uninja

They brought tons of pressure in the first half and it was boom/bust. Got a sack fumble that led to 7 but let Bills march down the field for 2TDs. Second half they brought the same pressure looks but then faded into zone coverages to take away the middle and deep parts of the field. Allen was able to largely deal with by throwing dump offs but it was very effective in forcing the Bills to play long, exhausting drives that would stall in the red zone. Result? An exhausted Bills offense that could only muster 3 points.

I think Brown’s back is still messed up. He was messing with it during the Titans game and Quessenberry replaced him during that game as well at some point. He might be on a pitch count still and/or working his way back. His pass pro is still definitely undeveloped and needs work. Having Bates next to him (who also has pass pro issues) instead of an established vet like Willliams is probably also causing issues and breakdowns in communication. So much of OL is about working as a unit and weak links in the line make the entire line look bad. I think that Bates’s shortcomings last year were hidden because Morse and Dawkins are good, and made sure that Bates was doing the right thing. That may be impacted now that Bates is in a different spot and next to a pretty green right tackle who doesn’t see the rush as well.

Big O was saying though that the center was totally tipping the snap count. DL was teeing off. They knew it was a pass play and literally timed the jump. Dawkins and Singletary got smoked, because their assignments were in the backfield before the ball even made it into Allen’s hands.

I have just never seen a team be a running back away from winning a super bowl. Premier pass rusher? That’s a completely different can of worms.

I don’t like it. Injury prone RB in a contract year playing with a limited sample size. We’d be mortgaging future draft picks for a 1 season rental and then surely letting him walk in FA because we don’t have the cap space to pay him the kind of money he could fetch in the open market. It reeks of desperation and of making a move for the sake of making a move.

The longer you hold the ball and the more plays you’re forced to run, the greater the likelihood for errors. It’s the same defensive philosophy the Bills have employed under Frazier and McDermott, “make them earn every yard” The Phins gave up two TDs in the first playing aggressive, but got a TD out of it from the fumble. Second half they adjusted, forced the Bills to dink and dunk and the Bills offense only managed 3 points. I would call that a solidly well executed defensive strategy against a superior (albeit handicapped) opponent. Sure, the Bills made many uncharacteristic mistakes in that game. That being said I give credit to the Dolphins game plan for creating situations for the Bills to make those mistakes. It brings up Napoleon’s quote, “never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

I mean that by and large the Phins forced the Bills to play the game on their terms. Dink and dunk, get tired, let them creep towards the red zone, then clamp down. They kept the same blitz looks from the first half into the second, but dropped into zone coverages and took away the deep and middle of the field. Line play suffered as players went down and got tired, pressure came too fast, forcing Josh to take the dump offs and short passes they were giving up. They knew we were tired and our offense was on the field too long. Have to get rid of the ball fast because the pressure is coming, can't wait for plays to develop, not enough bodies at WR to rotate in fresh guys so people are tired and can't sprint, get separation. I highly doubt our offense came in there with a gameplan to play 12-16 play drives in sweltering heat as a means to shield our defense. There's playing ball control offense, and then there's the defense letting you wear yourself out so you can't close it out in the redzone because the drive just killed your offense because its so damn hot and you don't have bodies to rotate in.

You can play that game all day long though. When it came time to make a play, the Phins did. Can’t say the same for the Bills. On that Sunday, they were the better team on the field. They made less mistakes, made plays when they needed to and kept the Bills off balance. I don’t think they’re better than the Bills, but that’s why they play the games.

Burrow still trying to play last years style of ball where people were sleeping on Chase. It doesn’t work anymore because there’s a year of tape of Burrow doing this with Chase, Boyd and Higgins. Teams are planning for it well but Burrow is still trying to hit the big play every snap and holding the ball too long. He’s getting sacked a ton because he’s greedy. It worked last year, but this is the NFL and what worked last year will get taken away from you next year as teams study tape/tendencies. Adapt or die.

