After loss to Jets, Bills’ Josh Allen has harsh words for the man responsible: himself

East Rutherford, N.J. — The Buffalo Bills tweeted a video right before the start of their Monday Night Football showdown with the New York Jets.

Josh Allen was giving his teammates one final message before they took the field to face an AFC East foe that gave them fits last year. The message was simple: “Best group in the fu***** world, men. Better believe that sh** too,” Allen said. “Let’s go out there and let’s fu***** prove it.”

Let’s go back five days earlier – on Wednesday during Allen’s weekly press conference. The 27-year-old said he watched a lot of the film from his games against the Jets last season.

What did he see?

“Just boil it down to kind of some really dumb decisions on my part (last year against the Jets),” Allen said.

This time around, Allen said he planned on trusting his teammates and not putting the ball in harm’s way. Then the game started and that plan went out the window. Four quarters and a game-losing punt return touchdown later and the Bills still haven’t proved anything. They were upset, 22-16, losing against in the Meadowlands.

Allen threw three interceptions and lost a critical fumble late in the fourth quarter. The interceptions were perplexing decisions made by a now-veteran quarterback who constantly says he must stop making such choices. Two were deep balls into double coverage – the second of which cost the Bills a chance to kick a field goal after reaching the Jets’ 41-yard line.

After the game, Allen could barely bring himself to look up from the podium in the stadium that’s been like a house of horrors over the past few seasons. When he did manage to look up, he made sure to hold the responsible party accountable for the loss: himself.

“(I was) Trying to force the ball. Same shit, same place, different day,” Allen said. “I hurt our team tonight. I cost our team tonight. It feels eerily similar to last year and I hate that it’s the same. I do.”

Allen’s referring to last season’s 20-17 loss to the Jets at MetLife Stadium when he threw two interceptions. This year felt worse because Allen spent all week and most of the offseason talking about being smarter with the football.

How can he fix it? He said he can’t beat himself.

“Mindset-wise, just trusting what I see and sticking with it and not trying to force anything,” he said. “That’s a good defense we played but we can’t play two guys. Can’t play them and us, and I played us tonight.”

Bills coach Sean McDermott was shown on the TV broadcast pointing to his head when directing a message toward Allen after one of the interceptions. After the game, McDermott said Allen is capable of playing better.

“He’s capable of playing smarter as well. And he’s got to do that for us to number one, stay healthy and then number two, to take care of the football and he’s more than capable of doing that,” he said.

McDermott said that Allen is hard on himself and that was apparent with his demeanor postgame.

“He wants to win and sometimes that’s what at times gets the best of him,” McDermott said. “So just taking what the defense gives you and that’s a good defense again, and they make you win, they play the way that they do. They make you do things that you don’t want to do, but it can’t be to that extent like it was tonight. So we got to learn from this and bounce back on a short week here.”

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