Josh Allen, Bills still 'taste' bitter playoff defeat vs. Chiefs
Perhaps no NFL team suffered a greater playoff devastation last season than the Bills.
They were 13 seconds from advancing to the AFC title game when Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs began a miraculous rally that ended in overtime and a Buffalo defeat.
It's not the type of loss a team can usually get over quickly, and Josh Allen said it's one the Bills are actually trying to learn from.
"The emotions of that game, the highs and the lows, ultimately we didn't do enough to get the job done and the taste that we have as a team, it's still there," Allen told Colin Cowherd in a Tuesday interview on "The Herd." "We don't want to feel that again. Nothing we did last year is going to carry over to this year. We're starting 0-0, but we can still take a lot of valuable lessons and knowledge from that game and try to apply it to our upcoming season, here."
The Bills went 11-6 and won their second consecutive AFC East title last year. Allen finished with 4,407 passing yards, 36 touchdowns, 15 interceptions and a 92.2 quarterback rating, completing 63.3% of his throws. He also logged 763 rushing yards and another six TDs on the ground.
The superstar QB was even better in the postseason. Across the Bills' two playoff games (at home against the New England Patriots and at the Chiefs), Allen accumulated 637 passing yards, 134 rushing yards, nine passing touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 149.0 quarterback rating, completing 77.4% of his passes. His continued growth has made the Bills a popular Super Bowl pick for 2022.
With its sights set on a deeper playoff run, Buffalo inked former Los Angeles Rams and Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller to a six-year, $120 million deal this offseason. Allen sees Miller serving as a mentor for himself and the Bills.
"To have the knowledge bank of what Von Miller has and to lean on him and learn from him, and then myself as a leader hearing what he has say to those guys," Allen said. "He texts me every once in a while, whether it's a quote or a video of just trying to keep pressing on, and everything that he does in this building is to help us win a Super Bowl. I love the intensity that he's been bringing, the focus and then again his play on the field is going to speak for itself.
"He's really unbelievable to watch in practice. He's so bendy. He's so athletic. He's so quick, and he's sneaky strong, too, for his frame. To have that for our young guys to learn from, as well, I think it's going to pay a lot of dividends come season time."