Bocephuz

Good point.. but we are paying him a HUGE salary to run a lot of deep routes that WRs typically run.

In watching all these plays he is certainly does not have the route running/ separation skills that Watkins has and appears to be much easier to take out of a game than Watkins would be. That being said he's a tight end so it's not apples to apples. But still.. it seems clear to me that his route running is average.. but his run after the catch seems to be his forte. So get him the ball in space and let him run some dudes over rather than throwing deep to him In general.. from what I saw they played a mix of zone and man D looks. There were instances in both coverages where he didn't appear to be doubled in man.. or appear to have an extra zone guy shaded towards him.

Yes.. his best attribute is run after catch.. so more quick passes in space and less deep post and seam routes

The topic of what has happened to Charles Clay in this offense is likely at the top of many minds here at TwoBillsDrive. Many of us were probably expecting Clay to be one of the beneficiaries of the OC change to Anthony Lynn.. who many thought would manufacture some designed plays to feature Clay. I took a look at the All 22 of this Cards game and discovered a few things: ( keep in mind I of course do not know the play call but am just going off of what I see on the screen.. I also may have missed a play or two.. but this should analysis should at least be directionally accurate) I looked to answer the following questions: How many passing snaps did he get? Was Clay doubled most of the day? Was Clay getting open..getting separation consistently? Did Clay appear to be the first read often? __ ____ PASSING SNAPS Clay was on the field for 19 called pass plays by my count DOUBLE TEAMED/ BRACKETED: Clay appeared to be doubled or bracketed closely by two defenders on 4 out of 19 pass plays ( 21% of the time). Below is an example of Clay being bracketed/doubled on the first play of the game Clay is lined up next to the RT and runs an intermediate out route.. This is a designed roll out for TT and I'm going to assume Clay is the 1st read here. However.. as you can see he is nicely bracketed by 2 defenders and isn't really a good option There were several other examples where it was pretty clear Arizona was purposefully taking away Clay later in the game. In short.. double teaming/bracketing can account for 1 out of 5 missed Clay opportunities. Here's another one where he gets double the attention.. Clay is lined up in line next to the RT on this one. SINGLE COVERAGE/ NOT OPEN To my eye Clay was single covered.. and not getting separation or not open on 8 out 19 plays .. or 42 % of the time OPEN To my eye Charles Clay appeared to be open on 7 out of 19 pass plays.. or 37% of the time. In other words.. he appeared to have beaten his defender and gotten good separation 37% of the time. Below is an example where he is open but doesn't get the ball. Clay lines up in the slot on the right.. runs a crossing route on the goalline.. but doesn't appear to be the first read as TT is looking right to Powell right after the snap. The CB blitz doesn't give Tyrod a chance to progress to Clay..resulting instead in a completed slant short of the goal ine to Powell. TT actually does a pretty good job here in the face of the blitz. 1st READ? This was my biggest surprise.To my eye in reading where Tyrod was looking right after the snap and hitting his drop.. Clay was only the first read in 3 out of 19 pass plays .. or 16% of the time. The Bills were not able to execute on any of these opportunities. This was surprising in light of the fact that Watkins and Salas were both out. Below are 2 two examplesHere's an example where they were clearly targeting Clay up the seam as the first read.. but they don't quite execute. Given.. this is a tough throw for TT to get it over that linebacker.. however.. if Clay and TT had better chemistry this would have been executed somehow. Elite QBs make this throw SUMMARY Based on this game.. Clay's issues can mostly attributed be to him not getting separation when he is single covered. It also appears that Anthony Lynn did not really feature him too much in this game as by my count Tyrod only looked at Clay as a first read 3 times. That being said.. there were several times where Clay got separation and was actually targeted..but circumstances (CB blitz) or inaccuracy by TT resulted in misses.OUTLOOK When Sammy comes back.. that should eliminate most of the double teaming/bracketing that Clay sees.. so that should help Also.. I'd really like to see Clay running less deep routes and more crossing routes/ intermediate routes .. maybe even some deigned rub routes I also didn't really see any designed play action to Clay .. now that the run game is hitting I think some designed play action to Clay could really do damage Let's hope he can be featured more going forward.. and let's hope he and TT can somehow develop some chemistry as right now it's pretty clear they don't have much. OK .. flame away:)

Good point on Goodwin throw and 2 min drill. Not necessarily a bad read by TT to go to Goodwin on that play.. just sloppy mechanics to get the ball there. Also illustrates that yes Clay runs routes over the middle.. and yes he is sometimes open on those routes.

