HappyDays

Oh I can't wait for that. We'll be fighting for our playoff lives down the stretch which means we'll have to go all out in every game wearing down the team. Then in the wildcard round we'll inevitably lose two key defensive players. Two weeks later people on here will excuse McDermott's defense falling apart because of "bad injury luck." Then in the offseason we'll have to invest more in the defense because "they were the problem." Round and around we go. We had a chance at the easiest possible path to the Super Bowl and we blew it. If they can't get the #1 seed with this schedule and this mess of a conference, they never will.

I really don't think DQ's absence had anything to do with it. Oliver was back and played decently well. Walker was probably our best overall player in the game. The problem in run defense was our starting 2nd and 3rd level, same as it has been all year. Allgeier's opening drive TD run happens because Rapp takes a horrible angle coming down from depth. On the 81 yard Bijan TD run Bernard was the one turned out of his gap. Then Bishop takes a horrible angle and that's all she wrote. The pass completions and defensive penalties that extended drives weren't backups. Rousseau jumps offside, Oliver jumps offside, White commits DPI (admittedly a bad call), Benford commits DPI. Not once did I watch one of the many defensive breakdowns yesterday and think that a backup player was the guilty party. Now if you want to say the players are more responsible than the coaches for these failures okay I am open to hearing that argument, but injuries still are not an excuse for that performance last night.

Just to clarify my point on him Alpha - I agree Shakir is a very good player. But he's very good in his niche way, not in a true WR way. The first comparison that comes to mind, and I don't know how this will be received so I'll just say it, is Xavier Worthy. Not in the sense that they have the same skill set (they don't). But in the sense that they both have one special trick they excel at, and that one trick works a lot better when defenses can't key into it. Last year KC's passing offense really struggled after Rashee Rice went down. They asked Worthy to do more traditional WR things because they had no other options and he just wasn't consistent. This year they've made it a point to add more WRs, and with Rice coming back next week that will put Worthy firmly back into his ideal role and we'll see his explosive plays happen more frequently. I think Shakir is the same way. It's awesome what Shakir is able to do even when defenses know he's going to get the ball on those same 3-4 plays every week. It would look even more awesome if defenses couldn't spend any time worrying about those plays because they had more important things to worry about, like a legit outside WR that can separate and beat them over the top. You add that player to the offense and suddenly Shakir has all sorts of space to work with. Now when you throw those quick screens to him defenses are genuinely surprised and flat footed because their focus was elsewhere. That's the snowball effect of having a legit WR talent on the field. Shakir is the definition of a complementary player, and he's a great complementary player at that, but that still doesn't elevate him to the level of full time traditional WR. And that's unfortunately how the Bills are forced to use him right now.

Correct. Also Penix missed several wide open completions. I'm seeing way too many people around Bills social media crediting the defense for a good 2nd half performance. Let's be real. Penix isn't very good and they had a single pass catcher to worry about. All that in our favor and like you said they still should have put up 30+. I don't want to hear about defensive injuries either. The defense played better after losing several starters in the 2nd half. Established players have regressed, the fundamentals stink, the situational play calling stinks, the same mistakes get made week after week. All the investments this offseason and the defense has somehow gotten even worse! Even in my most pessimistic offseason takes I didn't predict that.

Watched back some of the defensive all-22 in the 1st half. On that end of half play London almost scored on, the play call is basic man. They have freaking Ja'Marcus Ingram 1v1 against London. The only guy that the defense needs to worry about, the one that's killed you for an entire half, and on a critical end of half play you have a practice squad CB lined up against him with no help. Unbelievable.

@Einstein another good blitz tell on this play is the two deeper DBs on the left are clearly hanging over the would-be blitzers. That's a tell that they are there to replace the space voided by the blitzers. I'm surprised Allen didn't spot it honestly, he's been very good statistically against the blitz and usually finds the opening. With where his eyes went looks like he wants Ty Johnson on the wheel but doesn't anticipate the edge rusher breaking off his rush to cover him. Credit to Atlanta too, it's a good call. Spencer Brown is left blocking air, they get two free rushers, the wheel is unexpectedly covered by an edge LB.

The bye week is coming at a good time. Allen needs a reset and Kromer needs a reset with his OL. If there's one coach I trust on this staff to get his unit right, it's him. The offense has at least one game a year where they get killed by exotic blitzes and can never get back in sync. I'm not too worried about them fixing that part. I am very worried about them finding ways to punish defenses who want to play this style. They just have to add a downfield weapon, there are no other possible solutions.

The pre-snap read decides the progression. I think on that play the read should have indicated to him that Atlanta might have pressure coming from his left, the 2nd level is shaded over to that side and creeping up before the snap. That is a classic beat the blitz by throwing right into it but he didn't see it. Not going to kill Allen over one play. He was getting less and less comfortable as the game went along and the frustration was definitely getting to him. I don't mean that as an excuse, it's just how it looked to me on the tape.

I've watched the offense all-22 and there was not much to be had out there. Only play that stuck out which I think Allen genuinely missed was this one: I think his eyes need to start left where Atlanta is showing possible pressure and if he does then Shakir is wide open on the rail. This is the only play I watched back where I thought Allen made a legit pre-snap or post-snap error. There's a couple passes he turns down which you could quibble on. Mostly it's guys blanketed downfield in combination with Atlanta fooling our OL with exotic pressure looks. Quick pressure without quick separation, you do the math. Once Palmer went down we had zero ability to even threaten downfield.

It was better but we can't keep coming into these games with the totally wrong game plan and making basic fundamental errors all game long. The Jets horrid offense is the only one we've stopped. So basically any offense better than historically bad we are spotting them 21 points. That can't be the minimum every week, not when we've put so much investment into that side of the ball. Babich has to be a lot better. I didn't really expect a change but I was hoping for one. I think he is way out of his depth.

No changes coming yet:

This is interesting:

I don't think Brady is the problem but he's not the solution either. His simple system would work better if we had legit WR talent on the roster. He doesn't support the talent and the talent doesn't support him. You need either the play caller or the talent to be top tier to have a Super Bowl caliber offense, and currently we have neither. One thing I would tell him is please for the love of God stop calling mesh on every 3rd and 4th down. I get it, it's our most consistent play given the lack of real WR talent, but it is way way too predictable and easy to defend at this point. Atlanta beat it a couple times just sending extra rushers and playing basic zone, which is an automatic win against that route combination.

Yeah and I have questioned that on both sides of the ball. It never feels like we are attacking a weakness or game planning to take away a strength. We're too stubborn about playing "our offense" and "our defense." Even back when the defense was good in the regular season, that was our problem in the playoffs. McDermott has established a culture here but I've never been convinced he knows how to game plan.

I actually see the new stadium as a possible catalyst for him making the move. It's the last year of Highmark and as of now it's likely that no playoff games will be played there. The fanbase is going to be restless. Having a new regime around Allen is an easy marketing tool when you're trying to sell tickets at the new stadium.