Analysis: Josh Allen makes throwing look easy in the wild winds of Orchard Park (2024)

Buffalo Bills quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey thought one of the best throws Josh Allen made in Sunday’s blowout victory actually was not one of the 32 that he completed.

“Honestly, the one that we were talking about was to Stef, the post that was incomplete in the end zone,” Dorsey said of a 43-yard pass for Stefon Diggs in the first quarter. “It was dead into the wind. But he did a nice job driving the ball into the wind and cutting it, putting it in a spot where it gave us a chance to make a play. We were just a hair off on it. I thought that was really an impressive throw dead into a stiff breeze.”

The fact that Allen completed 32 of43 passes – 74%– on a day when the wind blew at 20 mph and gusted up to 30 mph is something we’ve come to take for granted four years into the franchise quarterback’s career.

Allen makes throwing in the Orchard Park winds look easy – easier than it is.

“Oh yeah, 100%,” said Bills backup quarterback Davis Webb Wednesday. “It was pretty windy, but Josh cut right through it.”

“It definitely was blowing, and he gives us a big advantage to be able to do what he does,” said Dorsey.

Allen passed for 358 yards. The wind wasn’t terrible by Western New York standards. But it wasn’t mild, either. The Bills-Washington game was the windiest in the league in Week 3.

In pregame warmups, Washington kicker Dustin Hopkins lined up to practice an extra-point try into the wind from 32 yards, going toward the scoreboard end. He didn’t get a good strike on the ball and missed wide right by 10 yards – well more than the entire width of the goal posts.

The Bills did not have to think twice about adjusting their play calling.

“Obviously, that’s a huge part of our offense, especially where we are in the country and with the weather conditions we get, to be able to operate like we still are able to do in any type of conditions,” Dorsey said. “I feel like a lot of quarterbacks can handle rain, they can handle cold, they can handle heat, but some really get affected by the wind. Fortunately, we’ve got a guy who can drive the ball through the wind and we can operate as an offense no matter what the weather conditions.”

Allen smirked when asked Wednesday if he thought Sunday’s wind was a bit challenging.

“It was a little windy, but when our guys get open and make the plays that we do, it's pretty easy to throw to those guys,” he said.

Of course, this kind of weather is the norm around here.

Buffalo is the third windiest major metropolitan area in the country, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. First is Boston, at an average of 12.3 mph, then Oklahoma City at 12.2 mph, then Buffalo at 11.8 mph.

But the weather on football Sundays is hard to predict. The 2019 season was terrible for wind. The Bills played eight games that year in wind between 10 and 30 mph. Last season, three of the first four home games were played in tough winds. Then the last seven home games – including the playoffs against the Colts and Ravens – had only light winds.

“I've learned so far, seven days in advance in Buffalo, it absolutely means nothing what the radar says,” Allen said. “Usually probably Thursday night, Friday morning was when I check in. There's really nothing to adjust other than if it's windy, just driving it a little more.”

That’s what Allen did on the 28-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders – into the wind.

“That was pretty impressive on the run, rolling out and it was against the wind,” Webb said. “I don’t think he was downhill much, he didn’t have his momentum with him. He was more linear and was able to make a good throw and Emmanuel came back to it, which was pretty.”

Highmark Stadium is built on a rise in Orchard Park. It catches the wind, and the shape of the stadium makes it swirl.

“The one unique thing here is you can get different directions of crosswinds,” Dorsey said. “It changes on you quickly. It could be blowing one way down low and another way up high. There’s different variables to it that you have to navigate. Fortunately, we’ve got a guy who can cut it– and not just with arm strength but with the spin and rotation of the football coming off his hand. That helps a lot.”

Sunday’s game was no contest from an arm talent perspective. Allen vs. Taylor Heinecke. The difference in velocity was stark. This is what the Bills had in mind when they drafted Allen.

In his very first answer to the media the night the Bills drafted Allen in 2018, Sean McDermott said: “What you see on tape is size, athleticism, and we know how important it is playing in our conditions in terms of being able to throw the football, grip the football.”

Bill Polian said essentially the same thing when the Bills signed Jim Kelly. It's obvious now, but the arm-strength factor wasn't a slam dunk in the spring of 2018 when a fair number of people liked Josh Rosen better than Allen. A big arm is better in Buffalo. Let’s not ever forget it.