Josh Allen opens Bills' new stadium with 5 TDs in dominant win over Lions NFL.com Emotional All-Pro LB Campbell shoulders blame for Lions' loss ESPN 3 things that stood out as Bills opened Highmark Stadium in style Democ...
Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills opened the new Highmark Stadium with a bang.
The quarterback accounted for five touchdowns -- three passing and two rushing -- as the Bills romped over the Detroit Lions, 41-31 , in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicated. Allen noted he was emotional before kickoff as the U.S. and Canadian national anthems played.
"I caught myself taking it all in and understanding how cool what I get to do. My job is the coolest in the world," Allen said Thursday night, via the Associated Press . "It's everything I ever wanted, to be the quarterback of an NFL franchise. I'm just very fortunate to have ended up in Buffalo."
The Bills won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball. From that moment on, it was a stampede. Allen drove the Bills down the field for a score on the opening drive. He scored the first touchdown in the new Highmark Stadium with a 1-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. The first touchdown in the old venue, then known as Rich Stadium, was scored by Jerome Barkum of the Jets on a 34-yard pass from Al Woodall, per NFL Research.
The last quarterback to score the first touchdown in a new primary home stadium with a rushing touchdown was Kordell Stewart , who opened Heinz Field in 2001 with an 8-yard rushing touchdown.
Allen was electric, completing 20 of his 31 pass attempts for 248 yards and three touchdowns; he added 14 rushes for 69 yards and two more rushing scores. It marked the fourth game of his career with three or more passing touchdowns and two or more rushing touchdowns. Stewart, who had two in 1997, is the only other player in NFL history to tally multiple such games.
"Anytime the ball's in his hands, good things happen. And yeah, love that guy," Bills coach Joe Brady said. "I wanted us to take the ball in this environment and set the tone. That was the start that we needed."
Allen dominated whatever Detroit threw at him, particularly the Lions' pressure packages. Detroit blitzed Allen on 55.3% of his dropbacks, the third-highest blitz rate he has faced in a game in the last five seasons, and the highest rate by the Lions under DC Kelvin Sheppard. The QB completed 12 of 17 attempts for 137 yards and two touchdowns, while adding two scramble runs for 10 yards and a touchdown against those blitzes.
The Bills proved an offensive force in every facet. The ground game pounded out 203 rushing yards, including 135 and a score from James Cook , and the pass attack put up 248 yards. Buffalo totaled 446 yards and 34 first downs, going 9-of-12 on third downs. Outside of Allen getting sacked twice, there were few negative plays to speak of.
Receiver Josh Palmer scoffed at a question about what makes the Bills offense most dangerous after what they've shown the first two weeks.
"Most dangerous? I think every position is dangerous," he said, via Tyler Dunne of Go Long . "We have a dangerous running back room. We have a dangerous tight end room. We have a dangerous wide receiver room. We have an absolutely dangerous quarterback with a dangerous O-line. So don't ask about dangerous."
Sure, the Bills put up their trove of points against a Lions defense that has looked woeful through two weeks. But they also diced up a Texans defense last week that is expected to be among the best in the NFL.
We wondered what the offense would look like with the restrictor plate off under Brady. Turns out it's a supercharged racecar on the Autobahn.
Ravens DC: Saints QB Shough reminds me of 'a poor man's Josh Allen'
What We Learned: Five takeaways from Bills' TNF win over Lions
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