Josh Allen showed how ready he was for the 2024 NFL season with a scintillating performance on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. The Buffalo Bills star quarterback put his team on his shoulders and led the AFC East division team to a come-from-behind 34-28 win in front of over 70,000 fans at Highmark Stadium.
Allen finished the contest with 232 passing yards and two touchdowns without an interception while completing 18 of his 23 passes. He did not stop there. Allen also came up with two rushing scores and 39 yards on the ground on nine carries. In other words, Allen was involved in every touchdown that the Bills scored against the Cardinals, who, at one point in the game, led by as many as 14 points.
Allen's big statistical day on the Bills' first game of the 2024 NFL campaign also had him barging into the record books.
“He [Allen] became the fifth player in NFL history with multiple touchdowns both passing and rushing in a season opener and the first since Troy Aikman in 1998,” noted Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.
Aikman is not the only legendary NFL quarterback joined by Allen in an exclusive statistical club on Sunday.
“It was Allen's fourth career game with multiple touchdowns in the air and on the ground, tying Steve Young for the most such games in NFL history,” Getzenberg added.
Allen hurts hand in Bills' Week 1 win over the Cardinals
Despite Allen's tremendous effort versus Arizona, the Cardinals and their fans are still left with a concerned feeling about the quarterback. Allen hurt his hand while he was scoring his second rushing touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter — the one that put the Bills ahead by 11 points following the extra point from Tyler Bass.
Allen, however, was able to finish the game, offering some optimism about his injured non-throwing hand. That Allen was able to stay in the game was a great sign with regard to his availability in Week 2 against a divisional rival in the form of the Miami Dolphins on the road.
But in the event that Allen gets ruled out ahead of the Miami game, the Bills would most likely turn to backup Mitchell Trubisky for the temporary QB1 role.
Allen, who signed a $258 million contract extension with the Bills in 2021, had 4,306 passing yards and 29 touchdowns with 18 interceptions in the 2023 season. He also mustered 524 rushing scores and 15 touchdowns on 111 carries.
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