Josh Allen added to his MVP resume on Sunday as he accounted for four touchdowns in the Buffalo Bills’ 48-42 win over the Detroit Lions on the road. 

The Bills moved to 11-3 on the season, while the Lions are now 12-2. 

Allen, the MVP frontrunner in Vegas, threw for 362 yards on 23-of-34 passing with two passing touchdowns. But the first two scores for Buffalo in this one came on the ground for Allen, who had 11 carries for 68 yards. 

Buffalo got off to a 14-0 start at a tough Ford Field as Allen orchestrated back-to-back touchdown drives in which he scored from one yard out and four yards out, respectively. 

Jared Goff and the Lions, though, are one of the best offenses in the league, and you knew they were going to respond somehow.

On the Lions’ third drive, Goff found Tim Patrick after scrambling out of the pocket, and he used his entire wingspan to get the ball across the goal line to make it a 14-7 game. 

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But James Cook, who had two touchdowns and 105 yards rushing on 14 carries, found the end zone for the first time on the ensuing drive to maintain the gap.

It’s what the Bills did all game long: maintaining the lead despite how many times the Lions scored. 

Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs runs for a first down against Buffalo Bills cornerback Christian Benford during the first half at Ford Field in Detroit. (IMAGN)

And they got in six times as Goff threw for a whopping 494 yards and five touchdowns on 38-of-59 passing. 

Amon-Ra St. Brown, his trusty target, had 14 catches to account for 193 of those yards with a score on a 66-yard catch-and-run, and Jahmyr Gibbs tallied one on the ground and one through the air. 

Goff even threw a touchdown to offensive lineman Dan Skipper from nine yards out as offensive coordinator Ben Johnson pulled out all the stops to get back into the game. 

But Allen and the Bills would reciprocate the scores, with Ray Davis and Khalil Shakir accounting for Allen’s passing touchdowns on the day. 

Ty Johnson, Cook’s backup, was also the leading receiver for Buffalo with 114 yards on five catches.

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen scrambles out of the pocket against the Detroit Lions. (Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images)

For the Lions, Sam LaPorta had 111 yards on seven catches and Gibbs finished with 83 yards.

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The Lakers were, again, the Lakers — the version from early this season that made optimism seem nothing like foolishness.

For two-and-a-half quarters Sunday night against Memphis, they completely shed the baggage of the past two weeks. The long road miles, the stagnant offense, the physical bruises from losses to bigger, tougher teams all gone.

LeBron James was back, looking like the version of himself that starred this summer in the Olympics. The passes zipped, his feet moved and his control was unquestioned.

This was the team JJ Redick had in the first weeks of the season and the team the Lakers had been desperately trying to recapture in a brutal stretch since.

And then Zach Edey chopped down and pulled on Anthony Davis’ left shoulder, and everything felt like it could change.

Davis went to the locker room, the Lakers’ offense stalled, their defense wasn’t as ferocious and their 20-point lead was more than cut in half.

An easy night suddenly got tough.

But instead of folding in the face of pressure like they have so many times over the previous 10 games, the Lakers showed toughness. Davis returned in the fourth quarter. Austin Reaves, bloody from an elbow to the mouth, still fought. Max Christie still defended. James still raced around the court.

The Lakers beat Memphis 116-110 in a game the Grizzlies never led. They set the tone physically, they executed offensively, and Davis dominated, tying season highs with 40 points and 16 rebounds.

James, in his first game back after missing the last two, had 18 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Reaves had 19 points and eight assists.

Jaren Jackson Jr. led Memphis with 25 points before fouling out. Ja Morant scored 20, but he needed 21 shots, with Christie playing one of the best defensive games of his career.

It doesn’t ultimately matter where James spent the last week. It does, though, matter where he wasn’t — with the Lakers. And when he came back, LeBron James, again, looked like LeBron James.

His first points came on a thunderous one-handed dunk. He immediately followed up with a trademark block from behind. And his next hoop came on an acrobatic tip-in, his athleticism on display even in Year 22.

But the other changes were more subtle, the signs of James being mentally refreshed just as obvious.

