How Josh Allen, Bills found a way to stay hot in December and neutralize Myles Garrett
CLEVELAND - Josh Allen looked like he was turning two while securing a three-point win Sunday against the Browns. The superstar Buffalo Bills quarterback flipped the ball 10 yards downfield to rookie tight end Jackson Hawes as if he was a shortstop setting up a double play.
By the time the pitch reached Hawes for an 8-yard completion that set up a clock-draining and game-winning tush push, Allen was on his way to the ground. Browns defensive end Alex Wright delivered the hit, the latest the reigning NFL MVP took on a day when he needed X-rays on his right foot at halftime.
Those were negative, and the vibes in the Bills' locker room were positive after they survived that injury scare and a Cleveland comeback to escape a blustery Huntington Bank Field with a 23-20 win.
"His willingness, his will to win, it reminds me of somebody," Bills receiver Brandin Cooks told Yahoo Sports, when asked about Allen postgame.
Cooks, who played with Tom Brady for the New England Patriots during the 2017 season, added: "It reminds me of who a lot of people say is the greatest quarterback of all time."
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Allen completed only 12 passes for 130 yards against the Browns, but, in his words, the Bills found a way to win. Allen didn't turn the ball over, and Buffalo neutralized pass rushing great Myles Garrett, who is still a sack away from breaking the NFL's official single-season sack record. James Cook ran for 100 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries in the first half. Buffalo intercepted Shedeur Sanders twice, and defensive end Greg Rousseau dominated late, earning credit for 2.5 sacks as he exploited an injury-riddled Browns offensive line and uprooted two potential game-winning drives.
With the win, Buffalo improved to 21-3 in December since the 2020 season, when the Allen rocket ship lifted off and the Bills started their streak of five consecutive AFC East titles.
They're 3-0 in December this year, on track for an undefeated record in the month for the fourth time in that span. Hawes, a fifth-round rookie, theorizes it's because of Buffalo's affinity for the elements. Veteran safety Jordan Poyer attributes the success to his teammates' sticking together.
"It's December football. It's totally different than the beginning of the year, right? Everybody's looking for an edge. Everybody's playing hard. It's cold, wet. Fans are in it. It's holiday season," said the 34-year-old Poyer, who reunited with the Bills this summer after playing for them from 2017-23.
Sunday, Poyer recorded his first interception since the 2022 season, and he teamed up with Rousseau for one of those critical fourth-quarter sacks.
"This is the time in football where you want to be playing for something," Poyer said. "And it's really cool that we still have that opportunity in front of us."
Riding a four-game win streak, Buffalo still has paths to the division title. Perhaps the most realistic calls for the Bills to win out and for the New England Patriots to lose to the New York Jets or the Miami Dolphins.
Buffalo erased a 10-point fourth quarter deficit against the Cincinnati Bengals two weeks ago and rattled off five straight touchdown drives while climbing out of a 21-point hole on the road versus the Patriots last week.
They have a hodgepodge of wide receivers and an imperfect defense that was gashed for 160 rushing yards by a Browns team that entered averaging a fourth-worst 92.4 rushing yards over the previous 14 games. But that same defense is incredibly opportunistic, as evidenced by its five takeaways across the past three outings. And the offense, although streaky, is fueled by the league-leading rusher in Cook and a superhero in Allen whose playoff kryptonite won't zap his Bills of their powers this year.
The Kansas City Chiefs are out of the picture, and Buffalo is still finding ways to win in December.
"Yeah, again, we feel like we're in playoff mode now," said Allen, who noted that the pain he felt in his tweaked foot had subsided.
"We've got some stuff to clean up. But we'll take a victory."
Captain America, Ted Lasso and a flu gameThe Bills' defense is malleable. It's shapeshifted as the season has progressed, and as Buffalo has navigated poor injury luck by repeatedly using its maximum weekly allotment of two practice squad elevations. Poyer was one of those.
As safeties Damar Hamlin and Taylor Rapp went on injured reserve in October, Poyer was thrust back into the spotlight. After signing with the Bills again in late August, he spent the beginning of the season helping out the scout team, a stark contrast from his first seven-year run with the Bills when he started 107 games.
Since, the 2021 first-team All-Pro has proven he still has some gas left in the tank. Two weeks ago against the Bengals, he stacked six solo tackles. Last week against the Patriots, he dropped what would have been an interception. This week against the Browns, he snagged a pick after a Sanders pass ricocheted off the shoulder pad of running back Quinshon Judkins and popped up in the air late in the first quarter.
Interception Jordan Poyer.
- Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) December 21, 2025
: CBS pic.twitter.com/AHWSbfXW4G
But Poyer hasn't just filled a gaping hole at safety. He's also provided inspiration, Bills do-it-all nickel Cam Lewis told Yahoo Sports in the locker room.
"Every time we go out there, he got a good speech," Lewis said. "Like he got us a Captain America speech before we go out. We be like, 'Oh yeah, bet, say no more.' We be ready to go."
It must have worked on Rousseau, who teamed up with Poyer for a sack that dropped Sanders for a loss of eight yards, setting the Browns way behind schedule on their final drive.
Rousseau, who went five games in a row without a sack earlier this season, has accounted for 3.5 over the past two games. One of those resulted from the 2021 first rounder forcing an intentional grounding penalty on the very next play of that fateful Browns series.
Greg Rousseau with the play of the game for the Bills
- Peter DiBiasi (@DibiasiPeter) December 21, 2025
When the Bills needed a play on defense Groot delivered all afternoon
7 QB Hits
2.5 Sacks
2 Tackles For Loss#BillsMafia | #GoBills
pic.twitter.com/9NuGoxe5vR
"Those are big-time plays that Greg made for us, and we need that every week," Bills head coach Sean McDermott said postgame.
Tight end Dawson Knox had the opportunity to make one as well. Gripping to its 23-20 lead with less than three minutes left in the fourth quarter, Buffalo rolled the dice on fourth-and-1 from the Cleveland 11-yard line. Allen then rolled right and located a wide-open Knox.
An insurance touchdown was there for the taking. Knox dropped it.
He hated that it happened. He said he apologized to Allen afterward.
"The leader he is, he's like, 'Don't sweat it. Move on. Play the next play. We're going to be good,'" Knox recounted. "And thankfully we came out with a win."
Knox continued: "If you let one play get in your head and beat you twice, then it just starts a downhill slide that's hard to recover from. So you really got to have a short-term memory in this game. There's a great Ted Lasso quote: 'Be a goldfish, have a short memory.' It's one of those things. You just kind of gotta learn from it, move on and don't let it affect the next one."
That's usually the approach to blocking Garrett, who came into Sunday with 17.5 of his now-22 sacks in his past eight games.
But Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins more than held his own against the future Pro Football Hall of Famer. Dawkins, a four-time Pro Bowler himself, was the biggest reason why Garrett finished with one pressure on 22 pass rushes, according to Next Gen Stats.
Dawkins faced Garrett on 18 of his 22 pass rushes, per NGS, and made him wait another week for a record-breaking performance.
Allen's blind-side protector did so after battling the flu this week. The 6-foot-5 Dawkins said he lost 14 pounds while feeling the effects of the illness.
"I mean, that's a hell of a flu game," Knox said.
It is December, after all. That's flu season. And it's also when Allen's Bills consistently find a way to win.