Josh Allen's "awful" 1st half...THIS is the article to read

[CarolinaBillsFan]

Good read, it looks like someone actually watched the game before making any judgments.  I said at halftime that all the turnovers were fixable unlucky mistakes and if we can stop making them we will win this game.

Edited September 10, 2019 by CarolinaBillsFan

[BigPappy]

25 minutes ago, RobbRiddick said:

As I've said 100 times, Allen will make errant throws every game. So long as he offsets a bad int in a game with 2 or 3 td passes, who gives a *****? 

agreed! EVERY qb will make an errand throw here and there, and when they are younger they have the tendency to do it a bit more often. As he matures, he will settle down, the game will get slower and he will get better at reading the defense this tendency will will become nothing more than an infrequent laps in judgment while trying to make something out of nothing.

[GunnerBill]

He did not have an awful first half. He had a mixed first half. He had a great start but got more erratic after the miscues (even though most of them were not on him).  

[LOVEMESOMEBILLS]

48 minutes ago, Chris from Rochester said:

Not to sound cheap, but is it worth subscribing to the athletic? I feel like most of these writers are worse then the people we have on TSW. For those who have it, do you get your moneys worth? 

I just got this on Sunday and if you pay the whole year up front, it's like $2.90 a month. For $34.80 a year and even if I only read it during football season it's so worth it. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 hours ago, eball said:

If any of you have read Jim Kubiak's columns on QB play you understand he has no pro-Bills agenda other than he is writing for the Buffalo News.  In today's column he affirms what many of us have said but the national and local media have somehow missed -- Josh Allen was not terrible at all during the 1st half.

 

Enjoy.

 

It's an excellent read, thanks.   I would phrase it perhaps a bit differently - Allen indeed had an awful first half, because any QB who's team has 4 TO had an awful first half.  But he also did a lot of good things.  Kubiak absolves Allen for the first 2 TO and puts it more on Dawkins (who did get beaten like a drum, but that's gonna happen from time to time).  Compare and contrast to Daboll (TBN, paywall), who is measured about mistakes and upbeat about Allen:
“There’s always a reason for a turnover,” Daboll said. “Whether it’s ball location, finishing a catch, an arm angle. We’re not about making excuses, but there’s going to be some that take bad bounces and that’s football. But you can always look to improve. We have to get the quarterback-center exchange taken care of. We have to keep two hands on the ball in the pocket. We have to make a play when it comes our way even if it’s a little bit low. So, we can do a better a job of that, we need to do a better job with that, that’s where it starts. And again, some are bounces you’re going to have to overcome.”

 

While he's not throwing anyone under the bus, I think that what Daboll says there is a pretty good clue to the thinking of the guy whose job it is to watch film and get the offense on track assigns responsibility.  The strip-sack fumble is on Allen.  He sensed the defender coming and put out his L arm to push him off rather than covering up the football with both arms and tucking himself around it.  He puts the INT more on Beasley - Allen's throw was low, but catchable, and they paid Beasley to make those plays.  The fumbled snap is on both of them, they have to get it straight.  And he pretty much thinks the deflected INT was a fluke they have to overcome.

 

It's amazing to me how knowledgeable sensible people - pundits and fans - say some of the stuff they do

Consider Michael Lombardi: “Down 16-0, Josh Allen can’t really make a throw; he’s missing receivers, he turned the ball over. He’s so erratic," Lombardi said

That's ridiculous.  Allen was 63% completion in the first half, 66% in the first Q. 

Consider this Jets fan's Youtube recap (He's obviously a true football fan like some of us here - he can comment sensibly on differences in the two teams offseason strategies for example and he's honest about what he saw from the Jets, Darnold and Gase.  At 4:30, he says Allen was "rocky" and "a lot of those passes were incompletes" at the start of the game.  Facts: they weren't.  (I found the frustration of a knowledgable Jets fan truly enjoyable btw, it may be I'm a sick puppy)

 

Confirmation bias is a Thing in all walks of life.  Allen is perceived as an erratic, inaccurate thrower, and that's what people will see, especially when they read a statline like 2 fumbles, 2 INTs.

 

Oh yeah, and Michael Lombardi? Josh Allen looks in a mirror regularly, and he seems very grounded and realistic about what he sees there.  He's a Dawg, and he's working to be a bigger Dawg, but he ain't your little Bella.

 

[eball]

3 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

Oh yeah, and Michael Lombardi?

 

Yes, I read that snippet as well and thought to myself, you've got to be kidding me...this guy obviously didn't even watch the game.

 

There's a narrative about Josh Allen that is going to be next to impossible to change until the Bills get on some nationally broadcast games -- like the playoffs -- and everyone can see what he really is or isn't.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

Says I need a subscription to read ?

