A Few Thoughts about the Dolphins Game, in no particular order

[Virgil]

Expectations are the true killer of an NFL fan.  The Bills have done a great job of lowering my expectations each season and allowing me to chalk up certain losses to rebuilding or talent.  But this game was different.  This game, I felt we should have won and when the final whistle blew, I still felt that way.  This is easily the angriest I've been following a game in a few years because I was actually let down by the team.  I usually try to take some time to let the game set in, but what's wrong with the occasional emotions?  With that....

 

1 - Allen - I'm going to start here and save others the time of reading all of this because it may turn you off.  My overall statement about Allen is that he did enough to win the game.  That's the best I can put it.  He did his typical rookie thing and showed some flashes, both to the negative and the positive.  He had a really poor interception.  He missed a wide open Foster and Zay Jones for TD's.  But, because the game is 60 minutes, he also made the throw at the end that should have won the game.  I believe that you have to look at the entire body of work and not just certain plays.  I could equally make a low-light reel for him as I can a highlight reel. 

 

Here's the my biggest positive take away from Allen.  This kid shows zero fear and doesn't take setbacks.  He can be 3rd and 20 and 20 after two penalties and he will still stare the defense down.  He will take hits, he will have guys running at him, and he will just get it done.  When we started the final drive and they were showing stats, all I could think about was Tyrod.  How this was a Tyrod stat and game where you just knew he wouldn't get it done.  I can say that and I paid praise at the Church of Tyrod.  But this is where Allen is just plain different.  He's not phased by any of it.  He marched us right down field and made the passes he needed to.  He got hosed on a bad call and wasn't supported in the endzone.  Yes, it was wobbly and a few yards behind Clay, but it was a catch an NFL player should make. 

 

Bottom line, if Allen can get his accuracy under control.  I'm talking maybe 10% better, he's really on the right path.  If he did that today, we wouldn't have needed the final drive to try to win, but he's a rookie and hopefully getting there.

 

2 - Running Game - What made Allen's performance more impressive today, as well as show's why defenses have to respect his legs, is that he got almost zero support from the rushing attack.  For some reason, Daboll was calling stretch plays for Ivory, which isn't his strength.  Shady was getting taken down by arm tackles again and the overall rushing attack was weak at best against a defense high susceptible to the run.  In fairness, it didn't look like there were a lot of holes up the middle, but it didn't seem like we tried much there either.  Overall, really disappointed to see the result in this phase of the game that could have helped sustain drives.

 

3 - Zay - Now there's a guy who absolutely supported Allen.  Zay had 2 touchdowns today and honestly could have had 4.  One was a terrible throw by Allen.  Another was a non-throw, but the replay showed him wide open deep down the center of the field.  His almost catch at the end of the game, while getting mugged, was almost beautiful.  His toe-tapping catch from our own 2 yard line was fantastic.  Overall, it was great to see this kind of game from Zay against a good secondary and even better to see the rapport build between him and Allen.

 

4 - Goodbye my old friend. You could have lived a little longer, I could be closer to my dream. You were so loved, Don Tommasino. Why was I so feared, and you so loved? What was it? I was no less honorable. I wanted to do good. What betrayed me? My mind? My heart? Why do I condemn myself so? I swear, on the lives of my children: Give me a chance to redeem myself, and I will sin, no more.

 

5 - McDermott - I'm going to get to the Refs in a second and I usually wait until the end to talk about McDermott, but I'm overall very disappointed in him for this game.  Beyond some of the bad calls was overall sloppy play.  For a guy who preaches process, the penalties are getting out of hand.  Phillips should have been yanked from that game after his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.  I get that penalties are up in the league and I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means.  McDermott needs to get this cleaned up as it's one of the key areas that cost us this game.

 

6 - Refs - This is now the second Bills game that has taken 3+ hours and penalties are a large part of it.  I get the old adage that holding can be called on any given play.  I get that it's a high speed, contact game.  But there's just something not right with how these games are getting called.  First off, Hughes should pay a friend to film every play he takes a snap on.  This guy gets held more than any player I've ever seen.  It's ridiculous. The non PI on Zay at the end was terrible.  I still believe that should have been a safety on Tannehill.  I don't really have an answer for this problem, but officiating is a problem and it's greatly affecting these games. 

