Josh Allen - week EIGHT report card

[VADC Bills]

His performance is a D due to mistakes at critical times.

I think we tend to be  very kind to Josh because he is young and we so desperately want to anoint someone as the next Jim Kelly we tend to sugarcoat the obvious.

• He needs to know the playbook better so he can under stand quickly where his receivers are.
• Jordan Palmer stated he was working with Josh regarding anticipating what his receivers are going to do during the off season, this is still an issue with Josh.This is clearly evident when Matt Barkley comes in during a JA injury it seems as though the whole field opens up although JA has a better arm he doesn't see the field as good. We will never regularly score 20 pts a game or have 300 passing yard games until this happens. ( The Tyrod comparisons aren't far off)
• Notice how Carson Wentz was throwing screens and swing passes. This is how coaching can manage the game for a young QB. This should be part of the game plan from the beginning of the game and not a halftime adjustment. Our coaching staff feels Josh is a little better than what he is at this point.
• He needs better focus so some of these fumbles can be avoided.

I remember there was a time not long ago when QB's took 2-3 years to develop ( Drew Brees, Payton Manning, Aaron Rodgers) Josh is going to be one of these guys..hopefully because there is a lot of upside here but don't be afraid to draft a QB in round 3 next year.

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by VADC Bills

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

9 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

Score 24-13...Late in the 3rd qtr with the Bills around the Eagles 25, on 2nd down, Allen goes back to pass and just throws the ball away.  With his mobility, he had plenty of time to buy some time and look for another option.  Two plays later, the Bills turn the ball over on downs...game over.

 

The coaches have him so screwed up in terms of not making a mistake, that he is just throwing the ball away multiple times a game despite having the ability to buy time and see if he can make a play with his arm or his legs.

 

THIS. And it's because the fans went all bananas about the INTs. I said at the time I don't want him to stop trying those throws. If I were Allen, I'd audible out of the worst of daboll's calls and wings it way more often. Better to ask forgiveness than permission.

[zow2]

6 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

Score 24-13...Late in the 3rd qtr with the Bills around the Eagles 25, on 2nd down, Allen goes back to pass and just throws the ball away.  With his mobility, he had plenty of time to buy some time and look for another option.  Two plays later, the Bills turn the ball over on downs...game over.

 

The coaches have him so screwed up in terms of not making a mistake, that he is just throwing the ball away multiple times a game despite having the ability to buy time and see if he can make a play with his arm or his legs.

 

Exactly. Good point. People think I'm hating on Allen.  I like the guy.  His unscripted scrambles are a thing of beauty when he buys some extra time and takes off for 7-10 yards... It kills the defense.  It's a weapon.  I can do without the designed runs but his scrambles are usually very productive.  Throwing the football into the feet of the linemen or out of bounds works for a guy like Brady because he's so darn accurate (on the remaining two downs) and he has zero ability to gain yards with his legs.   I wish they would stop over-coaching Allen and let him play his game.  

[dakrider]

I would give Allen a C+.   2 TD's and no ints.   One bad fumble on a play that shouldn't be called in that situation, at least make it a play action or something.  

Allen had a bad 4th qtr but by then Eagles had Bills pretty much penned in.  At most Bills might have got 1 TD and lost 31-20.  I suppose that would have made everyone happy huh?

 

One other thing I'll mention is anyone here who thinks Allen should not have any turnovers period, you must not watch much football then.  Thats not even an unreal expectation, its fantasy. 

Edited October 28, 2019 by dakrider

[Royale with Cheese]

45 minutes ago, zow2 said:

How many 200 yard, 2 TD games do we get to watch before we see our franchise QB throw a 300 yard, 3 TD game?!?   When can we have an offense that can bail out the defense?  You see a guy come off the couch in Atlanta and throw 450... you see Bridgewater who hadn't played in a couple years throw for 350 and 4 TD's..  you have Daniel Jones tossing multiple 300 yd games already.. Minshew, etc..

 

Not saying Josh should have thrown for 300 and 3 TDs  in those weather conditions yesterday, but c'mon.  Stop with the excuses.  Time to grow up.  After the Singletary TD, there was ample opportunity to get chunk passing yards on screen plays and they still couldn't do it.  

 

I don't care as much about the designed run fumble yesterday,  I care more that when Allen stands in the pocket and scans the field, a lot of bad things happen.  That's very concerning.

 

I think the fan base doesn't want to believe Allen is struggling but he is.  He's got huge playmaking ability but there's not enough for all the other mistakes.  

If he had much more positive production, I wouldn't care that he took chances and made a bone head play.  There's just not enough good for the all the bad so far.

 

Beane specifically stated we are looking for a QB that can make consistent plays from the pocket before the '18 draft....Allen hasn't been that so far. 

 

[Lieutenant Aldo Raine]

44 minutes ago, zow2 said:

How many 200 yard, 2 TD games do we get to watch before we see our franchise QB throw a 300 yard, 3 TD game?!?   When can we have an offense that can bail out the defense?  You see a guy come off the couch in Atlanta and throw 450... you see Bridgewater who hadn't played in a couple years throw for 350 and 4 TD's..  you have Daniel Jones tossing multiple 300 yd games already.. Minshew, etc..

