Shaw66

The Rockpile Review by Shaw66 Imperfect Wins The Bills didnt capitalize on takeaways. They didnt manage the clock well. They blew coverages. They took unnecessary timeouts. The quarterback missed open receivers. The Bills didnt pressure the quarterback enough. They were lucky. They won. The Bills beat the Buccaneers on Sunday, 30-27. For the critical fans, there was a lot not to like. We want perfection. For the coach, it was great! He wants wins. In his post-game press conference, McDermott was at times emotional, at times giddy, and at times, as usual, true to the process: he said, in so many words, we made mistakes, well watch the film, we have to get better. Its about continuous improvement And its about wins. In the press conference, McDermott kept coming back to the same simple bottom line: we won. We played hard for sixty minutes and we won. Fans see mistakes and they focus on them, fret over them. Teams arent perfect, and games arent perfect. A lot of things happen during a game, and they dont all go as planned. At the end of the day, there is only one question: did we win? On Sunday, the Bills made mistakes, they werent perfect, but they made the plays they needed to win the game. The Bills offense sparkled at times on Sunday. It converted a lot of third downs, and third down conversions lead to a lot of yards gained. Running backs had room to run, something that couldnt be said for most of the season to date. As the coach says, hell have to watch the film, but the return of Cordy Glenn had to have been part of the reason. Having Glenn at tackle also gave the Bills some flexibility: when Incognito went out of the game briefly and the Bills were third and short, they inserted Dawkins at guard for a play to add some muscle up front. The passing game still dinked and dunked a lot, but this time there were some bigger chunk plays sprinkled in. Taylor found Thompson, OLeary and Thomas downfield for big and important gains throughout the game. The defense, on the other hand, looked softer than it had all season, and they seemed to be making uncharacteristic mistakes. Serious confusion forced a timeout on one play. Still, the defense continued to make big plays: the takeaways, for sure, but also plays like Poyers deflection of a sure touchdown pass. Every play, whether it went for no gain or 20 yards, guys were running to the ball, hitting hard, not quitting. Of course, the Bucs have been giving up a lot of yards all season long, so it may be too soon celebrate an offensive Renaissance. And they also have one of the top offenses in the league (Martin is a seriously good back), so it wasnt a complete surprise that they moved up and down the field as easily as they did. Some observations: 1. I really enjoy having LeSean McCoy. He says and does some troubling things from time to time, but the man is a truly special ball carrier and a serious competitor. He gets everything he can on every play, whether its two yards or 22, takes the hits (and avoids a lot of them) gets up and goes back to work. He runs nice pass patterns, he has good hands. He laid out nicely in the end zone when Taylor overthrew him, and it wasnt for show it was a serious effort to catch the ball. Over his career he fumbles one to four times a season, and he has two so far in 2017. Its certainly a problem to turn it over, and it looked like his fumble on Sunday could have cost the Bills the game. Still, his contributions far exceed the pain of an occasional turnover. After the game McDermot said hed keep giving Shady the ball. Im all in on that. 2. I think Sunday we saw the good, the bad and the ugly of Tyrod Taylor, all on display in one game. Theres a lot more good than bad. If Brandon Beane sees a half dozen more games this season like that one, I think hes renegotiating Taylors contract again and using all those draft picks to build talent across the lineup. The good? Heck, 260 yards, 8 yards per attempt, 1 TD and no turnovers is good enough for your starting QB; throw in 50 yards rushing, and you have a real problem for defensive coordinators. He was particularly good at moving in the pocket, or escaping altogether, to get time to make throws. He did it on the biggest throw of the day, the long one to Deonte Thompson to start the game-tying drive. That was good quarterbacking. The bad? A lot of little things. Hes missing, by a little, on a lot of throws. It looked like he surprised Matthews once and McCoy once by delivering short balls over the middle with too much pace (plus the one to McCoy was low). Taylor displayed better touch on short balls a couple of years ago. Hes consistently overthrowing deep balls by just a little, like the one to Shady. The ugly? He had Zay Jones with a lot of separation up the left sideline, looked at