Inglewood, Ca. – The Buffalo Bills had no business getting within touching distance of a win on Sunday after their defense allowed points on six of the Los Angeles Rams’ first seven possessions.

But the Bills (10-3) have superstar Josh Allen, who was on pace to set another NFL record. When Allen rushed into the end zone with just under a minute to play, he became the first player ever to score and throw for three touchdowns in a single game.

Despite Allen’s six touchdowns, the Bills had a huge mistake just before his final touchdown and lost a thriller to the Rams 44-42.

Bills receiver Amari Cooper called an offensive pass interference penalty on the Rams for a 1st-and-goal at the 1-yard line with 1:06 to play. Buffalo had all three timeouts and they would need them all if they were going to score because they trailed by nine points, 44-35.

With the ball only a yard away, offensive coordinator Joe Brady launched a quarterback sneak to get the Bills into the end zone. There was just one problem: If Allen didn’t get into the end zone, the clock would lose valuable seconds and the Bills would be left in a conundrum. McDermott could either stop the clock with a timeout, or let the clock run out and make a quick play, or let Allen shoot the ball.

NFL legend Tom Brady was on duty for Fox and immediately disagreed with the Bills’ decision to run the ball.

“For me it’s important to throw three shots and not take a timeout,” Brady said.

The Bills played with Allen, but he was stopped just short of the goal line. Allen was stuck under the pile and the seconds started ticking. Then McDermott burned the timeout. Brady knew what everyone knew – the game was now effectively over.

“Even if they score, what’s the big deal?” Brady said. “You have to do an onside kick. I don’t like that at all. It could have cost them the game right there.”

The Bills got the ball back with a Rams punt with seven seconds left, but the punt resulted in a touchback as time expired.

Buffalo ran eight plays on its final scoring drive, which lasted just 54 seconds. McDermott made sure not to use any of his timeouts in the first six games. He said after the game that the decision to burn one on first down from the one-yard line after the Allen quarterback run was because time was running out and Allen was under the pile.

“They’re in a pile, number one,” McDermott said. “It’s in the stack, unloading the stack and getting back on the line takes some time. Regardless of whether you make it to that point, just to get up from the pile and do all of that is going to take longer than you would like in that situation.”

Even if the Bills took 20 or 30 seconds after the run, a touchdown on the next play would mean they could get the ball back if they stopped the Rams since they would still have had three timeouts.

So why run the ball when a defensive stop by the Rams on the play forces the Bills into the situation of deciding whether to call the timeout at all?

Brady said the Bills should have just passed the ball. McDermott said he’s thought about it.

“I feel pretty good that Josh got that one yard,” McDermott said. “It’s not just him, he was really good at it, we were really good at it. We tried our best to convert, as we always do in situations like this, but we just couldn’t, so it was what it was.”

Allen totaled 424 yards of offense and the Bills became the first team to lose a game by scoring at least six touchdowns and zero turnovers. The teams were previously 245-0 at this point.

Bills left guard David Edwards said he didn’t do a good enough job getting Allen in on the first run.

“We trust Sean and the coaches to put us in good positions, and I thought it was on me that we didn’t put ourselves in the end zone there,” Edwards said. “I felt like they did a good job defensively of putting us in our place and having the drive to step up in that situation. It’s difficult because you’re at the bottom and you can only control so much down there.”

Despite setting an NFL scoring record with his six touchdowns, Allen said he had to make the play and find a way into the end zone on the first try. He also said that in theory it probably would have been better to save the time off.

“But it’s the middle of battle and I have to find a way to get into the end zone,” Allen said. “We had to fight. That’s a good defensive front we played. Here, too, I just had to find more finishes to get better for our boys.”