What we learned in the NFL Week 16: Josh Allen is wonderful, the Davis Mills show (?!?), and waving goodbye to Ben Roethlisberger

Josh Allen is playing like a Super Bowl QB. Davis Mills isn't there yet, but we gotta talk about him.

Mac Jones is a perfectly reasonable NFL quarterback.

He is not Josh Allen.

That made all the difference Sunday.

Jones threw for only 145 yards behind a run-heavy offense. He was a cog in a machine. Allen, on the other hand, was the whole dang engine.

The fourth-year QB stared down the league’s top-ranked defense and rode his WR4 to a 33-21 win over the New England Patriots. Allen finished with 378 total yards and three touchdowns in a game that gave the Buffalo Bills control over their own destiny in the AFC East.

Over the past two seasons, Allen is 2-0 in Foxborough with seven touchdowns, more than 630 passing yards, and a pair of double-digit wins over the division’s previous boss level. On Sunday, he completed seven of his 12 passes 10+ yards downfield against the league’s top-ranked secondary, throwing for two touchdowns and a 122.9 passer rating in the process:

Allen painted a masterpiece in his biggest regular season game of 2021. Rather than cede the AFC East back to the Patriots after a one year hiatus, he made a statement about Buffalo’s playoff hopes. He converted half his third down attempts and three of four on fourth down, either running or throwing the ball on all 16 of those situations. Sean McDermott is a very good coach, but his gameplan is very simple; give the ball to his best player and expect magic.

It’s a good strategy! The Bills are 8-1 when he records a passer rating of 90 or better and 1-5 when he fails to hit that mark. He’s also run for 40+ yards in more than half his games this season, giving him more rushing yards than tailbacks like D’Andre Swift or Clyde Edwards-Helaire, He averages 0.6 fewer rushing yards per game than Saquon Barkley.

Allen is an economy unto himself for Buffalo. Stopping him is possible, but sometimes without rhyme or reason — his worst game of the season came in a 9-6 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that makes just as much sense today as it did at the time. These are the teams that have held him to his worst performances:

That’s a wild list. Two of the teams here, New England and Miami, each got roasted by Allen in rematches later in the season (and that first Patriots game happened in gale force winds). His 86 passer rating came alongside 417 total yards and three touchdowns vs. the Buccaneers. The Steeler loss happened in Week 1, which is the most explainable week to brainfart your way to disappointment.

The Jaguars performance is still inscrutable. I’m gonna blame that on Allen playing hooky for the week, Ferris Bueller style, and hiring another 6’5 guy off Craigslist to wear his uniform instead.

What does this tell us? Well, now that Allen is rolling it’s nearly impossible to stop him without a top 10 defense. And if you do have a top 10 unit and he’s seen you before, offensive coordinator Brian Daboll will likely have a few new wrinkles in his game to list that passing offense to new heights.

That’s bad news for the Pats, Colts, and, yes, somehow the once 1-7 Dolphins on the AFC side of the playoff bracket. The Bills are clicking again, and familiarity is only breeding contempt for Josh Allen.