of five 100-yard rushers over the previous three regular seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were watching that (31-7) game, seeing how (the Bills) played us last year and all that different stuff,\u201d wideout\/returner Marvin Mims told me. \u201cBut so many different pieces (are gone) that you don\u2019t even think about. It\u2019s like, \u2018Dang, he\u2019s not here anymore \u2026 we\u2019re not doing this as much anymore.\u2019 So it was kind of weird, looking back at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day, (it was) a learning experience, for sure, for the guys that are still here and for everyone that was a part of it. And just kind of knowing (that) those dudes (in Buffalo) know what they\u2019re doing. They\u2019ve been in this stage multiple times, within all their careers, their core \u00a0\u2014 and so (it\u2019s about) just going out there and just trying to do the best we can and knock them off.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t let up, either. Since the \u201920-21 postseason, Allen has led the Bills on 10 playoff drives in the final 8:30 of the fourth quarter while Buffalo was trailing. His numbers:<\/p>\n

\u2022 36 completions on 59 pass attempts (61%)<\/p>\n

\u2022 14 rushes, 78 yards, 5.6 yards per carry<\/p>\n

\u2022 3.8 points per Allen possession<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that truly is the tough part,\u201d Franklin-Myers continued, \u201cis that you have to be willing to play (all the way). If it\u2019s 60 minutes, if it\u2019s 100 minutes \u2014 you have to be willing to play every second, because that\u2019s what they\u2019re going to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd at the same time, no lead is big enough for them. You can be up 30 points on them. That\u2019s a smart team. One play sparks them and they come back. So, man, you\u2019ve got to be physical.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got to take away the lower body. You\u2019ve got to force Allen to play to your strengths \u2014 not his. You\u2019ve got to make him test Patrick Surtain II, Riley Moss and Ja\u2019Quan McMillian.<\/p>\n

When Allen has had to throw it 41 times or more in the regular season, he\u2019s 10-13. The dude\u2019s 1-3 in postseason games when he commits a turnover. He\u2019s 7-3 when he doesn\u2019t. To win in January, it\u2019s about making the finest miss on the finest of margins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it truly is,\u201d Franklin-Myers stressed. \u201cIt\u2019s about who\u2019s going to make the most mistakes. But, I mean, Sean (Payton) says it all the time: \u2018It\u2019s the turnovers.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have everybody\u2019s hopes and dreams in your hands when you have the ball in your hands. You only hope that, as a home defense, every chance we get, we punch it out. And on offense, that we protect as much as possible. In the playoffs, these games are close, and teams are either taking care of the ball or making awful mistakes. And that\u2019s how you see some of these games getting out of hand, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t sweat the narrative. You\u2019ve already lost it. Sweat the small stuff. Make Allen throw. If the Winter Soldier is one-dimensional, it won\u2019t be long before everybody in Broncos Country eats.<\/p>\n

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver\u2019s teams.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You carve Josh Allen in the playoffs the way you carve a turkey at Thanksgiving. Cut off the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2048],"tags":[8756,215,232,7244,5294,5748,214,53,2086,231,258,16207,1160,12,7,1272,8233,1577,6742,2318,872,895,929,926,1917,6,84,499,8083,1514,5295,1813,9,2833,3319,150,2832],"class_list":{"0":"post-682520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bills","10":"tag-broncos","11":"tag-broncos-country","12":"tag-broncos-defense","13":"tag-broncos-takes","14":"tag-buffalo","15":"tag-buffalo-bills","16":"tag-buffalobills","17":"tag-denver","18":"tag-denver-broncos","19":"tag-disney","20":"tag-dre-greenlaw","21":"tag-espn","22":"tag-football","23":"tag-george-paton","24":"tag-jaquan-mcmillian","25":"tag-joe-burrow","26":"tag-john-elway","27":"tag-john-franklin-myers","28":"tag-josh-allen","29":"tag-lamar-jackson","30":"tag-latest-headlines","31":"tag-more-broncos-news","32":"tag-new-york","33":"tag-nfl","34":"tag-nfl-playoffs","35":"tag-patrick-mahomes","36":"tag-peyton-manning","37":"tag-riley-moss","38":"tag-sean-keeler","39":"tag-sean-payton","40":"tag-sports","41":"tag-sports-columnists","42":"tag-talanoa-hufanga","43":"tag-thanksgiving","44":"tag-vance-joseph"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}