Good point.. .they got away with it so Kudos to them.

Ahh... reference to all caps in title?

Here are my observations from watching the first half of the Jets game..focusing in particular on passing plays and the depth of routes. I am also just focusing on the first half as ..1. that's all I have time for.. and 2... 1st half reveals more of Roman's mindset in doing game prep for this one. .3. q4 was mostly garbage time prevent D.I don't have time to look at the 2nd half.. but based on the results I would venture to say not many adjustments were made. SHOTGUN VS UNDER CENTER By my count.. TT only lined up under center on a designed pass play one time. The rest of pass play formations were all shotgun or pistol formations. This could be one valid criticism for Roman ... .too much shotgun.. too much predictability. I would have liked to seen more of TT under center to keep the D guessing more.. and also to help with his footwork and timing Shotgun does tend to make throwing the short timing routes like slants and hitches more difficult. When you are under center you can time your throw by letting it go when you hit the end of your 3, 5 or 7 step drop. Being in shotgun allows you to see the field better.. but the tradeoff is it makes synchronizing your footwork with the routes a little more difficult ROMAN AND THE DEEP BALL There were 20 qualifying pass plays (I am not counting designed screen plays in this mix) Roman was calling aggressive deep route combinations 50% of the time in the 1st half ... ie.. receivers running routes of 10+ yardsOut of those 20 plays... 10 plays had intermediate or short routes built in (10 yds or fewer. is my definition ... I am also not counting RB in the flat as an intermediate route) These were not just 3rd and long plays... for example on a 2nd and 10 he sent everyone deep CONCLUSION - While Roman was definitely aggressively trying to stretch the field...( calling deep plays 50% of the time seems fairly aggressive to me) .. ..there were several plays where short timing throws were called for. There were varying levels of success/ failure with those plays. At the end of the day .. Roman called some short passing plays where guys were open and more often than not those guys didn't get the ball. DEEP BALL FAILURE DUE TO COVERAGE/PRESSURE EXAMPLE Q2 - 10:33 - 2nd and 10 TT actually lines up under center and takes a 5 step drop Max protect.. all 3 receivers on left side run deep routes TT hits his drop.. no one is open... safety is on that side deep 96 brings pressure up the middle to collapse pocket TT makes good decision to scramble SUCCESSFUL SHORT TIMING THROW EXAMPLE Q2: 2:00 - 3RD AND 2 TT in pistol. one step drop Max protect.. both FB and HB stay in to chip on DE.. TT hits Sammy on perfectly thrown slant for 1st down.. note the LB chips Sammy right before the catch.. and there are 3 guys in vicinity.. yet.. a clean throw and catch are able to be made These are the types of plays I would have liked to have seen Roman call more of.. SHORT THROW FAIL EXAMPLE Q2 - 1:23 - 2ND AND 2 Shotgun formation... Clay is clearly open in the middle of the field.. but TT locked onto his first read Goodwin at bottom of screen TT decides to go with Goodwin.. but his footwork on his drop is sloppy ...throwing his timing off and resulting in a poorly thrown pass SUMMARY: It was clear to me that there were times guys were open on intermediate routes that Roman designed.. and for a variety of reasons TT missed them or didn't see them. However... I only saw 3 plays (out of 20) that clearly called for timing passes ( 2 plays had all comebacks... and then the one slant to Sammy called play).. and this is why I think Roman is gone. For some reason he just didn't call that many simple short timing routes that would have moved the chains.

