In Josh Allen, Bills have perfect QB to keep bedeviling Bill Belichick, Patriots

Bill Belichick has long been the quarterback whisperer as his Patriots dominated the AFC East and the conference as.a whole. But taming a hoss as talented as the Bills’ Josh Allen is proving to be a difficult task. And Allen isn’t going anywhere. He’s a big, strong-armed, fast-moving obstacle to Belichick reviving New England’s dynasty without Tom Brady.

After the Bills traded road victories with the Patriots in the 2021 NFL regular season, they built on their second straight division title by blowing out the Patriots 47-17 in Saturday’s AFC wild-card playoff game. Allen made sure the outcome of the rubber match was decided halfway through the second quarter.

Going back to his breakout Year 3, Allen is 4-1 against the Patriots the past two seasons. He had a postseason performance for the ages, one for which Belichick never had an answer. Allen posted a near-perfect passer rating (157.6) as he ripped New England’s defense for 308 yards and five touchdowns on 21-for-25 passing. He also rushed for 66 yards on six attempts.

Allen made undefendable throws and was unstoppable when he decided to take off and run. He was locked into all of his targets at the highest level. He got rid of the ball quickly and never faced pressure. He was comfortable inside and outside the pocket.

A versatile quarterback in an offense with diverse weapons in all parts of the field? Welcome to someone and something that gives Belichick’s defensive scheme the most problems. It’s the perfect storm and New England’s worst nightmare.

In contrast, the lights were too bright for Allen’s rookie counterpart, Mac Jones, against a tough Bills pass defense. There was early pressure on him to keep up, and that’s not the type of game in which New England can defeat this version of Buffalo.

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The Patriots’ 14-10 Monday night win at Highmark Stadium in Week 13 seems like a distant memory. It was definitely an anomaly; Belichick got a big assist against Allen from 40-mph winds and the Bills were caught off guard by a run-heavy game plan that rendered Jones a non-factor.

It was single-digits cold for the Patriots’ return six weeks later, but Allen stayed hot from the winter thaw he felt as he led the Bills to a 33-21 win in New England in Week 16.

The missing piece for Buffalo before Week 13 was a strong traditional running game. Over the past five weeks, Devin Singletary has performed like one of the league’s top feature backs. Add him to a wideout corps that goes four deep behind go-to guy Stefon Diggs and a good-hands, athletic tight end in Dawson Knox.

Most defenses have no answers for all of that. Belichick can try everything with different personnel groupings and coverage looks to maximize his talent, but when Allen is executing efficiently and getting that amount of help, nothing can be done.

Allen is the new Tom Brady of the AFC East, the quarterback everyone is trying to figure out. Although Jones, the Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa and the Jets’ Zach Wilson give the other teams promise to close the gap, it’s now just as wide as the one Brady enjoyed for a long stretch in New England.

Physically, Allen isn’t easy to contain. Mentally, he can cause a lot of things to break down with his rare arm and athletic ability.

There’s only one way Belichick, 69, can get the Patriots back to where they were with Brady, and it isn’t beating Allen with defense. He will need to beat him with more offense, and to that end, Jones needs a lot more help to put the Pats on par with the Bills at QB.

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