It is fitting that with Halloween approaching, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has become a mad scientist and the gridiron his laboratory. Every seasoned football fan has witnessed players running and throwing the ball for first downs, the same way Jim Thorpe did a century ago, ad nauseum. Simply running and throwing for first downs over and over was beginning to lose its luster.
Josh must have sensed this stagnation because last Sunday, he changed the game. On October 27, 2024, at approximately 5:11 PM, EDT, Joshua Patrick Allen kicked for a first down.
The Bills were in Seattle, Washington battling Geno Smith and the Seahawks, as well as the painfully stereotypical Pacific Northwestern sheeting rain. Buffalo was up 7-3 with 2:56 remaining in the second quarter when Josh received a shotgun snap from center Connor McGovern on a critical 3rd and 5 play. With the 12th man on its feet and roaring, Allen was flushed from the pocket and scrambled up the middle of the field. Number 17 is always willing to run through or even leap over defenders, but the Hawks had three players closing in on him so the first down looked unlikely. And then it happened.
Josh spotted running back Ty Johnson a few yards downfield but recognized that a standard, thrown pass wouldn’t get the first because of tight coverage by safety Julian Love. The naysayers will describe what Allen did next as sloppy, but an optimist like me would argue that it was more comparable to Messi: Josh dropped the ball to the turf and booted it past Love, right into the hands of Johnson for the first down.
just joshing around for the first down 😭@JoshAllenQB | @BuffaloBills pic.twitter.com/1b5PBXSj6Q
— NFL (@NFL) October 28, 2024
Ingenious. Historic. Brave. Not since the invention of the forward pass has football experienced such a revolutionary breakthrough. With one innovative and undeniably deliberate play, Josh Allen and his golden toe may have changed the direction of the sport and guaranteed its relevance for generations to come. They say that the NFL is a copycat league so it will be interesting to see if more kicking quarterbacks pop up during the second half of this season. After all, it is called “football,” is it not?
The State of the AFC East
After eight games, the Bills have such a grip on the AFC East that the Scranton Strangler would be impressed. Buffalo sits atop the heap at 6-2 while the Dolphins are already 3.5 games behind at 2-5. Miami did just bring Tua Tagovailoa back into the huddle after another concussion, but even with him under center, they lost to the Cardinals on Sunday and have to travel to Buffalo this week.
In the Josh Allen era, the Bills are 11-2 against the Fins in the regular season, 1-0 in the playoffs, and undefeated in their Orchard Park matchups. If Miami is going to end their nightmare and finally defeat their red, white, and blue boogeyman, they are going to need more of a boost from their oft-injured quarterback. 
Down at the bottom of the division, not surprisingly and very surprisingly, respectively, the New England Patriots and New York Jets are both 2-6 and on metaphorical life support. The remaining games still need to be played out and there is a reason for the existence of the phrase, “Any given Sunday,” but for now, the Bills appear to be cruising to their fifth consecutive AFC East crown.
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