him and then turned and through incomplete to the right. He just doesnt seem to make the best decisions as consistently as the really good quarterbacks. Just like Shadys fumbles, I can take the ugly when the good is that good. 3. Deonte Thompson. Who? Ive already mentioned the guy a couple of times, and I have no idea who he is. To be honest, he was getting wide open as much by play design as by personal elusiveness, but play design doesnt have anything to with his hands. This guy can catch the ball. 4. Combine Thompson with Matthews and Jones, who seems to be coming around, bring back Clay to lead the really solid tight-end grew thats been getting the job done while Clay is healing, and theres an effective pass receiving corps on the field. McCoy is no slouch in the passing game, either. Theyre all getting open from time to time, Taylor generally is finding them, and theyre catching the ball. Do the Bills miss Sammy? Youre always going to miss a talent like that, but Beane and McDermott knew what they were doing they knew that success passing the ball comes from an effective system, and they were confident their system would get the job done. Sunday it looked like they were right. 5. Do yourself a favor. Go to the Bills website and watch the video of McDermotts locker room talk after the game. What McDermott has to say is nice, but watch it for what Kyle says next. Its a measure of how screwed up the Bills were that they could have had the leadership of Fred Jackson and Kyle Williams on the team at the same time and play as poorly as they often did. Kyles a quality guy. 6. Every defense has weaknesses, and the Bucs found the Bills weaknesses all day. For the first time this season, receivers were finding wide open zones so that they had plenty of room to run after the catch. Until Sunday, receivers were catching balls in the seams but getting dropped pretty quickly by tacklers. And there were a few obvious blown coverages, like Howards touchdown. Theres work to be done to plug those holes. 7. McDermott manned up and said the blown opportunity at the end of the half was his fault. It was, in a sense, because he decided there was time for one more play and there wasnt. Actually, though, McDermott took the heat for Dennison, because Dennison called the play. The play was pointless that pattern was not going to result in a touchdown, so what was the point? And if there was another option on that play, an option that made more sense, Taylor should know in that situation that he had to either go to that other option or throw the ball away. That was bad football. 8. Do you know how many total tackles TreDavious White had through the Bengals game? 22, in five games. Do you know how many he had against the Buccaneers? 1. Its a measure of how much respect the Bucs had for White that pretty much all day long they through at Gaines, Wright and Johnson. When they finally threw at White, what happened? Takeaway, game over. The guy aint flashy, but he can play. 9. The crowd was good, not great. When the fans got into it, we were really loud, but the Bucs silenced the crowd at times with plenty of big plays the crowd has to will themselves through those plays and keep up the noise. Still, you could see the Bills players responding to the noise. In his press conference McDermott seemed almost tearful talking about how great it is to play and coach in Buffalo. There was a big-time fan celebration leaving the stadium after that win. 10. The final play. Its a shame that Poyer was injured running around out there. Those plays are a lot of fun to watch, but its agonizing when your team is on defense. The Bucs executed quite well, but what impressed me was how well prepared the Bills were. Talk about bend, dont break. The defenders stayed in position, didnt over-commit, and looked for opportunities to end the play. There were a couple of times when the Bucs the field and looked to have created a lane up the sideline, but the Bills were prepared each time. Great game! Even the half-time was great. The Bills brought in the Ohio State marching band. Maybe you have to be old-timer to like that stuff (I probably saw more or less the same show at War Memorial Stadium in 1962), but the half-time show was a great show, a tribute to New York City with all different kinds of formations and good music. And they entertained pregame, too, finishing up with the classic Ohio spelled out in script on both sides of the field. Did I say great game! Hard fought, some big plays, plenty of excitement and tension. And we WON!!! And it doesnt get any easier. Its time to pay the Raiders back for last year, but it will be tough. GO BILLS!!! The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full days hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

