Josh Allen delivers masterpiece in Bills' rout over Washington: 3 instant reactions

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Outside of a few minutes of consternation in the second quarter when Washington scored two quick touchdowns, the Buffalo Bills were in complete control Sunday and rolled to a 43-21 victory over the Football Team at Highmark Stadium.

Here are three of my instant reactions regarding what took place as the Bills improved their record to 2-1 on the young season.

1. That Josh Allen looked familiar

There were a lot of words written and spoken during the first two weeks regarding the somewhat slow start that Allen had gotten off to. There just didn’t seem to be a crispness to the offense, even in light of scoring five touchdowns last week against the Dolphins. For instance, in that game Allen completed just 17 of 33 passes for 179 yards and like the Pittsburgh game, he never seemed to get into a good flow.

But Sunday, Allen came out firing and if not for a great play by Washington’s Antonio Gibson on his long catch and run touchdown, and then a miscue on special teams which set up another quick Football Team score, this one would have been a colossal blowout. As it was, it was your average run of the mill blowout.

Allen completed 22 of 28 passes for 263 yards and three TDs in the first half for a passer rating of 141.5. He opened the game with a superb 75-yard drive and capped it with his beautiful 28-yard TD pass to Emmanuel Sanders. He led the Bills to a 21-0 lead, and after Washington put on its mini-rally, he put together two field goal drives to close out the half and regain control of the game.

The second of those was the kind of drive that pre-MVP contender Allen would have never pulled off. The Bills took possession with 26 seconds left in the first half at their own 25 with all three timeouts. Allen completed four straight passes for 41 yards and Tyler Bass kicked a 48-yard field goal.

And then in the third quarter, he produced his best drive of the year, a 17-play, 93-yard masterpiece that ended with his TD pass to Sanders. He completed 9 of 10 for 76 yards on that one, and he finished the day 32 of 43 for 358 yards and four TDs plus a rushing TD.

2. Offensive line held its own

To me, the biggest concern the Bills had coming into the game was how would their offensive line hold up against Washington’s outstanding front four which is populated by first-round picks Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne, Montez Sweat and Chase Young.

It did not start well, especially for RG Cody Ford who was getting abused, but the line really picked it up as the game went along and did a solid job.

Through three quarters, the Bills had 25 first downs and 425 yards and they led 36-14. Allen and his receivers were outstanding against an average at best Washington secondary, but the line gave Allen the time he needed to go through his progressions when he needed to.

Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll helped the line by utilizing a quick passing game much of the day and that led to Cole Beasley tying his single-game career high with 11 receptions.

3. Taylor Heinicke was no match for Bills defense

Look, let’s give the 28-year-old from Old Dominion credit for being here because he has been on quite a journey to becoming the starter for Washington. But while he showed an awful lot of grit and made a few nice throws and scrambles, he was in over his head against the Bills.

Look at what this defense has done in the first three weeks. It allowed just one TD in the loss to Pittsburgh and shut out the Dolphins last week. Sunday, it gave up three, but one came because Gibson simply made a great play, and one came after a special teams gaffe gave Washington the ball at the Buffalo 24.

With 10 minutes left in the game, the Football Team had only eight first downs and 218 yards and were down 43-14. The last TD came in garbage time, and that took a great catch by TE Logan Thomas on fourth down.

The only real weapon Heinicke has is WR Terry McLaurin, so the Bills had star CB Tre’Davious White cover him all over the field, something Leslie Frazier does occasionally, and McLaurin was a non-factor. His lone big play came with 7:15 left when he caught a short pass, took advantage of a couple missed tackles, and picked up 37 yards.

I said this last week: If the Bills defense plays like this, and the offense finds its groove, watch out. Well, we saw what can happen on Sunday.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Josh Allen delivers masterpiece in Bills' rout over Washington