 

You can get a 7 day free trial.

[buffaloboyinATL]

2 hours ago, PlayoffsPlease said:

Confirmation bias. Everyone is wrong, except for those that agree with us. 

 

A win is a win. its hard to sugar coat four turnovers and a safety.  Something among the preparation, play calling and/or execution is at least a small part of those results. 

I don't think this article "sugar coats" anything.  The point he makes is primarily that Allen remained composed and did not let the mistakes get the best of him.  Even though it was frustrating to watch as it was happening, it did not feel like the EJ Manuel turn-over-a-thon we have previously witnessed.  I am glad to see we are able to over come some adversity and still keep the train on the tracks.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 hours ago, PlayoffsPlease said:

Confirmation bias. Everyone is wrong, except for those that agree with us. 

 

A win is a win. its hard to sugar coat four turnovers and a safety.  Something among the preparation, play calling and/or execution is at least a small part of those results. 

 

I tried to spell it out in more detail in my own response.  You don't sugar coat four turnovers and a safety.  No one is trying to.   On the other hand, pundits and reporters (who either did not watch the game, or watched it with confirmation bias) are saying things about Allen such as "wildly inaccurate" "erratic" "passes falling incomplete" that are factually incorrect if you look at the play by play and calculate Allen's completion percentage quarter by quarter.

 

The point is that not one of the 4 turnovers were the result of inaccuracy per se or poor play-time decision making by Allen.  The Beasley interception could have been a better throw, but it was catchable and Beasley has to haul it in or deflect it down.

 

The INT that was nullified by penalty and a later goal-line throw on the R side of the field that could have been picked but wasn't, showed questionable decision making, so it's not like it's all good except the win.

 

The Win is good we can agree on that, right?

[CincyBillsFan]

12 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

 

It's amazing to me how knowledgeable sensible people - pundits and fans - say some of the stuff they do

Consider Michael Lombardi: “Down 16-0, Josh Allen can’t really make a throw; he’s missing receivers, he turned the ball over. He’s so erratic," Lombardi said

That's ridiculous.  Allen was 63% completion in the first half, 66% in the first Q. 

Consider this Jets fan's Youtube recap (He's obviously a true football fan like some of us here - he can comment sensibly on differences in the two teams offseason strategies for example and he's honest about what he saw from the Jets, Darnold and Gase.  At 4:30, he says Allen was "rocky" and "a lot of those passes were incompletes" at the start of the game.  Facts: they weren't.  (I found the frustration of a knowledgable Jets fan truly enjoyable btw, it may be I'm a sick puppy)

 

 

I saw the Lombardi quote and couldn't believe that someone PAID to follow football got it so wrong.  Sure, if you want to criticize Allen say that he was careless with the ball leading to 4 TO's.  I would consider this statement debatable but at least it's in the realm of possibility.

 

But to claim that "Josh Allen can't really make a throw" is an incredible thing to say for someone who watched the game.  In fact it's so off that you almost have to believe that it's a DELIBERATE LIE designed to reinforce Lombard's dislike of Allen.  It was clear to anyone with a TV (maybe Lombardi was following the game on radio?) that Allen was throwing the ball well at times and completing passes left & right.  In fact he drove the Bills into scoring position 3 times in the 1st half. 

 

I suspect the reason these "experts" can sound so stupid at times and it seems like they weren't watching the same game as us is that in fact they're not watching the same game.  They're trying to watch multiple games simultaneously and yea, if you caught Allen's performnce on the one drive where he just missed getting intercepted you might make the kind of statement Lombardi made.

 

 

[Albany,n.y.]

One line that stuck out to me in the article was when JK said (to paraphrase) that the turnover on the snap fumbled by Allen was nothing more than not converting on 4th down.  If the Bills had run the ball & been stuffed, the outcome would have been the same, but the stat sheet would have had one less turnover for the Ignorati* to complain about.

 

* Ignorati =members of the media in NFL cities who never watch anything about the Bills except Sportscenter highlights and make ignorant statement about the Bills with no data to back them up.  One of the leading members of the Ignorati is WFAN's Mike Francessa, who has many New Yorkers thinking that Josh Allen is a 20% completion passer.  

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 hours ago, Chris from Rochester said:

Not to sound cheap, but is it worth subscribing to the athletic? I feel like most of these writers are worse then the people we have on TSW. For those who have it, do you get your moneys worth? 

 

I have subscriptions to both The Athletic and TBN Blitz. 

 

I love some of our regulars here, but I still gain a ton of insight and information. 

