A Few Thoughts about the Dolphins Game

[Virgil]

Please forgive the lateness and general form in which this was put together.  I watched the game at a bar, took on a bowl challenge, may have thrown up, and then had to wait to make the 90 minute drive home.  Then I saw the end of the Pats game and threw up again.  With that....

 

1 - Tyrod - If ever there were a game of Tyrod being Tyrod.  Great first half.  Some great throws, some terrible throws.  Good use of his legs to escape certain sacks as well as get some first downs.  The biggest question about Tyrod I have is:  What happened to his deep ball?  At the beginning of his career here, his deep ball ability was second to his scrambling ability.  Now, his deep throws don't seem to have a chance and usually end up out of bounds.  I'm happy we are taking shots deep and I know it's a low percentage play anyways, but his accuracy deep is concerning.

 

2 - McDermott - Playing a Dolphins team that just beat the Pats and have looked good as of late, this team showed up strong.  That was easily our best first half of football this season and the game felt relatively in control until the last few minutes.  In a game where we could have done very Billsy things, we didn't.  What's interesting to me is the aggressive play call we had this week vs last week against the Colts.  We go from punting in OT with 4 minutes left to going for it on 4th and 7 and almost 4th and 1.  I'm actually happy about the Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty against Groy at the end so that we'd kick for 3.  It's interesting to see this guy learn as he goes and ultimately I'm believing he'll be our head coach for a years to come.  

 

3 - Shady - 10k on the way to 12k.  I've said this in previous weeks, but it's almost too easy to take Shady for granted.  Our offense lives and dies with this man, so it should be no surprise that 2 of our first 3 TDs were thanks to him.  When we extended him after the trade, I was worried about his ability to produce 3 years into the deal.  I was so very wrong.  Shady is the heart of our team, is a spectacle on the field, and I hope he retires a Bill.

 

4 - Before all the fireworks exploded
Our conversations were so loaded, innuendo flying
Now what can we say?
Have a nice day
Looks like rain today...

 

5 - Cornerback depth - I know that this will make a few people want to throw up on here, but we need to draft or sign more DB's in the offseason.  Our pass coverage drops off dramatically when EJ Gaines leaves the field.  Johnson is a liability in coverage and our 3 game losing stream occurred when we were down 1 of our 2 starters.  I'm not blaming it on solely that, but the defensive play changes immediately.  We need to shore the depth up here.

 

6 - Defensive Containment/Tackling - If there's one thing that worries me the most about next weeks game against the Pats and our 2nd biggest issue on defense, it's the poor tackling and holding to our zones on defense containment.  So many big plays today were because of poor angles and bad tackling.  The Pats live off of taking advantage of these mistakes and we will get crushed if we keep that up.  I can't even count the number of plays I thought were stopped in the backfield only to have it be turned up downfield for a big gain.

 

7 - Pass Rush - This has been the biggest issue for me this season and I'm happy to see Frazier making adjustments.  We aren't sending extra blitzers a lot, but it's more than we were.  Our front 4 got pressure on more than a few plays, while also almost creating a few turnovers by knocking the ball out of Cutler's hand.  Cutler's internal timer was going off all day and one of the main reasons we had our 3 turnovers.

 

8 - White - Is anyone else in contention for Defensive Rookie of the Year?  I had very little opinion of him when drafted but wow.  This kid plays like a seasoned veteran and I was happy he ended up with the game sealing INT.  He almost made a beautiful interception in the endzone by reading and cutting on a play perfectly.  No matter what happens this season, White is a true standout and positive from this season.

 

9 - Rivalry? - Does anyone else enjoy having the feeling of a rivalry again with the Dolphins.  I know that neither of us are really relevant in the big picture NFL, but I love to hate these guys.  Hating the Pats does nothing but make you drink.  But you can see the residuals from the Aaron Williams hit last year.  These guys really don't like each other and it was evident earlier.  I'm actually really disappointed in the Refs for not paying more attention to the after-play action.  We need to play smarter, but a lot of unsportsmanlike penalty calls (and blatant holds) weren't called today on the fish.

 

10 - Control - Two weeks left and we are in control of our own destiny.  Yes, we've been here before but we weren't supposed to be here this year.  It's been a very up and down ride but it feels good to think about where we are and what's coming up.  We have a head coach, a base of players, a lot of picks, and money to spend.  The BBFS in me says I'll probably regret saying this, but things might finally be looking up, regardless of how this season ends. 

