"An Absolute Weapon!" - What Josh Allen's Ability to Run Means to the Bills

Josh Allen didn't play a great game throwing the ball against the Rams. Rich doesn't care, and the reason is the whole point.

The crew didn't sugarcoat the passing. The stats looked good, but Khalil Shakir broke the long one, and the interception at the end of the first half was really bad. All of Allen's runs were scrambles, not designed plays. One voice in the studio figured that in the playoffs, defenses won't leave zero spy on Allen.

Rich's response: that's exactly the problem for everyone else. "He can do it. And they can win games with it," he said. "It's 5 weeks in and they're 4-1. You are what you are. They're in first place." The Bills are in the mix without a doubt, and Rich put it on one player. "It's because Josh Allen is just second to none, man. He'll make mistakes. He's not perfect. But good lord, is he just unfreaking stoppable?"

Rich thinks the Rams didn't spy Allen enough, but he's not sure it would have mattered. Rush him and get too far behind him, and he's gone. Pen him in and let him extend the play, and he'll make a play.

Allen explained his own thinking after the game. "When it's there, it's there," he said. "I don't want to make a living in that. I understand that. But I do know how much of a back breaker that can be on a defense when you feel like you're in pretty good coverage." He added that he felt there was room to maneuver and kept finding ways to move the chains, especially late in the game.

"It is demoralizing," Rich said. "It's a back breaker. It is an absolute weapon." It doesn't matter to him whether the play broke down or the run was never called. The defense can cover everyone downfield and still lose, because the wild card in Allen's back pocket is always taking off. "I'm breaking your back and I'm stealing your soul," Rich said.

And Allen isn't exactly a small target coming at a tackler. Defenders face what the crew called a business decision every time. Someone noted he didn't slide once and was trying to run people over, and another admitted to yelling "get down" at the TV more than a few times. Rich acknowledged it might become a problem later in Allen's career. "But who cares right now? He doesn't."

Rich shared a line that popped up on his Threads timeline: Allen throws his body around like he's renting it. "Like he's renting the body. I'll just ding it up and then trade it in," Rich said. "It's such a difference maker."

Rich also had some fun with the setting. Allen performed like that in SoFi Stadium with his famous wife, Hailee Steinfeld, rooting him on, which, the crew joked, the Chargers quarterback supposedly can't manage. The crew noted it may have been the first time cameras caught Steinfeld at a game, and the rumor was she wouldn't even tell the broadcast where she was sitting. She also let loose a full LFG, not the acronym, the whole thing. "I'm jumping through a flaming table next," came the joke from the studio.

It was a fitting close to a wild Week 5, a game that was pretty garbage for nearly three quarters before turning into a classic. The crew ran through the whole weekend: the way it started in Dallas, the craziness in London, Washington D.C., seven turnovers between the defending Super Bowl champs and the 49ers, and the way it ended in SoFi. For Buffalo, the bottom line was simple. A win's a win.