Bleeding Bills Blue

I think the offense is considerably more predictable with him out. His hands have been poor all year. He has a knack for making that big play on 3rd down or whatever though.

Can throw a few wrinkles here and there, but bye week would be where they might be able to make some more significant adjustments.

I would assume for that to happen he helped right the ship.

I think the thought process is that he's thinking too much pre and post snap, and overcomplicating things so his fundamentals suffer? Either way - whatevers going on with him is definitely mental. There may be some physical limitations with the injured arm, but thats not causing him to make the majority of his mistakes.

There were misses though. 4th and less than 2... in the gun with no PA. No runs on that 4 and out drive when the team finally had good field position. 4th quarter drive - 5 passes and 1 run - punt. That stuff is infuriating.

Save enough time that if they make it you get a play was my understanding...? I probably let them run the FG unit on and then call timeout... then see if they want to do it again.

If buffalo wants any chance at salvaging this season, they need Allen to be probably their best player. This is an attempt to try and get that out of him.

Diggs is a solid route runner who takes care of his body - i'm not worried about his ability right now or probably even for the next 2 seasons. He can transition into the slot and likely excel at it. I'm more worried he'll be an offseason issue again and want out. Part of why i don't think you can "rebuild" - you have to "re-tool". Lot of draft picks - really need to hit on those 4 picks in rounds 1-3. Players likely gone - Morse, Hines, Harty, Davis, Sherfield, Settle, Phillips, Lawson, Ford, Hyde, Jackson Possible cap casualties - Tre, Neal, Poyer Players you'd like to bring back - AJE, Floyd, DQ, Hyde (assuming mcdermott is still here) I feel like you have to cut tre unfortunately - but replacing him has to be players on the roster if you're doing that. QB - Allen RB - Cook - ??? - ??? FB - Gilliam (so little cost savings - they could move on and it wouldn't move the needle a bit) WR - Diggs - ??? - Shakir --- ??? --- Shorter TE - Knox, Kincaid T - Dawkins, Brown, Van Demark G - McGovern, Torrance C - Bates I think there are positions to upgrade here - RT, C probably... but add a WR with some real speed and hire someone to get allen's head on straight again and the offense will be fine. Allen playing better is the big key. Defense its ... DE - Miller, Johnathan DT - Oliver - ??? NT - ??? - ??? DE - Groot WLB - Milano - Williams MLB - Bernard - Spector CB - White - Benford - Douglas - Elam NB - Johnson - Neal FS - Hamlin - ??? SS - Poyer - ???

Gotta win the 3 division games... and at least 2 of the other 4, probably 3.

Defense 😆

I'm sorry but how the hell do you throw this? 15 yard out... at a corner who is... 10 YARDS from the line of scrimmage and will have his eyes on Allen at least until harty breaks.... It's also underthrown... basically a jump ball to the smallest guy on the team. You could have moss and thats a bad play. Take smash.. high low... whatever you wanna call it - and burn it out of the playbook.

I didn't get that.... 3x1 spy with dorian again, 7 in coverage with 5 across. Force the 4th down. Make payton decide to go for it or kick the long FG. I mean hell you can man match with safety help over the top.

I thought it did at this point in the season Might be just what this team needs...

Even one of their away games in indy is indoors - so 6/8 games remaining will be in a dome and 5 of those at home. Favorable schedule and game location yes - but losses to atlanta and carolina remind you they're a young team. There's no one on their remaining schedule that I'd be shocked for them to beat, and also no one that I'd be shocked if they lost to.

I mean CB1 - White out for year LB1 - Milano out indefinitely NT1 - DQ out indefinitely and this week... CB2 - Benford has a hamstring S - Hyde has a neck injury S - Poyer has a leg injury LB2 - Bernard is still in concussion protocal We legit might be missing... the entire starting secondary, and both starting linebackers.