It's one game at a time. A good ram wins the games it should win. Shoulda won in Carolina and shoulda won in Cinci. Now Tampa comes to town. We will learn more about this team on Sunday.

No, it doesn't. But it sure seems like those calls go in FAVOR on NE a lot.

I don't believe the conspiracy theories, but I think I'm about to change my mind. As others have said, there was NO conclusive evidence that he didn't have the ball as he went into the end zone. In fact, it seemed much more likely that he regained control before he got to the goal line, in which case the instant he landed on the pylon it was a TD. If what I just said is POSSIBLE, then there's no conclusive evidence that he didn't have possession. That call, and the earlier pass interference call, both looked like the officials were looking for ways to give the game to the Patriots.

CBA guarantees a minimum salary for guys on the roster. Also, if you spread the salary cap over more players the average salary goes down. Players don't want that.

Exactly.

it's SO tough to win in this league. It's a big test every week. We will see what the process gives us.

I'm just trying to process the process. I don't know if I'm supposed to respect it or trust. I guess I'll need to do some research. 3-2 last season? Hmmm. I'll tell you what bothers me: the prospect of holding every opponent to 20 or under and still not making .500.

I can't get too upset about the Green touchdown. The guy is a great player. When Watson beat people long, we didn't sit around here saying the opponent shouldn't have let Watson beat them. We said he was a great player making plays. No team plays perfect defense every play, every game, and you have to give credit to the talents of your opponent. Especially when you have a rookie on him, you have to expect to get whacked a bit. McDermott isn't going to double cover him all day long. He won't skew his regular defense like that. He's going to expect all of his players to make plays, and sometimes they'll fail. White made a mistake on the play. Frankly, I wish they'd turn Tyrod loose as much as they do White. Let Taylor make some mistakes, instead of telling him that under no circumstances is he to throw an interception.

The picks isn't the question. The question is the BIlls should have taken Mahomes.

I don't talk about playcalling. I don't know anything about playcalling, and frankly I don't think other than coaches and veteran QBs know anything about it, either. I think when announcers say that a call was a great playcall all he's really saying is the play was the right play for the defense that was called. But the coach didn't know what defense was called; if a different defense had been called, that play might not have worked at all. I'm not convinced that there's a whole lot of skill in playcalling. Play design and offensive design is a different story. The Bills had a lousy game plan today - they had very few plays that worked. That's on Dennison. As I've said, I think they make a mistake by not using Taylor's skills more. That's on Dennison (and maybe McD.) A lot was made about Dennison doing outside zone blocking and the Bills having featured inside zone blocking last year. But the reports are that last year the Bills used outside zone blocking as much as anyone last season. I think the failing of the running game is what happens with everyone who has success doing something for a couple of years - the league figures out how to stop it. They watch film, they see what works on defense and they use it. It's the offense's job to adapt. But if you're running game is getting stopped, usually the solution is to get better passing. Right now, the Bills don't have great weapons to use to get better passing.

I think that's correct, but I'd put it differently. I think he's doing everything he can to win this season with what he has. At any position where one guy is performing clearly better than the backup, the backup isn't playing. But at any position where a guy is not getting the job done, McD isn't giving the benefit of the doubt. So Kyle Williams plays over his backup, because Kyle PLAYS better than his backup, while Dareus doesn't play over HIS backup because Dareus is either injured or in a funk and just isn't playing well enough to deserve to be out there. Similarly, Miller must be underperforming. A couple of weeks ago someone asked a series of questions intending to get McD to say that Peterman would start. McD said ti's a competition at every position, so the reporter asked if Peterman might start soon. McD almost laughed at him His body language said the competition isn't even close. If McD were playing for next year, Peterman would be on the field. The day Peterman starts is the day you'll know that McD has bigen up on this season. I think for McD it's the exact same job as it is for a high school coach: Someone gives him a collection of players, and tries to win games. He said it after the game today - he's always evaluating and he's rethinking what he's doing to do based on his evaluation.

Watching Houston KC just now, and DeShaun Watson ran the read option. Collinsworth just said that when you crash the DE, someone has to fill in for him. In this case, the fill guy was too far away and Watson faked his way past the defender. So I say design plays with the right options for Taylor. Loss was all on the offense. I'm a big believer in coaching, but I don't think the Bills are putting enough talent on the field to do much on offense. That's why I think they have to use Taylor more. He and McCoy are the only elite skill guys on the field, and if you take Taylor's legs from him, then you have only one elite player.

Actually, he's on track for more carries this season than either of the last two. But I think more of his runs this season are scrambles. I have a theory that I hinted at. I noticed a couple of times last week that when Taylor ran what looked like zone reads, the defensive end always crashed on the running back, which is when Taylor's supposed to pull it back and run to the spot the DE would ordinarily fill. But when I looked, there was ANOTHER defender in the DE slot. I think what's happening is that defenses have adjusted to the zone read to shut down the QB option. We're not seeing teams run it as much this season as a couple years ago. If I'm right, it means that there are opportunities. If that's what teams are doing, it's the equivalent of having a spy on the QB, and when teams do that they've taken a player out of the ordinary defensive flow. That guy filling the DE slot must be a linebacker or safety. So where is throw BEHIND that guy? Last week, or was it two weeks ago, we saw Tyrod run around the right end, stop and hit Clay coming from the left end position. Was Clay filling the hole vacated by the linebacker? I don't know. What I do know is that for two years we saw a dimension in Taylor's game that we're not seeing now. Especially with a weakened receiving corps, the Bills can afford to leave weapons on the sideline.

