RyanC883

Now, this is not a "cancel the season," "Josh sucks," "fire this person or that person" thread. What this is, is an acknowledgement that the loss last night was bad, and totally unacceptable for a team that is a super bowl contender. The Bills are now 1-2 against teams with a record of .500 or greater, in large part due to the issues we saw on display last night. Elite teams win last night. The Bills, I think, are elite, they should have won. More details below, in no particular order!. Ideas on how to fix the below? Disagree? Let's discuss. 1. Offensive Line: This was an abysmal performance. F grade. The poor OL play was the root cause, IMO, of most of this teams issues last night. We couldn't get Josh the time needed to hit passes against the WORST deep cover team in the NFL--that was also down to a backup CB and 3rd string CB. Just totally unacceptable. We need better pass blocking, either from technique or personnel. The OL also failed to allow JA, a huge QB, the ability to gain ONE YARD twice. I can't think of another team where this happens. The Steelers and Pats** during their dominant years routinely made that play. D's knew it was coming and couldn't stop it. Oh, and JAs interception was due to a tipped ball, that's also on the OL as well as the RB who failed to bat the ball down and/or just tackle the guy before he could intercept it. Fix: I have no idea for this season other than either find someone at the trade deadline; or stop throwing the ball deep, which I hate to say, and go to more intermediate routes and an occasional deep ball. 2. DL: Yes, I get Derrick Henry is a beast. The DL was okay in controlling him for the most part, but it was totally blown open on Henry's long run, and failed to sack the most sacked QB in the league. We have no dominate pass rusher AT ALL. We were also down AJ and Basham, both of whom were inactive. The Titans also lost Lewan during the game and his replacement I think played like under 20 snaps this year. Still, no sacks. Grade: F. Fix: I think an improvement here comes from rotating the DL more often and including AJ and Basham; or finding someone at the trade deadline. 3. Secondary: What, really? Yeah. They had 2 good WR's against them, but when they had to stop 3rd and longs they seemed to be routinely beat. This is not something an elite secondary does. Fix: I think it's just an off day. I'm not too concerned here, but it was a subpar performance last night. 4. Coaching: This is a mixed bag. I loved the aggressive going for it on 4th and 1. As noted above, good/decent OLs provide space for that play. Our defense was abysmal all night. The issues I have here are those noted above: (1) why was AJ and Basham inactive; (2) why was Milano in over Klien, who can pressure a QB on 3rd and long and is likely better against Henry; (3) why can't Daboll (I know his Grandfather who raised him died, and I feel awful picking on him, but this was a season long issue here) figure out the red zone offense? And Frazier is just, really, outmatched again. At some point you need to mix up what you are doing and send pressure and stop being so freaking predictable. Finally, the most maddening thing from coaching last night is you have 2-3 all-pro WRs, against a backup and 3rd string cornerback, and you don't attack them all game with passes at all levels of the field. Stop taking the deep shots against them all the time. Drive it down 5-15 yards at a time. Tire them out, esp. with the OL incapable of blocking anyone. Fix: McD has changed his style from ultra-conservative to more aggressive, and overall it's worked. The OC and DC have MAJOR issues they need to work on, and if not fixed, perhaps replacements need to come in during the offseason. We are wasting elite QB and WR talent here, and the OL, while not great personnel wise, had a total clunker. 5. Josh: ha, had to put this in here. He was good last night. Not the reason we lost. Yeah, he missed seeing some open WR's, but he was also trying to avoid getting sacked and taking a negative play. His one interception was courtesy of the OL letting a DL tip the pass. Fix: I guess more awareness to look down the field when running for your life? Also, don't trust your OL. I know you love them, but if you have to QB sneak again, do NOT go to the left. Audible out of it. 6. RB play. Are running backs are backup level. No DC is like, "oh, Singletary and/or Moss, how do we plan to stop them." Here is how you stop them, catch them from behind if they rip off a 5 yard run. They also can't catch, and on JA's interception, the RB needed to play CB, heck, tackle the guy before he catches it and take an offensive PI, better than a turnover. Fix: trade at trade deadline, use Bredia. 7. Conclusion: I keep hearing, "we win this 8 or 9 out of 10 times." Well, interesting, look at our record v. .500 or better teams this year, and the Titans the last two times. That argument fails. These above issues are fixable, but we need to stop playing poorly when it matters. We get out played and out coached on the coordinator level. It was simply a BAD loss. When you have a top QB and WR combos and can't exploit backup CB's, it's terrible. When you have the most sacked QB in the NFL and don't get a single sack, it's terrible. When you can't convert 2 4th and 1's, it's terrible. There are fixes, lets hope they happen.

