Josh Allen — Week 3: Three Turnovers, Two Touchdown Runs
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 28
Allen completed 16 of 26 throws for 204 yards with no touchdown and two interceptions, both for DJ Moore and both by Genesis Smith, was sacked four times and lost a fumble. He ran for two 1-yard touchdowns, the second the go-ahead score with 7:37 left, and his fourth-and-6 throw to Ty Johnson was the largest win-probability swing of the game, in a 24–16 win over the Chargers.
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13 to 10, Chargers, 11 15 left in the fourth quarter, fourth and six at the Chargers 43. Josh Allen threw short left to Ty Johnson, who ran it into the end zone, 43 yards. A holding call on Dawson Knox, enforced at the Chargers 14, took the touchdown away and left a 29-yard completion and a first down at the 24. +4.4 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and +18.9 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest swing on any pass or run in the game. Two more Buffalo holding calls followed on the same drive and pushed it to second and 26. Allen scrambled for eight, a Chargers holding call added five for a first down, James Cook ran 11, 11 four, and on second and one with seven 37 left Allen went over left guard for the touchdown and the lead, 17 to 13 after the kick.
The line: 16 completions on 26 throws, 204 yards, no touchdown passes, two interceptions, four sacks for 30 yards, −5.4 expected points on 30 pass plays. 10 of 17 throws for a hundred 12 yards before halftime, six of nine for 92 after. Both interceptions were thrown for DJ Moore and caught by Genesis Smith, on back-to-back possessions: first and 20 at the Buffalo 34 with three 31 left in the first quarter, down seven, short middle, and the Chargers kicked a field goal after it; then second and seven at the Buffalo 35 on the first snap of the second quarter, deep left, 55 yards in the air, caught at the Chargers 10. The fumble was a sack on third and 13 on the first snap of the fourth quarter, down three; it was ruled down, and the Chargers won the challenge and the ball at the Buffalo 28. On the ground, eight carries for 22 yards counting a kneel, two touchdowns, both from the one. The first came with 19 seconds left in the half, the snap after Keon Coleman's 37-yard catch, and tied the game at 10. He also converted a fourth and one himself in the first quarter. On third down he had 10 pass plays, eight throws, six completions and five conversions. The play-by-play also credits him with a one-yard catch of his own throw.
Buffalo turned it over five times, three of them on Allen's plays, and the Chargers once. Buffalo won by eight. The throws went 10 to Moore, four to Johnson, three each to Dalton Kincaid and Khalil Shakir, two to Coleman, and one each to Cook, Knox, Jackson Hawes and himself.
The June preview's case on Allen was that the floor is made of legs, passing volume plus sustained rushing, with the rushing touchdowns the part least likely to repeat. Two rushing touchdowns in each of the three games, six in all. The passing half turned: two touchdown passes and no interceptions in Week 1, three and none in Week 2, none and two on Sunday, his first interceptions of the season and his first game this season without a touchdown pass. Three games settle little. Buffalo is home to the Patriots on Sunday the fourth.
_Data via nflverse._
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