Hapless Bills Fan

I'm surprised we don't have more votes for "Shut up, Giuseppe; this is obviously just another "Josh Allen sucks in front of home fans" thread disguised as something else." yet. Y'all are sleeping. Get on it!

I said "Overall I agree with McD yesterday that the D did enough to give us a chance to win.' I'm not exculpating the offense, which was bad, and we ARE asking why we weren't up by more than 10 at the half, especially starting with great field position on the first drive and only coming away with a FG But Pitts started in the first half from 25, 20, 13, 7, 45 yds (that last the result of a fumble): average 22 yds Pitts started in the second half from 25, 36, 48, 25 yds: average 33 yds Point is they had a drive starting from great field position in the 1st half and the defense held They really only had one drive with awful starting field position in the 2nd half, due to some very strange 4th down decisions and playcalls. More than one thing can be true at once It can be true that the Offense was bad, AND true that the Defense wasn't nearly as good in the 2nd half Why isn't that fair game to discuss without calling it "nonsense"?

I would love to look at the screens we tried but don't have time to go all through the film. Can you point me approximately which drives we tried screens? With regard to Singletary, I think you have a good source of stats so I'm sure that's correct. It's true that Singletary's longer runs of 15 and 25 but I also think that may be misleading. Singletary had 5 rush attempts in the 1st half: "up the middle" 8 yds LT 2 yds LG 6 yds LT 1 yd LT 1 yd It's not a lot of data but I see a pattern there. It looks like maybe Devin was gaining yards between the tackles, and not gaining a lot trying to run outside. I kinda think that fits what people have said that he's not fast enough to run outside, and his best rushes will be between the tackles. The overall YPA was 3.6, which moves the chains Maybe try a little more?

I guess it depends upon whether he just needs to refocus his mind/game prep or if he needs to improve his S&C as well A week of focus will do it for the mentals S&C 2 weeks minimum to get something back, at least 4 weeks to get closer to peak

Like Katrina and the Waves

Ai Yi Yi. Do you think this will re-focus him? Overall I agree with McD yesterday that the D did enough to give us a chance to win. But did anyone ask Frazier about what happened in the 2nd half where Pittsburgh scored on Every. Single. Drive. ? We need a defense that plays 60 minutes, not 30

Sing the Shout! song twice and go forth and sin no more.

Davis had 2 receptions on 5 targets, and arguably missed a couple catches he could have hauled in. That's a lower percentage than Sanders 4 of 8.

Again...will anyone ask him WHY he thought those plays were the right call against a Pitts D that was pinning its ears back and penetrating quickly all game? YES.

I hope McDermott has a come-to-Jesus meeting with Daboll and shifts his focus. That simply begs the question of why, if execution is the issue, you don't shift your thinking and try something else you might execute better against that D.

Yes, we know. What we don't know is why Daboll thought that was a good play selection with Josh Allen under center and an OL that had been blocking no one all game.

He didn't say Dawkins wasn't being impacted by anything. IMHO Dawkins showed up to OTAs fat and out of condition. If he's not being impacted by Covid, he could have returned to his previous fat and out of condition state.

Diggs is a 6 year veteran coming off 3 consecutive seasons. Davis is a promising 2nd year player coming off a rookie season with under 600 receiving yards, 56.5% catch %, and 5% drops. He blocks well and has made some superior, game-changing sideline catches, but has also dropped balls that hit him in the hands at crucial times (see: Ravens playoff game) He's got a great attitude by all accounts and will continue to develop, but he's not carrying Diggs shoestrings much less his jock for release and route running savvy and ability to get open or make tough catches in coverage. Sanders had 4 catches on 8 targets. McDermott specifically mentioned Sanders in his post-game presser, saying positive things about his abilities but also saying that practice time is important so that he can build timing and rappore with Josh (Sanders did not practice much in training camp due to "foot" and was limited all last week with "foot"). I view that as a gentle warning shot across Sanders bow, that if he is dogging practice with the foot that needs to stop.

from Sal Capaccio If you click on the top tweet (might need to right click and "open in new tab" on a computer) it should take you there. He's got a nifty diagram with moving circles to show what happened.

We only had 1 turnover, so I'm unclear on how we would have needed 3 takeaways for the turnover battle. The blocked punt is a different issue. I think BadOl's point is that we had our opportunities - Edmunds had his hands on a deflected ball, Tre White had a pick - but for different reasons didn't "seal the deal". I thought the PI on White was ticky-tack, and arguably not White's fault, but Edmunds needs to haul that in.

I think Allen has the very highest regard for Daboll as an OC and a man. I think they're bonded.

Would Josh's Jaqs and a replay of the Houston pitch to Knox do as well? Well don't hold out for the highest price, get that Jonah the hell out of there pronto!

