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After a tumultuous week amid a historic snowstorm, the Buffalo Bills (7-3) are looking to nab a second straight win at Ford Field when they face the Detroit Lions (4-6) on Thanksgiving Day. With only four days between their 31-23 win over Cleveland Browns and their primetime holiday matchup, all eyes are on the status of quarterback Josh Allen, who suffered a sprained elbow in Week 9.
While Allen has yet to miss a start, several NFL analysts don’t believe that the 26-year-old is back to full health, as the usually explosive quarterback has been making several costly mistakes over the past few weeks, and seems to lack the unquestionable confidence he typically exudes on the field.
However, during the short week of preparation leading up to the Bills’ Week 12 matchup, Allen showed up to practice for the first time without wearing a brace on his right arm. WGR 550‘s Sal Capaccio tweeted on Tuesday, November 22, “Very encouraging sign for #Billsmafia today. Josh Allen was not wearing any sleeve or brace on his right elbow. He also threw passes during the media-available portion of practice for the first time since injuring his elbow 🎥.”
While it’s great to see Allen throwing in any capacity during the media portion of practice and doing so without any protective gear on his arm, the Wyoming alum revealed that this doesn’t mean that he’s 100% — in fact, that’s far from the case.
“Still working through it,” Allen said after practice on Tuesday, per Rochester First. “I just trust in what our strength staff is saying. Bit of a walkthrough today so obviously no chance of contact or anything like that. Just trying to get comfortable without throwing it. Who knows game time if I’m wearing one or not. We’ll take it day by day.”
The MVP candidate, however, refused to use the drama of the last-minute relocation of last week’s game and the truncated break before facing the Lions, as an excuse. “Every team throughout the season deals with this,” he said.
Lions Head Coach Has a Plan to Defeat Allen & the Bills
While the Lions are coming off one of their biggest wins of the season, defeating the New York Giants 31-18 in Week 11, during which Detroit’s defense recorded six interceptions and a fumble recovery. Head coach Dan Campbell knows they have their work cut out for them playing against the Bills, but feels they can win if Allen chucks some erratic throws.
“We desperately will need them,” Campbell said of turnovers in their upcoming meeting with the Bills. “We’re going to need them and look, that’s been part of the secret sauce for us. We are getting them and that means we’re turning a corner because we are getting them out. And so, we’ve got to continue that trend and if we can put (Josh Allen) in a position to where he feels like he needs to get rid of the ball and we get our hands on it. We have to capitalize, so it’s going to be big for us. It’s been big for us.”
While Allen led the NFL in interceptions (10) heading into Week 11, he threw zero interceptions against the Browns. Bills head coach Sean McDermott said on Monday, November 21, “Everyone expects Josh Allen to be Superman, every game, all the time, every throw,” Capaccio tweeted. “But for him to have his early struggles yesterday then bounce back the way he did, said a lot more about him and added how proud he is of Allen for that.”
The Bills Are Major Favorites to Beat the Lions on Thanksgiving
While most people assumed the Bills would remain in Detroit, as there are only four days between their Browns victory and their matchup against the Lions, which kicks off at 12:30 p.m. ET on Thanksgiving, that was not the plan. The team flew back to Buffalo on Sunday night and will return to take on the Lions on Thursday, November 24. The Bills are considered 10-point favorites to win.
Allen is 2-0 on Thanksgiving Day games, per One Bills Live host Chris Brown. Over those two games, he completed 80.8% of his passes, scored six total touchdowns, and earned an overall passer rating of 122.
This is the third time the Bills have played on Thanksgiving over the past four years. They beat the New Orleans Saints in 2021 and defeated the Dallas Cowboys in 2019.
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