{"id":687510,"date":"2026-01-19T00:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/687510\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T00:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:12:19","slug":"josh-allens-tears-should-tell-the-bills-everything-this-isnt-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/687510\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Allen\u2019s tears should tell the Bills everything: This isn\u2019t working"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of Texans vs. Patriots<\/a> and Rams vs. Bears<\/a> from the NFL playoffs divisional round. <\/p>\n

DENVER \u2014 Dawson Knox emerged from the shower and walked slowly toward the corner of the locker room, water dripping from his hair and torso, his eyes still wet with tears.<\/p>\n

For the seventh time in his seven seasons, the Buffalo Bills veteran tight end had come up short in the postseason. For the seventh time, the Bills\u2019 spectacular quarterback, Josh Allen, had failed to deliver the championship that a franchise, a city and a fan base so desperately crave.<\/p>\n

This time \u2014 in the wake of a 33-30 overtime defeat<\/a> to the Denver Broncos in Saturday\u2019s divisional-round playoff clash at Empower Field \u2014 Allen had taken all of the blame, tearfully telling reporters, \u201cI feel like I let my teammates down tonight\u201d and explaining that his message to them was, \u201c(I\u2019m) extremely sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, as he prepared to deal with the fallout of another heartbreaking end to a once-promising season, Knox stopped in the middle of the locker room and tried to halt the notion that this defeat was his quarterback\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way he beats himself up is because he\u2019s an incredible leader,\u201d Knox said softly. \u201cThe way he puts this whole team and city on his shoulders \u2014 I can\u2019t imagine the weight he has to carry.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeavy is the head who wears the crown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen, the reigning NFL MVP, was justified in accepting at least some culpability for a bitter defeat that exposed the limitations of his team, at least as currently constructed. With two fumbles and two interceptions, he was responsible for four of the Bills\u2019 five turnovers, costing them a chance to advance to a second consecutive AFC Championship Game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you shoot yourself in the foot like that,\u201d Allen said, \u201cyou don\u2019t deserve to win football games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet for the sixth-seeded Bills to have had a shot to win this game \u2014 as with almost any game \u2014 they needed Allen, their 29-year-old superstar, to be a superhero. It\u2019s a massive ask, and as great as he often is, it does not appear to be a viable formula for getting a flawed team to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s even true in a year when Allen\u2019s most talented quarterbacking rivals in the AFC \u2014 Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow \u2014 missed the playoffs, making Saturday\u2019s defeat to the top-seeded Broncos all the more painful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes us even more sad, because this ain\u2019t on him,\u201d left tackle Dion Dawkins said. \u201cIt\u2019s not\u00a0on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet week in and week out, there is so much on Allen, whose \u201cmythical\u201d<\/a> on-field efforts and lauded leadership skills have made him a beloved figure in the Bills\u2019 locker room. The man who regularly hosts gatherings for teammates and their families may have felt like he blew this game, but not a soul who flew home with him on the team plane wanted to hear it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best leader you can ask for,\u201d said Mitchell Trubisky, Allen\u2019s backup. \u201cI wish we could do more for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Dawkins: \u201cWe\u2019ll protect him. He\u2019s a true warrior, a true battler. It\u2019s on the rest of us to keep him from having to do too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Allen threw for 283 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 66 yards on 12 carries, giving the Bills a chance to pull out a game while allowing 30 or more points for the fifth time this season.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a statistic that says everything about Allen\u2019s heavy load.<\/p>\n

In the end, Buffalo\u2019s battered secondary couldn\u2019t hold up against the Broncos and second-year quarterback Bo Nix, who suffered a season-ending broken ankle<\/a> shortly before Wil Lutz\u2019s game-winning 23-yard field goal on the third possession of overtime.<\/p>\n

Offensively, aside from Allen and running back James Cook (24 carries, 117 yards), the Bills were short on playmakers: Consider that Allen\u2019s second-most targeted wide receiver, 12th-year veteran wide receiver Brandin Cooks, was signed in late November.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the current model isn\u2019t working \u2014 and Saturday\u2019s missed opportunity felt like a closing argument.<\/p>\n

The question now is whether owner Terry Pegula will make any big changes, with head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane each completing a ninth season in those roles. They\u2019ve now had eight chances to get to the Super Bowl with Allen, drafted seventh overall out of Wyoming in 2018. Yet Pegula, Beane, McDermott and Allen are soul-searching for the eighth consecutive January.<\/p>\n

As one Bills source put it before Saturday\u2019s game, \u201cEvery year we don\u2019t win it with Josh, it just feels like a missed opportunity. We have this gift of a franchise quarterback that doesn\u2019t come along often, and we need to figure out how to take advantage of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Broncos\u2019 dynamic defense took advantage of Allen\u2019s most unconscionable miscue, which came with 16 seconds remaining in the first half. Denver had just taken a 17-10 lead on Nix\u2019s 29-yard end-zone strike to wide receiver Lil\u2019Jordan Humphrey. Rather than taking a knee, McDermott chose to try to unleash Allen on first-and-10 from their 30 with no timeouts.<\/p>\n