He popped off the bench to engage with his team during the first quarter, shouting instructions. He sprinted the floor to try and get another highlight slam only to be waived off by Reaves, who patiently probed and found a cutting Davis for a bucket.

“Nice pass,” James said on the way back down the court, his cut drawing the defense, the kind of play that doesn’t show up in a box score.

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Before the game, Redick said he and James spoke about the veteran taking time away from the team a week ago before James missed the Lakers’ win against Portland. The break was a chance for James to get physically right with his ailing left foot as much as it was for James to get mentally reset a quarter of the way through the season.

“I played 15 [seasons] and was emotionally, mentally, physically drained, fried. I put everything I had into this game,” Redick said. “I had nothing left. For guys like him and [Chris Paul], Tom Bradys of the world, the Roger Federers of the world, it’s hard to comprehend having that level of sustained excellence for so long, because of the toll that it takes on all of you, not just your body.”

The Lakers will all get another break, not playing again until Thursday in Sacramento.

NORTHVILLE, Mich. — Fahad Yousif is two days removed from receiving something called a Certificate of Completion from the National Football League. It is dated Dec. 12. It is signed by Ari Novick, Ph.D., a licensed psychotherapist with a private practice in Laguna Beach, Calif. It is numbered “Cert #216932,” meaning 216,931 others presumably have received such an honor. It cost $250 — the fee Yousif paid for a four-hour course covering about eight or nine chapters of fan behavior expectations in NFL stadiums. 

He holds up his phone to show me. 

“I can’t believe it came to this,” he says. 

This is what happens when it all goes too far. Yousif is the Detroit Lions fan who decided to chirp at the Green Bay Packers sideline during pregame festivities at Ford Field last weekend. Some choice words (no swearing, he makes clear) were followed by drawing his thumb across his neck, making a slashing motion. That, it turns out, was a terrible, terrible idea. Because to some, notably Packers coach Matt LaFleur, what started as some mouthy fan talking trash had crossed over to a raving madman making a threat. LaFleur fired back at Yousif. Yousif, smiling wildly, yelled back at LaFleur. Security got involved. 

Yousif was on the field as a perk of his ticket package. Allowed to choose one add-on bonus for the 2024 season, he opted to be one of those fans who pull a giant American flag taut across the field during the pregame national anthem. Instead, security escorted him off the field before the anthem ever began.

The dust-up went viral. Yousif, after returning to his seat, was ejected from Ford Field before halftime. Then LaFleur spoke about the incident in the postgame news conference, saying Detroit’s pregame activities should’ve been policed better. On Wednesday, the Lions revoked Yousif’s season tickets. Then he was banned from attending NFL games. Every day brought new waves of coworkers and old friends texting, “Did I see you on TV?” and media requests. Yousif took each opportunity to acknowledge he was in the wrong and apologize. Everyone, including Yousif, more or less agreed that he went too far out there. 

Near the end of the week, the Lions and the league offered a path forward. The stadium ban would be lifted, Yousif was told, if he completed the code of conduct class and wrote a formal apology. 

Now, here we are. It’s Saturday afternoon, nearly a week removed from the incident, and nearly 24 hours until the Lions host the Buffalo Bills in the NFL’s marquee game this weekend. Yousif accepted an invitation to meet at a Starbucks in Metro Detroit. 

Maybe this could be about life in the blast radius of a viral moment. 

Or it could be about nearly missing out on what might end up as the greatest season in Lions history. 

Or about contrition. 

Or second chances.

But then Yousif is asked about what he nearly lost. 

“Oh, man, everything,” he says. “This is who I am, and, you know, I almost lost that. I don’t dismiss any of the criticism I’ve gotten. None of it. I agree with most of it.

“I was blessed with an honor to hold the flag of a country I love. I crossed the line and it shouldn’t have happened. I get where people are coming from. I can’t believe this happened.”

Yousif is a lot of things. He’s a product of Metro Detroit’s vast Chaldean community — a first-generation American born to a father from Iraq and a mother from Kuwait. He’s an older sibling to two brothers. He’s a Wayne State University graduate. He’s a sales associate for a Midwest automotive tools company. He’s a husband to wife Gabby.

