Bills’ Allen puts jitters aside to focus on facing Dolphins

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Josh Allen knows he can play much better, and didn’t need to be reminded Wednesday of everything that went wrong for him and the Buffalo Bills’ offence during a season-opening National Football League dud.

Whether it was experiencing jitters from playing in front of a packed home stadium for the first time since 2019, or spending much of the afternoon struggling to elude the Pittsburgh pass rush, the fourthyear starter is putting last weekend behind.

“We’re past it,” Allen said, looking ahead to a Week 2 AFC East showdown at Miami (1-0).

“The best way to cure that is to go out there and execute and play how we know we can play football,” he added. “Yeah, we’re hungry.”

The Bills should be eager to play again following a 23-16 loss to the Steelers in which their offence looked nothing like the dynamic 2020 attack, which finished second in the NFL in points scored and broke numerous franchise passing and scoring records.

As for Allen, he mostly floundered in his first game since signing a six-year, $258-million contract extension last month.

When Allen wasn’t sailing passes, he was bouncing them into the ground at receivers’ feet.

He finished 30 of 51 for 270 yards with a touchdown and lost fumble. The 21 incompletions matched the second most of his career.