 

Not saying Josh should have thrown for 300 and 3 TDs  in those weather conditions yesterday, but c'mon.  Stop with the excuses.  Time to grow up.  After the Singletary TD, there was ample opportunity to get chunk passing yards on screen plays and they still couldn't do it.  

 

I don't care as much about the designed run fumble yesterday,  I care more that when Allen stands in the pocket and scans the field, a lot of bad things happen.  That's very concerning.

 

Have you seen how well this team can set up screens?  It's pretty pathetic.   Seems we have gone away with the short crossing routes, and digs, and reverted back to the longer developing routes.   

 

[zow2]

5 minutes ago, dakrider said:

I would give Allen a C+.   2 TD's and no ints.   One bad fumble on a play that shouldn't be called in that situation, at least make it a play action or something.  

Allen had a bad 4th qtr but by then Eagles had Bills pretty much penned in.  At most Bills might have got 1 TD and lost 31-20.  I suppose that would have made everyone happy huh?

 

 

That's not really true.  The score was 24-13 and the Bills had a great chance to make it 24-20 with THREE straight possessions that literally went nowhere.  one of which was in excellent field position.  The Eagles got that final nail-in-the-coffin TD after the O failed miserably when the team needed them to step up.   I'd give Allen a solid D grade yesterday. 

[LabattBlue]

5 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

I think the fan base doesn't want to believe Allen is struggling but he is. 

^^^ This.  He is such a likeable guy on a team that has been searching for a franchise QB since Kelly retired...they just don't want to believe what they are seeing, which is very mediocre QB play.

[Royale with Cheese]

6 minutes ago, zow2 said:

 

That's not really true.  The score was 24-13 and the Bills had a great chance to make it 24-20 with THREE straight possessions that literally went nowhere.  one of which was in excellent field position.  The Eagles got that final nail-in-the-coffin TD after the O failed miserably when the team needed them to step up.   I'd give Allen a solid D grade yesterday. 

 

I think it was said this morning on WGR that Allen had 9 yards passing on those drives?

[Jauronimo]

9 minutes ago, Lieutenant Aldo Raine said:

 

Have you seen how well this team can set up screens?  It's pretty pathetic.   Seems we have gone away with the short crossing routes, and digs, and reverted back to the longer developing routes.   

 

The Bills have been completely unable to execute or defend a screen pass since Chan Gailey.

[dakrider]

3 minutes ago, zow2 said:

 

That's not really true.  The score was 24-13 and the Bills had a great chance to make it 24-20 with THREE straight possessions that literally went nowhere.  one of which was in excellent field position.  The Eagles got that final nail-in-the-coffin TD after the O failed miserably when the team needed them to step up.   I'd give Allen a solid D grade yesterday. 

oh, so Bills didn't score a TD on their first possession in 4th qtr whereas Eagles had a 83 yard 8 and half min drive and scored a TD on their first possession in 4th.  Thus the D grade.  Had the Bills come back and got a TD and a FG and lost 31-23, it would have somehow been much better.  I see now.  

[CincyBillsFan]

I give Allen a C+. 

 

No one is throwing for 300 yards in the kind of wind that we had at New Era field yesterday. 

 

What was odd about yesterday's game was that Allen didn't pile up a bunch of meaningless yards in garbage time having two possessions with the eagles up by 18.  It was 0/3 then 0/4.  If Allen gets garbage yards then he breaks 200 and probably has a 3rd TD throw.  Half the QB's that hit 300 or more yesterday did it in garbage time against prevent defenses.

 

So why didn't the Bills get those cheap stats?  Or better yet why did Allen play better through the 1st 3 quarters when the game was still a contest?  It doesn't make sense unless you realize that we don't have the skill player talent to do pile up "prevent" yards.  The guys that thrive in garbage time catching the football are TE's & RB's.  I rest my case.

 

When you take a hard look at this Bill's offense try telling me that they have the talent to put up big numbers and come back from being down by 2 scores or more.  They don't.  Watch other games and you'll see guys running wide open & getting decent separation.  YAC after every catch is a given.  You see explosive RB's and TE's that make play after play in the passing & running game.  I get that Singleterry & Knox might be big time players in the future but right now they're raw rookies making an occasional play.  Do you think opposing defenses worry about what a draw play might do to them? 

 

People claim Allen isn't getting rid of the ball soon enough.  That's part of it but how many times is he almost immediately flushed out of the pocket as the opponents D-line simulates a jail break?  And like EVERY QB Allen misses the open receiver.  But I'm watching other games and they're talking about a QB having to choose between multiple open receivers.  How often do we have that luxury.

 

Allen is making decent progress.  He has much to work on but should be hitting his stride next season when the Bills add some additional skill player firepower and one OT to stabilize the pass protection.  This was not going to be the year we had a potent offense.  Yet here we are on the cusp of being 6 - 2 halfway through the season.  I'm okay with that.

