ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Josh Allen\u2019s sore right foot feels better, and the Bills quarterback\u2019s mind is refreshed as Buffalo prepares to open the playoffs on the road for the first time in six years.<\/p>\n
With the exception of a game-opening handoff in a regular season-ending 35-8 win over the Jets on Sunday to extend his starting streak to 135 games, Allen got the weekend off to rest and spend time poring over video to assess his season.<\/p>\n
What stood out most, Allen said upon returning to practice Wednesday, were the plays he missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re sitting there like, \u2018God, I stink.\u2019 It\u2019s like, \u2018What am I thinking here? What am I doing?\u2019\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Allen was hardly that bad.<\/p>\n
The eighth-year starter and reigning MVP finished second among quarterbacks with 39 touchdowns (25 passing, 14 rushing) and led five fourth-quarter comebacks \u2014 two when trailing by double digits. At 29, he became the NFL\u2019s first player to have a hand in 300 touchdowns before turning 30.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Allen\u2019s self-scouting was beneficial in showing areas where the perfectionist QB can improve ahead of the playoffs. Buffalo (12-5) visits AFC South champion Jacksonville (13-4) in a wild-card game on Sunday.<\/p>\n
For Allen, there\u2019s footwork to address. He saw times where he forced passes instead of checking it down to an open receiver. And he took a career-high 40 sacks, reminding him of the benefits of throwing the ball away.<\/p>\n
Allen practiced fully for the first time since hurting his right foot in a 23-20 win at Cleveland on Dec. 21. He\u2019ll be facing a Jaguars defense that ranked first against the run and finished second in the NFL with 22 interceptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery team that we\u2019re playing here on out is a good team and it\u2019s no different this week,\u201d Allen said. \u201cI have this extra emphasis on points are at a premium in the playoffs and just trying to do everything I can to give us points.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s plenty on the line for Allen and a Bills team has fallen short in the playoffs over the past six years.<\/p>\n
Allen has a 7-6 postseason record and has advanced to the AFC championship game twice, both losses to Kansas City. The Bills are also 0-5 on the road in seven playoff appearances since coach Sean McDermott took over, starting with a 10-3 loss at Jacksonville in the 2017 wild-card round, a year before Allen\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n
Not including two neutral-site Super Bowl losses, the Bills have lost eight straight road playoff games since winning at Miami in the 1992 AFC championship game. That skid is the NFL\u2019s second-longest behind the Detroit Lions, who have dropped 12 straight postseason road games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not focused on what\u2019s happened in the past,\u201d Allen said. \u201cOur job is to play the Jacksonville Jaguars at 1 o\u2019clock on Sunday, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 13 playoff games, Allen has averaged 258 yards passing, combined for 33 touchdowns (25 passing, seven rushing and one receiving) and turned the ball over six times, with four interceptions and two lost fumbles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is how he is every year at this time of year. He\u2019s very dialed in, very focused,\u201d McDermott said.<\/p>\n
It was coordinator Joe Brady\u2019s idea to have Allen spend last week studying video.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was something to put on his radar, just to refresh some things,\u201d Brady said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he did an outstanding job of being honest and truthful,\u201d he added. \u201cI think it helped both physically and mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Wawrow, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Josh Allen\u2019s sore right foot feels better, and the Bills quarterback\u2019s mind is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-395084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}