Baker Mayfield Was Better Than Josh Allen In Playoffs For One Main Reason
The Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills saw the same result against the Kansas City Chiefs, but one quarterback was better than the over through defeat. Baker Mayfield was the better player against the Chiefs, compared to Buffalo’s Josh Allen for one particular reason, Mayfield was smarter with the ball in his hands.
Drafted in the same class the two will always be connected and compared. Both being high picks and each went to two bad teams coming into the National Football League at the time. A breakdown below shows how the two faired against the Chiefs defense.
Baker Mayfield
Lost, 22-17
23/37 204 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 sack
Josh Allen
Lost, 38-24
28/48 287 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT, 4 sacks
The four sacks that Allen took against Kansas City he lost a total of 53 yards. Foolishly running 20 yards back. It halted drives for the Bills and taking those sacks hurt the team and had them playing catch-up against the Chiefs, which is not ideal. The sacks had a huge impact in this game, maybe the most negative of the game.
Allen played from behind a bigger margin than Mayfield did, so some of his stats were added on late when it was a multi-score game. A touchdown pass with four minutes remaining helped Buffalo get it under a four score game, then a later field goal made it a bit closer. The Wyoming product struggled to reach 50% completion percentage until late in the game.
The real problem with Allen’s performance is the position he put his team in with the sacks that he took. Lack of awareness was shining bright with Allen behind center at times and it bit the Bills numerous times. The third year quarterback stared down his receivers hard and was lucky to have only turned the ball over one time, having thrown multiple turnover worthy balls.
Mayfield operated with Jarvis Landry and Rashard Higgins as his top two wide receivers. Allen had Stefon Diggs and Cole Beasley to his disposal, the talent gap there is noticeable. Still, Allen was outplayed by Mayfield in terms of giving his team a chance to win. Cleveland had a legit shot to win the game late against Kansas City. On the other hand, Buffalo never really had a shot after halftime.
Allen may have added more on the ground than Mayfield will ever in a game, it just isn’t the kind of quarterback six operates as. Adding in the yards negated by sack, Allen didn’t do much on the ground. Again, it all goes back to how much the nonsense sacks hurt the Bills and their chances.
Both Mayfield and Allen are still young in the NFL, but Baker Mayfield has simply been better in the playoffs. Having a running back duo that Mayfield has helps him tremendously. Though, Cleveland won a playoff game because of the play of their quarterback.
2020 playoff totals
Baker Mayfield: 44/71 (61.9%), 467 yards, 4 TD’s & 1 INT in two games. Faced on average 8th ranked pass defense.
Josh Allen: 77/120 (64.1%), 817 yards, 5 touchdowns & 1 INT in three games. Faced on average 15th ranked pass defense.
USA Today
Allen played one more playoff game than the Browns and Mayfield did, so his numbers are a bit higher as he threw the ball a ton more. Still, Mayfield’s stats are right there with his outside of passing yards. If you factor in the wide receiver talent that Allen operates with, Mayfield played just as well, if not better than Allen. Mayfield didn’t take careless sacks 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage, instead he showed a sense of awareness.
Mayfield had a clean game against Pittsburgh, the third ranked pass defense in the entire league which is an interesting stat to open the playoffs with. Allen opened the playoffs facing the 20th ranked pass defense in the Indianapolis Colts.
In the end, both players are young and look to have bright futures in the NFL. For now, the maturity behind center and awareness that Mayfield brings to the table outweighs Allen in the battle of who was better in the 2020 playoffs. Allen was sacked, showed frustration and threw the ball at a players head. Those actions showed that their is immaturity to tap in to. On the other hand, Mayfield had his team in position to win, even when they lost. When the Bills lost, their quarterback could not really say the same.
