A new house, and a five-touchdown housewarming

Every building needs a first memory. The kind of night people point back to years from now and say, "I was there for that one." On Thursday, September 17, the new Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park got its first regular-season game, and Josh Allen made sure nobody would ever forget it.

Allen threw three touchdown passes, ran for two more, and the Bills beat the Detroit Lions 41-31. Five total touchdowns to break in the new place. If you were going to script an opening night for a building that cost right around 2.1 billion dollars, you'd have a hard time topping the guy who's become the face of the franchise putting up a line like that in the first game that actually counted.

For eight seasons, Allen played across the street, in the old stadium so many of us grew up freezing and cheering in. Now he's 30, he's got the new digs, and by the time the clock hit zero, folks around here already had a nickname ready. They're calling it the house that Allen built.

The one moment that got Josh Allen emotional

Here's the part that tells you who this guy is. With all the noise and shine of a first regular-season game in a brand-new stadium, the moment that actually got to Allen wasn't a touchdown. It was the anthems.

Before kickoff, with the American and Canadian national anthems playing and the Barenaked Ladies handling the Canadian one, Allen said he caught himself just taking it all in. He talked afterward about realizing how cool his job really is, calling it the best in the world. Being an NFL quarterback, he said, is "everything I ever wanted," and he added that he feels fortunate he ended up in Buffalo of all places.

That's the thing Bills fans have felt for years, said out loud by the man himself. In a league where stars so often can't wait to chase a bigger market, Allen keeps telling anyone who'll listen that he's exactly where he wants to be. On a night like this one, standing in the middle of a new stadium built to keep the team right here in Western New York, you could understand why it hit him.

Buffalo came out swinging

Whatever nerves a new building might bring, the Bills didn't show a single one. They came out and punched Detroit right in the mouth.

Allen started the scoring himself, bulling in from a yard out. Then came the backbreaker. On Buffalo's next drive, two Lions defenders converged on a receiver in the flats and left Josh Palmer running wide open down the field. Allen found him for a 43-yard touchdown, and just like that it was 13-0, then 14 after the extra point. Palmer, by the way, is the same fellow who caught the game-winner in Houston a few days earlier. He's making a habit of the big moment.

The Bills nearly had a takeaway to go with it. A tipped pass was picked off by Skyler Gill-Howard, but a holding penalty on Rock Ya-Sin wiped it away. No matter. Before the first half was over, Allen had also hit Dawson Knox on a short scoring throw and found Dalton Kincaid for another. Buffalo raced out to a 21-0 lead and took a 27-10 cushion into the break. Kincaid finished as the team's leading receiver with 95 yards on seven catches. For a stretch there, it had the makings of a rout.

Detroit made it a game

The Lions are a good football team, though, and good teams don't just roll over. Whatever got said in the Detroit locker room at halftime clearly landed, because they came out of the break looking like a different group.

Jared Goff got hot. He'd finish the night 26 of 38 for 327 yards and four touchdown passes, which is a monster stat line even in a loss. Amon-Ra St. Brown was the one who kept Detroit breathing, hauling in nine catches for 142 yards and two scores. Jahmyr Gibbs added an 11-yard touchdown grab, and tight end Sam LaPorta chipped in a short one of his own. St. Brown and Gibbs have now scored in the same game 22 times, which moved them into a tie for fourth on a list that goes all the way back through NFL history.

Detroit clawed its way back from that 21-0 hole all the way to within 34-24 in the fourth quarter. Suddenly the new stadium got a little tense. A double-digit lead can feel awfully thin when the other quarterback is slinging it around like that. It didn't help Detroit that the injuries piled up, with receiver DJ Moore and defensive back Avonte Maddox both banged up and unable to finish.

The defense showed up when it mattered

This is where the game got won. With the Lions within striking distance and the momentum swinging Detroit's way, the Buffalo defense finally slammed the window shut.

Backed up near their own goal line, the Lions went three and out at the worst possible time. Deone Walker got his hands up and tipped two of Goff's passes, Gibbs got stuffed for no gain, and Detroit had to punt the ball right back. All night the Bills got after Goff, dropping him for four sacks when it counted most.

And they did it shorthanded up front. Starting defensive lineman Ed Oliver got hurt in pregame warmups and was ruled out, which left the Bills with just four healthy linemen for the entire night. Getting four sacks and a game-sealing stop while playing a man down on the line is the kind of gritty, next-guy-up effort that wins games in September and matters even more when January rolls around.

James Cook slammed the door

When the Bills needed to put the thing away, they handed it to James Cook and let him run. And run he did.

Cook had himself a night, piling up 134 yards on the ground. The one everybody will remember came late, with the Lions still hanging around. He broke outside for a 22-yard gain, got shoved out near the goal line, and then finished the job himself, punching it in from a yard out with 2:50 left to make it a two-score game. That was the dagger.

As a team, the Bills ran for more than 200 yards and rolled up 446 total. They picked up 34 first downs and converted a ridiculous nine of their twelve third downs, scoring on all but three of their drives on the night. When you keep the chains moving like that, you keep a hot quarterback like Goff standing on the sideline in his helmet, watching.

A stat line only Josh Allen seems to produce

Let's sit with what Allen actually did, because it's the kind of thing that's easy to take for granted around here now that we get to watch it every single week.

Three touchdown passes. Two rushing touchdowns. Five total scores, 317 total yards, and zero turnovers. He was surgical when he threw it and a genuine load to bring down when he ran it. That habit of beating you with his arm and his legs in the same game is something Allen has now done more than any quarterback in the history of the league, according to NFL Research. Not tied for the most. The most.

He already owns one MVP award. Watching him open a brand-new stadium with a performance like this, plenty of folks are already talking about a second one. Two games into the season, that's a hard argument to shoot down.

Two and oh, and the barn has its first memory

So the Bills are 2-0. They opened the year with a wild 36-31 comeback win in Houston on Sunday, September 13, then came home and christened the new place with this one. Two weeks, two wins, and a building that already has a signature night on its record.

Detroit didn't go quietly, for what it's worth. The Lions even tried an onside kick late, and for a second it looked like they might come up with it, but the ball bounced right to Khalil Shakir, and a Detroit penalty handed Buffalo the first down it needed to kneel the clock out. Final tally, Bills 41, Lions 31.

Next up, the Bills host the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, September 27, another chance to make the new place feel like home. If Thursday night was any hint, opposing teams are going to dread coming to Orchard Park just as much as they did across the street.

Every stadium needs a first memory. This one got Josh Allen and five touchdowns on a Thursday night in September. Not a bad way to move in. Go Bills.