They’re playing 2021 Titans style ugly ball. It’s incredibly opportunistic, risky, ugly to watch and needs a healthy dash of luck every most weeks, but it’s getting it done. They might luck out and ugly ball themselves to the playoffs, maybe even the one seed. I just don’t see this style of ball as the kind that gets you playoff wins and a SB.

He definitely struggled with all of the amoeba looks the Phins were giving in the first half. Reminds me of the 2019 Pats defense that just crushed everyone the first 9 games. So much press man, crowded boxes and just chaos when the ball is snapped. Brown is very green here and needs to just do his 1/11 and follow the protections and blocking assignments instead of trying to react to 2-3 rushers coming at his side. Josh is excellent against the blitz, so much so that even with crappy line play the Phins backed off in the second half because we were just marching up and down the field.

Building a good OL requires so much effort. Having a good/great OL with good depth is even harder. I think only really the Cowboys and the Eagles have lines that are better than good. They’ve also invested multiple first round picks into those projects, at the expense of team building elsewhere. I think given the circumstances the Bills have done better than okay. We have an anchor at C and a franchise LT. Spencer Brown is very promising but I’ll reserve judgment until after the season. Bates has shown above average guard play and positional flexibility. Saffold should be good between Dawkins and Morse, but again. I’ll reserve judgment because the sample size is too small atm. I think everyone complaining about our line play and depth issues isn’t watching the other games.

I just don’t understand how teams can get shafted like this by the refs. Especially in a game that’s as nitpicky as football about rules, regulations and fairness. A team shouldn’t be forced to burn a timeout because the refs are fumbling around trying to get things right to setup the next play.

I think a better question or metric to track is “when the Bills are behind and need a score to win late in the 4th, how often do they succeed or fail?” Honestly going back go 2020 only the Rams game fits that description and we needed a Herculean effort by Allen and a very iffy illegal contact call. Most of the other games were one score, but really it was just garbage time stats by the other teams to make it seem more respectable. The “one score game thing” is kind of a mirage, but I will say since we got hexed by the Hail Murray we just can’t seem to put together a clutch drive late in the fourth to take the lead when we need it. The Bills always come up juuust short. I guess 20 years of watching Brady do that ***** constantly just has me thinking it should be easier than it seems.

It’s the ball getting smacked out as he’s stepping out of bounds. “Did not complete the process of the catch” is what the zebras would say, and they’d be right. If I was a ref I would have called it the same way. As much as I wanted it, calling that a TD would have been a terrible call.

Honestly that game was just a cosmic comedy or errors. Like that weird cursed Jags game from last year where everything that could have gone wrong, did. I could think of at least a dozen moments where if something every so slightly differently had happened, the Bills win.

The reversal wasn't the point, the point would have been to cause a stoppage in play to give players a rest period longer than a standard timeout.

I would have also challenged that ruling, if only to cause a 2-3 minute stoppage in play to give my guys a rest. Timeouts take 30 seconds, challenges take a couple of minutes. Even if you lose the challenge the result is the same, you end up using a timeout.

I think Kumerow going out changed a lot of the work they did during the week to set up blocking schemes/plays for the run game. I think him going out made running a lot of run plays complicated and/or impossible, with the right side of the line out and using 2nd and 3rd string centers further complicating things.

The last couple of drives Allen was pressing. He has a tendency to get like that when we're down and the clock is ticking. You were starting to see the more erratic, sugar-high, Josh. He had a handful of risky throws that by all accounts should have been intercepted. I'm going to chalk it up to mental and physical exhaustion and having to play with a completely different cast of players that he's normally used to playing with.

That's going to haunt us until it doesn't. Whole team (coaches included) need to internalize Von's mantra: "Don't blink."

The way I see it so far, Josh Allen’s worst day in the office so far this year was 67% completed passed for 400 yards and 2TDs. Oh, and tack on 47 rushing yards as well.

I’m almost certain big chunks of the playbook are still under wraps. The Bills ran really effectively late last season and into the playoffs. I think we’re not running as much because it’s not needed and Josh Allen passing is basically a cheat code most games.

Feels like I’ve been watching baseball the last 2 nights.