Straight Hucklebuck

By the way, my post referenced stats from NFL Next Gen.

I watched the entire game and Allen was not impressive. Allen made the play at the goal line, made the Knox throw. The best drive was the first drive of the 3rd Quarter. Two quick throws to Diggs and Beasley. But, balls were fluttering, balls were late, balls were low. The fact that All-22's are coming out and saying this, not a surprise. The fact that PFF has him graded at 62.3 is not a surprise. The numbers are all down this year. You're right. This is WGR about the run game. Jeremy can use his worn golf-analogies every show, but you're not allowed to say that a run game could help the team. Not allowed, unless your Adam Benigni, Paul Hamilton, Sal Cappacio, Doug Farrar then we'll let you talk because you're a guest on the show.

You absolutely nailed it on this post. Without Bulldog, and Sneaky Joe in, yesterday's show nosedived right off the bat into a talk about Fantasy Football trade etiquette, with a betting-line story not far behind. And you're 100% right about the love-fest with Lamar Jackson.

Last year against the Broncos on the Kumerow TD throw, Allen doesn't hesitate, he drives the ball down the middle of the field, and Simmons said he just knew that he was going to make a play on that ball. Safety is there, he just blows it by them. Allen is missing throws.

Allen's 62.3 PFF makes sense. Pressure doesn't explain all of the passing offense struggles.

I think that is an insane take.

Like Sammy Watkins, we just wait for this breakout that is going to happen at any minute.

Literally just listened to Sal Capaccio say the line played well in Miami, he was only sacked once, and he had time to throw on film. He missed throws all over the field. You know what's beyond me? Bills fans acting like its a crime to say that Allen isn't playing well. You know what's beyond me? That Diggs is getting 4 yards of separation per attempted throw, Beasley 6 yards per attempted throw, Sanders over 4 yards per throw (Brown was 3 yards last year) and Allen is not hitting them. Sorry, I know your schtick is blame everyone else, and act aghast, but Allen is not making throws. The mantra after the Steelers game was, well the Bills will never see a defense like that again. Then Miami comes along and the narrative shifts to well they have an amazing secondary. He's not playing well. His PFF rating right now is 62.3. Average in the league is 72.4. He's missing throws.

He is missing throws. The clip above shows him throwing off the back foot again. He bails out on the throw, turns his shoulder like he’s about to get hit. Protection isn’t great on the play, but like Warner pointed out in the Pittsburgh film, he’s not seeing open players right now.

This analysis basically says it’s not the pressure. Allen isn’t seeing the throws that need to be made and his mechanics are off, leading to inaccuracy again.

He clocked a 4.66 at the Combine. Realistically, with training, he could shave a tenth off this time and be a 4.55 type player now.

Well Nick Wright has no nuance to his opinion. His take is Mahomes will go to the Super Bowl every season he plays and nobody else can eat. So I guess that means he is going to go to 15 straight Super Bowls. This is the Michael Jordan argument. If the bar is Michael Jordan, then I guess nobody else will measure up.

Through the first two weeks PFF has him graded at 62.3, ranked 27th in the league, better than Lawrence, Roethlisberger, Tua, Rodgers, Zach Wilson. Average is 72.4. High - Brady at 93.0. Low - Lawrence at 47.8.

We gotta stop talking about last year.

In addition to what you said, we talked a lot this off-season about adding more speed to the offense. I think that need is still there. Our WRs don’t seem to be creating the same separation they were last year. Nothing comes easy right now. So that combination of wobbly, off target passes and less separation has made this passing offense look clunky. Our only immediate hope is that Gabe Davis gets healthy and starts eating into Beasley’s reps at least. Because we’re not seeing any explosive potential out of this offense. Sanders is our “speed” guy ala Brown, but it looks right now as if the Bills have to string together 9 play drives to score.

I think it’s closer to 27-7, maybe the Dolphins convert once. But the Bills had contained Miami’s dink and dunk offense.

It’s not against the law to say Allen has misfired throws, threw some balls short, overthrown other passes, and our WRs don’t seem to be getting a ton of separation. That’s not inaccurate or being fair weather.

Or if we had taken Mack from UB at #4 instead of Sammy Watkins.

It’s a testament to his hard work in the off-season. The Bills said he was in better shape to start the year.

Right now nothing looks like it’s coming easily with our offense. Josh has not been as accurate and we’ve seen some ducks, wobbly balls. The inaccuracy is dropping him into the 50% completion range again. But our WRs are struggling to separate. There are no explosive plays to be had. That’s why Gabe Davis is important, he’s gets down the field, might have to hold him out next week and get him healthy. Our line has been suspect. This looks like the Colts game where we are hanging on all game.

Allen has been inaccurate deep Forces everything short OLine is pedestrian And WRs are getting little to no separation Right now nothing is coming easy in this offense

WGR is still living in 2020. Jeremy White making golf analogies at 10:00 am. Tua plays a dink and dunk game. We saw that for years with Trent Edwards. They need to win games 20-17, 19-14, living off turnovers and late FGs. So knowing the Dolphins have a pop gun offense, I think this is going to look like Dallas in 2019, quick passing, a lot of work underneath, then building to longer throws. This is also a game to start weeding out bad running formations and start establishing a smarter baseline. Not having a run game clearly has hurt the Bills against better opponents. I expect a more patient game plan from Daboll and Josh Allen. Scaling up aggressiveness as the game goes on. Last week felt rushed and chaotic, frantic. Miami is pedestrian on offense, this defense should clamp down on them. While that is going on, this offense needs work.

My takeaway from Week One was the Bills defense was impressive against the Steelers. They shut down Najee Harris outside of one run. Ben Roethlisberger largely lived off of low percentage ducks. The unit got handed raw field position in the second half as the offense floundered around. Speaking of the offense, I'm tired of hearing about 2020 from Buffalo media. Diggs, Beasley and Sanders are nice players. I think 250 yards from Allen, 2 TDs and 0-1 Interceptions, is my expectation for this game. I don't want to assess whether Sugar High Josh is a problem. What I want to see is this defense handle a tricky player in Jaylen Waddle (4.27 speed ala Tyreke Hill), suffocate Tua, and collapse their dink and dunk offense. Ed Oliver (9th Overall) make plays, Tremaine Edmonds (16th Overall) make plays, AJ Epenesa do something, you were a 2nd Round pick, let's see all this investment on the defensive line pay off with sacks. Get home. I want to see 27-7 type game, where the Bills defensive line looks like the Steelers did last week. I want a week where I'm not listening to Brian Daboll explain goofy backwards pitches, flea flickers that don't work, why Josh Allen got 9 designed runs, and "tipping our hat" to the tough Miami secondary.

Funny on WGR this week where they interview Adam Begnini and he says run more, they interview Paul Hamilton and he said they should have run more, Doug Farrah is asked directly about it by Mike Schopp. But when the callers say they should have run more in that game they get lectured about how it’s not their identity and this is why we paid Allen. New England was game to game flexible with their plan. Jonas Gray for 200 yards, and never heard from again. Not the Bills, every game is Josh Allen gunning no matter the actual score in the game. It’s about the specific scenario that was playing out in that game. It was 10-6 Bills into the 4th Quarter. At no point was this a shootout and the defense played great. The Bills gave the Steelers great field position with their botched 4th down attempts.

The Bills Offensive Line was being mauled, Allen didn't want to take the shorter stuff, we ran a total of 15 times with running backs (9 Allen runs) in a low scoring game. The OC's stubbornness to do anything other than pass the ball 51-times played a big factor in the loss.