Adding Cooper among reasons Allen looks forward to 100th start, as Bills set to host Titans

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Josh Allen had many reasons to wear a beaming grin in opening his weekly news conference in advance of the Bills quarterback's 100th start.

Buffalo (4-2) is coming off a win over the New York Jets to snap a two-game skid and expand its AFC East lead. After three straight weeks on the road, the Bills are finally back home to host the Tennessee Titans (1-4) on Sunday.

And Allen’s offense just got a boost with receiver Amari Cooper acquired in a trade with Cleveland on Tuesday.

“It’s been a pretty good couple of days,” said Allen, who has a record of 67-32.

“We all know about the story about where I came from, junior college and no offers and this and that,” Allen said, referring to his modest beginnings at California’s Reedley Community College before landing a scholarship at Wyoming.

“It’s gone by really fast. And it still feels like I’m that same kid that dreamt of playing in the NFL,” he added. “And I get to live out my dream. It’s something I’ll never take for granted.”

Though Buffalo ended a 17-year playoff drought in 2017 in coach Sean McDermott’s first season, Allen’s arrival in 2018 marked a turning point in the Bills' trajectory. They went from mere afterthought to annual contender with five straight playoff appearances and four straight AFC East titles.

Long forgotten are the dark days of the drought, which went back to the “Music City Miracle,” a 22-16 wild-card playoff loss to Tennessee on Jan. 1, 2000. The Titans won on a kickoff return in the final seconds, when Frank Wycheck lateralled to Kevin Dyson, who ran it in from 75 yards.

Though the Titans have made four playoff appearances spanning 2017-2021, the tables have turned with Tennessee experiencing the challenges of transitioning under a new coach, Brian Callahan, and second-year quarterback, Will Levis.

The Titans are 7-22 since a 7-3 start to the 2022 season. Levis is 0-4 in games he starts and finishes this season, and has more interceptions — a league-high seven — than touchdowns (five), while coming off a 20-17 loss to Indianapolis in which he went 16 of 27 for 95 yards.

“I certainly didn’t envision us being in this particular place,” Callahan said. “And we’re going to find out how resilient we are. And that’s all part of it. That’s part of playing quarterback in the NFL.”

Tennessee's offseason addition of Calvin Ridley hasn’t helped, with the receiver limited to nine catches on 27 targets.

“I don’t know off the top of my head,” Levis said of how many his attempts to Ridley were off target on Sunday. “It’s not something that we can point fingers at or whose fault it is. But I can be better. I know he can be better.”

Allen has had to adapt in opening the season with a patchwork group of receivers following the offseason departures of Stefon Diggs and Gab Davis. Though his passing production is down to 193 yards per outing, 48 below his career average entering the year, Allen’s yet to throw an interception and accounts for 13 (10 passing, three rushing) of Buffalo’s 20 TDs.

“You see a night like that where there’s nothing, quote-unquote, sexy about what he did, but, man, he was so efficient,” coordinator Joe Brady said, referring to Buffalo beating the Jets. “At the end of the day, we got Josh Allen as our quarterback. Good things are going to happen.”

The Titans defense ranks first in the NFL against the pass, and has yet to allow more than 200 yards in an outing. On the downside, the Titans' first interception came last week with Amani Hooker picking off Joe Flacco. The Titans have just nine sacks, and getting Allen down quickly isn’t easy.

“He’s one of the best in the league and he’s been consistent at what he’s done,” safety Quandre Diggs said. “And obviously you want to keep him in the pocket, but that’s easier said than done.”

The Titans’ young offensive line took one big step by not allowing a sack last week. That ended a run of 33 games of giving up at least one sack going back to a win over Buffalo on Oct. 18, 2021.

“We know that there are still a lot of things to fix, and we’re going against another really good front with some guys who want to get after the passer," second-year left guard Peter Skoronski said. “I think we’re confident but not relaxed.”

The Bills are running out of patience with Tyler Bass' accuracy issues after the kicker missed his third field-goal and second extra-point attempt of the season on Monday. Buffalo signed Lucas Havrisik to its practice squad on Thursday, a day after general manager Brandon Beane put Bass on notice.

