On a day when Josh Allen made history as the first player to throw three touchdown passes and rush for three more in a single game, the biggest topic after the Bills’ 44-42 loss to the Los Angeles Rams was a play where Allen didn’t score.
With the Bills trailing by nine in the fourth quarter, Allen was stopped for no gain on a sneak up the middle on first-and-goal at the Rams’ 1-yard line. The Bills then used their first of three timeouts with 1:02 remaining.
“I have to find a way to get in,” Allen said, who threw for 324 yards and ran for 82. “I don’t know the stats, but I know it wasn’t good enough to win the game.”
After being stopped, Allen ran left for a touchdown on second down, his ninth rushing score of the season, bringing the Bills within two points. But with only a minute left, Buffalo was forced to attempt an onside kick.
The Rams’ Ronnie Rivers recovered the onside kick at the Bills’ 45-yard line, allowing Los Angeles to run out the clock and end Buffalo’s seven-game winning streak.
Instead of staying in the hunt for the top spot in the AFC, the Bills are now 10-3 and tied with Pittsburgh for the second seed.
Allen and the Bills have been successful with short-yardage sneaks this season. It was just the third time in 19 rushing attempts he was stopped on a 1-yard gain. Two of those stops have been at the 1-yard line.
Allen is 20 of 27 on sneaks from the 1-yard line in his seven-year career and four of six this season.
Bills coach Sean McDermott, who spoke to the media 67 minutes after the game, defended the play call and the timeout. McDermott also mentioned that using the timeout instead of spiking the ball would have taken 15 to 20 more seconds off the clock.
“You have two options and neither are great,” he said. “When you’re in that situation with three timeouts, we were underneath the time where we could get the ball with a legit chance to win with no timeouts. We ran what we thought was our best play all year.”
He added, “I thought we could get it on the first play. If we did get the onside kick, we had 15 yards and roughly 50 seconds and felt good about ourselves.”
Recovering an onside kick has been difficult this season. Of the 41 attempts, only three teams have successfully recovered the ball.
Despite the loss, the Bills reached the end zone on their last four possessions. Allen, who completed 22 of 37 passes, said not scoring at the end of the first half and then going three-and-out on their first drive of the second half were key moments in the game.
“We have to find ways to score before and after the half. We didn’t do our part,” Allen said. “I have to make one more play than they do. It was a total team loss in three phases. We didn’t play up to our standards.”
Allen had almost all of his rushing yards in the second half as the Bills nearly came back from a 38-21 deficit late in the third quarter. He became only the second player in NFL history to have three touchdown passes and two rushing touchdowns in multiple games.
This was also Allen’s fifth game with at least two rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns, surpassing Steve Young for the most in NFL history.
“He’s a nightmare to defend, and so it’s a balance,” said Rams coach Sean McVay. “I don’t think you can just sit back and let him move around in the pocket. He can beat you from the pocket, he can beat you with his mind, he can beat you with his arm, he can beat you with his legs. That’s why he’s a legitimate MVP candidate.”
Buffalo forced the Rams to punt only twice in nine possessions and also had a special teams mistake when Sam Martin’s punt in the second quarter was blocked by Jacob Hummel. Hunter Long picked up the loose ball and ran it 22 yards for a touchdown, extending Los Angeles’ lead to 17-7.
McDermott praised Allen’s performance but emphasized the need to improve around him, especially with a road game against 12-1 Detroit coming up.
“We have our work cut out for us this week,” McDermott said.
