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By: Tony Farina

The Buffalo Bills, at 9 – 4, are still very much alive for a playoff berth thanks to a great defense.   The path could have been much easier with a win over the Ravens on Sunday but the offense failed again.

With a 59.8 percent completion percentage, Josh Allen just not getting the job done despite all the accolades he continues to receive from the local media which won’t back off the hype train.

Allen has the physical tools, as we know, but so far, through almost two seasons, he can’t pass for 300 yards or beat good teams.  He just can’t.

As a journalist who began as a sportswriter covering the Bills in the 1960’s, I can be objective and I’m not convinced that Allen is the next coming of Joe Montana or Tom Brady from what I’ve seen so far.

In simple terms, he can’t hit the deep pass.  He misses regularly and in the game against the Ravens, that allowed the defense to gang up on the running game, not fearing that Allen would beat them deep.

The Bills are great achievers if the opponent can’t score against our stout defense, but if a team can score at all, even the measly 24 points by the potent Ravens, the Bills and Allen are in trouble.

Allen was drafted out of Wyoming, not exactly a world class college program, and while he has a gun for an arm he was inaccurate at little Wyoming and he’s still inaccurate in the NFL.

Will he get better with more experience?  Can you teach accuracy?  Those are questions that should be talked about instead of coming up with excuses for his poor performances against good teams, even though he was decent against a declining Dallas team.

There’s a lot to like about Allen, for sure.  He’s big, strong, and very competitive.  But he’s not accurate and seems to unravel against good teams, becoming even more inaccurate.

His quarterback rating is in the bottom third of the league and I don’t see the Bills advancing in the playoffs, if they make it, beyond one game.  They will be up against a good team whoever they play, and that spells trouble for their anemic offense.

We can hope that lightning strikes and Allen improves, but after nearly two seasons, I don’t see a major transformation in the works.   

Let me sum it up this way.  If the Bills had a good quarterback, I think the sky would be the limit with their great defense.  But Allen needs to show he can be that guy, and so far he just hasn’t done it.