“We want nothing more than Tyler to be our guy,” Beane said. “But this is a production business and he knows he's got to make those kicks. ... And if there's a better option that we have to turn to, then we'll do that.”

AP Pro Football Writer Teresa M. Walker contributed.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan calls a play during the first half of an NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis throws during the first half of an NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Amari Cooper (18) looks on during NFL football practice in Orchard Park, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Amari Cooper (18) catches a pass during NFL football practice in Orchard Park, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) scrambles away from New York Jets defensive end Solomon Thomas (94) during the first half of an NFL football game in East Rutherford, N.J., Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades.

The settlement with 1,353 people who allege that they were abused by local Catholic priests is the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, according to experts. The accusers were able to sue after California approved a law that opened a three-year window in 2020 for cases that exceeded the statute of limitations.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has previously paid $740 million to victims. With the settlement announced Wednesday, the total payout will be more than $1.5 billion.

Attorneys still need to get approval for the settlement from all plaintiffs to finalize it, the Plaintiffs’ Liaison Committee said.

The agreement brings to an end most sexual abuse litigation against the largest archdiocese in the United States, though a few lawsuits against the church are still pending, attorneys for the victims say.

Here are some things to know about the settlement:

Negotiations began in 2022, lead plaintiff attorney Morgan Stewart said Thursday.

Attorneys wanted their clients to get the highest settlement possible while allowing the archdiocese to survive financially, Steward said. California is one of at least 15 states that have extended the window for people to sue institutions over long-ago abuse, leading to thousands of new cases that have forced several archdioceses to declare bankruptcy, including San Francisco and Oakland.

California's law also allowed triple damages in cases where abuse resulted from a “cover-up” of previous assaults by an employee or volunteer.

“One of our goals was to avoid the bankruptcy process that has befallen so many other dioceses,” Stewart said.

The plaintiffs were abused 30, 40, or 50 years ago, Steward said.

“These survivors have suffered for decades in the aftermath of the abuse,” Stewart told the Los Angeles Times. “Dozens of the survivors have died. They are aging, and many of those with knowledge of the abuse within the church are too. It was time to get this resolved.”

The archdiocese has pledged to better protect its church members while paying hundreds of millions of dollars in various settlements.

Archbishop José H. Gomez apologized in a statement.

“My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered,” the archbishop added. “I believe that we have come to a resolution of these claims that will provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses.”

Gomez said that the new settlement would be paid through “reserves, investments and loans, along with other archdiocesan assets and payments that will be made by religious orders and others named in the litigation.”

More than 300 priests who worked in the archdiocese in Los Angeles have been accused of sexually abusing minors over decades.

One of those priests was Michael Baker, who was convicted of child molestation in 2007 and paroled in 2011. In 2013, the archdiocese agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle four cases alleging abuse by the now-defrocked priest.

Confidential files show that Baker met with then-Archbishop Roger Mahony in 1986 and confessed to molesting two boys over a nearly seven-year period.

Mahony removed Baker from ministry and sent him for psychological treatment, but the priest returned to ministry and was allowed to be alone with boys. The priest wasn’t removed from ministry until 2000 after serving in nine parishes.

Authorities believe that Baker molested more than 40 children during his years as a priest, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The church now enforces strict background and reporting requirements on priests and has extensive training programs for staff and volunteers to protect young people, said Gomez, who succeeded Mahony after he retired as archbishop of Los Angeles in 2011. Mahony remains a cardinal.

“Today, as a result of these reforms, new cases of sexual misconduct by priests and clergy involving minors are rare in the Archdiocese,” Gomez told the Los Angeles Times. “No one who has been found to have harmed a minor is serving in ministry at this time. And I promise: We will remain vigilant.”

As part of the new settlement, the archdiocese will disclose more of the files it kept that documented abuse by priests.

“I’m not excusing anything, but the fact remains that today the archdiocese is a much, much different place than it was 40, 50, 60 years ago,” said Kirk Dillman, an attorney representing the archdiocese. “The understanding of abuse is much different and more sophisticated than it was then. So we have put in place programs beginning in the 1990s, zero-tolerance policy.”

FILE - People attend a memorial service outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Television news crews report the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)