Josh Allen comes to rescue for Bills in season opener

Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Bills weren’t ready to play at the start of Sunday’s season opener, and fell behind to the Arizona Cardinals, 10-0.

After a very careless lost fumble, where Josh Allen had all day to throw and then didn’t protect the ball, he totally took over the game, accounting for four touchdowns.

The only thing slowing Allen down on Sunday was his offensive coordinator Joe Brady, who insisted upon running the ball early in drives.

Allen went 5-of-5 in the first half, but the point is he only threw five passes.

Bills head coach Sean McDermott has always done a good job with adjustments, and Sunday was no different. Buffalo was reeling until they could double dip, and they took complete advantage.

Allen ended the first half engineering a seven-play, 70-yard drive. The goofy part of this drive was the Bills had to overcome three false start penalties. Last season, they never had more than two in a game.

On 3rd-and-6, Allen found wide receiver Khalil Shakir for 19 yards. Allen then found the end zone on a seven-yard run, and the Bills went in at halftime down 17-10.

Buffalo got the ball to start the second half, and the comeback was complete after a 10-play, 60-yard drive. The Bills faced a 3rd-and-11 along the way, and Allen got 25 yards by getting the ball out to running back James Cook in the right flat.

Mack Hollins was left 1-on-1 with safety Jalen Thompson, and he made him look silly on a slant for an 11-yard touchdown.

The Cardinals had 191 yards of offense in the first half, but that changed.

On their first drive of the third quarter, Greg Rousseau’s sack of Kyler Murray made it a three-and-out. On Arizona’s next drive Rousseau strip-sacked Murray, and the Bills had the ball on the Arizona 21-yard line.

That led to an Allen 11-yard touchdown pass to Shakir, and Buffalo had its first lead of the game at 24-17.

Allen put together another 70-yard touchdown drive in which he scored from six yards out, meaning he threw or ran for four touchdowns in the game.

If you recall, the last time these two teams played, Murray threw a Hail Mary to beat the Bills on the final play of the game. I’m not going to lie, I really had the feeling we were going to be seeing that again after Tyler Bass kicked a ball out-of-bounds, giving Arizona the ball at their own 40-yard line with 1:56 left.

Murray got the Cardinals to the Bills' 29-yard line and on 4th-and-7 with 32 seconds left, he chucked one down to Greg Dortch just short of the end zone. Ja’Marcus Ingram was in tight with Dortch, and had perfect coverage forcing the incompletion. Dortch had the ball for a second, but with Ingram’s arm there, he couldn’t hold on.

Ingram had to feel good about the play, because in the first quarter, it looked like the Bills had Arizona stopped, forcing a field goal attempt. However, Ingram was called for unnecessary roughness when he never touched Murray after he slid.

Arizona only had 79 yards of total offense in the second half, and the Bills finally started rushing Murray up the middle, getting four sacks.

Buffalo pretty much had Murray contained, but they did give up a 29-yard fourth quarter run on a 3rd-and-7 that led to a field goal. James Conner followed that with a 20-yard scamper, meaning they got 49 of their 79 yards on two plays.

The Bills were at their best when Allen was in control, and using a hurry up offense.

We had to watch Cook, Ray Davis and Ty Johnson gain just 3.8 yards per-carry on 24 carries along the way.

Keeping the opponent honest is one thing, but having an elite quarterback throw just five times in the first half is quite another. It’s a good thing for the Bills that their elite quarterback came to the rescue to get them their first win of 2024.