Maine-iac

Maybe, I remember being happy we pulled it out and thinking it was something to build on. Things went all over the place from there.

At one point he actually threw three TD's in a row in that game. Clay got called for offensive PI, then he dropped one, then Taylor hit Shady in the end zone. The Tampa game Taylor hit Thompson on a 44 yard pass to set up Shady's 7 yard run that tied it and then next drive after 2 runs for one yard converted 3rd and 9. Then two more runs for zero yards he hit Shady for a 9 yard gain that set up the winning FG. The TD that Taylor threw that hit Zay Jones square in the hands and bounced off and Holmes caught it was a good highlight real play.

In funny coincidences we had Flynn and Jackson here at one point or another. Wilson was electric that preseason. It certainly is a good story and worth trying. We have the picks it's a matter of who's there I suppose.

I always liked the old school way of bringing a QB along. He sits a good part of his rookie contract. Plays if your starter gets hurt. Looks great or doesn't isn't a big deal because he's not being thrown into action as the starter. Everything moves so fast now. If a QB is drafted they almost root for the starter to go down. I don't think this is the coaching staff where you are going to bring in a 1st round pick and see him win rookie of the year. Redo Tyrod's contract again. Sign him to three years with a relatively friendly contract that treats him like he's going to start the next two anyways. Draft your rookie and let him sit and learn the first two seasons. Get some better WR's and build the o-line. Tyrod can take care of the ball and run around. By season 3 that first round pick should be competing in training camp for the job. I fully expect a good part of the posters don't see this as a remotely decent idea but once upon a time this is how it was done.

So for 2 full years the offense scores between 23 and 25 ppg and then magically they "make Taylor play QB" this year and we are scoring 18.9 ppg?

Taylor comes in and The Bill's offense was good in both 15 and 16. We never changed the QB yet we are scoring almost a full TD less this year. What do you think the biggest impact has been?

Again the stats by qtr tell the story. Taylor doesn't have some kind of exagerated playing from behind numbers and the running game is non existent in the second half. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2017_splits.htm#qtr_splits::none Even scarier are the red zone numbers. We cannot run the ball in the red zone. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2017_splits.htm#field_position_splits::none Lastly go ahead and look at every play from the 3rd qtr all season. Running is horrendous. Ton of big plays brought back on penalties. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/play_finder.cgi?request=1&match=summary_all&year_min=2017&year_max=2017&team_id=buf&opp_id=&game_type=R&playoff_round=&game_num_min=0&game_num_max=99&week_num_min=0&week_num_max=99&tr_gtlt=lt&ytg_gtlt=gt&yds_to_go=&yg_gtlt=gt&yards=&is_first_down=-1&fp_gtlt=gt&fp_tm_opp=team&fp_ydline=&type=PASS&type=RUSH&is_turnover=-1&is_scoring=-1&no_play=0&game_day_of_week=&game_result=&order_by=yards&quarter=3#all_plays::none

I've put it all out there for anyone who is looking. We are running like crap in the second half. We are averaging averging damn near 3rd and 9 on the passing downs we are asking Taylor to convert and he is still converting at a top ten rate. That said you aren't going to score if you are running that conservative an offense even if you convert a couple 3rd downs you only went 20 or 30 yards. Taylor's splits are virtually the same ahead or behind 1 to 8 points and first half or second half. What is much much different is the rushing stats. We are much much worse at running the ball in the second half.

McCoy by halves. I don't see how anyone can't find the second halves to not be a coaching thing. WHEN WINNING 113 375 3.3 48 1 16 95 5.9 18 1 0 0 QUARTER = 1 76 349 4.6 37 2 19 145 7.6 24 0 0 0 QUARTER = 2 66 334 5.1 25 1 17 116 6.8 16 1 2 0 QUARTER = 3 75 245 3.3 32 0 11 110 10.0 39 0 0 0 QUARTER = 4 62 176 2.8 48 2 12 77 6.4 17 1 1 1

Because people need it broken down for them. ALEX = yards a player gets vs yards needed on any given third down. Fact is the whole offense has been worse. Despite what Royal is trying to sell the running game has been MUCH worse. The passing game a little worse. We can't run the ball with a lead and then we are asking Taylor to convert long third downs where the defense knows we have to throw for almost 9 yards on average. We aren't popping big plays as much running and outside of Thompson we have no deep threat to speak of. Acting like the troubles we have had on offense all fall on Taylor is just convenient packaging.

So why did we score almost 400 points last year? If we are running so well this year that's not it. Did we throw it so much better last year? If it's just yards we should be scoring almost the same since the rushing attack is great like you say. It's right there in black and white ........... if anyone cares.

Yes, yes, and yes. Watching us play prevent is some games drives me nuts. This last Miami game was again pissing me off watching that defense. Taylor is too conservative. I don't hate him like some but I can't deny that. Marrone had a much better pass rush and his defense is really good. His running game also features a power back and scores a few more TD's. I don't care what anyone says we miss Gillislee. Not taking anything away from McCoy but Gillislee added that cut and go skip the east and west stuff that we need sometimes. All that said I hope we beat them and Marrone can suck it. Back on page one I posted a whole article done specifically on that. It essentially says we are averaging 3rd and long much more often and the worse the recievers the worse he has done. I doubt anyone is reading it, but it's there. You keep mixing scoring and yardage stats .......... they mean completely different things. I don't need to change your mind so I'm not going to carry on.

