Josh Allen didn’t hold back against the Broncos on Saturday at Empower Field. 

The Bills quarterback, who was passed up by Denver in the 2018 NFL draft for outside linebacker Bradley Chubb, made the Broncos pay for the second time in his three-year career, crushing Denver 48-19 Saturday with a four-touchdown performance. Chubb, on the other hand, finished with one tackle. 

The Broncos were officially eliminated from playoff contention for the fifth-straight season.

“It was a total-team disappointing performance in the second half,” coach Vic Fangio said. “Give Buffalo credit. They’re a really good football team. They’ve got a great quarterback, they’ve got a great group of receivers and they play good defense. That’s why they’re 11-3.” 

Allen was especially good, torching the Broncos through the air and on the ground, going 28-of-40 passing for 359 yards and two touchdowns while also running for 33 yards and two scores. Allen has started to emerge as not only one of the best QBs in the NFL, but also as an MVP candidate. 

“I think he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the league,” Broncos linebacker Josey Jewell said of Allen. “He’s been hot. They’ve been hot as a whole team. He’s been doing a great job.” 

Allen and the Bills (11-3) made quick work of the Broncos (5-9), jumping out to a 14-0 lead in the second quarter. The Broncos hung around, thanks to nine-play, 75-yard drive led by quarterback Drew Lock who finished it off with a 6-yard touchdown pass to tight end Noah Fant to make it 21-13 right before the half. 

But it was the third quarter when disaster struck. 

The Bills returned the opening second-half kickoff to the Broncos 43-yard line and scored seven plays later. Then, on Denver’s ensuing possession, Lock was strip-sacked and the Bills returned the fumble for a 21-yard touchdown. In the blink of an eye, the Broncos were down 35-13 just four minutes into the third quarter.

The Bills added a field goal, to outscore the Broncos 17-0 in the third quarter. And it didn’t help when rookie cornerback Michael Ojemudia was ejected late in the third for throwing a punch, with the Broncos already down to three healthy corners coming into the game.

“A lot of things went wrong there,” Fangio said of the third quarter. “The kickoff return, the sack fumble that got returned for a touchdown — we just didn’t play well, the entire team, all three phases.” 

The Bills ran over the Broncos in the final 15 minutes — literally — adding injury to insult and scoring a 51-yard touchdown run with less than two minutes left, as Bills running back Devin Singletary ran through a Denver defense that appeared to have given up. 

“I wouldn’t necessarily say it was an effort issue, but it has to be a little higher intensity,” safety Justin Simmons said of the team’s mentality late in the game. “Like I said, it’s not a lack of effort and want-to. Guys want to. It just has to be that much more amped up.” 

The Broncos gave up the most points (48) and total yards (534) in the Fangio era in the loss. 

And while Allen and the Bills look to make the playoffs for the second-straight season and have secured their first 11-win season since 1999, the Broncos are heading in the wrong direction. With nine losses, the Broncos will officially finish with a losing record for the fourth-straight season — 5-11 in 2017, 6-10 in 2018, 7-9 in 2019 and 5-9 in 2020 with two games remaining. 

“Obviously we don’t want to be losing,” said Fant, who caught eight passes for 68 yards and one touchdown. “We’ve got to get some wins on the board. That’s what it comes down to. It might not be pretty all the time, but we’ve got to get some wins.”

With matchups against the 5-9 Chargers on the road and the 7-7 Raiders at home, the Broncos have an opportunity to get things headed in the right direction for 2021. 

But after a performance like Saturday, in which Allen showed what drafting a great quarterback can do for a franchise, its hard to find many positives in a season full of COVID, injuries and losses. 

All the Broncos can do is hope to see a little light at the end of the tunnel for next year. 

“It’s tough,” Simmons said. “We all know the expectations here, the winning tradition that this organization has. To be here my whole career and not be a part of the playoffs and have four straight losing seasons — a tough pill to swallow. … I do believe there are a lot of the right pieces.

“But I will say, just because it is a losing season, doesn’t mean that there isn’t things that there are positive that you can grow off of.”