It surely looked otherwise, but Josh Allen wasn’t at his best heading into the Bills’ win over the Lions on Thursday night.
During the Amazon Prime postgame show following Buffalo’s 41-31 win in its first regular-season game in the new Highmark Stadium, analyst Richard Sherman revealed that Allen was playing through the flu.
“You were shivering in the hot tub, you’re getting IVs, you don’t want to get admitted, but you were having a flu game of your own. How does it feel to accomplish that?” Sherman asked.
“I’m just trying to do my job,” Allen replied.
Do his job he did.
Allen threw for 248 yards and three touchdowns and ran in two more touchdowns in his Michael Jordan-esque flu game.
With Allen’s third touchdown of the night, a pass to tight end Dawson Knox in the second quarter to give the Bills a 21-0 lead, he became the first quarterback since 1960 to record at least three passing and three rushing touchdowns in the first two games of a season, per ESPN.
He also became the first player with five or more touchdown passes and three-plus rushing scores in the season’s first two contests in NFL history, according to Bills PR.
Joe Brady became the first Bills head coach to start his career with two wins and couldn’t help but sing Allen’s praises postgame.
“You watch how [Josh] plays, and it’s like, how does everybody else not feel like they need to empty it out … because he literally gave everything he had out there,” Brady said.
“He put the team on his back in a lot of those situations.”
Allen then walked into the media room.
“I mean, golly, can I get a sec?” Brady joked. “I can’t talk about him now … Any time the ball’s in his hands, good things happen. Love that guy.”
Allen will have some time to recover before the Bills’ Week 3 home matchup against the Chargers.