With the conclusion of Buffalo's blowout 41-7 win over the Tennessee Titans on Monday night came confirmation that the combination of Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs is already living up to the hype -- and so too are the Bills.
Predicted by many to be Super Bowl bound ahead of the season, the Bills are meeting expectations so far, with the Allen-Diggs combo leading the way.
Diggs had 12 receptions for 148 yards and three touchdowns on Monday night, while Allen had 317 yards passing and four TD passes.
"It felt good getting him the ball early and often. He did a great job getting open, making plays, making some great catches," Allen, who leads the NFL with eight total touchdowns, said after the game. "He is what he is: It's Stefon Diggs. We know he is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, receivers in the game right now. I trust him implicitly."
After connecting for 122 yards and a touchdown in Week 1 against the Rams, the pass-catching connection is firing on all cylinders just two games into the 2022 season.
Since Diggs came to Buffalo in 2020 and linked up with Allen, the pair has given defenses fits as one of the most dangerous pass-catching duos in the league. Expected to be the backbone of the Bills offense this season as Buffalo aims for a Super Bowl, the Allen-Diggs duo is producing as predicted.
"We're getting there, we're working at it," Diggs said post-game. "I feel like it's a lot of turnover from practice, you know the time that we put in, the consistency, we've been together for a couple years now, just trying to build off it."
So far, Diggs has collected 270 receiving yards and four touchdowns through two games. He became the first player to have at least 250 yards and at least four receiving touchdowns through his first two games of the season since Steve Smith Sr. with the Panthers in 2007. And with Monday marking his third career game with 140-plus receiving yards and at least three TDs, he's already tied for third all-time for such games, behind only Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Randy Moss.
Diggs has had four straight seasons with at least 1,000 yards receiving, and if he gets even half as many yards per game as he has so far, he'll easily hit that benchmark for a fifth time in a row.
Even when he wasn't targeting Diggs, Allen looked worthy of the MVP predictions he's been lavished with. This was Allen's seventh career game (including playoffs) where he had at least 300 passing yards, four TDs and no interceptions. All other Buffalo QBs combined have only accomplished that twice, and the Bills' Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly never accomplished the feat, putting into perspective just how revolutionary Allen's presence has been for the franchise.
With Diggs and Allen appearing to pick up right where they left off at the end of last season, the Bills are off to a dominant start to the season. Only time will tell if they'll be able to sustain this production over the course of the year, and whether it will be enough to achieve the Bills' goal of getting to their first Super Bowl since 1993.
"We trust each other, we communicate a lot, obviously going into Year 3 with him, I'm very comfortable with his body language, he's comfortable with me putting the ball where I put it, and he continues to make plays for us. And we're gonna need those plays moving forward," Allen said.