 

I got them both on one of their periodic deals but I did re-up this year (a bit reluctantly to The Athletic because it rots my socks that they offer the great deal to new subscribers and not to those who resubscribe - that's a silly thing to do in this digital age), but I'd say, get them on a deal and then see what you think.

[Mark80]

2 hours ago, RobbRiddick said:

As I've said 100 times, Allen will make errant throws every game. So long as he offsets a bad int in a game with 2 or 3 td passes, who gives a *****? 

 

Also, EVERY QB IN THE LEAGUE has errant throws every game.  Every.  Single.  One.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

4 minutes ago, Albany,n.y. said:

One line that stuck out to me in the article was when JK said (to paraphrase) that the turnover on the snap fumbled by Allen was nothing more than not converting on 4th down.  If the Bills had run the ball & been stuffed, the outcome would have been the same, but the stat sheet would have had one less turnover for the Ignorati* to complain about.

 

* Ignorati =members of the media in NFL cities who never watch anything about the Bills except Sportscenter highlights and make ignorant statement about the Bills with no data to back them up.  One of the leading members of the Ignorati is WFAN's Mike Francessa, who has many New Yorkers thinking that Josh Allen is a 20% completion passer.  

 

On the one hand, he's correct and the same could be said about a QB who throws an INT on 4th down deep in the opponent's territory.  It really shouldn't go against a QB's stats the same way to take a risk and take a shot at a point in the game where a failure doesn't change the course of the game - the opponent was gonna get the ball there from a punt anyway.

 

On the other hand, I did see that as "sugar coating" that fumbled snap.  That's the kind of fundamental execution mistake that can not happen and must be corrected.  If you do your best and the opponent stuffs you, that's one thing, but if you stuff yourself, that's something else.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

2 hours ago, RobbRiddick said:

As I've said 100 times, Allen will make errant throws every game. So long as he offsets a bad int in a game with 2 or 3 td passes, who gives a *****? 

I guess that’s the point. He threw two picks, had one called back 

, and another dropped, all while throwing one TD pass. So nowhere near a two or three TD:INT ratio. 

He made great throws during the game and I think got more unlucky than anything else. Pick six was on Beasley and Bills batted 5 balls but did not pick any. 

Giants have worst DB in the league. Should be a good opportunity to have a clean game.

[MTBill]

Nice read.  Thanks for the link.

 

I suspect the fact that Morse was in the protocol much of the preseason had at least something to do with that failed snap.  Not trying to make excuses - but it's just a fact.

 

What will it take to remove the 'bias'?  consistent improvement.  Frankly, I don't care what others think - but if that eggs Allen on to do better, then it is not all bad.  If his play continues to impress and get wins, he will win over all but the most jaded folks.

[ghostwriter]

2 hours ago, Ta111 said:

So you believe we will have balls bouncing off receivers hands, hitting their thigh and going straight into the arms of a linebacker going forward?

Josh Allen would of had an 82.4 passer rating if it weren’t for that Cole Beasley interception, Allen put that ball on the money. Wasn’t a great performance, wasn’t a terrible one. The Jets have a pretty decent defense and we were playing on the road. Ideally you’d like to see Allen take care of the football better but it happens, especially to young QBs going up against Gregg Williams defenses.

 

The silver lining of the whole situation was that Allen looked accurate and deadly on the short to intermediate passing game. Very decisive, moved the ball almost at will, which is what everybody wanted to see. He looks like a more complete quarterback, he just has to clean up a couple things in his game, but I think we are golden in terms of what we drafted Allen to be for us and where we drafted him and what we gave up to get him. Looks light years better than last year and he is still very, very young.

[Another Fan]

Aah he didn’t play well in the 1st half.  HOWEVER  ultimately Allen still kept good body language throughout and kept his composure for the winning strike 

 

 

[Johnnycage46]

3 hours ago, PlayoffsPlease said:

Confirmation bias. Everyone is wrong, except for those that agree with us. 

 

A win is a win. its hard to sugar coat four turnovers and a safety.  Something among the preparation, play calling and/or execution is at least a small part of those results. 

 

Wrong.

[GunnerBill]

15 minutes ago, Sunshower said:

 

 

The silver lining of the whole situation was that Allen looked accurate and deadly on the short to intermediate passing game. Very decisive, moved the ball almost at will, which is what everybody wanted to see. He looks like a more complete quarterback, he just has to clean up a couple things in his game, but I think we are golden in terms of what we drafted Allen to be for us and where we drafted him and what we gave up to get him. Looks light years better than last year and he is still very, very young.

 

If we get 1st drive Josh and 4th Quarter Josh for 4 quarters next week.... then the Giants better watch out. I feel like he needs a day like that. A real complete performance to change the narrative. I thought Sunday showed real progress in those spots in the short and intermediate game.