That's the play I wrote about in The Rockpile Review. A good quarterback knows Clay will come open on that play, and it's his job to avoid the sack and lay the ball out there. Terrible play by Taylor, if you want your QB to win games for you.

Wow. I try to be pretty objective about Taylor. Some say I'm too kind to him. But I cannot say he played okay today. For me, the simplest measure is passer rating. In the modern NFL, you gotta be over 90. Taylor was under 84. That's where Fitzpatrick played, and it's where Manuel tried to get. His completion percentage was marginally over 50%, which was good in the 1960s but no longer. And he was throwing a ton of short passes, so his percentage should be higher. And those short passes were going for no yards. AND, as if that isn't bad enough, he got sacked six times, killing drives. If you're going to lay blame for the loss, which I generally don't do, you gotta start with Taylor and you don't have to look much further.

I don't think there's a lot of help out there. My cousin always tells me that it's not just injuries, but the timing of injuries and the positions are critical. If the Bills lost Lawson and Hughes, it would hurt the defense as much as losing Matthews and Clay on offense. The best hope is better play out of the offensive line, Taylor and McCoy. If they can do that, then O'Leary, Jones, Tate and Holmes will be enough. The Bills won't find better players bagging groceries somewhere.

The Rockpile Review – by Shaw66 Trust the Process – Bengals Over Bills Prepare. Play the game. Get a result. Prepare. Play the game. Get a result. Trust the process. The Bills lost to the Bengals Sunday, 20-16. The approach was the same as in the four previous games: Play conservative offense, solid defense, stay in the game, win the second half. Somehow, I’ve internalized the mantra: Trust the process. I don’t get excited watching the first half. I celebrate the good plays, but I don’t fret over the bad plays. AJ Green beats Tre’Davious White for 77 yards and a score? Don’t worry, trust the process. By the end of the half, the process had tied the score and the Bills had what they play for – a game they could win in the second half. This time it didn’t work. The Bills had opportunities; they didn’t give the Bengals much in the second half, but the offense gained only 88 yards and repeatedly stopped itself with penalties or poor play. Just as in Carolina, the Bills could have beaten the Bengals, but they didn’t make the plays to win. It was a close game. Both teams had some injuries coming into the game, and guys got banged up during the game. It rained for the entire game. Did the injuries and rain slow down the Bengals and give the Bills an edge, or did the injuries and rain make the Bills’ struggling offense struggle even more? Probably both. Did untimely penalties hurt the Bills or the Bengals more? Probably both. It’s a loss. Prepare. Play the next game. Trust the process. Here are some thoughts about the game: 1. Let’s start with Tre’Davious White. The long ball to Green was the biggest play of the game. Probably not the most important, but the biggest. Without it, the Bengals have only 246 yards passing, 7 yards per attempt instead of 8.7. Without it, the Bills win 16-13. But, of course, Green DID beat White, and it’s plays like that that make the difference in games. White looked surprised that White went deep. He was playing the out-route and bit on the slightest hint that Green was about to break to the outside. Rookie mistake against a premier receiver. I wouldn’t be surprised if White was a little complacent after surviving Julio Jones last week. Green taught him that you NEVER can go to sleep on premier receivers. They always have one more move, one more gear, one more way to beat you. We’re watching the education of an NFL cornerback. He was an honor student coming out of college, but he’s in graduate school now. He’ll be better next time, because he learned a lesson. 2. Charles Clay. In the run up to the game, it seemed obvious that the Bills passing game would feature Clay. Taylor’s had a lot of success throwing to Clay lately, and with Matthews out and Jones not yet NFL-ready, it figured that the Bills would be throwing to Clay. His injury was a big blow to the offense. O’Leary stepped up and made some nice catches, but he can’t be the downfield threat that Clay is. 3. Tyrod Taylor. All of Tyrod’s warts were on display in Cincinnati. He was ugly inaccurate on some easy throws. Was the weather in his head? Whatever, he has to make the easy throws. Worse was his decision making. He waited in the pocket altogether too long. No way he should take six sacks for 27 yards. He took the Bills out of drives with those sacks. Watch the best QBs: they don’t wait in there that long. Watch Rodgers – if he doesn’t throw it in three seconds, he’s on the move. Taylor can escape and he can throw on the run; he needs to get out of there. Taylor also needs to make decisions and let it fly. He’s always been cautious with the ball, and McDermott apparently is obsessed with limiting turnovers. But there’s a downside to being cautious: you never learn to make the tough throws. Taylor’s problems were on display in the final drive. On first down, Taylor waited too long. He had a receiver 15 yards downfield, heading into open space on the left sideline. First, if Taylor knew his progressions and read the defense properly, he should have known his receiver would be open there. He should have been looking there. Second, if Taylor didn’t have time to get the ball out to the open space, then he should have been on the move to buy the time he needed. Instead, he took the sack, leaving the Bills second and 15 instead of, at worst, second and 10. Third, if Taylor was unsure about that throw, well, some of that unsureness is because he never takes the chance to make that throw, so he never learns how to make it. Two plays later, in desperation time, Taylor finally pulled the trigger, throwing the interception that ended the game. His receiver was surrounded by defenders, but that’s a throw good quarterbacks make. Throw it on a line, right at the numbers, and it’s a catch and the Bills are still in it. However, if in the first 59 minutes of games he doesn’t make that throw, then in the last minute of the game he’s no better than a rookie attempting that pass. The Bills need to turn Taylor loose during the game if they want him to learn how to win games on the last possession. 4. Micah Poyer. Was I the only guy who was confident the Bills were fixed at safety when these guys signed? Wow. McDermott knew what he needed back there, and he obviously has found what he needed. Every week, always in position, always making the tackle, always making a play on the ball. 5. Sammy Watkins. I’ve been okay with the trade from day one, but is there any doubt that the Bills need a serious outside receiving threat? The game was pretty even, except the Bengals had Green and the Bills didn’t even have Matthews. Once Clay went down, no one believed that the Bills would hurt the Bengals throwing the ball. The Bills’ offensive line just isn’t good enough to carry the team. 6. Can Brandon Tate be what the Bills need? He has the quickness, the shiftiness to make defenders miss. Touchdown catch was pretty impressive. Later he showed little ability to get two feet in bounds, but still, he looks like a threat. 7. Nice to hear: One of the TV commentators giving the scores said the Bengals have won two in a row, the first against the Browns and this week against the Bills, a good team. When’s the last time you heard someone say THAT? 8. The Bills really needed to move the ball on their last series of the first half. They put together a nice drive then stalled, getting nothing on three plays. One more first down and Hauschka would have had a shot at a field goal. In games where points are hard to come by, that was a missed opportunity. 9. The Bills need more offense, and I’d have Taylor running more. When he rolls out, he should run it upfield some of the time. Force the defense to respect his running threat, maybe open up some throws. If defenses are committing an extra man to defend the read option, then design plays to take advantage of that commitment. He has as many rushing attempts in previous seasons, but it seems to me there are fewer designed runs. 10. I like McDermott. I like his approach – continuous improvement. Study, practice, execute. Trust the process. Of course, approach isn’t enough. Xs and Os are important. It’s already clear that he knows how to coach defense. Week after week, teams struggle to score against the Bills. If he knows defense that well, either he also knows offense or he can identify coaches who do. When he says they’ll continue to work and to improve, I believe him. Bills can use the bye. The week off is good for Glenn, Gaines, Matthews, O’Leary and others. Maybe even Clay. Two more weeks of work can help the offensive line. Taylor and the receivers certainly can use the time. 3-2 is a decent start. That’s all. The measure of teams, as McDermott well knows, is November and December. We’ll see if the Bills can find some kind of offense by then. GO BILLS!!! The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

