Opinion: Every rising star QB, like the Bills' Josh Allen, needs somebody like Stefon Diggs
Take it from Josh Allen. The big adjustment that took the Buffalo Bills offense to a higher gear on Sunday night wasn’t too complicated.
It was merely a matter of beating the Steelers blitzes with Stefon Diggs.
“We started throwing it to Stefon,” Allen said after the huge, 26-15 victory served notice about Buffalo’s direction. “Got the ball out quickly. Started throwing it to (No.) 14.”
Every rising star quarterback should be so fortunate.
Diggs torched the Steelers for 10 catches and 130 yards with a touchdown to prove exactly why Buffalo sent the Vikings a first-round pick, and fourth-, fifth- and sixth-round picks in March to land the play-making receiver in a blockbuster trade.
It was games like this one.
The Bills, now10-3 for the first time since 1991, are positioned to claim their first AFC East title since 1995.
WHAT WE LEARNED: Week 14 taught us plenty about the push toward playoffs
WINNERS & LOSERS: Steelers are reeling and it's a tough time for kickers
Beating the Steelers (11-2) is hardly the final answer about a power shift in the AFC, but with Ben Roethlisberger having his lowest-rated passing game of the season and Allen overcoming a sluggish start to find a rhythm (and the "W"), it sure had a “what’s old vs. what’s new” flavor to it.
The Bills will need to continue winning games like this, while also seizing the opportunity presented with New England’s post-Tom Brady transition, before power is truly shifted. Yet with a third playoff berth on the horizon in coach Sean McDermott’s fourth season, they sure seem to be trending in that direction.
Drafting Allen as the franchise quarterback with the seventh pick overall was one thing. Yet the moves that McDermott and GM Brandon Beane have made to build a balanced team that supports Allen — and most notably landing a go-to receiver — is what could sustain this flow.
“We’re chasing bigger goals,” Diggs said. “We’re starving for more."
Passing the prime-time test against Pittsburgh had to be special because of the resilience.
The Steelers battered Allen with relentless pressure early in the game, sending extra rushers up the middle, off the edges and after delayed takeoffs. It was the whole package. And it worked. At halftime, Allen had completed just 10 of 23 passes, with a pick and a paltry 34.0 passer rating, yet Diggs insisted afterward that he wasn’t worried in the least about his young quarterback.
“He’s a tough quarterback,” Diggs told reporters on Zoom after the game. “He’s mentally tough.”
Even so, Diggs said that it has become a habit to check on Allen during the course of games, to gauge his psyche. The read on Sunday night was pretty much the usual.
“Never too high, never too low,” Diggs said.
That had to be a good sign. Allen, 6-5, 237, is undoubtedly one of the league’s most rugged passers, which comes in handy as he’s using his above-average mobility to extend plays. He’s perfect for Buffalo, where Jim Kelly became a legend because his cannon arm that could cut passes threw the northern winds came wrapped with blue-collar toughness. Allen has those traits, too. But that doesn’t mean the hits and the pressure don’t take a toll.
Ask Roethlisberger. For all that sputtered in the first half for Allen & Co., they were still leading at halftime — thanks to a Roethlisberger pick-six that turned the game’s momentum late in the second quarter.
Oh, for the striking contrasts. While Allen’s connection with Diggs left a stamp on the game, the dropped passes that undermined Roethlisberger provided another type of impression. Dionte Johnson was benched for much of the first half after two drops; Eric Ebron dropped another as the Steelers offense — woeful enough with the absence of a running game — carried over a bad habit that doomed them in the previous week’s loss against Washington.
No, Roethlisberger wasn’t at his best. But the support, or lack thereof, matters.
Allen’s stats, especially after the rough first half, won’t blow you away. It took him 43 passes to tally 238 yards. But he won, in large part because Diggs — as he has all season — provided him with the best option when he needed it the most. Diggs made a big third-down catch for 23 yards to keep a field goal drive alive just before the half. To open the second half, he lunged into the end zone with a 19-yard catch-and-run to extend the lead.
Said Allen, “He took over for us.”
As planned. Allen was reminded about the buzz that came with the trade in March, when much of the narrative suggested that the Bills gave up a bundle for a player who presented a chemistry risk because of dust-ups during his Vikings tenure.
“It blows my mind how people can get that so wrong,” Allen said. “I love the guy. He goes out and competes. I’m super-blessed that we traded for him.”
With three games to play, Diggs has already collected 100 receptions, which ties the single-season franchise record set by Eric Moulds in 2000. Allen, meanwhile, has accounted for 35 TDs, surpassing Jim Kelly’s single-season franchise mark.
And they are hardly done yet.