Bills 41-31 Lions: Josh Allen’s five touchdowns open the new Highmark Stadium

By Jack Shaw · Highmark Stadium, Orchard Park, New York · Published: 08:00 BST

• The Buffalo Bills beat the Detroit Lions 41-31 on Thursday night in the first game ever played at the new Highmark Stadium.
• Josh Allen accounted for five touchdowns, three thrown, two run, and, per CBS Sports, added 69 rushing yards on 14 carries without committing a single turnover.
• ProFootballTalk records it as Allen’s 10th career game with at least two passing and two rushing touchdowns; Steve Young is second on that all-time list with four.

Bills 41-31 Lions was decided long before Detroit worked out what was happening to them. Buffalo scored touchdowns on each of their first four possessions, led 27-10 at half-time and opened their new stadium with the kind of night that turns a quarterback’s season into an MVP campaign in September.

Bills 41-31 Lions: how the new Highmark Stadium got its first night

This was the Week 2 Thursday Night Football game, and CBS Sports had billed it in advance as the highest-scoring matchup on the card, an over/under of 54.5, four full points clear of anything else that week.

It landed at 72. Allen had already thrown for two scores and run for two more in Buffalo’s 36-31 comeback win at Houston seven days earlier; here he went one better, with Josh Palmer’s 43-yard touchdown catch making it 14-0 and James Cook III grinding out 135 yards and a score from 21 carries behind him.

Buffalo did it shorthanded, too.

Defensive lineman Ed Oliver was ruled out after hurting his hip in the pre-game warm-up, and new signing DJ Moore, 100 receiving yards on debut in Houston, left in the second quarter with a shoulder injury and a stinger, went for X-rays and did not return.

For the full chronological timeline of Week 2 and how the rest of the slate shapes up, follow the rolling NFL coverage on JOE Sport.

Josh Allen through two games:
🦬 674 total yards
🦬 5 passing TDs
🦬 4 rushing TDs

And the @BuffaloBills are 2-0. pic.twitter.com/X1nFDu3Iux

— NFL (@NFL) September 18, 2026

The expert angle: Detroit’s defence is now their whole season

The uncomfortable truth for the Lions is that this was not an ambush – it was a repeat.

Detroit have now conceded 30 and 41 points in back-to-back games.

In Week 1 they built a 21-0 lead in New Orleans and then watched Tyler Shough throw for 410 yards and three touchdowns before they scraped home in overtime.

That day they forced three turnovers and sacked him five times, which flattered the scoreboard. On Thursday, the turnovers did not come, Allen was protected, and the whole thing fell in.

CBS Sports’ verdict is blunt: the panic level is high, and this is a roster with good defenders rather than a good defence.

Aidan Hutchinson is a genuinely elite edge rusher. He had one of Detroit’s two sacks of Allen, and Jack Campbell is among the league’s most productive inside linebackers.

Neither can cover a receiver who is standing on his own in the secondary. Detroit’s defence kept them out of the playoffs last season; two weeks into this one, nothing has changed.

Buffalo’s problem is the opposite and far nicer: they have the best player on the field most weeks, and CBS already has Allen making an early case for MVP.

So, are the Lions a contender with a fixable flaw, or a very good offence that will be found out again in January?

If you are catching up on the NFL’s globe-trotting start to the season, read our piece on the league’s first game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.