HappyDays

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.

I also have questions on our game planning. Last week we left Diggs 1v1 and he punished us repeatedly. This week the only WR they had was Drake London and we let him just keep finding soft spots in zone or ending up 1v1. How does a professional coaching staff let that happen? Why aren't we game planning to take away what the opposing offense does well? If Kyle Pitts and Casey Washington beat you, okay you can live with that. But how can Diggs and then London have career days when you know they are the only guys that can beat you?

I wanted to trade for Jeudy back when the Browns did, so yeah I would still take him. I'm not convinced he is enough though. He's more a very good #2 and what we need is a legit #1 IMO. It sucks but DK Metcalf was the easy answer to this question. He is the prototypical WR this offense needs. A legit #1 that can separate outside and downfield. We took his draft pick and money and spent it on TJ Sanders, Rousseau, and Bernard. Does anyone still think that was the right use of resources? One star > two good players. Olave is the only realistic option that gives our offense what it needs. I'm not going to pretend he's better than he is. He has a smaller frame, injury concerns, and not great hands. He is a lower end #1 but he IS a #1 and that's good enough for me. Allen just needs someone he can trust on critical downs to get open outside, and defenses won't be able to sell out as much if they have to worry about that threat.

On one hand I understood those fans. They were correct that the defense was the biggest problem last year. Their mistake was assuming that just throwing a bunch of resources at that side of the ball would fix it, and that the offense would pick up right where it left off. As I expected none of the investments have made any sort of difference on defense, and a historically mistake-free offense is reverting to the mean.

My take in the offseason was that if you're going to run an offense without a true #1, then your #4 and #5 WRs become that much more important. You can't have no #1 and also have your depth WRs be completely useless. Moore and Shavers are not rosterable NFL players and we were forced to try and rely on them in the 2nd half last night. It's inexcusable roster mismanagement.

I'm going through it now and there are definitely times where the pressure got to him, but this play wasn't one of them. That wasn't a high risk throw. It's probably an automatic read, Moore in 1v1 coverage against a CB who is playing with vertical leverage. That should be an an easy as can be comeback completion.

My god Elijah Moore is terrible. His CB is playing with vertical leverage and he has all sorts of space to come back to. This is why he hasn't stuck anywhere after being drafted at the top of the 2nd. He can run routes pretty well but he is hopeless at reading defenses and making himself available for his QB.

They're totally different players IMO. Beasley was a route runner/separator. Shakir is a YAC specialist that you scheme touches for.

Here we go again. I remember people saying the same thing last year after the Baltimore and Houston losses. Then we added a downfield boundary WR and lo and behold the "regression" was stopped in its tracks. And Cooper was no elite threat for us by any means, but just having that baseline option available made a massive difference. I'm going to keep saying this until I'm blue in the face - the worst sin this regime has committed is convincing a portion of the fanbase that Allen is anything less than elite. They are ruining his legacy as evidenced by posts like this. Tom Brady had a disappointing final year in New England and people thought his career was over. Instead he went to the team with the best set of offensive weapons in the league and promptly won another Super Bowl. Every QB that has ever played in the NFL has needed help to perform at their best.

Yeah I'm just talking about recent years. Since 2021 Beane has spent exactly ONE top 140 pick on a WR. One in five drafts. That's an almost incomprehensible failure for any team, let alone one built around its rocket arm QB.

Rice was a 2nd rounder. They also used a 2nd rounder on Skyy Moore (awful pick, but I'm just talking about the investment strategy). That is 3 top 64 picks on a WR over the same period that we have used 1. This year they spent a 4th on one while we used a 7th. They have absolutely prioritized the position more than we have.

I don't mean this as a criticism but Shakir is a limited player. He does his one trick extremely well and for that alone I think he is worth his contract, but he is not someone you want to rely on down in and down out. His failure to make what has become a pretty routine sideline catch in the modern NFL is a good example of what I mean. And just to be clear I don't blame him for not making that play. It's not his fault he's been elevated into the role of full time slot WR when his proper role is YAC specialist that you manufacture a few touches for.

I don't think Palmer was a bad signing. $10M is the going rate for #3 caliber WRs. That is what Tutu Atwell and Dyami Brown are getting paid and Palmer is better than both of them. The problem is that that was Beane's signature move at WR this year. Last year it was Curtis Samuel. Those should be moves to round out the offense, not your big ticket items. We let Diggs go and I agreed 100% with that decision, but Beane made no attempt to find anybody even close to his level. They chose "everybody eats" over "feed a couple stars" and it has proven undeniably the wrong approach to building around your franchise QB. Mahomes had crap around him for a season or two, and KC has made every effort to fix the problem. Meanwhile Beane has taken to yelling at local radio hosts because he knows better than everyone. Palmer + Rousseau + Bernard could have given us DK Metcalf. I was adamant in the offseason that adding a star WR needed to be the singular priority because it was our only possible path to a Super Bowl and unfortunately my worst fears about their approach have come true.