appoo

After settling down, I think this is where the Bills need to improve, and some other thoughts on what's going well Speed on the Perimeter. Without Brown healthy, the Bills struggled to force defenses to respect the deep threat. KC basically threw coverage at Diggs, and just bodied the rest of the Bills WRs. That worked because the Bills did not have a single 4.4 40 guy on the roster at WR or RB. Quickness at WR, This has to do with injury and age. Ignoring Gabe Davis, who's purely an X, the Chiefs defense were extraordinarily physical with the Bills WRs. Yes it was annoying in that a lot more defensive holdings could have been called, but quite honestly I would have done the same. These are average defenders outside of the honey badger. Why was it successful? Because neither John Brown nor Cole Beasley were healthy enough to have the quickness they needed to punish physical play from DBs. Prior to his late season injury, Beasley had that quickness, and the Bills punished defenses for it. When he's fully healthy, there's not a lot of DBs who are quick enough to body Beasley. I don't thikn Brown ever gets back to that quickness, unfortunately. Pass rushing fear creation. I don't remember a single moment from yesterday where a Bills defender blew up his blocker and created havoc. Whether from a DE, DT or LB. Watch that Bucs - Pack game, and you saw JPP and Shaq Barrett be complete menaces, and you saw it hugely impact the Pack offense. The Bills simply don't hve the horses to do this to better teams. KC had above average OLine talent across the board, and that's all it took to keep Mahomes, in general clean. That OLine protection is also what allows the Chiefs offense to put the Bills' back 7 in such a precarious position. Because they couldn't get to the passer, the Bills had to choose between getting killed in man by KC's elite perimeter talent while blitzing, or getting killed by KC's elite speed and TE play while sitting back in zone/man combos. Endmunds and Milano and Tre and Wallace didn't actually have bad games all things considered. They were put in horrible spots by their DLine, and I guess game plan. Kelce is a TE who has the footwork and agility of a small WR, which is just unfair. Tyreke Hill is perhaps the fastest player in NFL history while Mecole Hardman isn't exactly slow. And then add in a versatile RBs? Without a pass rush, that's an impossible ask of your back 7 in coverage. For where I think the Bills ARE ready? Josh effing Allen. Man. I'm sorry but that kid brought it yesterday, and 95% of the other QBs in the NFL would have been FAR FAR worse. This would have been a complete blowout by halftime without Allen. Instead, he was a John Brown caused turnover away from getting it to one possession sometime in the 4th quarter. I mean, Allen had RBs who wouldn't start for Alabama right now, much less any other NFL team, WRs who were so injured that it was a miracle they ever got open, and the one elite WR actually played well, but had coverage just directed at him for the entire game. And then facing an offense he knew was going to score everytime they got it? The amount of pressure - physical and mental - he faced was just flat out insane. And I thought he did well in those circumstances The Z. I have no idea how Diggs even got the production he did, and that long catch was a tremendous play. For at least 4 years, the Bills might have the best technician in the game at that position. The tackles. IF they get Williams back, I think the Bills are set there. Linebackers. In this system, you need two elite LBs, and I think the Bills have that in Edmunds and Milano. They almost never missed a tackle, and were basically left on an island against the run game, which they proceeded to stuff for the most part. Not going to blame them for not being able to contain Kelce, when he had all the freedom and time in the world to get open. That dude is just a problem Safeties. Again, I thought they did a reasonable job out there, but were left out to dry by the lack of pressure. They mostly put a cap on the passing game. All of the big plays by the Chiefs are short gains turned into big plays. Can't recall Mahomes straight up beating them. So where do the Bills go from here? I'm not sure what comes first. I'm inclined to think tou fix the pass rush first. They have a good enough pass rush against either flawed protections (much of the NFL) or against one dimensional offensive schemes (the Ravens, the Steelers), but when they go up against multi-dimensional offenses that also bring above average protection, they're going to run into a lot of problems, and those are the teams you're gonna play in the Divisional, Championship and Super Bowl Sundays. My feeling is that they can scheme around not having a 2nd high end WR to pair with Diggs, and think a Beasley provides the quickness you need to offer a second weapon when Diggs gets coverage thrown at him, and finally think Gabe Davis (healthy), is an off-season away from being a decent weapon in his own right. So wouldn't put too many resources here. Perhaps if you're sitting in the 4th round and you see a 4.3 40 kid sitting there, you snag him You absolutely need to do something with the run game. Again, this is about bridging the gap to elite. You can let Allen carry you to greatness, but to take the next step, you gotta have a legit run game that defenses need to game plan around. That might start with drafting a true #1 RB, or maybe it's cutting Morse, move Feliciano to center, and signing at least one guard and hope Ford turns into a legit power blocking guard. This team is a bit closer than the Chiefs made them look, just that where they do need to improve is exploitable

or the lesson should be to never trust a dude named Wink

Just so many dynamic playmakers in the NFL today

I still don't understand how this is even a considered possibility, due to the dead cap implications

