In normal life, it’s kind of insulting for someone to say to someone else, “Calm down.” In football, it’s something that players sometimes need to hear.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen needed to hear it on Monday night. He was trying too hard to will the Bills to victory. He seemed to be frustrated that the Bills didn’t blow the Jets away after they lost quarterback Aaron Rodgers. At times, Allen seemed to think that with one big throw the Bills would score 17 points.
After the game, Allen admitted it was the “same shit.” That he forced too many throws. That he did too many of the things he had done last year, when expectations of a Super Bowl win and an MVP trophy became a season with a few too many struggles and a 27-10 division-round loss at home to the Bengals.
The solution is simple. It’s obvious. Allen needs someone who can and will look him in the eye and tell him to calm down. But there are two problems with that.
First, offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey doesn’t seem to be the calming type — especially not in light of the way he reacted to last year’s loss to the Dolphins. Second, head coach Sean McDermott has little or no chance to talk to Allen when the offense is on the sideline, because McDermott is now calling the defensive plays.
It’s something the Bills need to figure out, quickly. There will be other moments like Monday night throughout the season. Allen will get frustrated, irritated, discombobulated. Someone needs to be able to get him to settle down. To run the offense. To take the easy play in lieu of trying to do the impossible.
For his first interception on Monday night, Allen could have run for a first down. Instead, he threw up a deep ball that was off target and easily intercepted.
Someone needs to be aggressively coaching him to be less aggressive. To not treat every play like the last play of the Super Bowl. To trust the players around him to do the little things, and to trust that enough little things will stack up into one win after another after another.
On Monday night, the Bills lost a game they should have won. Given their 2023 schedule, that can’t happen too many times. If it does, they won’t have to worry about losing at home in the playoffs this year, because they won’t make it to the postseason.