What makes Josh Allen so dangerous? Inside his top rushing touchdowns

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- The Buffalo Bills were looking to put away the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 11. Leading 37-32 with 2:42 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Bills moved the ball to the Buccaneers' 9-yard line.

On second-and-5, quarterback Josh Allen took the snap in shotgun formation, glanced quickly to his left toward running back James Cook III and then plowed forward behind left tackle Dion Dawkins, needling his way past three defenders and into the end zone.

Allen laughed as he landed in the end zone, got up and spiked the football himself despite typically handing the ball to an offensive lineman.

The score made history. It was Allen's sixth touchdown and third rushing score of that game. It marked his 75th touchdown with his legs but also made him the second player in NFL history with three passing and three rushing touchdowns in two games. It has been done only one other time (Otto Graham, 1954).

Allen, 29, tied Cam Newton for the most regular-season rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in NFL history. When the Bills face the Houston Texans on "Thursday Night Football" (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video), the record could very well be taken -- no easy task against the Texans, one of three teams to not give up a rushing score to a quarterback.

Over the eight years of Allen's career, he has become the face of the Bills franchise and led Buffalo to six playoff appearances, breaking countless records. While the list of dynamic quarterbacks who can run effectively has grown over the years, Allen's size and ability to evade defenders has made his success unique. As the reigning MVP prepares to reach his latest mark, we break down what makes him so dangerous with his legs and some of his favorite runs.

RUNNING WASN'T ALWAYS a part of Allen's game.

"[During high school] he couldn't run. I don't know where he got his legs," former Firebaugh High School and Reedley College assistant coach Aaron Wilkins said.

Allen told ESPN that he credits his ability to run during his time at Reedley.

"Honestly, my first few starts in junior college, I ran for a lot of touchdowns (10 total), but it was so unusual because in high school I was so slow, so I don't know," Allen said. "I think it was just the act of actually working out and living on my own and just eating as much as I could and focusing on one sport allowed me, I think, to maybe grow some muscle and become a better runner."

A broken collarbone in 2015 left him with plenty of time in the weight room, and former Wyoming offensive coordinator Brent Vigen described him as a "completely different guy physically," from the summer of 2015 to the following summer.

"He must have had a bad offensive line in Pop Warner. He was slow back then," Vigen told ESPN. "... He probably didn't become fast until his second year of college."

Allen had 142 carries for 523 yards and seven touchdowns in 2016 and 92 carries for 204 yards and five touchdowns in 2017. Former Wyoming teammate James Price noted Allen's 7-yard touchdown, in which he eluded three defenders, against Northern Illinois in triple overtime to open 2016 with a win as "kind of like the birth of his legacy."

BILLS HEAD COACH Sean McDermott noted how Allen enjoys running, but he just wants the quarterback to stay healthy. Allen's style of play over the years has certainly trended toward fewer risks and more sliding.

"I like that it presents a different challenge for defenses," Allen said. "They have to account for the quarterback run, which means you get an extra blocker in the run game and just makes them have to think about that in the back there. And even if we don't utilize it all that much, it's always the threat of being there that helps, I think, an offense out."

Through Allen's 121 career games, he has recorded the same number of rushing touchdowns as Walter Payton, Edgerrin James and Marcus Allen did in the same number of games.

Newton recorded his last rushing touchdown in his 145th game. Allen reached 75 in 121 games. His career rushing touchdowns are the second most by any player since he entered the league in 2018 behind Derrick Henry (103).

Allen has 16 rushing touchdowns using the tush push. Only Jalen Hurts, who has 61 rushing scores, has more since 2022. Of the 75, 27 have come from the 1-yard line and 71 from the red zone.

Opponents and people inside the Bills' organization note Allen's size, speed and smarts as some of his key attributes. Listed at 6-foot-5, 237 pounds, bringing the quarterback down is no easy feat.

"It's the ball fakes, the arm ability, what he can do when he throws, and then just the pure athleticism," said Bills defensive end AJ Epenesa, who played Allen in college, tackling him once and missing on another attempt. "Being 240, 50 pounds and being able to outrun linebackers to the sidelines, run people over."

Allen's willingness to engage in contact is notable. Bills defensive end Morgan Fox, who has previously played against Allen, describes him as having "a mentality to be a violent physical runner."

Miami Dolphins safety Minkah Fitzpatrick noted this year how Allen is easier to tackle when he has to go left or right rather than down the field. Bills fullback Reggie Gilliam echoed Allen's downhill running ability and how it's "just straight coming at you," with the team's blockers knowing to stay inside defenders when he runs.

Many who were polled in the Bills' locker room included Allen's fourth-and-2 rushing touchdown against the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2024 regular season among his best. Allen agreed, "Yeah, that was a good one."

What stands out about that score was the timing -- Allen coming up big, as he so often does late in games with his most rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter (25).

"Once the ball is in his hands, you really don't know what's going to happen. Sometimes that's a really good thing. Most of the time, it's a really good thing," Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady said. "You just never know if he's going to hurdle, try to run a guy over, if he's going to slide, what he's going to do. So, you always hold your breath a little bit on the playcalls, but you don't break NFL records for scoring rushing touchdowns by being average running the football. He's an absolute playmaker, dynamic, ball in his hands, good things happen."

WHAT MAKES A favorite play for Allen?

"When you break a long one, it's just a little bit different, especially when you break a couple tackles along the way, just feel pretty cool," Allen said.

Here are a few of his favorites:

Sept. 23, 2018 at Minnesota Vikings, 10-yard run.

When asked about his favorite rushing touchdowns, the first that came to mind for Allen is not surprising.

"[I] kind of go to my, I think it was my first one, against Minnesota, was the leaping one," Allen said. "That was kind of a cool one."

Josh Allen. To the house.#BUFvsMIN #GoBills pic.twitter.com/yYTG6WXtTs

Allen had two rushing touchdowns in that game for the first win of his career. It was also the first game in which he made a notable leap over a defender in stride.

Linebacker Anthony Barr, whom Allen infamously hurdled, described the game to ESPN as the quarterback's "coming-out party."

Nov. 25, 2018 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars, 14-yard run.

Josh. Allen.#JAXvsBUF #GoBills pic.twitter.com/5tAQaI3ykg

In the quarterback's return to the field after sitting out four games because of an elbow injury -- still the only games he has sat out in his career because of injury -- he made quite an impression.

On this run, Allen dropped back in the pocket before going up the middle, stiff-arming a defender and then pushing past another into the end zone.

Nov. 6, 2022 at New York Jets, 36-yard run.

Allen has long been dominant against AFC East teams with 18 of the rushing touchdowns coming in division games.

But this touchdown was actually part of a Bills' loss (20-17) to the Jets. The touchdown marked his longest regular-season rushing score.

"It was a quarterback sweep left," Allen recalled. "It was me and Mitch Morse out front and I kind of had this weird slide into the end zone and was on my head for a second. That was a fun one, too, cause it was wide open space. You don't get those too often as a quarterback."

Jan. 15, 2024 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, 52-yard run.

Though not part of his 75 regular-season scores, the rescheduled wild-card game against the Steelers in the playoffs was brought up by both Allen and a variety of Bills players.

It remains Allen's longest rushing touchdown to date as he dropped back in the pocket before finding an opening in the middle and juked his way past defenders before sprinting the rest of the way into the end zone.

"I was sitting on a bull rush, and I looked back and I just see him take off and I was like, 'OK,' and just jogging down, and I was like, 'Oh, he's still going,'" Bills offensive lineman Connor McGovern said. "And then a touchdown."