Will Josh Allen’s aggressiveness cost the Bills a Super Bowl run? | You Pod To Win The Game
Yahoo Sports Senior NFL Writer Charles Robinson and NFL Writer Frank Schwab discuss the Minnesota Viking dramatic overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills, and debate if Josh Allen is too aggressive for his own good and the good of the Bills Super Bowl hopes.
Video Transcript
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CHARLES ROBINSON: We have been pushing the Minnesota Vikings down every Sunday night freestyle. We never get around to them. We never respect them. They were 7-1 coming into this week. This was it. This was the measuring stick. And it turns out the measuring stick was fourth and 18, Justin Jefferson, one of the most badass catches you'll probably ever see in an NFL game.
Was this real? Let's be honest. That fourth and 18 was-- 99 of 100 times, that probably isn't going to happen the way that that happened.
FRANK SCHWAB: Right.
CHARLES ROBINSON: And yet it did. And the Minnesota Vikings beat the Buffalo Bills 33-30 in Buffalo of all places.
FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah. And without the fourth and 18, we don't get the absolute insanity of the Bills fumbling at the goal line. Bizarre game, game of the year, great game.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Amazing game.
FRANK SCHWAB: I think, to answer your question, it doesn't matter how it happens. You go on the road. You beat Buffalo, who is still a Super Bowl contender in my mind. This validates them, it really does. I'm impressed. And yeah, I think they're here to stay.
CHARLES ROBINSON: They've got enough offensive weapons that they're going to be tough to deal with for anybody. Again, you and I said this was a measuring stick game. We measured the Vikings. The Vikings are a legitimate team. They're catching a lot of breaks. But sometimes you live that way.
Conversely, the Bills, I want to ask you about Josh Allen. And I brought this up in past shows, this idea that Josh Allen, he gets into that mode where it's like, we've got to score a touchdown, got to be aggressive. It's always he's in the fourth, fifth, sixth gear at times when you're kind of like, OK, man, downshift. Let's play a little conservative. We know you've got a cannon. Don't always try to fit everything in a spot when it doesn't necessarily require it.
Now we've seen him make what-- it was like 4 red zone interceptions in the last two games? I think that was the stat.
FRANK SCHWAB: Yes.
CHARLES ROBINSON: It's not a mechanical problem, OK? It is 100% a mentality problem where someone's got to pull back a little bit. It's not even uncommon when we look through the history of big-armed quarterbacks. Elway never saw a throw he didn't think he could make. Bret Favre never saw a throw he didn't think he could make.
All the people with the strongest arms in history loved to push it. And I think Josh Allen falls right in that spot.
FRANK SCHWAB: This is the kind of loss that costs a team a Super Bowl. And that sounds like hyperbole but it's really not because--
CHARLES ROBINSON: A home field kind of a situation?
FRANK SCHWAB: Yes because--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah.
FRANK SCHWAB: --they have gone on the road to Arrowhead Stadium each of the last two years and lost to Patrick Mahomes. And this was the year. You got the team. You start hot. You're doing well. Yeah, you had the one loss early to the Dolphins, but that's OK, you can still-- now you've lost to the Jets as a double digit favorite. You lost at home to the Vikings after you led by, I believe it was 17.
You can't lose these games because the Chiefs aren't going to lose many back to you. The Dolphins might not lose many back to you for all that's worth. This is the kind of game you look back on, and you say, we didn't make the Super Bowl because we had to go to Arrowhead Stadium again because we lost that game to the Vikings or the Jets or whatever.
And a lot of this is on Josh Allen. And I think somebody pointed out on a replay of the interception that he had Singletary in the flat. Dump it off to him. You're going to get at least 5 to 7 yards, maybe a little bit more. Singletary was playing well in that game. He could have gotten a first down for you.
But instead, he's just locked down field, tries to force the pass in there. And I think he's really gripping it a little bit, just trying to put too much on his shoulders. This Bills season has been so much about Super Bowl or bust.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Mm-hmm.
FRANK SCHWAB: And when you play in LA or New York, or wherever, I don't think you feel that every day. I really don't. There's just so much going on. And people might be-- even in the sports scene, they're bitching about LeBron or whatever.
In Buffalo, this is life. I grew up in Wisconsin. Packers football is life. That's all you hear about 24/7. Same way in Buffalo. And I wonder if the pressure is getting to the Bills a little bit where they feel like, we've got to be perfect. We've got to make a Super Bowl. And they're just pressing a little bit. And you see that now a little bit.
This is-- maybe that's taking it two steps too far, just a loss to the Minnesota Vikings, a very good team, at home. But you just wonder if the pressure of being frontrunners this year is getting to them a little bit and getting to Josh Allen a little bit.
