Crosby Vs. Allen Goes Deeper Than Las Vegas Vs. Buffalo

Say "Eagles vs. Cowboys" to any NFL fan and they'll instantly flash back to some of the great NFC East battles between those two history-laden franchises.

Say "Eagles vs. Cowboys" to Las Vegas Raiders' defensive end Maxx Crosby and he may think back to Sept. 23, 2016, and a college football stadium in Ypsilanti, MI.

That was the day that Crosby's Eastern Michigan University Eagles hosted the University of Wyoming Cowboys at Rynearson Stadium in Ypsilanti. The Cowboys that day were led by a raw quarterback named Josh Allen and it was Allen who Crosby took down in the backfield for his first collegiate sack, which helped EMU post a 27-24 defeat of Wyoming.

Fast-forward 10 years and if Crosby's Raiders are to be successful against Allen's Bills when they face off in Allegiant Stadium on Sunday (1:25 p.m. PT on CBS), Las Vegas' sack artist will need to make Allen's life difficult.

For the season, Crosby has two sacks for a defense that has been among the leaders in QB takedowns through five weeks of the NFL season. However, he has just .5 of a sack since recording 1.5 in the first game of the season against the Miami Dolphins.

That isn't for lack of trying, however. According to Levi Edwards of raiders.com, Crosby ranks among the league's top 10 defensive ends in pass-rush win rate at 27%, despite being double-teamed on nearly 50% of his pass-rush attempts. He is getting close enough to opposing signal-callers that he has 13 QB hits, which is nearly one-third of the Raiders' team total (42), while he has added nine hurries and nine knockdowns.

Crosby has also been sitting out more snaps than he has traditionally as he continues to work his way back from offseason knee surgery while acknowledging that as an eight-year veteran, a rest every now and then might be beneficial.

Allen, for one, knows that whatever Crosby's numbers are, and no matter how often he's on the field, attempting to neutralize him on Sunday will be the No. 1 priority for the Bills' offensive line.

"What makes him so good is his motor," Edwards reported Allen as saying in the leadup to the game this week. "He's extremely relentless. He's never out of the play. He's on the field dang nearly every snap too. He's an ultimate competitor and a guy that you have to understand where he's at at all times."

Whoever will be attempting to block Crosby may not be known until closer to game time as Bills' right tackle Spencer Brown has been on the injury report all week with a back ailment, though he was a full participant in practice on Friday. If Brown can't go, he will likely be replaced by Tylan Gable, who has played 47 snaps at right tackle in his NFL career, all of which came on Monday when he filled in for the injured Brown in the Bills' overtime defeat of the Los Angeles Rams.

Getting heat on Allen will be integral as the Raiders have only recorded three sacks in their last two games, both losses, after rolling up 10 in their season-opening three-game winning streak. They also have just one takeaway in their consecutive losses to the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots after having nine total in Weeks 1-3.

The Raiders also have to hope that their overall disappointing defensive performance in Sunday's 45-17 loss at New England was more wakeup call than the start of a bad trend.

Containing Allen in the running game also needs to be a focus on Sunday as he has accumulated 239 yards on the ground with an NFL-best eight rushing TDs through five weeks.

For what it's worth, in the two games in which Allen has previously faced Crosby and the Raiders - both Bills' wins, 30-23 in 2020 and 38-10 in 2023 - Allen had a total of six rushes for six yards. Additionally, Crosby did sack Allen in the 2020 game.

Admittedly, those games came under the Jon Gruden and Antonio Pierce administrations, which may as well be ancient history for Las Vegas at this point, but as they try to snap a two-game skid against one of the league's elite teams, the Raiders will likely take hope anywhere they can find it.