Let’s get this out of the way first. The officiating was terrible in Monday’s 23-20 Bills win in the Meadowlands, especially as then game played along.
And yet, the Bills prevailed.
“Fighting through adversity,” Josh Allen said, ”getting in at halftime, regrouping. Saying, let’s just control one play at a time. We didn’t score as many points in the second half as we would like but we got the job done.”
And a sloppy, dirty job it was.
Referee Adrian Hill and his crew did their part, enforcing 22 penalties, calling several offsetting penalties and a few non-accepted. It made for a tight three-point game that was almost un-watchable. And as Aaron Rodgers noted, calls were terrible for both sides.
“It seemed a little ridiculous,” Rodgers said afterward. “It seemed really bad including the roughing the passer on me — that’s not roughing the passer. And I thought the roughing the passer call on (Jets DT Javon) Kinlaw as not roughing the passer either.”
Allen and Bills overcome Rodgers’ Hail Mary and beat Jets 23-20 But the Bills played through the penalties and got back on the winning track, thanks to a rookie running back making his first NFL start, the return of two veterans in the defensive secondary, and as usual, Josh Allen.
The running back, Ray Davis, ran for 97 yards on 4.9 yards per carry. But his biggest play came in the second quarter on second-and-10 at the 10-yard line. He saw Allen scrambling, escaping the pocket, running to his right. Just before Allen stepped out of bounds, he delivered a 42-yard pass to Davis that led to Buffalo’s second touchdown. Davis was impressed.
“When you’ve got a quarterback like Josh,” he said, “things can happen. Keeping on the run, staying alive, knowing that Josh can throw the ball down the field-once I saw him scrambling, I got to take is as a positive.”
Veteran Taron Johnson was back after missing four games with a forearm injury and came up with a key late interception — his first in two seasons — the Bills nickel corner had eight tackles to share the team lead.
He shared it with safety Taylor Rapp who returned to the lineup after a concussion. He also had three passes defended and broke up a possible touchdown.
“We missed them last week,” according to Sean McDermott. “They made some big plays for us. You could tell during the week of practice there was a difference in just the communication and the speed with which we were playing.”
And then there’s Josh.
He only had two incompletions in the first half. Almost as pretty as his long throw to Davis was he second-quarter touchdown pass to Dawson Knox. He scrambles and he’s tough. He’s the perfect quarterback for this team.
In his 100th career game, Allen reached 234 total touchdowns (passing and running), the most ever by an NFL player in his first seven seasons. His place in Canton may not be set yet but you’d better make room.
It’s only been six games — the first third of the season is gone. But with Tua Tagovaiola still out and the Patriots looking feckless, the AFC East belongs to Buffalo again.
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John Murphy, the longtime Voice of the Bills, is writing columns for WIVB.com this season. Find more of his work here .
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