 

7 - Crossman - At what point are coaches accountable for player performance.  We gave up 11 points on special teams today in a game we lost by 4.  We had a couple of good punts, but one almost blocked as well and one muffed.  The pooch kickoff almost went out of bounds and we had to missed FG's (I'm counting the extra point).  Crossman's unit is a point of discussion almost weekly and special teams need to be seen and not heard.  I'm ready for McDermott to move on from him this offseason.

 

8 - Defense - I hate to lump the defense into one thought but here we are.  They gave up two long drives today and hurt themselves with some penalties.  Outside of that, they were fantastic.  They have multiple drives where they gave up negative yards.  Tannehill got knocked around a lot and they were ball hawks.  On the 3rd and short wildcat play at the end, I loved how they just abandoned the WR's and went after them.  That play stood no chance.  The defense did their job today and I'm glad to see Milano and Edmunds continue to develop.  If Hughes could stop getting held so much, it would be even better.  

 

9 - Clay/Benjamin - How soon can these guys be cut?  I don't know what happened to Clay and I've never seen it from Benjamin on this team.  Clay's drop wasn't easy, but it also was very catchable and should have been for the 7+ mil a year he's getting.  If you can't focus and make that play, you shouldn't be in the NFL.  These guys are both salary that needs to go elsewhere.  

 

10 - 8 Losses - I know we weren't going to beat the Pats in New England, but the 8 loss mark was something I was dreading.  It was fun to have hope and watch the Jags beat the Colts.  I know we aren't mathematically eliminated yet, but we know an 8-8 team isn't going to make it.  I think that's what made this game so frustrating.  We should have won this game and I honestly felt like we were the better team today.  It's a tough pill to swallow, especially against the Fins.  I'll do what I did all season and look for the positives in our "rebuilding" year.

 

Go Bills! 

[JGMcD2]

8 minutes ago, Virgil said:

He missed a wide open Foster and Zay Jones for TD's.  But, because the game is 60 minutes, he also made the throw at the end that should have won the game.  I believe that you have to look at the entire body of work and not just certain plays.  I could equally make a low-light reel for him as I can a highlight reel. 

 

3 - Zay - Now there's a guy who absolutely supported Allen.  Zay had 2 touchdowns today and honestly could have had 4.  One was a terrible throw by Allen. 

 

I agree with almost everything except these two points. It's on record from McDermott and Zay that the throw by Josh was not a "terrible throw" nor was it his fault he missed the wide open receiver, it was a miscommunication caused by Zay running the wrong route. 

[Virgil]

4 minutes ago, JGMcD2 said:

I agree with almost everything except these two points. It's on record from McDermott and Zay that the throw by Josh was not a "terrible throw" nor was it his fault he missed the wide open receiver, it was a miscommunication caused by Zay running the wrong route. 

 

I think that may be them being supportive. You could see Allen upset after the plan and apologizing to Zay. Even if it’s a miscommunication, he was wide open and Allen could see where he was headed.  

 

I’m also okay being wrong 

[JGMcD2]

5 minutes ago, Virgil said:

 

I think that may be them being supportive. You could see Allen upset after the plan and apologizing to Zay. Even if it’s a miscommunication, he was wide open and Allen could see where he was headed.  

 

I’m also okay being wrong 

Fair enough. I can see both sides.

 

You may have a point... could be them supporting Josh. Didn't think of that. 

[metzelaars_lives]

What in God’s name is #4 about??

[Foxx]

i don't think Nicklaus' grandson would have dropped that pass.

[Coach Tuesday]

Clay’s body is just shot - his legs look like Vontae’s did in August - it happens.

 

More worrying is that Shady seems done as well, he just hates contact now and seems to wince every time someone falls on him - he’s broken like zero tackles this year. 

Edited December 2, 2018 by Coach Tuesday

[John from Riverside]

Josh just needs to find a way to overcome dropped TD passes

[Maine-iac]

I did a quick count and I'm pretty sure we are up to 6 games with double digit penalties.  I know it seems like the refs are out to get us but those are negative plays that kill our drives and keep the other teams drives going.  It's just way too many penalties.

[RaoulDuke79]

14 minutes ago, metzelaars_lives said:

What in God’s name is #4 about??

This is a fair question.

[buffaloboyinATL]

Additional  thoughts:

 

1. That inflatable dolphin mascot thing was creepy.

 

2. The amount of cheap hits that Allen takes without flags is amazing. He is getting the Cam Newton treatment by the officials. 