Well lets see here.. Phillips has played in 278 snaps this year... Rousseau has played in 280.... So the games argument doesn't mean much. Rousseau has 5 QB hurries, 6 QB Knockdowns, 3 sacks which totals 14 pressures. Phillips has 4 QB hurries, 2 QB Knockdowns, and 3.5 sacks which totals 10 pressures (but really 9.5) No dog in the fight, but they seem to me to be similar results. Then thinking situationally on usage - Floyd and Miller have been playing more third downs pass rushing in the last few weeks, so some of those 280 snaps are likely to be early downs. I don't have split data that would say one way or another, but just another observation. You also earlier made an argument that Phillips was taken in the same draft so Beane doesn't evaluate talent... Phillips was taken at pick 18. Buffalo picked rousseau at pick 30. You're complaining that we drafted the wrong player when the "right" one wasn't even available. Why not draft Parsons if we're just picking the best player and saying we should've drafted him?

Should open up some space for him to run underneath? 4 verts is often a good play actually to counter cover 2 basically high low a safety and find some grass

Cincy too had an absolutely battered roster and obviously went on a big run too.

Considering our line is getting moved in the run game, and beat up in the passing game... it's really one of our only routes to physicality. You can maybe use murray/fournette on some plays, but I do think in the same way running the ball is tough on DBs, tackling huge tight ends is also a way to beat those DBs up a bit.

I mean... the grounding one was the right play by gabe (assuming he has the freedom to do that). They're giving you that 10-12 yard completion in the 2 minute drill. Knox targeting stats this year are BADDDDDDD. Leads the team in (recorded) drops with 4. How many additional ones did he almost have that he didn't catch that weren't drops. And the worst part is we absolutely need him because without him the run game is doody.

This is what I see it as - cover 2 zone beaters are designed to stress a player's zone. But... that player, or the safety behind them, or the WLB, can adjust their coverages when they expect a hole shot, or a smash concept, or whatever. Then we have receivers adjusting their routes based on leverage (as they are supposed to do), and the read gets all messed up because post-snap you aren't getting what you thought you would get. The intentional grounding is an example of this - its the same cover 2 hole shot play, but the corner follows him. Davis stops his route... and is wide open. Allen pre-snap wants the deep shot behind the corner and to the sideline so the safety can't get there. If davis continues his route its likely very similar results to what we saw on the other play before. We play in buffalo - you have to be able to run the ball. All the play action concepts work better when the linebackers think that we may actually hand it off. Cincinnati did not believe that, so that part of the playbooks kind of worthless.

Ehhh this season that was 57 yards with 2 3rd down conversions. And it was right out of a turnover, at home... just a huge shift in momentum. Their long drive was really just an 83 yard run that probably should've gone for 6, but they ended with 3. Can't blame the defense for Allen turning it over at midfield up 13-6. Or fumbling the very next snap in a tie game with 5 minutes left.

Relying on duane brown was always a mistake as he's... 38 and missed time a year ago. Vera-tucker was coming along and got hurt. Bectons actually healthy and seems to be playing ok, but even with tomlinson who they paid a lot the interior is a mess. They're like our doppelganger of our defensive injuries. Healthy defense and missing rodgers, Brown, Vera-tucker, Mcgovern etc.

They did trade for cooks, assuming he'd have a role and he doesn't... We just don't do a good job stressing the defense and moving people, and making them think. We're letting them dictate coverages and adjusting around it. Our cover 2 beaters are basic but they don't seem to stress the safeties much at all. We rarely get completions going north, its always side to side or coming back to the ball. Rarely stretch the linebackers north south unless its play action, other than that we just try and find windows in the zone east west. It's a complicated short passing offense... that results in little to no YAC, no chunk plays, and too many checks and pre-snap thought. You rely on QB and pass catcher to make the right read every time. You go to 3x1 to try and stress that cover 2, but then run WR screens. Running backs are an after thought and are only used as checkdowns. Rarely do we attack with vertical routes. It's just so frustrating to watch.