Bills vs. Lions: Josh Allen Christens New Highmark Stadium With Five Touchdowns in Week 2 Win

Some quarterbacks need weeks to learn a new building. Josh Allen needed one drive. He scrambled for 39 yards on three improvised runs, then shoved his way in from the 1 for the first touchdown ever scored at the new Highmark Stadium, and he basically never stopped. By the end of Thursday night he had accounted for five touchdowns, and the Buffalo Bills had beaten the Detroit Lions 41-31 in the first regular-season game at their $2.1 billion palace in Orchard Park.

Three touchdown passes, two touchdown runs, 248 yards through the air and 69 more on the ground. For a franchise that just moved across the street, Buffalo already knew where everything was kept.

Opening Night Had a Setlist, and Allen Played Every Hit

Buffalo won the coin toss, and Joe Brady made a choice that tells you exactly how he feels about his quarterback: he took the ball. "I wanted us to take the ball in this environment and set the tone," Brady said. Consider the tone set.

Buffalo scored touchdowns on its first four possessions. On the next series, two Lions chased DJ Moore into the flat, nobody chased Joshua Palmer, and Allen hit him for a 43-yard score. Dawson Knox caught a 1-yard touchdown. Dalton Kincaid ran a post and hauled in a 16-yarder. It was 21-0 before the Lions had a pulse.

Detroit eventually found a heartbeat. Jared Goff went 70 yards on 12 plays and hit Jahmyr Gibbs for an 11-yard touchdown, and Jake Bates banged home a 31-yard field goal as the half expired. Still, the Bills went to the locker room up 27-10 with 299 yards of offense. James Cook already had 101 rushing yards on 11 carries.

The Lions kept swinging. Goff found Amon-Ra St. Brown from 2 yards out to open the third quarter, and Sam LaPorta's 1-yard grab early in the fourth made it 34-24. Every time Detroit crawled within 10, Buffalo had a reply, and the final one, Cook's 1-yard run with 2:50 left, turned St. Brown's late 27-yard touchdown into a footnote.

Josh Allen, Box Score Vandal

Allen finished 20 of 31 for 248 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, plus 69 rushing yards on 14 carries and two more scores. It was the sixth five-touchdown game of his career, and his second rushing touchdown tied Hall of Famer Jim Taylor for 18th on the NFL's career list. According to the Bills, he is now the first quarterback in league history with at least five touchdown passes and four rushing touchdowns through his team's first two games.

He also gave the moment the reverence it deserved, telling the team's website he felt fortunate he "ended up here in Buffalo and got to be the first quarterback to open this stadium. It's a special spot."

Cook (21 carries, 135 yards) was the bass line under Allen's guitar solo, and Kincaid keeps playing like a guy who found the cheat codes. His seven catches for 95 yards and a touchdown followed a 130-yard opener, and his 225 receiving yards through two weeks are the most by a tight end since Jared Cook in 2019, per Sumer Sports data cited by the Bills.

Defensively, Greg Rousseau sacked Goff twice in the first 13 minutes, joining Bruce Smith (1996) as the only Bills players with multiple sacks in each of the first two games of a season.

For Detroit, Goff was excellent in a losing effort: 26 of 38 for 327 yards, four touchdowns, no picks. St. Brown caught nine of his 13 targets for 142 yards and two scores, and he and Gibbs have now both scored in the same game 22 times, tying Cleveland's Paul Warfield and Leroy Kelly for fourth among receiver and running back pairs.

The Eight-Minute Drive That Broke Detroit

The game flipped from shootout to statement right after St. Brown's touchdown cut the lead to 27-17. Detroit had momentum, and Buffalo answered with a 15-play, 75-yard march that ate 8:22 of the third quarter. Allen moved the chains with his legs, Kincaid ripped off a 23-yard catch to the 6, and Allen finished it himself from 2 yards out.

"That was probably the biggest drive of the game," Allen said. Hard to argue.

The other knife twist came after LaPorta's touchdown. Backed up at their own 10 with a chance to make it a one-score game, the Lions went three-and-out, with second-year defensive lineman Deone Walker getting his hands on two Goff throws. Buffalo took the ensuing punt and went 61 yards in eight plays, with Cook's 22-yard run setting up his own touchdown. Ballgame.

Dan Campbell pinpointed the real problem, which was the hole Detroit dug before it threw a punch. "You play an opponent as potent as this, you don’t have the luxury of spitting and sputtering early," Campbell said.

Five for Five and Other Ridiculous Numbers

• 5 of 5: Buffalo's red zone touchdown rate. Detroit went 3 of 4.
• 9 of 12: Bills on third down. The Lions were 4 of 11.
• 203 to 66: Rushing yards, Buffalo vs. Detroit. Gibbs managed 52 on 16 carries.
• 41: Points, the third-most by a team in its regular-season stadium debut, trailing only the 1971 Cowboys (44 at Texas Stadium) and the 1987 Dolphins (42 at Joe Robbie Stadium), per the AP.
• 77: Points through two games under Brady, the fourth-most in a head coach's first two games of the Super Bowl era, according to the team.

Brady's Bills Are Rolling, Detroit Has Homework

Brady is the first head coach in Bills history to open his tenure 2-0, per the team. A week after outlasting Houston 36-31 on the road, Buffalo already knows its identity: feed Cook, trust Allen, let Rousseau hunt.

Detroit's loss stings more for the process than the result. The Lions came in with a depleted defense and a patched-up offensive line, lost defensive back Avonte Maddox to a foot injury in the second quarter, and were flagged 10 times.

Goff, a week after surviving New Orleans in overtime, kept it simple. "I think we knew what type of game it was going to be, and we dug ourselves in that hole," Goff said. Next up for the Lions is a home date with the Jets on Sept. 27.

Housewarming, Buffalo Style

New stadiums usually take a while to develop a personality. Buffalo skipped that phase. Allen spent the night making defensive coordinators question their career choices, and Brady spent it hunting for adjectives. "Anytime the ball’s in his hands, good things happen. And yeah, love that guy," Brady said.

Same, Coach. Same.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press and buffalobills.com.