Josh Allen, having committed at least one turnover in his sixth-straight game, was asked Monday night if he was enduring the most difficult stretch of his NFL career.
He sat there, a lump. We’ve seen this forlorn and helpless version of him a few times this season. Long gone is that smirking gunslinger, whose sass used to make teammates whoop and fans swoon. There’s no sparkle in his eye, not like we saw last year when a columnist told him the Buffalo Bills didn’t look like a Super Bowl offense, and Allen fired back a defiant “OK.”
Allen is a husk of that alpha rogue now. At his news conference, raw from a degrading, 24-22 home loss to the Denver Broncos, he resembled a dispirited, embarrassed kid in the principal’s office.
Allen was short on answers, and his answers were short.
How do fumbled handoffs happen? His answer lasted five seconds. How confident is he Buffalo’s offense can recover? Six seconds. Why is he confident? Two seconds. The interception before halftime? Two seconds. His longest answer was 18 seconds.
Bills center Mitch Morse walked into the room, sat next to Allen and served as the accountable captain, providing deeper sentiments the franchise quarterback was either unable or unwilling to share.
Then came the previously mentioned question about Allen’s recent string of turbulent performances.
For nine seconds, Allen didn’t say a word. Then he offered only three of them.
“I don’t know,” he blurted.
Allen threw two interceptions Monday night, one of them his fault, the other spinning through receiver Gabriel Davis’ hands. Allen also flubbed a handoff that Denver recovered at the end of the third quarter.
Allen is broken. Maybe over the remaining seven games he can rekindle the magic made converting third-and-longs feel inevitable. Just give him one more possession — hell, one more play — and chalk up another Bills celebration.
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