I think our offense's inability to sustain drives really killed the D last night. Jets had the ball for over 40 minutes and the D was exhausted by the time the 4th quarter rolled around. It's tough to get a breather when your offense either goes 3 and out or only gets one first down on a drive. I have a feeling that Roman getting canned was part play calling ( that mangled 3rd and 1 , 4th and 1 thing was pretty awful)... and also part him not making adjustments. I think they probably asked him to change and adjust before the game.. and then they looked at the film today and probably saw he wasn't changing his MO at all so they canned him. I think he was just stuck in the rut of run, run, run.... then go deep ...and he wouldn't adjust to the quick game (slants, hitches etc... ) if the game situation called for it. Even with that being said... I am somewhat conflicted about this firing. Roman did show that he could adjust in the Jets and Cowboys game to end the year last by going to the short quick game .. and Tyrod was starting to show he could handle that kind of strategy.

I think that is likely. This is really the first time I've seen him look skittish in the pocket for the majority of a game and I think the enormity of the moment got to him. The one consistent thing about him last year was his calm demeanor on the field .. he never really seemed rattled last year. But he sure was rattled this Sunday. Let's hope he reverts to his old form. Playing at home should help.

I'm not making any sort of statement about his overall play with this.. He had a few good throws too... just illustrating a few unforced errors in depth

Here's example 2 q3: 10:19 - 1st and 10 Tyrod hits his drop and has a clean pocket Contrary to popular belie that the Bills didn't try to go deep this game.. you can see here that this play has multiple deep routes built in. You also can see that nobody is really open yet at this point. Tyrod senses some pressure up the middle and inexplicably bails to the right. A simple side step to the left here would take him to a nice clean pocket to buy a few more seconds to scan the field If he steps left here.. maybe he sees Clay with a step on his man on the deep post.. But instead.. he bails right and throws Out of Bounds towards Woods for an incompletion.

Here are a couple of TT's unforced errors from the game broken down DISCLAIMER ( I am not a coach, I don't know the hot reads or route combinations called.. this is just my educated perception of what happened on each pass play) ___ Q1: 11:44 - 1st and 10 - first play of the game Tyrod hits his drop and has a clean pocket.. his first read is most likely 85 Clay on the right hash as that is where TT looks first Split second later he looks left over to where Watkins is running a hitch and Woods is running deep post.. Here is what he should have seen at this moment looking left... Watkins has a huge cushion and is wide open on his hitch. And even more enticing is Woods who looks completely open on a post route.... __ __ Yet... he immediately turns his head to the middle of the field and dumps down to Shady ___ ____ Here's EXAMPLE 2 q3: 10:19 - 1st and 10 Tyrod hits his drop and has a clean pocket Contrary to popular belief that the Bills didn't try to go deep this game.. you can see here that this play has multiple deep routes built in. You also can see that nobody is really open yet at this point. Tyrod senses some pressure up the middle and inexplicably bails to the right. A simple side step to the left here would take him to a nice clean pocket to buy a few more seconds to scan the field If he steps left here.. maybe he sees Clay with a step on his man on the deep post.. But instead.. he bails right and throws Out of Bounds towards Woods for an incompletion.

He did have a few reps where he held up well.. but that's an epic whiff

__ __ And here's example # 3 of Shady missing a block... Crucial 3rd and 2 in Q3. Roman calls a QB run left with Shady as lead blocker Again.. Shady dives for the ankles and whiffs on the CB who hits TT behind the line forcing a punt

On the positive side.. here's a great shot of Robert Woods giving up his body blocking for Shady on a sweep play. Atta boy RW! Yet another example... Shady has a blitzing LB lined up.... and rather than manning up and taking the block head on.. he dives at the ankles.. whiffs and luckily Tyrod spun away from this guy and hit Clay

I am usually pretty even keeled.. but I would cut him right then and there in the film room after seeing that. That is the definition of being selfish. Once Jonathan Williams comes back we don't need Reggie anyway.