 

3. ZAY!!!

 

that is all...

 

 

 

[PearlHowardman]

35 minutes ago, Virgil said:

1 - Allen - He had a really poor interceptions.  He missed a wide open Foster and Zay Jones for TD's.  But, because the game is 60 minutes, he also made the throw at the end that should have won the game. Yes, it was wobbly and a few yards behind Clay, but it was a catch an NFL player should make. 

 

Bottom line, if Allen can get his accuracy under control.  I'm talking maybe 10% better, he's really on the right path.  If he did that today, we wouldn't have needed the final drive to try to win, but he's a rookie and hopefully getting there.

 

1.  You are the third poster today to describe Josh Allen's passes as "wobbly".  

 

2.  I'll consider you as part of the 70% of all posters here who see Josh Allens' pass accuracy as a problem.  Good luck correcting that, though.

 

[BuffaninATL]

1 minute ago, PearlHowardman said:

 

1.  You are the third poster today to describe Josh Allen's passes as "wobbly".  

 

2.  I'll consider you as part of the 70% of all posters here who see Josh Allens' pass accuracy as a problem.  Good luck correcting that, though.

 

regarding the pass to Clay, he threw a long pass across his body to the opposite side of the end zone - even if it was a bit wobbly. so be it. Only a guy with a cannon can make that throw.

[Foxx]

22 minutes ago, metzelaars_lives said:

What in God’s name is #4 about??

 

7 minutes ago, RaoulDuke79 said:

This is a fair question.

it is a reference to the Godfather. Google Don Tommasino.

Edited December 2, 2018 by Foxx

[Livinginthepast]

I seriously think there are many players out there who think Allen is a racist (based on his teenage tweets) and take every opportunity to hit him late, hit him in the head, go after his legs or hit him out of bounds. I have seen this behaviour from opposing defensive players starting with that dbag in Baltimore who clotheslined him the sideline. These players know the refs are almost blind and wont see it or call it. The refs seem to be totally oblivious to these cheap shots and today was no different. Allen was hit late on at least 4 occasions but was not flagged. He was hit out of bounds once, hit low after he threw, and slapped in the head and head tackled at least 3 times.

[ILBillsfan]

13 minutes ago, PearlHowardman said:

 

1.  You are the third poster today to describe Josh Allen's passes as "wobbly".  

 

2.  I'll consider you as part of the 70% of all posters here who see Josh Allens' pass accuracy as a problem.  Good luck correcting that, though.

 

There ware three that came out of Josh's hand wobbly and he even mentioned it in the presser that the ball didn't come out right.  Some need to stop taking it so personal when they make an observation in the game that it isn't directly attacking Josh.  The kid had a pretty good game.

 

Love the way that Josh even went up tot eh podium and put those two wobbly tosses on him self and in fact say the miss to Zay was the correct read by Zay and the wrong read by him he has good self accountability and doesn't blame the other guys. 

 

A lot of good things to take form this game even in a loss

 

 

1 hour ago, Virgil said:

5 - McDermott - I'm going to get to the Refs in a second and I usually wait until the end to talk about McDermott, but I'm overall very disappointed in him for this game.  Beyond some of the bad calls was overall sloppy play.  For a guy who preaches process, the penalties are getting out of hand.  Phillips should have been yanked from that game after his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.  I get that penalties are up in the league and I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means.  McDermott needs to get this cleaned up as it's one of the key areas that cost us this game.

 

 

I just want to add on McDermott, somebvody please tell him to quit challenging ball spot fouls like the safety.  This is not the first challenge he has made pretty quick on the spaot of the ball and has lost all of them.  I'm not sure if he is getting bad info from whomever is helping with the challenges or it is just his on the field guy reaction.  Unless it is blatantly bad it just is not worth the challenge.

[sherpa]

Kiko Alonso is an insult to the espionage world.

He is the worst "spy" ever.

[yall]

21 minutes ago, RaoulDuke79 said:

This is a fair question.

Take two seconds to do a basic search.

[PearlHowardman]

5 minutes ago, ILBillsfan said:

Love the way that Josh even went up tot eh podium and put those two wobbly tosses on him self and in fact say the miss to Zay was the correct read by Zay and the wrong read by him he has good self accountability and doesn't blame the other guys. 

 

4th!

 

[RaoulDuke79]

1 minute ago, yall said:

Take two seconds to do a basic search.

Oh jeez.....thanks for this.