Review: Well damn, Josh Allen can run

In case you haven’t already heard, Josh Allen beat the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, 27-6. Yes, the Buffalo Bills defense deserves a ton — maybe most — of the credit for locking down the Vikings all day. But considering that Allen was expected to need lot of grooming before he was ready to take over, his performance felt like the catalyst for the biggest upset the NFL’s seen in 20 years.

Allen finished 15-of-22 passing for 196 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions, but how impressive he looked as a thrower is debatable. The Bills didn’t ask him to throw downfield much, nor did he look to the middle of the field.

But we’ll get more answers about his passing skills another day. What we learned in Week 3 is that Allen can run.

Don’t be fooled by the 39 yards on 10 attempts stat line, either. Allen on the move was impressive and difficult for the Vikings — Anthony Barr, in particular — to handle. Let’s review:

Well I’ll be damned, Allen is an athlete. I’ve seen quarterbacks run effectively before, but seeing one who is 6’5 take off often looks awkward. In the words of Kirk Cousins, Tom Brady looks like a baby giraffe when he’s running.

But Allen looks smooth and comfortable.

At this point, you’ve probably seen his hurdle over Barr for a first down. But I was just as wowed by Allen outrunning Barr to the pylon and diving from about the 5-yard line for a touchdown.

The full stretch without dragging his feet or knees at all was impressive to see from a quarterback.

Allen’s athleticism shouldn’t be that surprising. He had above-average results in just about every drill at the NFL Combine, including his 4.75-second 40-yard dash, 33.5-inch vertical, and 119-inch broad jump. But other quarterbacks have put up similar numbers and never looked good on a football field.

Take Blaine Gabbert, for example. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.61 seconds, had a 120-inch broad jump, and a 33.5-inch vertical. He’s also stumbled through an unathletic slapstick routine for most of his eight-year NFL career.

At least you can see those combine numbers in action with Allen. And yeah, you’ve probably already seen it, but let’s watch that hurdle over Barr one more time.

That is just too clean. Barr is a 6’5, three-time Pro Bowler who isn’t exactly diving at Allen’s ankles when he gets cleared. He’s close to standing straight up and Allen still gets over him for the first down.

Allen’s ability to pass the ball will ultimately decide if he was worth a top-10 pick, but in Week 3, he definitely checked off the athlete box on the star quarterback checklist.

Ehhh ... here’s the part that isn’t so great about hurdling players. It’s just really not smart.

Even if you hold on to the ball and manage not to get Rosen-coptered, it’s also just not a great decision for your personal health. The best case scenario for the Bills is that Allen is their 22-year-old quarterback of the future who will spend the next 15 to 20 years wrecking the AFC East.

The possibility that he turns out to be a Ryan Leaf-esque bust of a football player is one worst case scenario. But so is the chance that he’ll join Sam Bradford or Robert Griffin III on the list of talented passers who couldn’t stay healthy.

Allen broke his collarbone in high school in 2011, and then shattered it in seven places during his first game at Wyoming in 2015. The “pretty gnarly” scar he now has along his collarbone is a good reminder that taking big hits in football can really stink.

He didn’t get hurt Sunday and the hurdle wasn’t meaningless: It got the Bills a big first down. But I’m sure the coaches told him, “hey, maybe don’t do that again.”

Also, while he managed to hold on to the ball on his hurdle, he didn’t do a great job taking care of it all game. He finished the win with three fumbles.

One probably should’ve been ruled an incomplete pass, and another came on a bad snap, but his last fumble just wasn’t smart. With pass rushers closing down on him and two trying to take him down, Allen held up the ball like he just caught a foul ball at a baseball game. It ended as you’d expect.

Luckily for the Bills, none of Allen’s fumbles were recovered by the defense. On the other had, both of Kirk Cousins’ first-quarter fumbles were scooped up by Buffalo, hence the Bills’ huge lead early.

Even Allen’s second touchdown of the day with the ball reached out toward the goal line was a tad dangerous.

We probably haven’t seen the last of Allen’s fumbles, but as long as he doesn’t get hurt and his legs produce more good plays than bad, all’s well that ends well.

This time last week, there was a real thought that the 2018 Bills could be an all-time bad football team. At least the 2017 Browns kept a few games close during their winless season. Buffalo looked like it’d be lucky to lose a game by single digits.

The scrambling, wheeling, and dealing Allen led a beatdown of the Vikings, a legitimate Super Bowl favorite. It was in a hostile environment in Minnesota too.

It’s still an uphill battle to climb into any kind of contention with a roster that had this group of players at the skill positions Sunday:

But what really matters is that Allen looks like he was worth the No. 7 pick. You can’t blame Bills fans for liking what they’ve seen so far.

Yeah, hurdling is dangerous but, boy, can it be fun.

The Bills’ official Twitter account — which was roasted Saturday for not knowing where Minnesota is — has now spent the last couple days Photoshopping #JoshAllenJumpingOverThings.

Good for them, they deserve this. We all talked a lot of trash about Allen before and after he was drafted, and if he ends up being bad, I’m sure we’ll talk more trash.

Whether it’s a fleeting moment or beginning of an era, talk your talk, Bills.