When do I need to show up at the Harp to get a seat? I'm too old to stand!

Thanks. I will call but I thought I might get better info here.

Do Bills fans still watch games at the Bleacher Bar at Fenway? How early do I have to get there to get a seat?

Thanks for this. It's always interesting when a player talks about what's actually going on inside the team.

The Pats fans in a bar in Nantucket are rich enough to buy the Bills so they could afford to be gracious.

Thanks, Happy. I appreciate the comment, especially from you.

One play that I wanted to comment on was the long kickoff return the Bills gave up. Obviously, someone screwed up the kick coverage (or maybe the Falcons just got the right kick for the play they had called). What was noteworthy about that play was how well Hauschka and Wright executed their roles. Hauschka made a good play, forcing the return man to cut wide to avoid the tackle. It cost the return man just a little time, time that Wright needed to close the gap and make the tackle. If Hauschka gets beaten to the inside, the returner would have been one on one with Wright coming across the field, and that's a really hard tackle to make. With the ball carrier forced wide, Wright could continue on a straight line and rely on the sideline to help him contain the man and make the tackle. Hauschka made a nice play, and Wright didn't quit on the play. If the kick return goes all the way, the Bills are trailing. Instead, three plays later Hyde intercepts and returns 37 yards. The kick coverage and the interception saved the game.