 

All I want for Christmas is a Win over the Pats and broken Brady face.

 

Go Bills!!!!

[Jkgobills]

Thank you for the thoughts Virgil.  Great to see the Bills still in it this late in the season.  Today's victory over the Dolphins just might help to re ignite the old rivalry.

[fansince88]

Better late then never my friend. Once again great work!

[Big Turk]

26 minutes ago, Virgil said:

Please forgive the lateness and general form in which this was put together.  I watched the game at a bar, took on a bowl challenge, may have thrown up, and then had to wait to make the 90 minute drive home.  Then I saw the end of the Pats game and threw up again.  With that....

 

1 - Tyrod - If ever there were a game of Tyrod being Tyrod.  Great first half.  Some great throws, some terrible throws.  Good use of his legs to escape certain sacks as well as get some first downs.  The biggest question about Tyrod I have is:  What happened to his deep ball?  At the beginning of his career here, his deep ball ability was second to his scrambling ability.  Now, his deep throws don't seem to have a chance and usually end up out of bounds.  I'm happy we are taking shots deep and I know it's a low percentage play anyways, but his accuracy deep is concerning.

 

2 - McDermott - Playing a Dolphins team that just beat the Pats and have looked good as of late, this team showed up strong.  That was easily our best first half of football this season and the game felt relatively in control until the last few minutes.  In a game where we could have done very Billsy things, we didn't.  What's interesting to me is the aggressive play call we had this week vs last week against the Colts.  We go from punting in OT with 4 minutes left to going for it on 4th and 7 and almost 4th and 1.  I'm actually happy about the Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty against Groy at the end so that we'd kick for 3.  It's interesting to see this guy learn as he goes and ultimately I'm believing he'll be our head coach for a years to come.  

 

3 - Shady - 10k on the way to 12k.  I've said this in previous weeks, but it's almost too easy to take Shady for granted.  Our offense lives and dies with this man, so it should be no surprise that 2 of our first 3 TDs were thanks to him.  When we extended him after the trade, I was worried about his ability to produce 3 years into the deal.  I was so very wrong.  Shady is the heart of our team, is a spectacle on the field, and I hope he retires a Bill.

 

4 - Before all the fireworks exploded
Our conversations were so loaded, innuendo flying
Now what can we say?
Have a nice day
Looks like rain today...

 

5 - Cornerback depth - I know that this will make a few people want to throw up on here, but we need to draft or sign more DB's in the offseason.  Our pass coverage drops off dramatically when EJ Gaines leaves the field.  Johnson is a liability in coverage and our 3 game losing stream occurred when we were down 1 of our 2 starters.  I'm not blaming it on solely that, but the defensive play changes immediately.  We need to shore the depth up here.

 

6 - Defensive Containment/Tackling - If there's one thing that worries me the most about next weeks game against the Pats and our 2nd biggest issue on defense, it's the poor tackling and holding to our zones on defense containment.  So many big plays today were because of poor angles and bad tackling.  The Pats live off of taking advantage of these mistakes and we will get crushed if we keep that up.  I can't even count the number of plays I thought were stopped in the backfield only to have it be turned up downfield for a big gain.

 

7 - Pass Rush - This has been the biggest issue for me this season and I'm happy to see Frazier making adjustments.  We aren't sending extra blitzers a lot, but it's more than we were.  Our front 4 got pressure on more than a few plays, while also almost creating a few turnovers by knocking the ball out of Cutler's hand.  Cutler's internal timer was going off all day and one of the main reasons we had our 3 turnovers.

 

8 - White - Is anyone else in contention for Defensive Rookie of the Year?  I had very little opinion of him when drafted but wow.  This kid plays like a seasoned veteran and I was happy he ended up with the game sealing INT.  He almost made a beautiful interception in the endzone by reading and cutting on a play perfectly.  No matter what happens this season, White is a true standout and positive from this season.