Creed Humphry could have replaced Morse, but we drafted Basham, and then didn't play him today. likely we draft a center. not sure who we replace Feliciano with.

we don't have a good OL. A good OL gets a first down on at least one short QB sneak. Ours was getting blown up all night. I think you have to game plan for any of the RB's on several teams (Henry, Eckler, Elliott, Taylor, Jones, Robinson, Harris, Hunt, Mixon, Swift, Cook, Montgomery). Just to anme a few that would be better than the guys on our team and that DC's have to pay attention to. Our RB's pose no threat to an opposing D.

where did I blame Allen for this loss? I'll wait. Because I didn't. I simply stated that he missed (as in did not notice) wide open WR's for TD's. That's a fact. I mean, freaking Levy was getting a fetish at one point about showing replays of it for some odd reason.

ok, tremendous is a bit over the top

that's kind of the problem here. We have no OL, and no RB that other teams fear.

missed, in, didn't see, didn't throw the ball, or threw to a guy who was covered when a guy was open elsewhere.

He missed Sanders, Beasley, and I think Knox for TD's. Those are HUGE misses that he does not normally make. I agree the O line is average (that might be charitable). The playcalling on offense was abysimal. We looked like KC last week. Throwing long or running. We could have abused their backup CB's by making them cover Diggs, Sanders and Beas all night, instead, we got some random play.

the title should state, yet again. I believe we had this issue against PIT. We def had it against Houston and McD even noted it in his post-game press conference then that you can't get down there and just kick FGs.

not sure anyone is blaming Allen for the loss (perhaps I'm just missing it), but he did not have his best game. He usually sees WR's, esp. Sanders, open in the endzone. Any why should people be happy after a loss when the team overall played like garbage. We played a defense that was totally injured, esp. at CB, and all-pro WR's can't make plays because we are now running the ball? The D can't stop their WR's in man coverage, and Henry is a beast, but come on, we made him look even better.

you missed the "we are in the red zone and can't score a TD" time.

if Knox is hurt trade for TJ Hock.

Agree that Allen would be sacked much more behind this OL. But he did not have his best game tonight. When under pressure he generally notices those open WR's. This OL is a disaster. It was a liability last year, and we did nothing substantial to fix it. The DL is also a disaster, no sacks on Tanny.

Tenn would have scored on us in OT with the D being as bad as it was.

we can blame the refs. They also called a weak holding on the Knox TD, only to miss a holding on the Henry TD run.

like find wide open WR's in the endzone? He was off tonight.

I'm fine with the sneak. I'm not fine with whatever defensive game plan we had all day.

impacts us in the standings. And concerning that Allen missed a bunch of open WR's when under pressure. That's not normal. And concerning that our offense was stalled by a depleted defense in the red zone, again, we can't seem to get a TD in the red zone and it cost us the game.

totally agree. Morse is a turnstile against a physical D. Creed Humphry would have been a nice upgrade in the draft, but we took Basham, to sit him in this game. Someone needs to explain AJ and Basham not being active tonight.

we don't have the best D. They sucked at all levels today. And I hope they and Frazier got that message by McD going for it.

Tenn was also missing a bunch of starters at CB and their OL is terrible. They won because they abused our weak OL, and our defense can't sack anyone or stop Tenn on 3rd and long.

Bean is incapable of finding one. And why Klien was not playing more tonight, and AJ and Boogie were inactive is beyond me.

OL also.

the OL was off all game. They sucked. They should buy Josh a gift.

we were playing the Titans backups on D, their QB who is the most sacked in the NFL, and we had no answer. Not a great performance.