Allen, after trying to find an open receiver, bolted 12 yards up the middle before being stripped from behind by Broncos edge rusher Nik Bonitto, who spun him and batted the ball back toward the line of scrimmage. Buffalo guard David Edwards had a clear shot at a recovery but failed to come up with the ball, and Broncos safety Devon Key grabbed it at the Bills\u2019 32 with two seconds remaining \u2014 allowing Lutz to nail a 50-yarder at the halftime buzzer.<\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

\n Josh Allen\u2019s misadventures late in the second quarter ended in a fumble and a crucial Broncos field goal. (Justin Edmonds \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

On the second offensive snap of the second half, a Bonitto strip-sack of Allen gave the Broncos the ball at the Buffalo 17. A few plays later, Lutz\u2019s 33-yard field goal increased the lead to 23-10.<\/p>\n

Allen, however, remained undaunted, throwing touchdown passes to wide receiver Keon Coleman and tight end Dalton Kincaid to reclaim the lead. When the Bills forced a three-and-out and took over at their 20 with 11:50 remaining in the fourth quarter and a 24-23 advantage, it looked like the superhero had saved the day once more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe light was shining,\u201d Dawkins said. \u201cIt went out fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Down 30-27 after Nix\u2019s 26-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Mims with 1:01 left in regulation, Allen did enough to force overtime on Matt Prater\u2019s 50-yard field goal in the final seconds. The Bills won the toss, elected to kick and forced a Denver punt, taking over at their own 7-yard line with a chance to win the game with any score.<\/p>\n

On third-and-11 from the Buffalo 36, Allen dropped back and unleashed a pass designed to end things once and for all. He threw deep down the middle of the field for Cooks, who had a step on nickel cornerback Ja\u2019Quan McMillian. The ball was slightly underthrown, but Cooks slowed and appeared to catch it, only to have McMillian seize it as the two men landed near the 20-yard line.<\/p>\n

There was a case to be made that Cooks might have momentarily secured the ball while landing \u2014 or that there was simultaneous possession, which would also have counted as a catch for Cooks \u2014 but a very quick replay review ruled otherwise. (In an interview with a pool reporter after the game, referee Carl Cheffers said that Cooks hadn\u2019t completed the process of a catch when the receiver lost possession of the ball upon hitting the ground, and that \u201cthe defender gained possession of it at that point.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Afterward, McDermott was angry<\/a>, questioning why such a pivotal decision shouldn\u2019t be made more deliberately. He\u2019s absolutely right: These teams have been preparing for this moment since July, and they had just spent 3 1\/2 hours battling on even terms. With their seasons on the line, what\u2019s the hurry?<\/p>\n

On the other hand, a playoff game was partly decided by controversial officiating decisions that didn\u2019t\u00a0work against Broncos coach Sean Payton for a change (though that doesn\u2019t bring much solace to fans of the team he formerly coached, the New Orleans Saints).<\/p>\n

The controversy continued after the Broncos took over following McMillian\u2019s pick. Allen could only watch helplessly as a pair of pass-interference calls accounted for 47 yards on Denver\u2019s subsequent game-winning drive, cementing another abrupt ending to a hollow Bills campaign.<\/p>\n

Once again, the Bills weren\u2019t good enough to end a conference title drought that is now 32 seasons long \u2014 and Allen was visibly devastated in the aftermath.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s beating himself up because he saw an avenue open up,\u201d Payton said about 90 minutes after the game as he prepared to leave the stadium. \u201cMahomes is out, the guy in Baltimore (Jackson) didn\u2019t make it, and neither did Burrow \u2014 only these young quarterbacks (in the AFC) were standing in his way. So that\u2019s probably a big reason it stings.\u201d<\/p>\n

It stung enough that Allen, with a cream-colored backpack over both shoulders, pulled the hood of his brown sweatshirt over his head as he walked slowly and silently toward the team buses behind the south end zone. He was alone in his thoughts, but his coach and teammates were determined not to let him bear the brunt of the defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how he is,\u201d McDermott said of Allen a few minutes later. \u201cIt\u2019s not all on him. It\u2019s on all of us. It\u2019s not a perfect game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, as he stood dripping in the middle of a mostly silent locker room, Knox became animated in defense of his friend and quarterback.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe type of leader he is \u2014 the type of man he is \u2014 he\u2019s naturally going to put it all on himself,\u201d Knox said. \u201cThat\u2019s something we can\u2019t let him do.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to keep wearing that crown. He\u2019s Superman, and he\u2019s not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, once again, Allen is going home to ponder what might have been \u2014 and what must be fixed.<\/p>\n

The inescapable conclusion is that for Superman to take the Bills where they want to go, they\u2019re going to have to find a way to reduce his burden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of Texans vs. Patriots and Rams vs. Bears from the NFL playoffs divisional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,258,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-687510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-denver-broncos","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115918874947450966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687510","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=687510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}