Last year Shady was surprisingly consistent and stout in picking up the blitz and giving the qb an extra second. I had him pegged as a Prima Dona but I was wrong as he was pretty tough last year in blitz pickup. Now on to 2016: If you watch the All 22 of this game he was generally inconsistent and weak in picking up the blitzHere's an example from q1 - This is a crucial 3rd and 6 57 is the free man .. and it's fairly obvious that he is Shady's responsibility for blitz pick up. 57 dips under Shady's whiffed block attempt and gets right in Tyrod's face.. 99 Jernigan ultimately gets the sack here. Mainly..because Wood slips off of 99 to pick up 54 who is blitzing.. and Incognito doesn't stay with 99 allowing him a free path to the QB Regardless.. even though Shady wasn't directly responsible for the sack.. him not picking up that block on 57 hurt _____ Here's offender # 2.. Reggie Bush 21 is the free man coming on a corner blitz... Bush is lined up to at least give him a chip before releasing into the flat Any self respecting team oriented RB would at least give a little chip here to buy his QB a second... but not California Reggie... Ole... he actually purposefully avoids the CB ompletely before releasing into the flat The end result was Tyrod athletically avoiding the sack from the untouched CB and having to make an awkward throw to Reggie and his nice clean uniform... that went incomplete. At the end of the day Tyrod clearly had an off day .. but his RBs could have helped a little more in pass protect that's for sure ___ ___________ On the positive side.. here's a great shot of Robert Woods giving up his body blocking for Shady on a sweep play. Atta boy RW! Yet another example... Shady has a blitzing LB lined up.... and rather than manning up and taking the block head on.. he dives at the ankles.. whiffs and luckily Tyrod spun away from this guy and hit Clay And here's example # 3 of Shady missing a block... Crucial 3rd and 2 in Q3. Roman calls a QB run left with Shady as lead blocker Again.. Shady dives for the ankles and whiffs on the CB who hits TT behind the line forcing a punt

Indeed...

Precisely.. I like to pound on the seats and scream and get my section fired up on 3rd down at home games. Can't really do that on the road in someone else's stadium. On the other hand I do really enjoy going to road baseball games. Had a great experience in Chicago this summer at US Cellular field for O's / Sox game. You can actually have a civilized conversation at a baseball game.. and Chicago fans tend to be informed. But football is a whole different animal.. It brings out the Ape in most people

I was there as well .. Here are my thoughts: - Watching a game in another team's stadium is not a good experience.. And No...how the Bills played today didn't really factor. I spent the majority of 3 hours sitting on my hands and desperately trying to restrain myself from punching the douchey Ravens fan I got stuck next to. While most Ravens fans were polite .. Just so happens the guy sitting next to me was an uninformed asshat." Tyrod sucks .. He's a career backup" " You got wings and beef on weck but you don't have football" " your stadium is a s.,$hole" etc. Mind you.. It's not particular to Bmore.. Its just if I'm gonna spend $100 it's gonna be at the Ralph where I can Actually let loose and go bananas without worry rather than being the polite house guest all afternoon - I focused on John Miller on almost every play. It was hard to tell how well he did in the run game.. But I can confirm he was very solid in pass protect. To my eye he did not give up a single pressure or blow an assignment - I had high hopes for Kouandjio when he came in for Glenn based on his preseason performance. Doh.. He was shaky at best and was cleanly beaten at least twice resulting in immediate pressure on TT. Hopefully Glenn heals quick - Roman should have adjusted to the quick game once it became obvious the Ravens were keeping 2 safeties deep. I can't think of one slant or hitch that was even attempted or completed - The Defense was really..really good.. and clutch. Damn shame that they let Duke get one on one with Wallace. That was the main thing I was worried about pre game and was completely preventable - The sky is not falling. Our offense had a horrendous day but if our D can hang in there like they did today and buy them time the O will turn it around. We lost on the road to a well coached team with a super bowl winning QB.. Not the end of the world -

nice.. and Suggs is coming off a major Achilles injury too so who knows how effective he'll be

Say what you will about Manny.. but he was solid in setting the edge and decent in pass coverage. If this was a money saving/cap thing... then I think it's a dumb move. Who's going to set the edge? If this was more about off the field risks we don't know about.. then fine. Or maybe this to make room to sign Coples?