Mango

Cool, great. We should always be throwing the ball to the players teams ignore. Seriously. If they don't cover a guy, that guy should get the ball. I don't know why this is a knock. The amount we don't throw to the open guy on A-22 has driven me nuts season after season. If it is 4th and 10 with the season on the line, sure I can see "trusting your guy". But on 2nd and 8, to leave us at 3rd an 8 over and over again is so incredibly frustrating and defeating for an offense. As of late this board has been a circle jerk of "Allen can't do everything" but also "Allen needs to run more" and "Just keep tossing the ball to Diggs, the rest of the field be damned". The whole thing is counter intuitive. The entire offense isn't coming to a stand still at times because Gabe Davis is a mediocre second option on the perimeter. 2022 Diggs was the least targeted Diggs since he came to Buffalo. Losing Sanders, Beasley, or Daboll didn't change that.

There is no extra exposure for those guys. The 12 best athletes in the NFL have tons of it and all of them would much rather win a Super Bowl. They will play. But they won't play hard 1. because they are going to be miles better than everybody else. and 2. It is going to be just before the training camps, and they care about the NFL season. All sorts of sports don't take the Olympics seriously. Most of them are the ones that make the most money. Cycling, basketball, and tennis all come to mind. Sometimes all the best show up. Sometimes they don't. But the best players in the world in those event don't show up prepped to win. Football will be no different.

I think this will be a big time fail and end up being taken as seriously as the Pro Bowl. One change I would make is to make this an ironman game. Instead of 12 roster spots with 5 people on the field. I would cap the roster at 7 and make players go both ways. https://olympics.com/en/news/flag-football-rules-players-origins-things-to-know Let's just say the US has Adams, Sauce, Allen, Diggs, Hill, etc. The next best country is what? Canada? Don't get me wrong, there are some good players in the league right now, but come on....I think this is a big part of why this needs to limit roster size and play both ways. Brazil, France, Spain, Nigeria, might have some basketball players who can show up and make some things at least interesting with reduced rosters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadians_in_the_National_Football_League

Non-contact injuries like ACL’s and achilles are a concern though.

I don’t disagree with you. I’ve been against borrowing from other position group spending and signing a 1a/1b WR. Allen and Diggs combine for $70M+ next year. Adding another $15-20M receiver isn’t how franchises set themselves up for success year after year. That’s a move that puts you all in once then you turn into the Rams. Allen is better than Goff and Stafford. I have zero interest in mortgaging the future when you have a real capable QB in place. If we want to draft a top WR high, I’m OK with it.

I’m fairly certain if the Bills somehow signed Devante Adams and moved Davis to the third outside receiver Diggs would still get most of the targets by a wide margin. Upgrade Davis with the somebody more explosive. Definitely find somebody in the slot. But getting the ball to other players not named Diggs has been an issue since Diggs came to Buffalo. I’m not saying Diggs sucks. He obviously balls. But rewatching some of these games in A-22, defenses are just ignoring some of our TE and RB in coverage. And we’re tossing it to double covered WR’s. All these things need to be better. This isn’t Madden, we can’t toss the season and hit “simulate to draft”. There is no going out and drafting a new WR in week 6 so I am going to keep harping on the things we can control. Commit to running the ball under center more and throw the ball to the open pass catcher.

Bud light has always been an official sponsor of the NFL. But Labatt has been a Bills sponsor for a while and they haven’t done any of these in some time. I think Labatt USA is in big trouble. They recently laid of 70+ people. And I know for a fact they lost Josh Allen because they literally no called no showed to the meeting they scheduled with him. He didn’t choose Corona over Labatt. Labatt literally ghosted him. It’s crazy that that brand went from winning F1 Championships and fell to all the way to standing up NFL super stars.

I think before injuries we showed that this might be the most complete team we have had this era. But I find myself having very similar frustrations with this offense and its consistency that I did a few years ago. But I’m also always impressed by it. It’s a weird spot. I do think it’s ok to stumble for a bit, and this team has a better ability to be balanced than anything we’ve seen under McBeane. If we can steady ourselves, get healthy and locked in, this could be the best Bills team we’ve seen.

2022 was actually Diggs least targeted year in Buffalo. Diggs has always been one of the most targeted WR in the league while he’s here. This isn’t new. The difficulty is we haven’t evolved from chuck it to Diggs, or have Josh hurdle defenders. That isn’t a sustainable offense no matter what the supporting cast is. I think that’s what McD was talking to today. Josh and Co. need to execute the plays that are called better, and Dorsey needs to do more to get more players and their skill sets involved.