You gotta understand that 80% of what the Bills OLine does is pass block, which basically hides Boettger. I don't believe this is a sustainable way of playing offense. Right now the Bills have an elite Z and an elite slot. That's why the Bills can drop back 75% of the time and pass and still win. You actually saw the consequences of that against the Ravens, when Beasley wasn't himself, the Bills offense had just a single TD against a defense with above average but not great secondary talent, and brought almost no extra pressure. Going forward, the Bills are going to require a functioning run game, and you're not going to get that with Ike Boetger as your starting guard IMO. I actually think the play would be to keep Mongo over Williams to help facilitate that, and maybe use a 2nd round pick on a RT or a veteran FA who's ok with a cheap deal on a winning team. Ford and Feliciano are plus run guards.

Topics like this is why I wish the NFL had Bird Rights

What did Darius Leonard say about Josh Allen? Keep him in the well? Well that's what you do to Lamar. A couple of things here. You don't trust the Raven's to consistently pound the rock up the middle. They'll inevitably attempt the ZR with Lamar, or a playaction, or something. That's when you gotta pounce Bills might be the rare team to be able to contain Lamar on the outside. Both safeties fly to the football and are reliable tacklers. The Linebackers are both sideline to sideline. Hughes, the slimmed down AJ Epenessa, Quinton Jefferson, Ed Oliver and Mario Addison all offer above average speed at their positions. The Ravens offense prohibits Lamar being effective against Zone defenses in the passing game, simply because they don't offer him enough reps to get comfortable doing so Play contain with your DEs, and get your DTs to push up field rather than try and eat lineman, because again, I don't think the Ravens are disciplined enough to consistently hammer the middle

My initial thought is that Lamar is going to break some runs, make some big playaction stuff. That’s just gonna happen - he’s too good. But overall I think the Ravens run with more speed than power and I believe that plays into the Bills D strength. They put a lot of speed on the field, front to back. offensively, the Ravens have a solid D Line, and can bring it. But I believe Allen will have his way with them. get a lead and attack Lamar when he’s in obvious pass situations

Not entirely. You get down to 8 teams and you’re always facing really good teams

Yup losing to the Steelers or ravens is well within reasonable expectations. here on out I just hope fir a good performance without expecting a win

Not sure I would watch another game of these playoffs

I mean I wasn’t expecting Rivers to be that effective on 3rd. Bills struggled in their coverage up the gut but Rivers also had about 3-4 desperation throws that were completed

if they could get Sherman at a low price that would be ideal

Oh and both Brown and Beasley are clearly not at full speed. something to watch for next weekend as them getting speed back makes this passing attack pretty close to unstoppable They’re playing at home no matter what

I honestly forgot Gaines existed but Wallace ain’t it

The guy was running a spread vertical offense up 3 with 3 minutes left. Because that was the only way for the Bills to win. that’s why you don’t put much blame on him for the fumble.

Bills need a 2nd corner. Unlikely they’ll get torched that badly by the TE again but Pittman did a number on them and I think a 2nd corner helps there. Think that’s the obvious and easy call unless an EDGE slips that you had high on the board. colts oline really handled the bills dline, though that’s likely the best oline in these playoffs

haha I’m getting happier but that was super stressful. Mostly my feeling was “god I hate the playoffs”

Neither the Ravens nor Browns are nearly as balanced as the Colts. That was an 11 win team that was top 10 in all 3 phases

You spelled “Josh Allen” wrong

Sherman would be an excellent fit in McDermott's zone system

Because he's got a lot of potential, and it costs them little to test him out

I mean, if you're the Dolphins, You'd trade Tua, a 1st and a 2nd - assuming Watson restructured his contract because no way he gets traded with that dead cap number

My post was mostly about current ability. So long as Daboll is doing the Yoda - Luke thing with Allen, I wouldn't change this for pretty much anything. I mean if you trade Allen for Mahomes, that's not worth it unless you bring along Bienemy