Of course we do. Back in the Superbowl days it would get quiet as a church when the Bills had the ball. Well, a relatively noisy church, but you get the idea.

Yes, This. Also people like to talk about "fumbling issues" as though they're a single cause. They aren't. There are three categories of fumbling issues: 1) Allen fumbling as a runner 2) Allen fumbling on a QB-C exchange 3) Allen fumbling on a strip sack Allen worked pretty diligently on 1) in 2019 after he had 3 fumbles in the Eagles game and 2 in the Washington game, and learned to tuck it into the "Bills claw" and put his second arm over it when anticipating contact or in traffic. Allen back-slid on this last season and yesterday, and it needs to be re-addressed, Pronto. Once he has made his decision to run, he can not carry the ball in his hand, like bait, daring the defense to emerge from the astroturf and smack at it. The QB-C exchange usually gets chalked up to Allen as a fumble but it may not be his fault, and needs to be addressed with both C and QB The strip sack fumbles are probably never going to be eliminated. They're pretty much the cost of doing business with a QB who tries to extend the play and avoid the throw-away as much as Allen does. But they can be reduced by emphasizing "throw it away, live for the next down".

This is where small individual decisions can snowball. The decision was made off-season to move on from Lee Smith, the prototypical Extra Blocker who can catch if the D loses track of him. OK, fine. But Knox still isn't fit to carry Smith's jockstrap as a blocker. Knox can block OK if he's sure who to block, but needing to diagnose a defense and decide who his assignment is after the snap eluded him last season and while he's thinking, the guy he's supposed to block is tackling the RB for a loss or chasing the QB around like a chicken. They kept Tommy Sweeney as the more prototypical blocking-type TE, but he hardly played. Then the decision was made to scratch Zach Moss, the better blocking RB by far, in favor of Breida. I'm not sure Breida can block. Singletary was kept in to block at times. I saw him looking about frantically for someone to block at least once while Ingram was sailing by to his L. If "we need help blocking inline or in the backfield" is the question, I'm not sure Singletary is the answer. Basically, if the need is for extra blockers or for a bit of extra help, the extra hands solution is a good one. But our OL was just getting their asses sliced off and handed to them, and the extra hands we needed were either inactive or not seeing the field. This is what has to happen, along with running. If the DL is going to tee off and get after us because they're not worried about quick passes or runs - then give them quick passes and runs! Yep. McDermott has a reputation for not staying down - for responding to a loss by digging deep and figuring it out. We will see if he shows that here.

What's Your Pont? He's 44-21 overall, meaning he must be a fairly miserable 6-21 when not leading at the half. Are you arguing McVay is usually unable to make adjustments and bring a team back from behind?

And to your point.....after that 13-3 season the Rams went 9-7 and everyone was saying "McVay has been solved, he's a one-trick pony, he can't or won't adjust" A 18-32 loss to Green Bay last year in the Division round only furthered that narrative. Now McVay thumps a Dalton-QB'd Bears team and he's a super-genius again. Yeah, it's so much better if we throw 3 straight deep incomplete passes and punt. The idea is if you take what the defense gives you and start shredding them underneath, they adjust to stop that and loosen up on the longer stuff. Allen did this on his drives vs. GB in preseason. Yesterday, Nope. The deep passes would be OK if Allen hits them, but that's been a struggle for him since his rookie year.

The blocked punt is my fault. I came in just at kickoff from hiking/working in the garden in near-90 degree weather. All through the rather dull first half, I was peeling rolls of black sweat/dirt/insect repellent. Speaking of repellent, it certainly was. So partway into halftime I took a shower. I left the room to a 10-zip lead and came back to a 20-10 thrashing. Henceforth I shall take my fan duties more seriously. I shed black skin rolls as need be like an inebriated reptile undergoing ecdysis and ignore all disparagement of my hygiene habits. Moulting onto the upholstry is the least I can do for our guys. As long as I still have beer.

It's been pointed out elsewhere that Allen almost certainly noted the Steelers Offside on that 4th down play, and thought he had a free play. Allen's judgement is usually sound there. But the Zebras didn't agree with him. You could see him making his case after the play. The questionable decision making IMO was more around the go for it/don't go for it decisions. And that 4th and 1 call, given the rest of the game that had unfolded, was a ridiculous play call. If you don't want Allen to do it hand it off to Gillislee.

I don't trust PFF line blocking grades, ever since Eric Wood did a piece where he discussed some details with examples. Wish I could find it. One example was a play where a guy was Incognito's assignment. Cog completely whiffed, Wood got a piece of him going by. The Bills won, so Wood described how he and 'Cog were laughing after the game "as you do if you win" about how PFF would tag Wood with the mistake. And they did. Dawkins or Morse could have been whiffing guys they were supposed to block and having it rung up to Feliciano by PFF. I'm not saying they did, but I'm not saying they didn't, either.