Would not be shocked if the Bills taped some guys up to ensure a conference/divisional win for any seeding/tie breaker advantages. But then sat those guys against TB.

Tre and Milano aside, I think the Bills have had a knack for getting banged up down the stretch. There might be some positive to the Bills getting a little banged up in weeks 4, 5, 6. Resting. Then getting healthy and hot in the winter before playoff time.

They are currently number 3 in the league, so at scale 28.8 points is enough to be one of the best scoring offenses in the league. They will struggle some more, they will boom some more and likely finish around 30 points and in the top 5. The current frustration feels like the same frustrations others have had for 3, 4, 5 years coming home to roost. That is that this offense never ever seems to make it look easy and are/have been inconsistent. We never get our TE's involved, we rarely throw to our receiving backs, we are better than everybody at 3rd and long, but we keep getting ourselves in 3rd and long because we take too many low percentage chances. Even the Diggs targets have been high since he got here, he has gone 166, 164, and 154 targets since he got here. This has been the gist of our offense for years. it is time for it to take the next step. Part of that is the OC. But part is also player execution.

I actually think McD will call out staff pretty quickly with stuff like "We have to be better with what we are seeing out there" and other general platitudes. While yes, I think McD is calling out Dorsey when he says "Understanding what our players strengths are, and putting them in a position to succeed" type stuff. But I think when McD was talking about the offenses failure to execute keeping them out of rhythm, I think he is calling out the players. Both things are/can be true at the same time.

After listening to McD’s presser today and hearing him talk about what he wants out of the offense in terms of execution, getting in rhythm, putting players in a position to succeed, I think McD is in more control of the direction of each unit than he’s ever been. I think the last four years he’s been very much more of an administrator. But it feels like since he took over the defense he talks with much more purpose about the other units on the team. That to me is a good thing.

We’re doing more from under center this year than we were any other Daboll/Dorsey offense. He was was also traded I think Moss would fit in this 2023 offense. But Harris and Murray are nice additions. Worth nothing he was traded Nov 1. He didn’t spend much time under OC Dorsey.

I listened to McD today. He addressed some of this and I agreed. The offense needs to execute. It starts there. You nailed it, just these wild lapses from all of them. And when they lack that focus and execution they can’t get into a rhythm. When they can’t get into a rhythm they fail. He also talked a bit about identifying what our weapons are good at, and putting them in positions to be successful. I thought it was a pretty fair inventory of the situation: More focus and better execution. That includes our stars. Better utilization of skill sets. Improve play calling and have an offensive identity.

I’m fairly certain he’s loaded up with HGH. What’s the rules regarding drug tests and injuries? Manning avoided a positive test while his wife was ordering it for her “skin care routine” or whatever. EDIT: I’m fairly certain that at this point in his career Aaron would play chicken with the league to suspend him for loading up on HGH. Then gaslight the entire world and say “the world is just so against alternative medicines that it’s a league conspiracy to keep him quiet. They said it couldn’t be done, but he showed us by having Orca sploodge shakes every morning.

I didn't collect any data on yards per route, but after watching the A22 that was not the case. There were plays to be made to Knox that weren't seen. He was in to chip/block quite a bit, don't get me wrong, but definitely ran some routes with depth. That INT on 1/10 is a good example. But that ball never should have been thrown there with Murray wide open underneath.

I watched the game out at a bar, which I hate. So I was really looking forward to sitting down with this one. It was very odd. This wasn't as "easy" to watch as the Jets game where so much of it was like "OK Josh calm down". There were moments where Josh is looking right at an open Murray on first and 10. Then just tries to split three defenders to Knox where it gets tipped and picked. What a dumb decision. But then there are other moments where Diggs is just sprinting from the LOS, or not following his blockers. Or Josh is scrambling and I am was begging a wide open Sherfield to turn around to help him out. Brutal. This offense has never ever looked easy. At least not for stretches. Yes there are games where they are prolific, but so often it just feels like we get by converting 3rds and forever over and over again. We convert them more often than most teams and that is a crazy advantage. But you can't convert them all the time. Low percentage plays are still low percentage even if you are good at them. A lot of missed opportunities out there to make that game easier. That goes for the QB, WR, and OL.

I do and watched all the offensive snaps today. The whole passing game was a mixed bag. It was odd. The best way to describe it was unfocused and unsettled. There were: - Bad decisions and open receivers at times from the QB. - Missed blocks from the OL - Diggs had a couple mental mistakes with his Offside and poor decision on a screen - WR didn't help Allen out on a couple of scrambles. There were some positives from the OL in run blocking when we ran the ball from under center.

