Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts, the quarterbacks for the Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles, will lead the offensive units in a game of touchdown headliners on Sunday. Allen has the most total touchdowns this season with 29, while Hurts leads the NFL with 32 rushing touchdowns since taking over as the starting quarterback in 2021. Hurts has more rushing touchdowns this season (9) than the entire Eagles team combined (6).
With a rushing touchdown on Sunday, Allen will join Newton as the only quarterbacks in history to have at least eight rushing touchdowns in four career seasons. Allen had at least eight rushing touchdowns in each of his first three seasons (2018–20). The only other quarterback with three of these seasons is Hurts.
Hurts, though, is a more versatile quarterback than that. Sean McDermott, the head coach of the Bills, believes that he is extremely difficult to defend because he has been equally effective when throwing the ball.
McDermott described Hurts as “a really tough player to go against for those reasons among others really.” “He’s playing at an extremely high caliber. He also uses his feet in addition to his arm. And it’s difficult to defend in any circumstance, including red zones, third downs, and two minutes and longer. Thus, you must cover all 11 players on the field.”
Josh Allen, who leads the league with 22 passing touchdowns, is comparable.
Sean Desai, the defensive coordinator for the Eagles, described Allen as “really hard to defend.” “He is more adept at throwing the ball than you are at running it as a scrambler, quarterback run game, and true runner. There are numerous ways in which he can make explosives. He’s large. He is robust and hardy. He is right. He’s got a powerful arm. Each of those things poses particular difficulties.”
In the first game under new offensive coordinator, Joe Brady, the Bills relied on pre-snap motion to scheme players open and to give Josh Allen valuable information about the intentions of the Jets defense. The result was an attack that not only had answers but dictated play to the league’s third-ranked pass defense.
Against an Eagles defense this week, Buffalo’s new offensive play caller may decide to make exploiting matchups the priority.
