Josh Allen again fell short of Super Bowl aspirations after the Kansas City Chiefs eliminated his Buffalo Bills in a 27-24 road win.
Sunday marked the first time Patrick Mahomes’ team knocked out Allen’s Bills. The game led to a heated debate about the Bills quarterback on ESPN’s Get Up.
Dan Orlovsky noted that Allen is the only player to ever account for 50 touchdowns in a season (playoffs included) and not make the title game. His colleague, Ryan Clark, dismissed the feat.
Clark called Allen “amazing” and ultimately talented” before getting to the bad part. He drew a parallel to basketball pundits saying LeBron James needed help during his first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“He’s still not great,” Clark said. “He’s still not the winner that we always try to make him be. We keep making excuses for him like he was LeBron.”
Ryan Clark just smoked the Josh Allen fanboy and it was great TV. Here u go if you missed it 🤣 pic.twitter.com/EJxujfyQlf
— k͢͢͢y (@BOSSD0NBIGGAVEL) January 22, 2024
Clark noted that Lamar Jackson is one victory away from joining Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow as the latest active quarterback to win the AFC during Allen’s career. He claimed analysts don’t excuse Mahomes or Jackson for poor supporting casts, instead putting the onus on the MVP signal-callers to figure it out.
“Guess what Patrick has done? He righted the ship,” Clark said. “Josh Allen had a chance. It’s fine to come in here and say, ‘He played great, but he didn’t do enough.’ Because that’s the truth. He didn’t do enough.”
Orlovsky disagreed on that final point, arguing that one of many missed connections outside of Allen’s control could have changed the game’s entire complexion.
Allen led Buffalo to a first-round win over Clark’s former team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, by completing 21 of 30 passes for 203 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 74 yards and another score.
The 27-year-old had another big game on the ground, gaining 72 more rushing yards and two touchdowns against Kansas City. However, he tallied just 186 yards on 39 pass attempts.
Allen accounted for 44 touchdowns (29 passing, 15 rushing) during the regular season, giving him over 40 scores in four straight years. He’s second to Mahomes in passing yards and touchdowns since the start of 2020.
Yet Allen also threw the NFL’s second-most interceptions (18) in 2023. Seemingly every Bills game has turned into a debate over whether he’s an all-time great or an overrated bum.