Last year, their was questions about Josh Allen and his ability to lead the Bills to a championship season.Those questions have been answered as Josh Allen has excelled this year.
His quarterback stats are as follows:
rating is a 3rd in the NFL at 82 and he is 3rd in the NFL in passing yards. Pretty impressive numbers if you ask me.
Why?
1. The addition of Stefon Diggs has been pivotal. They have a great relationship and Diggs is a great route runner and man beater. He torched the Pats on a few man concepts and really has become the guy in Buffalo. 344 yards passing against the Patriots is pretty good.
2. Allen has really learned to take what is given to him. He no longer tries to force those long downfield throws and takes the check downs given to him. Thank you Cole Beasley. Cole Beasley commands a ton of attention underneath which opens the middle of the field up.
Here's an example of this. Ravens in man with a rat defender underneath. A nice 14 yard gain on 1st and 10.
3. His mechanics have really improved and he is throwing the ball with more accuracy on the intermediate routes outside the hashmarks. That was a major weakness for Allen in years past.
4. Brian Daboll is an excellent offensive coordinator and really knows how to call a game. The Bills run great rub, mesh routes at various depths which makes it really difficult to play them in man. He's one step ahead with deep crossers (great against teams that pass off the crossers) and give Allen flexibility with really good multi purpose routes.
5. The pass protection has been excellent this year. Really some clean pockets and time to throw has really been exceptional by the bills. They've only given up 27 sacks. The improvement in this unit has been impressive.
vs the Patriots-week 16
Patriots go man free and Jackson expects help on the deep crosser. Great route design running the mesh route deep at 10-12 yards against the Patriots who like to pass things off in man.
After the 17 yard gain, the Bills go play action on the next play. See the video below as Diggs does a great job getting separation right off the onset of the route.
Here's 2 clips of the above concepts(great man beaters)
Another great design by Daboll, but Allen reads man coverage and knows where he is going with the football. Great rub route on the outside at depth. #1 runs the slant off #2 pick route.
Easy catch and throw. 10 yard gain on 2nd and 5.
Here's a good cover 2 route where they high low the lb. Allen high lows the lb and throws a strike for 17 yards. Great play design. Had an underneath route vs man but reads cover 2 and runs his progression curl to crosser.
Motion presnap tells him its zone coverage. Tells him he's working zone side
Allen throws a strike for a great 17 yard gain.
These are just some of the reasons he is successful. More analysis to follow as Allen is a top qb in the league.
Vs the 49ers-week 13
The impressive thing about this game is the Bills took what they did to the 49ers. Allen was 32/40 for 375 yards and 4 ads against a very good defense. They really were in attack mode and did a great job with the vertical passing game.
Cole Beasley was 9/130
Stefon Diggs was 10/92
Gabriel Davis was 3/68.
Allen was patient and took what the defense gave him. He didn't force the issue and did some good things in this game.
#1 he made a few plays with his legs. But rather than run like games past he rolls stays behind the los and he completes 2 passes for 47 yards in a row early in the game.
On a 1st and 10, you'll se a great seem route vs c3 and Allen gets a clean pocket. This allows him to throw a bullet to Beasley as the 49ers are in 3 and don't carry 2 vertical. Nice 30 yard gain.
On 1st and 10 here they run the in clear concept with #1 and 2. They run #2 off and #1 behind it with a nice dig concept. Good cover 4 beater. The accuracy of this ball was a really great throw.
On a 2nd and 9 the 49ers go man free and the Bills run a great pick rub route for the man in motion who runs a wheel. Diggs sets a great pick and the motion man is wide open. Nice design and execution.
Late in Half, Daboll has full confidence in Allen. The next 3 clips shows a big drive before the half to put the Bills up 27-17. They started at their own 25 with 26 seconds to go. They go 3 plays ,56 yards to set up a field goal to go up 17-7 before the half. Big trust factor and execution by an excellent qb. Big series below.
Heres some more clips vs the Broncos.
1st example, look how Allen just reads his progressions in man coverage. He looks for the dover but that is covered and he works the comeback route with Diggs. Watch how he sees the deep over covered by the safety robbing and lurking from the weakside. He doesn't panic and works the other side of the field to the comebback.
In the clip below Allen does a great job reading cover 2, freezing the safety to the right with his eyes and holding the safety on the #1 wr before throwing a laser for a td pass to #3 on the vertical.
Heres another example of Josh Allen standing in the pocket, not getting raddled and throwing a strike to Diggs.
Broncos run a cross dog man free with the 2 ilb blitzing and the olb picking up the rb to the flat. Man free coverage with a 5 man pressure.
Here are the 3 clips mentioned above:
Here are just a few more examples of how much Allen has improved this year. Really great to see much he has evolved into an elite qb.
