DENVER — It didn’t happen during his high school days at Firebaugh or even as he hung out in college up an interstate and highway in Laramie.
By all accounts a late-bloomer, Josh Allen waited until he reached the NFL to start playing the game of football as if he was a man among boys.
Allen was utterly dominant in using his legs, body and wickedly strong arm to power his Buffalo Bills past the Broncos, 48-19 against the overmatched Broncos in a late-December game at stands-empty Empower Field at Mile High.
From Firebaugh to Laramie to Buffalo, Allen now resides in the paradise of NFL stardom.
“He’s right up there with the best in the league and he’s multi-faceted in that he’s hard to get down, and he’s a good runner,'' Broncos coach Vic Fangio said of Allen. "They have quarterback runs for him and he throws it great. He’s a great quarterback, no two ways about it.”
Allen threw for two touchdowns – 9 yards to Dawson Knox and a 22-yard laser to Jake Kumerow that converted a second-and-goal – and ran for two touchdowns -- a 24-yard scramble up the middle in the first half, and a 1-yard scamper around right end to finish off the first series of the second half.
“Josh played awesome,'' said Broncos quarterback Drew Lock. "When you go back and kind of see his college career, my college as well and how he gets in the league and how I get in the league and where he's at now. It's very promising. He's playing his butt off. I know there's a lot of growth there.”
The Bills clinched their first AFC East title since 1995 – the year before Allen was born in Firebaugh, California -- while improving to 11-3.
"It's great that we're able to do it for the first time in 25 years,'' Allen said. "To be the team and to be the quarterback of a team that does it obviously feels really good. At the same time, that's not our main goal. We set out to do this in order to give us a chance to do what we really want to do and that's to win a Super Bowl championship. It feels good and we're going to celebrate this one for the time being. It hasn't happened in 25 years and I know our fans Bills (Mafia) is probably going crazy right now, but there's still a lot on the table."
The Broncos were reminded they are, oh, so far away, in more ways than just their 5-9 record. They have lost five games this year by at least 18 points, four games by at least 25 points.
Denver also just guaranteed its fourth consecutive losing season, a skid in which it has posted the NFL's fourth-worst worst record at 23-39. Only the Jets (16-45), Giants (17-44) and Bengals (17-43-1) have been worse over that period.
To think that in the 41-season stretch from 1976-2016, the Broncos had just six losing seasons.
“We all know the expectations here in Denver and the winning tradition that this organization has,'' said Broncos safety Justin Simmons, a third-round draft pick in 2016. "To be here my whole career and not be a part of the playoffs and have four straight losing seasons is tough. It’s a tough pill to swallow.
"There are a lot of things that go into that. I do believe there are a lot of right pieces here. It’s unfortunate this year that we’ve hit the injury bug. I think this is a weird year for everyone with COVID and the pandemic. It’s finding ways to fight through that and not using it as an excuse because ultimately, no one cares. There is no asterisk next to our record saying injury and COVID-19. It says wins or losses and that’s all anyone cares about.''
Allen was 28 of 40 for 359 yards and the two touchdowns, plus had three carries for 33 yards and the two touchdowns. The Bills embarrassed the Denver D with a whopping 534 yards in total offense with Allen accounting for 392.
Receivers Stefon Diggs and Cole Beasley combined for 19 catches and 259 yards against a Broncos' secondary that lost five cornerbacks to injury (4) and suspension (1) in the past three weeks.
“It’s a challenge, no two-ways about it,'' Fangio said. "We couldn’t help them enough with the pass rush when we were trying to play coverages to help them. It was a challenge, it obviously is, I’m not going to deny that, but we have to find a way to play better than we did and get a couple more stops than we did.”
The Broncos seemingly had a chance of making it a competitive game with a touchdown drive near the end of the first half that closed the score to 21-13 at the break.
But there was a Denver meltdown in the opening minutes of the second half that resulted in back-to-back Bills touchdowns and a 35-13 deficit.
The second half went wrong from the kickoff. Newcomer Taylor Russolino kicked it short and seemingly in the wrong direction, and Andre Roberts returned it 53 yards into Broncos territory. Allen capped the short drive with his 1-yard run to the end zone.
On the next series, Lock fumbled the ball away as he was trying to scramble. Bills' defensive end Jerry Hughes picked up the ball and zig-zagged his way to a 21-yard defensive touchdown return.
That was it. The Bills were up 35-13 and there was a sense it could have been worse. The Bills passed up a chip-shot field goal and were stopped on fourth-and-1 at the Broncos' 4 midway through the third quarter. They also had three touchdowns called back by penalty although Allen overcame one with his fastball to Kumerow late in the first half.
Lock was also playing well through the first half, which he finished with a beautifully thrown 6-yard touchdown strike to tight end Noah Fant with 5 seconds left to the intermission. Lock had also rushed for 29 yards on three carries.
