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Bills’ short-passing offense results in a new high completion percentage for Josh Allen

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Josh Allen explains what the Buffalo Bills did to pull away from the Los Angeles Rams and why the defense gave the team a huge boost.

Bills quarterback Josh Allen showed off his big arm on one touchdown pass Thursday night, but for most of the game, new Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey called short passes. And it worked.

Allen completed 26 of his 31 passes, an 83.9 percent completion rate that was his career high for the regular season. (He slightly topped it with an 84.0 percent completion rate in January’s playoff win over the Patriots.)

For most of the game, Allen was throwing short and accurate passes, a departure from the downfield strikes he’s best known for. Time will tell whether that becomes the norm for the Bills’ offense, or whether Dorsey installed the short passing game largely as a response to the Rams’ defense and the threat of Aaron Donald getting to Allen if Allen didn’t get rid of the ball quickly.

The book on Allen early in his career was that he had a strong arm and could throw well downfield, but that his accuracy wasn’t good enough. That now feels like a long time ago. Allen is proving he can beat opposing defenses any number of ways.