ORCHARD PARK — If you were looking forward to a good ole 1 p.m. start and are disgruntled by the NFL and CBS shifting it to 4:25 p.m., blame No. 17 in red.
As Josh Allen strengthens his grip around an MVP bid, he has become must-watch television nationwide. Allen’s popularity isn’t new, having ranked among the leaders in jersey sales since 2020 and was on the cover of Madden 24, but now it’s starting to reflect in the league’s scheduling and television ratings.
When the schedule is released each year, most eyes dart to the primetime games. But aside from holiday games — Allen has played on Thanksgiving three times — the marquee games, the ones that draw the biggest ratings, are ones in the 4:25 p.m. window on Sundays.
The Bills have had at least three scheduled primetime games since 2020, but have had 18 in the past three seasons. Getting the late window on Sundays has taken a little longer.
Allen had four 4:25 p.m. games during his first five seasons in the league, but the Bills have had four apiece over the last two seasons, including a date with the New England Patriots this week.
It’s a departure from the past because when the Bills played the Jets at 4:25 in the 2021 regular-season finale — the NFL shifted the late window from 4:15 to 4:25 in 2012 — it was the first time they hosted such a game since 2003.
Now the league can’t get enough of Allen, especially since he delivers ratings. Eight of the 10 highest-rated non-holiday games were 4:25 games and the Bills had two of them and they’ve produced at least 20 million viewers in all eight of their 4:25 games since 2022.
CBS has taken their NFL Today pregame show on the road twice ever, both of them this year and both to Bills games, including the Chiefs game, which drew the highest non-holiday rating (31.2) for a regular season game since Tom Brady and Peyton Manning squared off in 2007.
And with Allen on a historic hot streak that has seen him amass 1,020 total yards, 14 total touchdowns, no turnovers and no sacks over the last three games, he’s the reason a game between 11-3 and 3-11 teams was flexed into a premier slot.
“I’m just playing this game, the same game that I’ve been playing since I was a little kid,” Allen said. “And that’s kind of what it comes down to. Just having fun with it and making sure, one, I’m making good decisions with the football and allowing our team to make plays. But two, it’s fun. And what I get to do is really fun and I want to have as much fun with it as possible.”
A year ago, there was a stretch when Allen didn’t seem like he was having any fun. He attempted to practice low-positivity, which seemed to zap the fire and creativity that makes his game so unique.
Even this year, when the national question was whether Allen would still be the same player without Stefon Diggs, he got off to a slow start. He was efficient early in the season, but didn’t put up gaudy numbers.
Allen didn’t throw for 300 yards until the seventh game and finished with fewer than 200 in three of the first five. A 9-for-30, 131-yard performance against the Houston Texans was the low point and it raised concerns about whether the Bills had enough talent around Allen.
Starting with a Week 6 win over the Jets, Allen started to gradually pick up his game. The Bills dealt with a myriad of injuries, playing the Colts without receivers Amari Cooper and Keon Coleman and then lost tight end Dalton Kincaid halfway through.
After seven games without an interception, Allen threw five in four games. But his game-sealing touchdown run to beat the Chiefs in Week 11 seemed to light a spark because Allen has never been hotter than he has been since the bye week.
Allen threw for 300 yards, had 12 total touchdowns and an interception in the first three games of 2020. He was also red-hot to start 2022, but this is the best Allen has played in his career, something not only he feels, but so does coach Sean McDermott.
“He’s in command of our offense, really,” McDermott said. “… However we move down the field he’s moving us down the field, getting the ball to the running backs when it needs to get to the running backs, the check downs and the screen game, hitting the intermediate routes. So he’s very comfortable in the pocket it seems and he’s seeing the game extremely well right now.”
Not only does Allen seem more comfortable within the pocket than he ever has in his career, he has started to mix in plays with his legs more often. Allen has accumulated 50 yards rushing in four of the last five games after having one such game in the first nine.
In his 134-attempt streak without a sack, Allen has scrambled 12 times for 146 yards and a touchdown and that has allowed him to be a more effective passer outside the pocket. During the same stretch, he’s 13 of 24 for 226 yards and two touchdowns outside the tackle box, as defenders are put into a bind when they don’t whether he’s extending the play to throw or ready to take off.
And when Allen is accurate in the pocket, out of the pocket and on the run, the only thing left is to send more rushers and he is the best quarterback in the NFL against the blitz. Over the last four games, Allen is 24 of 36 for 401 yards and six touchdowns when opponents send more than four rushers and he has a league-best 16 touchdowns (and one interception) against the blitz this season.
“There’s some stuff that we can do better as an O-line in terms of just keeping him clean, and pressures and protections and stuff — that’s equally a Josh stat, too,” Bills left guard David Edwards said. “His ability to understand the rush plan, the patterns that are coming, what our protection is schemed to do and how he feels pressure and escapes it, that’s a Josh Allen stat.”
Stats aside, Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady has been around some exceptional quarterbacks who had scorching hot streaks. He was the play-caller for LSU when Joe Burrow had one of the best college football seasons ever in 2019, but he still hasn’t seen anything like what Allen has done in recent weeks.
“Josh, the way he’s playing, the way he’s making bad plays look good and just executing and not worrying about it is crazy,” Brady told GNN Sports. “Because he really doesn’t care about stats. Doesn’t care about anything else besides winning football games. … When he embodies that and he’s on this heater, it makes life a lot easier for us but the rest of the team realizes, nothing else matters but winning.”
Allen enters Week 16 with minus-900 to win his first MVP award. It’s often a statistical award and it’s conceivable Allen won’t need to go bonkers for the Bills to beat the Patriots (twice) and the Jets, who have a combined seven wins.
Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson has the next best odds at plus-550, and unlike the Bills, the Ravens are still a game behind the Steelers in the AFC North and haven’t clinched a playoff spot. With games against the Steelers, Texans and Browns, Jackson is probably in a better spot to pad his numbers.
“That stuff really doesn’t matter to me,” said Allen, who won AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season. “I’m just trying to focus on winning the next game for the Buffalo Bills and being the best teammate that I can be.”
NOTES: CB Rasul Douglas (knee), S Damar Hamlin (rib), LB Matt Milano (biceps/groin), S Taylor Rapp (neck), WR Curtis Samuel (rib) and LB Dorian Williams (elbow) were limited in Wednesday’s walk-through.