But Lock's fumble while trying to scramble away from pressure was the equivalent of a pick six. He finished 20 of 32 but for only 132 yards with a touchdown.
“Very upset with myself after that one,'' Lock said. "I just stepped up, kept my eyes downfield and didn't necessarily feel it from behind. I should have.''
It was sunny with temperatures in the upper 40s at kickoff for the rare Saturday afternoon-near-Christmas game in the Mile High City. No fans were allowed in during this COVID pandemic to enjoy the setting -- only cardboard cutouts of fans and South Park cartoon figures.
The Broncos were forced to take on the Bills with Russolino, a 31 ½-year-old rookie with no previous NFL experience, as their kicker in place of Brandon McManus, who was ineligible because he was declared a high-risk contact with a COVID patient.
McManus stated his displeasure Friday night on Twitter because he believed he had cleared the 5-day quarantine in time to kick in the game. But there is also a subjective gray area, not just a black-and-white quarantine rule, to getting medically cleared. And the NFL and Broncos’ medical people believed McManus was a higher-risk close contact than others and ruled it would be safer for all involved if he didn’t participate in the game.
Russolino missed his first NFL kick, a 51-yard attempt into the wind. He had enough leg, but the kick was wide right almost from the moment it left his foot. A bigger issue was Russolino missing the extra point, with the wind at his back, after the Lock-to-Fant touchdown near the end of the first half. Russolino missed another extra point late in the game after Broncos running back Melvin Gordon scored his second touchdown on an 8-yard run with 1:52 remaining.
"I thought he was going to kick better than he did,'' Fangio said.
The Bills answered with their own garbage-time touchdown. With Allen safely on the bench, Bills backup QB Matt Barkley handed off to Devin Singletary, who scored on a 51-yard touchdown run in which Denver's defense was spotted making an embarrassingly half-hearted attempt at tackling.
“The run was obviously disappointing, to say the least,'' Fangio said.
But this was pretty much a mismatch from the start. The Bills scored a touchdown off their first drive and it was all Allen. The Bills quarterback from the University of Wyoming converted all three, third-down plays thanks to completing 7 of 10 passes for 49 yards and he also had an 8-yard rush off a quarterback draw. Allen accounted for 57 of the 59 yards on the Bills’ opening, 13-play drive.
Allen finished off the Bills’ second drive with a 24-yard run straight up a parting Empower Field for a touchdown. It was 14-0 Bills. After the touchdown, Broncos defensive lineman Shelby Harris and outside linebacker Bradley Chubb exchanged angry words on the bench. Later in the game, rookie cornerback Michael Ojemudia was ejected for throwing a punch in frustration at Bills' receiver Gabriel Davis after a running play near the goal line.
Discipline was not a virtue for the Denver defense in this game.
The Broncos appeared to fall into further trouble when the offense went three-and-out on their next possession. But a simple, 43-yard, end-over-end punt by Sam Martin was dropped by Roberts. Broncos’ long snapper Jacob Bobenmoyer recovered it at the Bills’ 35.
Just like that, the Broncos were back in the game. Lock had a 14-yard run off a read-option keep left to move the ball to the Bills’ 12. On third-and-8 from the 10, Broncos offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur surprised the Bills’ defense by calling a run off left guard for Gordon, who ran it in for a 10-yard touchdown.
Instead of the Bills getting the ball with good field position and up 14-0, it was 14-7 and Denver’s D held Buffalo to a three-and-out.
But a muffed punt return by last week’s Bronco hero, Diontae Spencer, backed the Broncos to their 5-yard line and Lock couldn’t lead them out of the hole. The Bills got the ball at their own 41 with 4:15 left in the first half.
Allen then came through with a spectacular, 27-yard completion to Knox that set up first and goal at the 5. Allen delivered as he was about to get pummeled by Harris and Chubb, who must have been mad again at the roughing-the-passer penalty the official called on Harris.
Three consecutive penalties against the Bills backed them up to first-and-goal at the 30. Which was no problem for Allen, who made up the difference on two straight completions.
Lock, though, directed an impressive, 75-yard drive in the final 1:49. He got help from a questionable roughing-the-passer call, but he was also 7 of 8 on mostly short completions until he hit rookie Jerry Jeudy for a clutch 19-yard completion on third down and then hit a well-covered Fant on a sideline route in the end zone.
Whatever good feeling the Broncos had going into the halftime locker room, though, quickly evaporated with their calamitous effort early in the second half.
“It was definitely a bad day,'' Lock said. "It was not a good day for us. I wouldn't say that any of us are feeling in a way that we're taking a step back, but that was not a good day for us, by any means and our job is to figure out why it wasn't.”
The Broncos have two games left in their disappointing season -- at the Los Angeles Chargers next Sunday, followed by one more home game against the slumping Las Vegas Raiders on January 3.
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