What he most identifies as, though, is as a Lions fan. 

Yousif grew up speaking only Arabic at home. He tried everything to fit in at school and came to feel most comfortable talking about football. He says that, growing up attending Farmington Hills public schools, he’d introduce himself by saying, “Hi, I’m Fahad. I’m a big Lions fan.” 

Yousif ignored pleas from his father, Saad, to play soccer. He instead lined up at defensive end and linebacker through middle school and into high school. He scored tickets to his first game at Ford Field in 2013. He and an older cousin began attending four or five games a year. 

“It was so natural,” Yousif says. “It was like, this is where we’re from, this is who we root for. Root for the Lions, no matter what.”

Yousif grew to learn and understand the game more and more, but, like so many others, fell into the same trap that’s befallen generations of Lions fans. He believed. 

“Oh, the Matt Patricia era, bro,” he says now, fighting through a laugh, “I totally bought the hype.” 

But like all those generations of Lions fans, something came from that belief. Shared experience. Yousif convinced his father to start rooting for the Lions. He sold the dream. “This is the year.” Soon, Yousif stopped attending games, choosing instead to watch them at his dad’s house. Two chairs. Big-screen TV. Standing appointment. 

“Every year, he got more and more into it,” Yousif says. “He finally got it, and it kinda changed our whole relationship. Those years weren’t very good for the Lions, but, you know, they were good for us.” 

The Dan Campbell era in Detroit began in 2021 with the franchise trading star quarterback Matthew Stafford for Jared Goff. Yousif called his father the minute the news broke. It was mid-March. Saad, at 65, was newly retired and ready to get aboard his next ride as a Lions fan.  

Six weeks later, Yousif got word that his father was feeling sick. He entered the hospital. He was placed on a ventilator.

“It was so quick,“ Yousif says. “Within 10 days, he was dead.” 

Yousif hasn’t mentioned any of this through his numerous media appearances this week. Viral moments don’t afford time. That, and his story doesn’t excuse what happened last week. 

“It still shouldn’t have happened,” he says. “I was also a big pro wrestling fan growing up and I think I’ve got some of that in my personality. I root for the heel.” 

That personality, you can be certain, is big. Yousif is the loudest person in the coffee shop by a wide margin. He speaks like he’s drinking jet fuel. One customer has closed his laptop and moved to a far table. But Yousif can’t really seem to help it. He seems to only operate with excitement and emotion and in equal proportions. 

Until he talks about these last few Lions seasons. After his father’s death, Yousif wasn’t sure he could watch the Lions anymore. Every game was tied to loss, no matter the outcome. Saying this, he gets caught, and pauses, jaw clenched, cheeks trembling. 

The 2021 season came and went. He watched games in 2022 at home with an empty seat for his dad. Before 2023, he decided to make the big move. Season tickets. Lower bowl. Section 141, 33 rows up. 

He watched his team go 12-5 and win the NFC North last season. 

“I know it sounds crazy — really, I do — but it’s felt like Dad being like, yo, it’s OK, I got you,” he says. “I’ve been telling people these last few years that he’s got his hands all over this. I found a lot of comfort in that. I think he heard me say I didn’t want to watch the Lions anymore. He wanted to make it easier.” 

Now Yousif is rooting for football’s unlikeliest juggernaut. The Lions are 12-1 and current favorites to do it — something so unthinkable that we won’t even say it.

Neither he nor anyone else can quite wrap their heads around what is all playing out. Yousif says he admits his mistake, and accepts the punishment, but also believes LaFleur overreacted and perhaps this all never needed to escalate so much. He’s hoping for another Lions-Packers matchup in the playoffs. 

He plans to be there for it. Just as he plans to be in the stands for Lions-Bills. A massive group of longtime season ticket holders who operate a tailgate out of Eastern Market invited him to Sunday’s tailgate. There might be an available ticket for him.  

While his season tickets are gone, apparently forever, Yousif can still go see his team. 

So he’ll go be a fan.

He doesn’t know how to be anything else. 

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photos: Nic Antaya / Getty Images; Courtesy of Fahed Yousif)