Thank you for this. Always appreciated. I just watched the A-22 today and have some scribbles I was going to post on the PG Thread and never got around to. I think your summary is pretty accurate. The Dawkins play in Q2 feels like a good synopsis for our entire passing game on Sunday. Dawkins gets beat, so lets get that out of the way. There is no debating that. But to me today it looks like Dawkins is committed to leverage Thibodeaux up and around Allen. But Allen takes a big step up, and Thibodeaux easily disengages. Dawkins certainly gets beat there, but part of the problem is the LT and QB don't have a good feel for what the other is going to do either. I thought the first two drives had some "unfortunate moments" but those moments started to pile on around the 3rd or 4th drives. Just mental gaffes everywhere. I think they started to pile on top of each other right around the 3rd or 4th drive. If it wasn't Josh it was a lineman. If it wasn't a lineman it was a WR. Even Diggs got in on it with that crazy unfocused Offside. Then a play or two later went to him on a screen, where he had another blocker engaged outside of Shakir(?) and he cut inside right and go nothing on it. Worth noting that Josh was better in the second half but we only had three possessions compared to 6 in the first. I really think these guys thought they were gonna go off and have a crazy Madden on rookie type of performance, and when it wasn't happening started gripping way too tight, got super sloppy, and started playing as individuals rather than a unit. These types of games drive me nuts.

For all the negativity around here right now. This is actually a very very good point. Also I think this stat is hilarious.

Didn't he run like a 4.4 something at 48 years old. Lets go!

In terms of "wildly different". Most of the criticism around Daboll was play call, play design, situational awareness from players and play calls, getting the TE, RB's, and other WR's involved. What about the running game? Holistically the complaints about what this offensive frustrations are are pretty identical even if some of the "aspects" are different. I do think there are some differences of course. We do a lot more under center this year. A bit more play action. We are more committed to the run. Daboll did a lot of things somethings better or different that helped Josh, we got him moving, used his legs (albeit recklessly at times), a lot of curl routes to help with timing/stationary targets. I think Allen and the offense needs (needed?) to evolve for this to work year in and year out. The Daboll method of toss it 100 times, screw how many turnovers we have, and forget the run game/running backs was never ever going to be a long term option. And I think more often than not, when this offense struggles under either Daboll or Dorsey it is those evolution points that are struggling that hold us back. I am most of the way through all of our offensive drives from Sunday. From an execution stand point the whole thing was a disaster. There were plays Allen didn't see for sure. This wasn't the Jets game, but he left a good amount of plays out on the field. But there were also some individual gaffes. I mean hell, even Diggs took off well before the ball was snapped. Then a few plays later cut his screen up field inside his blocker into a defender, when he had two blockers on the outside. Just not locked in that drive. On the 5th drive on 3rd and 7 from the NYG 34, the one somebody posted a single still on from the game. If you watch the whole play it looks like Dawkins is going to leverage the defender up and around Josh. But then Josh steps way up into the pocket. This isn't Josh's fault, but it is a good example of WTF is going on out there. Nobody has any idea what the hell anybody else is doing. Some of this is on Dorsey. I won't deny that. I am OK with a new OC. I don't think that guy is Daboll, because I don't see the outcome as wildly different. I have no interest in going back to him. And I have no interest in replacing McDermott with him. Both of which seem to be popular talking points on the board as of the last year or so.

There is so much over simplification of NFL offenses on this board where everything is boiled down to "well Diggs is the first read" or something similar. And while yes, most passing plays will be designed to get your best player open/the ball, everything changes as soon as the QB gets to the line of scrimmage. The read changes based on pre snap coverages, and post snap movement. NFL offenses and defenses are wildly complicated. For all the videos and breakdowns most of us watch on this board this one surprises me. How many live plays or film reviews have we seen where Romo, the Mannings, or Warner go "The play is designed to go to player x. But based on the coverage the QB should know that they are going to take that away, and should be looking to go to player y with the ball". Yes I think we can upgrade some of the skill players, but I also think we need to execute better. There is more production in this group than we are getting. Both things can be true at the same time. We have invested a lot in TE and pass catching RB's since the day McBeane got here. But we never ever get them the ball. This isn't the kind of problem that is answered with a simple "well we need better players". This is an error on both the coaching staff and player execution. I think one hand washes the other here. Also, it is mid-season, there is no "replacing Davis" or "firing Dorsey" that is going to improve week 7. But executing better will.