 

9 - Rivalry? - Does anyone else enjoy having the feeling of a rivalry again with the Dolphins.  I know that neither of us are really relevant in the big picture NFL, but I love to hate these guys.  Hating the Pats does nothing but make you drink.  But you can see the residuals from the Aaron Williams hit last year.  These guys really don't like each other and it was evident earlier.  I'm actually really disappointed in the Refs for not paying more attention to the after-play action.  We need to play smarter, but a lot of unsportsmanlike penalty calls (and blatant holds) weren't called today on the fish.

 

10 - Control - Two weeks left and we are in control of our own destiny.  Yes, we've been here before but we weren't supposed to be here this year.  It's been a very up and down ride but it feels good to think about where we are and what's coming up.  We have a head coach, a base of players, a lot of picks, and money to spend.  The BBFS in me says I'll probably regret saying this, but things might finally be looking up, regardless of how this season ends. 

 

All I want for Christmas is a Win over the Pats and broken Brady face.

 

Go Bills!!!!

 

Nothing happened to his deep ball, we don't have any receivers who get open deep and he would rather throw it slightly out of bounds than give the other team a chance to pick it...

 

Thompson runs a 4.33 40 but gets ZERO separation on 90% of his go routes...how is that possible?

 

And Landry is a big time punk...

 

Edited December 18, 2017 by matter2003

[RobH063]

Nice write up Virgil. I agree with you 100% about Taylor's deep ball. It's either out of bounds or way overthrown in most cases.

[fansince88]

7 minutes ago, RobH063 said:

Nice write up Virgil. I agree with you 100% about Taylor's deep ball. It's either out of bounds or way overthrown in most cases.

Im not sure what happened but that is normal nowadays. Last year he was hitting them deep. Not so much this year. Playoffs or not  I want to move on next year

Is Holmz still in buffalo? Havent heard his name called lately

[Franchiseneedsme]

The WR core isn't good. KB is banged up, Zay is bad, and Thompson is just a guy. This team needs some real wr's

Edited December 18, 2017 by Franchiseneedsme

[RobH063]

Just now, fansince88 said:

9 minutes ago, RobH063 said:

Nice write up Virgil. I agree with you 100% about Taylor's deep ball. It's either out of bounds or way overthrown in most cases.

Im not sure what happened but that is normal nowadays. Last year he was hitting them deep. Not so much this year. Playoffs or not  I want to move on next year

I think so too Fansince. I don't ever want to bash Taylor. He's been a much better QB than most we've seen in the drought but he's like when you had a girlfriend you just knew wasn't "The One" you broke up and moved on.

[fansince88]

Just now, Franchiseneedsme said:

The WR core isn't good. KB is banged up, Zay is bad, and Thompson is just a guy. This team needs some real wr's

I just said this above....Is Holmz still playing?

[BillsFan130]

Good post sir!

[Juice_32]

Great post, thanks for sharing. I thought Cadet played well today. He looks more explosive as a runner than I expected.

[nedboy7]

Great points.  All dead on. 

[Virgil]

15 minutes ago, Juice_32 said:

Great post, thanks for sharing. I thought Cadet played well today. He looks more explosive as a runner than I expected.

 

I wanted to make a thought about how happy I am that Tolbert got benched, but thought it was mean spirited 

[JohnC]

Virgil, Good right up. If Taylor consistently played the way he did in the first half I wouldn't be such a loud advocate for replacing him. I thought that his first half of play was exceptional in maximizing his unique skills and making good throws. In the second half he seemed to revert back to his very restrictive and reluctant style of play. In his defense this receiving corps has to be one of the worst units in the league. He usually doesn't look to his wideouts because there is no separation. Even when there were completions the coverage was still very tight. 

 

I thought the dumbest play/act in this game was when Adlophus Washington, who wasn't even in the play, got a foolish penalty at a critical time for childishly knocking the ball out of the receivers hands after he was tackled on the sidelines. The wrestling coach made a point after the game that he was going to address the issue with the player. It seems that after every play there is jawing going on between the players. I don't like it.  

[DCBongo]

Always a great review.  I agree with your optimistic feelings about this team.  This was a game we'd lose in the past, progress is being made.

[Teddy KGB]

Need more

details about the “bowl challenge” 

 

 

[ganesh]

1 hour ago, Virgil said:

All I want for Christmas is a Win over the Pats and broken Brady face.

 

Go Bills!!!!

