Josh Allen is in danger of becoming a modern day Dan Marino after recent heartbreak
Josh Allen is used to playoff pain, but perhaps nothing hurts this much.
The pain was evident as the reigning league MVP tearfully answered questions following the Buffalo Bills’ latest postseason loss – a 33-30 loss to the Denver Broncos. In overtime. Again.
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The difference this time? Allen was more than a hero, fighting bravely to save his team – while undermining them almost as much.
“It’s tough. I feel like I let my teammates down tonight,” Allen said in tears in his postgame news conference.
“Missed chances in every game. It’s been a long season. I hate the way it ended, and it will stay with me for a long time.”
Undoubtedly.
Allen racked up 349 yards of offense and threw three TD passes. He also turned the ball over four times – two fumbles in the bracket at halftime and gave the Broncos six bonus points in a flawless game.
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But it was an upset in sudden death — Denver’s first overtime offense — that put the Bills away. And maybe receiver Branin Cooks just got hurt because of a slightly dropped ball that flipped the field. Maybe Cooks even caught it … but Denver cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian ended up with it. Still, Allen has to shoulder some of the blame for the game-winning field goal.
“I’m not going to win five times,” Allen said, noting the team’s total (running back James Cook’s second-quarter touchdown led to a Denver TD).
“You’re shooting yourself in the foot like that, you don’t deserve to win football games.”
But does Allen fit him this?
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He has atoned for his mistakes – one when he carelessly ran the ball into the open while (exaggerating) trying to get the Bills into field goal range at the end of the first half, another on the radio. But Allen brought the Bills back from a 20-10 halftime deficit. He almost did more than that, but he missed wide open tight end Dawson Knox on his final layup — a perfect pass that almost put the Bills back in the AFC championship game.
Instead, the Buffalo is headed home for the misery of what will be a figuratively long, cold winter.
“Thank you for him,” said Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins, fighting back tears. “He didn’t abandon us.”
Said Buffalo coach Sean McDermott: “There’s (Allen). We’ve had opportunities, all of us. And I’m proud of him. He’s an amazing person, an amazing leader, an amazing quarterback.”
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The loss to Denver made Allen 0-3 in overtime playoff games (and 0-7 overall). If you don’t remember the loss to the Houston Texans six years ago in its first postseason game, you will remember the 42-36 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022, when Buffalo couldn’t protect the lead after kicking a field goal with 13 seconds left in regulation.
That’s not even counting the AFC championship game loss at Arrowhead. Or the Chiefs’ three-point loss in the divisional round at Buffalo two years ago, when Bills kicker Tyler Bass missed a 44-yard field goal with two minutes left that might have sent that game to OT.
Things have reached a point where Allen’s legacy is starting to hang in the balance. He has won eight playoff games. Good. They’re also the most by a quarterback who hasn’t played in a Super Bowl.
DENVER, COLORADO – JANUARY 17: Josh Allen #17 of the Buffalo Bills walks off the field after losing to the Denver Broncos 30 to 33 in overtime of an AFC Divisional Playoff game at Empower Field At Mile High on January 17, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Hall of Famers like John Elway, Peyton Manning and Brett Favre all had to endure postseason woes before their Lombardi success. More recently, so have Drew Brees and Matthew Stafford.
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But Dan Fouts? Jim Kelly? Dan Marino? Warren Moon? Is it Newton? Philip Rivers? Matt Ryan? Fran Tarkenton? All are Hall of Famers or soon to be. None of them were Super Bowl champions.
Allen runs into the dangers of being a modern day Marino. Ask for opinions about who is the greatest passer in NFL history, and you’ll get a fair number of votes for Marino — his precise, powerful arm perhaps boasting the fastest release the game has ever seen. It allowed him to break passing records and earned him the MVP award in 1984, when the second-year QB carried the Miami Dolphins to Super Bowl 19 – where they lost to Joe Montana’s San Francisco 49ers.
Marino did not return to the Super Sunday stage. It may not have mattered as his first season was spent when the NFC – Montana’s Niners, Favre’s Green Bay Packers, Troy Aikman’s Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants and Washington conspired to retain the Lombardi Trophy in the NFC between the 1984 and ’96 seasons.
Does Allen have a ticket to the same fate? He’s no Michael Vick, but Allen already has his case as the two-time most dangerous quarterback in league history — the guy who carried his team to five straight AFC East crowns. Allen won’t be named MVP in back-to-back seasons — not this year — but perhaps no team relies on one player more than the Bills do.
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But Buffalo doesn’t seem to be in the financial position to acquire that extra star to put Allen and the rest of this roster up — the way Terrell Davis did for Elway’s Broncos or Reggie White did for Favre’s Packers. Even worse, the Bills could enter an unusual period – a young Drake Maye and the New England Patriots were resurrected in 2025, and they were formidable enough to reclaim the division throne … in the same way that Kelly’s Bills put Marino’s Dolphins in the minds of many in the 1990s.
“Does the window close?” asked NFL Network analyst and league quarterback Michael Robinson. “It’s been in this situation many times.”
This seemed like it was supposed to be Allen’s year. And Buffalo’s. They didn’t need to go through Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in these championships or Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. Not even Lamar Jackson or the Baltimore Ravens. Aaron Rodgers though, Allen should have been the OG this time around, his Mafia ready to rule the NFL block.
But not now. Mr. Brightside will have to hope that something bright will be revealed in this ordeal he is currently enduring.
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“I love my teammates, and I’m very sorry and disappointed the way it ended,” Allen said Sunday.
Let’s hope there is a better ending waiting for him somewhere in the future.
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This article first appeared in USA TODAY: Josh Allen at risk of heart attack that will define Bills QB
