Dave Naylor: Bills’ Allen brushes aside bumps in playoff road, feels ready for test against Broncos

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen might be the least excuse-oriented player in the NFL.

After Sunday’s wild-card win over Jacksonville, his head coach Sean McDermott commented, “we’ve got to get Josh healthy.”

This after a game where Allen played on a foot injury, during which he visited the medical tent to be examined for a concussion, had his knee hyper-extended on a tackle and bashed his throwing hand on a teammate’s helmet.

Yet, the quarterback on Tuesday declared himself feeling better than he has in weeks.

When asked about dealing with the altitude in Denver this weekend, Allen replied that the answer is to not think or talk about.

But objectively, Allen and the Bills would have lots of reasons why they’re at a disadvantage on Saturday.

Starting with their injury list which continues to grow, week to week.

As the AFC’s No. 1 seed, the Broncos earned a first-round bye and homefield up to the Super Bowl.

On top of that, they are getting the Bills playing their second road playoff game in six days to add to whatever comes with playing at high altitude.

Then consider that the Bills have had three receivers put on season-ending IR within the past two weeks in Joshua Palmer, Gabe Davis and Tyrell Shavers, forcing two players onto the roster in Curtis Samuel and Mecole Hardman, who between them have eight catches this season.

Win or lose, you won’t hear Allen talk about any of those factors after this game is played, but the reality is the continuation of a Bills trend of hitting the most important part of the season down key pieces.

Only this time it’s on the road on a short week.

All that said, it’s not as if the Bills are being counted out for this game against an opponent that has won 13 of its last 14.

In many ways their matchup with the Broncos is similar to the one a week ago against Jacksonville — a team that exceeded expectations to win its division this year built on a stout defence and the play of a young quarterback.

Denver’s Bo Nix may not quite be the talent that Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence is, but he’s a quarterback who avoids negative plays, which is key for a team whose defence leads the way.

Denver runs a pass-happy offence which is a good matchup for the Bills, whose pass defence has ranked among the league’s best during the second half of the season.

Missing safety Jordan Poyer to injury this week takes away one of those glue players in the secondary, but the Bills zone-heavy scheme is the kind that has given Nix trouble in the past.

The Bills are still highly vulnerable to teams running the ball against them, but the Broncos — like the Jaguars — aren’t built to run that way.

Among the biggest questions headed into this game is whether Buffalo can get its offence rolling on the legs of NFL rushing leader James Cook.

When Cook was limited last week by the Jags, the game fell to Allen who was 14 of 16 for 195 yards and three touchdowns during parts of the game when Buffalo trailed.

Given the Bills trials at receiver and facing a defence that led the NFL with 68 sacks and includes an elite corner in NFL Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II, that would be a tall order this time around.

The Bills have struggled against elite pass rush teams and have to have learned a few things from losses in Atlanta and Houston during the regular season in which Allen got beat up.

All of which heightens the importance of Cook being able to replicate some of what he did a year ago when he scampered for 120 yards in an AFC Wild Card game played in Buffalo which the Bills won by the score of 31-7.

These Bills are used to facing teams on a roll, having taken down both New England and Jacksonville, and are now prepared to face the challenge at Denver.

But a team that never does things the easy way is likely to experience a familiar feeling Saturday afternoon in The Mile High City.