My point was that when we are not in a close game they open up the offense more, albeit against a defense that is playing not to lose. Now if you are going to use that logic then when we play conservative in the second half and the other team is running it down our throats or Fales is throwing for 300 yards on us it's hard to argue that we should be scoring a lot. Then you mention we are 6th in the league in rushing and Shady 4th both numbers which have nothing to do with scoring or specifically second halves. If you take Taylor's rushing stats away we certainly aren't 6th in the league and outside of McCoy's second half TD against the Colts Shady isn't scoring and is in no way carrying the offense. This is my last post here with this. Taylor is conservative. Dennison and McDermott are conservative. The best case scenario for the three is a healthy KB and WR's that Taylor trusts throwing the ball to. The next scenario is drafting a QB. Can't argue with that. If you think McDermott and Dennison playing a rookie QB is going to get you 400 points you may end up disappointed.

Yet the game we are losing, they bring Taylor back in and score 17 points in the second half. When we are predictably running and only throwing on third and long to a this group of pass catchers it's too easy to stop. If the game is close they play it conservative. It isn't going to matter who the QB is. If we had a better QB we might hit on a few more 3rd and longs. If we had a better 0C we might be better at running the ball. If we had better WR's that wouldn't hurt either. There's a number of different ways to improve upon the situation. Either way there's no doubt in my mind if we are in close games or winning and Dennison is still the 0C we will see a lot of this.

Yet only lost 2 of those games. Both to the Pats. We scored a ton of points in the second half of the Chargers game. Having nothing to do with QB's do you see what I'm getting at? We have the lead and they run and we haven't been running particualarly well. Even less so when they predict we will be running. Then we end up in 3rd and 12 and people complain about a check down. New QB or Taylor back it makes little difference if we are winning games I think you will see the same type of thing next year. If the defense is even better and the running game hits it's stride again then hopefully we are winning more games and we run it out in the second half better.

I know it will seems as though I'm out and out disagreeing with you and I'm not. I will however ask that you look at Buffalo's stats, then go to recieving and look down that list. You have Charles Clay and then you have what? Essentially nobody. Not taking away from Thompson. I've been impressed with him. I am by no means saying Taylor can not be improved upon but from a "helping your QB" standpoint the Bill's did Taylor no favors. To their credit Mathews and KB got injured but essentially I'm saying I look at that list of receivers and say what did they expect?

By that token the final Miami game last year was of much the same ilk last year as this year and like you said two different outcomes. Belichick says you can and will make a mistake or two in each game. The secrect is not making too many. Being Buffalo we often get an assist from the refs so we are already behind the 8 ball. McDermott does seem to have the discipline aspect under much better control. Hughes might be the best example of that. I think he only went nuts once this year which must be a record for him.

Definately on defense I would. Rex couldn't stop the run or the pass. McDermott seems very good at pass coverage and until trading Dareus we were good at stuffing the run also. The key is always keeping points off the board. Can we stop the run well enough to make that work? This is where that Dareus trade may bite us in the butt, this year anyways.

We scored 100 more points last year and still won less games. It's amazing what a defense that makes a few more stops will do for you. We could be even better next year.

Then we have the case of Tyrod Taylor, whom Buffalo benched this week. Taylor actually ranked 10th in conversion rate (42.4 percent) even though he had the fourth-highest need yards (8.7). His ALEX dropped to -0.1 this season, ranked 29th. We've seen this continued change in Taylor's game. In his first season with Buffalo, his ALEX was +4.5, which ranked second in the NFL. It dropped to +2.3 in 2016, but still good enough for seventh in the league, and he was better at converting plays. Taylor's conversion rate was actually a career best this year, but alas he is benched after the Bills allowed 81 points in two losses. A big problem this year was the massive changes at wide receiver. Taylor was targeting running back LeSean McCoy more than anyone on third down, and those 16 targets produced a -10.9 ALEX. In 2016, Taylor's go-to targets on third down were deep threats Marquise Goodwin (+6.2 ALEX) and Sammy Watkins (+7.1 ALEX). Both of those receivers, as well as Robert Woods (+1.4 ALEX), are in the NFC West this year. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/alex/2017/2017-alex-midseason-report

It's funny this is the same team that scored 399 points last year but couldn't win 9 games. While the defense wasn't night and day all season it was much better enough of the time. A team with a good defense always has a chance.

Yes and no. Brady started that game and our defense was giving him hell. He sat at the half if I remember right and we were already leading 17-6. It's true they had nothing to play for but they still marched Brady out there and I still enjoyed watching that defense thrash him. Hacket was terrible. The running game was aweful which was probably the most surprising part because Jackson and Spiller had been so good with Gailey. The players on that offense probably would have been a much better fit for Dennison. This coaching staff with that team might have been an 11 or 12 win team. thread merged

Just in case he ever reads this forum. Special thread just for him.

Faler almost threw for 300 on us.

notice they let the clock run. that pass dropped at 2:01