Great Post as usual

1. White is hand's down Defensive Rookie of the year. I hope he has a gr8 game against Gronk next week.

2. Rivalry works only when both teams have good Franchise QBs or hard hitting Defenses.  The Dolphins and the Bills are flawed team at those positions

3. The 2nd half adjustments were brutal and the offense went back into a shell in spite of the defense getting two turnovers.  We paid with the loss to the Bengals for not taking advantage of those opportunities and almost blew it on Sunday.

4.  The refereeing was terrible...They missed the face-mask call on Shady, missed the hit by the defender on Taylor '

 

What they didn't do well:

 

They still gave up big plays in the Running game. This is really maddening.

They went into a shell in the 2nd half and needed the defense to bail them out 

Their run game disappeared after the 1st half.  You would have wanted to pound the ball on the ground in December.

The WRs are still terrible.  Without the two TEs yesterday would have been a tough day for Tyrod.

Tyrod is still waiting for WRs to come to a spot.  A couple of plays could have been a much  bigger play if he would anticipate and throw.

The Stupid Penalties at the end of the game almost cost us. 

[Virgil]

5 minutes ago, Air it out Fitzy said:

Need more

details about the “bowl challenge” 

 

 

 

At Green Turtle (sports bar), they have these drinks they put in these large bowls. The bowls actually look like large, broken in half eggs. 

 

My my lady friend and I ordered the one that serves 4 since it was for the whole game.  The waitress said she wasn’t allowed to bring it out because of the alcohol content, but could serve us the one that serves 2. 

 

Well, it was basically jungle juice where you don’t realize how drunk you are until it’s too late and it stops tasting like alcohol after a few sips.  

 

To add to the fun, I also tried their second hottest wings.  (Mistake!)

 

By the start of the second quarter, the egg is empty and the winds are gone. I’m walking around the building at halftime with a glass of water in my hand trying to decide where to throw up. 

 

But fret not, I was back in my seat to start the second half. I’m not a quitter 

[Just in Atlanta]

Some extra points:

• Zay just can't catch the tough balls. After 14 games, I don't have too much hope he will be anything other than a No. 3. Without KB healthy, we have no true WR threat. Great Michael Jackson dance moves though. 
• Clay played a great game. Not a speedster but he has so much power. 
• I thought TT had a masterful first half. The entire offensive game plan went limp in the second half. Plus, we have a below-average WR corps. He's not a playoff gamechanger, and we need to draft a QB high in April, but he gets too much flack around here. Count our blessings IMO. 
• Love the shot on 4th. Didn't work but the killer instinct is where I want this offense to be. 
• Yes, White should be DROY! He is dynamite in every way.
• I agree - the pass rush was a welcome relief. We had Cutler jonseing for a smoke the entire day.
• Speaking of Cutler, he deserves the MVP slot. Thanks in part to our rush, he was awful. 
• It's tough getting used to a woman calling a game, and her voice is a bit grating at first, but she knew her stuff. 
• Kudos for your notes after two punch-bowl upheavals. 

 

 

 

[Virgil]

6 minutes ago, Just in Atlanta said:

Some extra points:

• Zay just can't catch the tough balls. After 14 games, I don't have too much hope he will be anything other than a No. 3. Without KB healthy, we have no true WR threat. Great Michael Jackson dance moves though. 
• Clay played a great game. Not a speedster but he has so much power. 
• I thought TT had a masterful first half. The entire offensive game plan went limp in the second half. Plus, we have a below-average WR corps. He's not a playoff gamechanger, and we need to draft a QB high in April, but he gets too much flack around here. Count our blessings IMO. 
• Love the shot on 4th. Didn't work but the killer instinct is where I want this offense to be. 
• Yes, White should be DROY! He is dynamite in every way.
• I agree - the pass rush was a welcome relief. We had Cutler jonseing for a smoke the entire day.
• Speaking of Cutler, he deserves the MVP slot. Thanks in part to our rush, he was awful. 
• It's tough getting used to a woman calling a game, and her voice is a bit grating at first, but she knew her stuff. 
• Kudos for your notes after two punch-bowl upheavals. 

 

 

 

 

I thought about Cutler as a MVP, but also thought that was a dick move. 

 

Imagine what it would be like if TT had a WR he felt a connection like he did with Clay.  We could even name him Sammy