Irrespective of how excessive Josh Allen and the Buffalo Payments get, the story at all times ends the identical means. Doesn’t matter if he’s within the MVP dialog, or a Professional Bowler — or in some eyes, the perfect QB on the earth through the common season. Come postseason, we all know the script; Patrick Mahomes will ship him house, and that’s okay as a result of Mahomes sends all people house. However it’s time for us to cease making excuses for Allen — he has no extra.
On Jan. 26, Allen and Mahomes met for the fourth time in 5 postseasons, and the top scene has been the identical each time: a heart-breaking loss and an terrible final drive from Allen. With two minutes left, the Chiefs blitzed and pressured Allen on fourth-and-5 from Buffalo‘s 47-yard line, which pressured Allen to flee the pocket. Allen scrambled and tossed the ball within the air towards the route of tight finish Dalton Kincaid, who was unable to make the robust catch. The Chiefs took over on downs, and the sport was all however over. That is additionally first time in NFL playoff historical past that one crew has eradicated the identical opponent 4 instances in a five-season span.
After the Jan. 26 loss — together with the playoffs — the Payments’ 78 victories during the last six seasons are essentially the most by any franchise in NFL historical past over a six-season stretch with no Tremendous Bowl journey. Allen performed a good sport; he gained 39 yards on 11 carries and ended the sport 22-of-34 for 237 yards with two touchdowns. It wasn’t sufficient, nonetheless, to cease him from making damaging historical past. Of all of the quarterbacks who’ve by no means performed within the Tremendous Bowl, Allen now has essentially the most playoff wins with seven.
It was presupposed to be Allen‘s 12 months. He’s a finalist for MVP. He was the one particular person this season to beat Mahomes and the Chiefs when their starters performed. He lastly had a crew round him that had every part: a great operating sport, a great O-line and an amazing coach in Sean McDermott. He was taking part in arguably the perfect ball of his profession — and confronted the weakest Kansas Metropolis crew of his profession — but he nonetheless wound up on the dropping finish. It’s protected to say that Allen won’t ever beat the Chiefs, and that’s as a result of he’s the precise reverse of Mahomes in clutch time.
The explanation the Chiefs are rattling close to undefeatable is as a result of when it’s successful time, there isn’t any higher participant than Mahomes. Allen has proven us a number of instances when the sport is on the road, he can’t be trusted. Allen — who has thrived below strain this season — accomplished simply 1 of 8 passes for 4 yards when pressured by the Chiefs on Jan. 26. One an important drive of his profession — with a Tremendous Bowl berth on the road and down solely a area purpose — Allen went three and out, successfully ending the sport for his crew.
Allen won’t ever win a Tremendous Bowl as a result of he won’t ever beat Mahomes. Each time they match up, he folds like a garden chair. This 12 months, his largest weak spot — his turnovers — he utterly neutralized it till he needed to see Mahomes once more. Each time Mahomes is on the opposing sideline, it rattles Allen, and we’ve now seen it in 4 straight matchups. They are saying a 3rd time is the allure, so what does a fourth make? I’d say a fourth time makes no excuse. There’s a well-known saying that doing the identical factor again and again and anticipating completely different outcomes is madness. Nicely, anticipating Allen to ever beat Mahomes is madness — and now even the town of Buffalo believes as a lot.