ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- To think it all started with a miscommunication.
In Week 1 of the 2019 season, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen threw receiver Cole Beasley a pass he wasn't expecting. Determined not to let that happen again, they discussed the route ad nauseam afterward. That paid off in Sunday's wild 35-32 win against the Los Angeles Rams.
Allen found Beasley for a first down on third-and-22 during the fourth quarter. It was perhaps the team's biggest play of the young season after Los Angeles roared back from a 28-3 deficit to take the lead. At the very least, it was one of two plays on Buffalo's go-ahead drive that saved what was nearly a historic collapse.
"Honestly, it just turned into some backyard ball. Me and Cole have talked about this route many a time," Allen said. "Cole found a spot in the middle [of the field], made a good catch, knifed upfield and got the first down. It was a huge play for us."
Buffalo controlled the game for two-and-a-half quarters, leading by 25 midway through the third quarter. Los Angeles answered with 29 unanswered points to take the lead with just under three minutes to play.
Allen -- who entered the game playing like an MVP candidate, with a league-high 727 passing yards and seven total TDs -- needed a touchdown drive with his team trailing by four points. He found Beasley for a 19-yard gain on the first play of the go-ahead drive before taking a long sack. Two plays later, Allen rolled to his right and hit an open Beasley in the middle of the field.
"You never really know how a team is going to react. It's those moments where we find out what we're really made of," Beasley said. "Because that's tough, man, when you're up 28-3, and they come back and take the lead from you with not much time left? That can deflate a team. But these guys are all dogs, and they don't shy away from that. They're all competitive as hell, and they fight to the finish."
Rams CB Troy Hill gets caught with his eyes in the backfield and Cole Beasley made him pay. This 3rd-and-22 conversion was perhaps the play of the game.
— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) September 27, 2020
Beasley finished with 100 yards on 6 catches pic.twitter.com/GUco78hB5B
The other play that saved the Bills happened when Allen finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tyler Kroft, giving Buffalo the lead for good. Allen finished with 311 passing yards and five touchdowns, including one on the ground. Through three games, he ranks second in the league in both passing yards and passing touchdowns, with 1,038 and 10.
Plays such as the long third-down conversion are a microcosm of what Allen brings to the field, especially late in games. His 10 game-winning drives since 2018 tie that of Houston's Deshaun Watson for most in the NFL in that span.
"The guys play for him," Bills coach Sean McDermott said. "Like all games, I'm sure there's some plays he wants back, but at the end of the day, to come back in the NFL and win the game, that's tough to do, and he's now done it twice in the past two weeks. It just goes back to the ability to stay calm in critical moments of the game and have that winning mindset."
The Bills will take that mindset and their three-game win streak into Week 4. They play Sunday at the Las Vegas Raiders (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS).