According to ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick “didn’t buy into the Josh Allen craze” while meeting with game commentators Steve Levy, Louis Riddick and Brian Griese prior to Week 16.
Maybe he does now that the Bills quarterback torched the Patriots for 320 yards with four touchdowns while completing 75 percent of his passes in Buffalo’s 38-9 win over New England on Monday night.
“Yeah, I don’t know what they said,” Belichick said about comments Levy, Riddick and Griese made during the game. “I’m on the record on that. …
“I’ve said multiple times that Josh Allen is a good football player and he’s played well. He’s having a good year.”
That’s not exactly what Levy, Riddick and Griese were relaying Monday night.
“Talking with him this week, he didn’t buy into the Josh Allen craze,” Griese said. “He said, ‘You know what, we actually played pretty good defense against Josh Allen when we played in November.'”
That is true. Allen went just 11-of-18 for 154 yards with an interception in the Bills’ 24-21 Week 8 win over the Patriots. It was Allen’s worst game in an otherwise dominant season.
“There was no question that Bill really got fired up when we were talking to him about potentially being swept, Josh Allen being one of the MVP favorites,” Riddick said. “He was not having any of it.”
The Patriots were swept by an AFC East foe for the first time since 2000 when the Bills beat them in Weeks 8 and 16.
Riddick went on to say that Belichick “didn’t see” Allen as a prospective MVP against the Patriots in Week 8 and that “we took care of him in that game.”
Levy relayed a specific example of Belichick’s nonchalance.
“(Belichick) talked about an Allen-to-Diggs completion,” Levy said. “He said, ‘It should have been a 10-yard gain but Diggs turned it into 40.'”
Belichick did praise Allen before the Patriots’ Week 8 and 16 matchups with the Bills. Belichick’s Patriots were no match for Allen in Week 16.
The Bills are heading to the playoffs as the AFC East champions while the Patriots are staying home for the first time since 2008.
