Bills' Josh Allen bolsters MVP case with comeback win over Pats: 'Who out there is playing better?'

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2025-12-16

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Josh Allen remains behind Matthew Stafford and Drake Maye in NFL MVP odds, but don’t tell that to anyone in Buffalo.

The reigning MVP helped the Bills overcome a 21-point second-quarter deficit in New England on Sunday, keeping the chances of a sixth consecutive AFC East title alive.

“I don’t do a very good job of knowing what’s going on around the league, but I can’t, in my mind, imagine anybody else has done more for their team on a more consistent basis than Josh Allen,” coach Sean McDermott told Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated on Sunday. “I mean, who out there is playing better?”

Stafford is the current MVP leader, with the Rams sporting the best team in football.

Allen, however, showed once again his value in carrying a flawed Bills team to victory.

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The counting stats don’t jump out from Sunday’s come-from-behind win, with Allen putting up 193 passing yards, three touchdown strikes, and adding 48 rushing yards. Yet, it was the magnitude of some of those passes and rushes that propelled the latest comeback.

Allen galloped for 20 yards on a big third down early in the third quarter. He rifled bullet after bullet into tight windows. After a penalty nullified a go-ahead touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, Allen wasn’t bothered. He simply ripped a dart to Dawson Knox on third-and-goal from the 14 for a fourth-quarter lead.

After the Patriots answered with a 65-yard TreVeyon Henderson touchdown run, Allen responded again. He led a seven-play, 50-yard TD drive for the final points of a 35-31 win.

“That’ll work itself out in the end,” McDermott said when asked about the MVP race. “And everyone’s going to vote how they want to vote. But there is absolutely no question in my mind who the MVP of this league is.”

The Bills defense couldn’t get a stop early and allowed New England to gobble up 246 rushing yards. However, after Allen and the offense started churning out scoring drives, McDermott’s defense stiffened down the stretch.

Buffalo’s offense scored touchdowns on five straight possessions, including its first four of the second half. After getting outgained by 209 yards in the first half, the Bills outgained the Pats by 173 yards in the second half, the largest total yards differential in the second half by Buffalo since Week 7, 2024 (+227 vs. Tennessee).

Sunday’s 21-point comeback tied for the third-largest in Bills history and was the largest since a 21-pointer in Week 3, 2011, versus New England.

“You kind of develop this kind of resilient nature over the course of a season, through a lot of the adversity that you face,” McDermott said. “If you’re able to stick with it, you learn something about yourself. You develop a bit more toughness naturally, both physically and mentally. The team develops a little bit of this composure, quality or trait that they don’t panic.”