 

 

[dave mcbride]

1 hour ago, GG said:

He was the anti-Josh this week.  Pretty good for the first 2-1/2 Qs, awful for the remainder of the game.

He also badly missed a wide open Foster on a deep ball that would have put them up 14-3 in the second. 

40 minutes ago, Virgil said:

Out of curiosity, what do you grade Wentz?

I know you're not asking me, but I thought was a "A" yesterday. He played extremely well. 

[MDH]

1 hour ago, D. L. Hot-Flamethrower said:

For me, its a C, to be a D I would have to believe he was one of , if not, the primary culprits in the loss. I know the tendency is to say 16-34  he had a low completion. That number is skewed by the late game when we collapsed and he didn't complete his last 9 or 10. The game was over essentially after the 8 minute drive in the fourth. Eagles knew we had to pass, and the offensive line, in particular was like a sieve. I will balance all this by saying, it was pretty much within the parameters of performance we'd expect from Josh prior to the later fourth quarter. 

So when most fans want to toss out garbage time stats because they inflate QB stats Bills’ fans use garbage time as an excuse as to why the QB had crap numbers? ??

 

There’s a trend on this board that it’s never Allen’s fault. It’s Zay’s fault, it’s Daboll’s fault and now, apparently, it’s garbage time’s fault.

 

I don’t get why fans can’t judge QB play on the Bills honestly. They’ve been making excuses for bad QB play for 20+ years.

 

Saying Allen has a bad game doesn’t mean he can’t, or won’t, develop into a good QB. It’s okay to just admit it.

[CincyBillsFan]

2 minutes ago, dakrider said:

oh, so Bills didn't score a TD on their first possession in 4th qtr whereas Eagles had a 83 yard 8 and half min drive and scored a TD on their first possession in 4th.  Thus the D grade.  Had the Bills come back and got a TD and a FG and lost 31-23, it would have somehow been much better.  I see now.  

 

Exactly right. 

 

For the 2nd week in a row our defense allowed a team to go on multiple long TD drives that chewed up a lot of time.  It's probably fair to say that the Bills Offense was robbed of at least 5 possessions over these last two games by the inability of the D to get 3 & outs.

 

This was especially crucial in a ind game where it's critical that you 3 & out a team when they start a drive inside their 25 yard line going into the wind.  In fact that's the prescription for winning Rich Stadium wind games.  Several times our D allowed the Eagles to get a couple of 1st downs eliminating the field position advantage we should have had with them going into the wind.

 

And this is why IMO giving Allen a "D" grade as QB is ridiculous.  Given how poorly the defense played had Allen really earned a D we would have lost yesterday's game 38 - 6 and NEVER would have been in it early in the 4th quarter.

 

 

 

 

 

[Virgil]

8 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

He also badly missed a wide open Foster on a deep ball that would have put them up 14-3 in the second. 

I know you're not asking me, but I thought was a "A" yesterday. He played extremely well. 

 

Deep ball was the wind without question.  It killed it and all the players lost sight of it. 
 

I ask because they had relatively the same stats, but Wentz was supported with a ground game.  I don’t put that fumble solely on Allen as Morse blew his assignment 

[wppete]

The missed 4th down pass to John Brown was huge. Bad pass from Allen. 

 

[dave mcbride]

4 minutes ago, Virgil said:

 

Deep ball was the wind without question.  It killed it and all the players lost sight of it. 
 

I ask because they had relatively the same stats, but Wentz was supported with a ground game.  I don’t put that fumble solely on Allen as Morse blew his assignment 

He threw that with the wind at his back. Wentz hit his deeper throws when he had the wind.

2 minutes ago, wppete said:

The missed 4th down pass to John Brown was huge. Bad pass from Allen. 

 

yes, it was late and forced him to slow down, allowing Darby to recover. 

Edited October 28, 2019 by dave mcbride

[Virgil]

Just now, dave mcbride said:

He threw that with the wind at his back. Wentz hit his deeper throws when he had the wind. 

I’m not saying what should have happened, I’m saying what did happen.   The ball got destroyed on the wind during that play.   Nothing could have been done about it.  The winds gust when they want to 

2 minutes ago, wppete said:

The missed 4th down pass to John Brown was huge. Bad pass from Allen. 

 

Brown admitted he ran the wrong route 

[zow2]

10 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

^^^ This.  He is such a likeable guy on a team that has been searching for a franchise QB since Kelly retired...they just don't want to believe what they are seeing, which is very mediocre QB play.

 

Alot of people on this board aren't seeing this.  It's another denial thing where Josh is fine,.... it's the OC, play calling, O-line, RB's can't catch, receivers stink, etc.. 

Bottom line, it's a combination of all the above..  But this QB has to be better, and soon.  The coaching staff wants him to be anchored in the pocket, scan the field and recognize the defense in 2 seconds, and make an accurate pass...  That's what Bean and McDermott want him to do.  He's not doing it successfully...Yet.

 

When he does it well, I will be his biggest cheerleader.