By Staff Reporter
LAS VEGAS — Josh Allen now shares the most hallowed passing record in Buffalo Bills history. The question the Bills carry into their bye week is whether a key piece of their secondary will be available when they return.
Allen threw two touchdown passes in a 33-30 win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium, and the second one, a 12-yard flip to Keon Coleman while he was being swallowed by the pass rush, was the 258th of his career. That ties Hall of Famer Jim Kelly for the franchise record, a count that includes both regular-season and playoff games, according to the team.
Just before halftime, safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson was ejected for spitting toward a Raiders player. The penalty helped Las Vegas kick a tying field goal as the half ended. Recent league precedent suggests it could cost him more than a half of football.
The record, and the play that got it
Leading 16-13 in the third quarter, the Bills (5-1) faced third-and-8 at the Las Vegas 12. Allen stepped up, sidestepped a rusher and, as defenders closed around him, flipped the ball into the end zone, where Coleman caught it for a 23-13 lead. Bills fans, who made up well more than half the crowd, chanted “M-V-P!” The Associated Press reported.
“I was just trying to make a play,” Allen said after the game, according to the team’s website. “They play really good defense. Kind of stepped up in the pocket, felt somebody coming from the left side there, stepped back and again, quick eyes saw our guy open and gave him a chance.”
Head coach Joe Brady joked to reporters that “it was a great play call,” the AP reported. “That’s who he is,” Brady said. “I thought he was outstanding today.”
Allen finished 23 of 33 for 255 yards, according to ESPN’s box score, but ran for only one yard, ending his streak of five straight games with a rushing touchdown. That left him one game short of the Super Bowl-era record set by Chicago’s Justin Fields, the AP noted.
How it finished
The Raiders (3-3), who have now lost three straight, tied it at 23 on Kirk Cousins’ 11-yard touchdown pass to Tre Tucker with 8:07 left. Running back James Cook, a week after Brady publicly raised the prospect of “consequences” for his fumbles, answered with a 3-yard touchdown run with 4:43 remaining. Tyler Bass added a 38-yard field goal with 1:56 left, and Cousins’ 44-yard strike to Tucker with 1:32 to go only closed the gap to three. Buffalo recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.
Cook ran 22 times for 95 yards and caught three passes for 58 more. The Bills played turnover-free after committing nine turnovers over the previous three weeks, the AP reported.
Las Vegas scored touchdowns on only two of five trips inside the Bills’ 20, including a fourth-quarter series that reached second-and-goal at the 1 and ended with a field goal. “That’s unacceptable,” Raiders coach Klint Kubiak said, according to the AP. “And that starts with me.”
The ejection
Late in the second quarter, with Buffalo up 13-10, Gardner-Johnson and Raiders tight end Brock Bowers were jawing after an incomplete pass. CBS cameras showed Gardner-Johnson spitting in Bowers’ direction, CBS Sports reported. The unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty, stacked on a defensive holding call, moved the ball to Buffalo’s 14, and Matt Gay kicked a 27-yard field goal as time expired, the AP reported.
Referee Shawn Smith told a pool reporter after the game that umpire Tra Blake saw it happen. “He saw him spit on the opponent,” Smith said, as reported by ProFootballTalk. “So, we don’t go into the judgment of where he is spitting and this, that, or the other. He spit on an opponent.”
Gardner-Johnson apologized to his teammates and took responsibility in front of reporters. “I’ve got to be a better player. I let my emotions get the best of me, and I hurt my team,” he said, according to the team’s website. “I’ve got to be able to play in big games like this. I’ve got to be better and control my emotions.”
He said he expects a fine or other punishment from the league, Field Level Media reported, and described the exchange with Bowers as heat-of-the-moment trash talk. “It was nothing negative. He ain’t do nothing to me,” Gardner-Johnson said. “That gesture isn’t warranted.”
Brady did not soften it. “It’s uncalled for; it can’t happen. It’s going to be addressed,” he said, according to the team. “The team is way more important.” In a clip posted by WGRZ reporter Jonathan Acosta, Brady went further: “The discipline of our football team has to improve and that sure as hell can’t happen.”
What the precedent says
Before 2025, spitting on an opponent drew only fines, ProFootballTalk noted. That changed last season. When Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter spit on Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott in the season opener, the league announced a one-game suspension but treated it as already served. “Because Carter was disqualified before participating in a single play, the suspension is considered to have been served in Week 1 and he will forfeit his game check,” the league said in a statement, NFL.com reported.
Later that season the league suspended Cincinnati receiver Ja’Marr Chase one game for spitting at Pittsburgh’s Jalen Ramsey, citing the rule against “any act which is contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship,” according to NFL.com. The suspension was upheld on appeal, ProFootballTalk reported.
Gardner-Johnson’s case does not fit neatly into either. Unlike Carter, he was ejected late in the first half, not before the first snap, so the league’s “before participating in a single play” reasoning would not apply. No discipline had been announced as of early Monday. It is the second ejection of his career, after a December 2024 game against Washington, and Buffalo is his sixth NFL team, CBS Sports reported.
What comes next
The Bills are off this week. They return to host the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 1 p.m. If the league follows the Chase model, that is the game Gardner-Johnson would miss.
Discipline was a theme of the whole West Coast trip. Buffalo was flagged 13 times for 112 yards in the overtime win over the Rams, according to the team, and eight more times for 77 yards in Las Vegas, according to ESPN.
Brady’s message on the way to the bye was that a 5-1 record does not mean the job is done. “I love that the guys know that we haven’t played our best football,” he said, according to the team. “And so they’re not pleased with that, but we’re winning football games and I’m so proud of them for that.”
Allen goes into the off week tied with Kelly. His next touchdown pass will give him the franchise record outright.
Featured photo: Josh Allen under center against Tampa Bay at the old Highmark Stadium in November 2025. Photo by WuTang94 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped).
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