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Posted

Fosters ability to track the deep ball is frustrating. Maybe the wind made it difficult to track but he should have been in a position to make a play, he had lots of time. 

 

I also don’t agree with have McKenzie inactive, especially against a team that struggles with motion. 

Posted
2 minutes ago, billspro said:

Fosters ability to track the deep ball is frustrating. Maybe the wind made it difficult to track but he should have been in a position to make a play, he had lots of time. 

 

I also don’t agree with have McKenzie inactive, especially against a team that struggles with motion. 

I usually don't pay attention to the inactives.   I agree about McKenzie.   I'd expect him to fight for the ball Foster watched.   Or Roberts, for that matter.  Roberts obviously has ball tracking skills. 

Posted
11 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I usually don't pay attention to the inactives.   I agree about McKenzie.   I'd expect him to fight for the ball Foster watched.   Or Roberts, for that matter.  Roberts obviously has ball tracking skills. 

Is it that Foster has been hurt, or that Foster needs to fix his attitude?  seen comments both ways.

Posted (edited)

A few things bothering me about the Bills right now.

1.) Mid-season fall-off is legit. And there's more: It usually seems to involve getting absolutely man-handled in the run game. That's the primary catalyst, in my view. The Bills better hope they find the answer to their run defense woes, because Bill Callahan -- who would just as soon run the ball 50 times a game from the i-formation as greet his mother with a hug -- is on deck for this Sunday. If you think things are uninspiring in Bills land now, just imagine what a loss to the woebegone Redskins would look like. Yikes.

2.) At the midway point of the season, we pretty much know who teams are. Sure, there may be a scheme tweak here, a playing time adjustment there, but for the most part, you is what you is at this point. As such, I've come to realize and accept what the Bills are at this point in time: a middling team who is likely to eek out a Wild Card spot based on an easy schedule, but who has a long way to go to be consistent competitors and to be among the upper echelon of teams in the league. For a while, due to their record and stifling defense and the belief that the offense would improve as the year went on, I thought they might be more. I thought they might ALREADY be a really good team, and one with at least SEMI-realistic aspirations to win a playoff game or two. Now? Reality has hit, and accepting that reality will make the rest of the season easier to watch and accept. The Bills aren't "there" yet. The defense needs some edge rushing talent and direly misses Harrison Phillips on the interior. The offense needs a few game-breaking playmakers. 

3.) Brian Daboll is like Jekyll and Hyde. Some games he establishes a really good offensive rhythm, some games his offense is herky-jerky and can't get anything going. Hard to tell if it really is the Xs and Os or if it's the Willies and Joes. Most of all, I hate how easily he seems to abandon the run game sometimes. I understand that philosophically, he wants to follow the New England model of "tailor your offensive gameplan each week to specifically attack your opponent". The problem is that I don't think his offense is good enough or cohesive enough or talented enough yet to follow that model. What I see is a team whose offensive line is WAY better at run blocking than pass blocking, and who has two good running backs in Gore and Singletary and a quarterback who is WAY better on play-action than normal drop back passing. What does that all mean? It means that they should be operating a power run game with play-action deep shots built in. Instead they're insisting on being a ball control, pass-first, short passing offense. Again, I understand WHY Daboll wants this. Analytics all point to pass-first offense being the way to go in 2019. But on the other hand, it's all about winning games. No one is disparaging the Ravens for being run-first in THEIR march to a 5-2 record. Do what wins. Right now, running the ball seems to be the way to go.

4.) This leads me to my biggest gripe: Lack of intelligent use of Singletary, Foster, and McKenzie as of late. While lots of Bills fans want the team to be a player at the trade deadline, I don't really see the need. People want Robby Anderson. Well, we already have him. His name is Robert Foster. We don't use him. People want Gordon or Bell, both of whom are shifty, playmaking running backs without breakaway speed. Well, we already have him. His name is Devin Singeltary. We don't use him. As far as Singletary, I just can't figure out why the offense isn't using him more. He seems to be potentially the biggest offensive playmaker on the team, and he's getting maybe four carries a week. It's unacceptable and illogical. I also don't understand why the Bills can't ever seem to incorporate McKenzie and Foster into the gameplan in the same week. It's always either a McKenzie week or a Foster week, with the other guy being inactive. It seems quite obvious that an offensive lineup that features Brown, Foster, and McKenzie all on the field at once would be quite dangerous and difficult to defend. That's A LOT of speed. And why do we go two or three games at a time without using McKenzie, when he has proven that his presence as an end-around decoy on every single run play is a great boon to the offense? I feel like Daboll sees certain things work really well (like McKenzie as the end-around decoy and occasional pitch man) and then completely scraps them for the next week. Part of his "weekly hand-tailored gameplan" strategy. It's very frustrating. For a team without much offensive explosiveness, the inability/unwillingness to use Foster, McKenzie, and Singeltary -- arguably the three most explosive players on the Bills offense -- is baffling. Need a boost to the deep game? How about making Foster a meaningful part of the gameplan?! I mean...he was routinely collecting 100 yards a game last year against pro defenses. Did he suddenly forget how to play football?! Need a boost to your run game and offensive explosiveness in general? How about giving real run to Singletary and McKenzie?! 

Phew. That was a lot. Thanks for the opportunity to vent, even if no one listens. A middling football team who runs into inexplicable stretches of bad football defensively and who refuses to use their best offensive playmakers. Enraging. 

Edited by Logic
  • Like (+1) 2
Posted
3 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I'm the opposite.  I believe they were doing exactly what they were coached to do.   I think the coaches failed - miserably - to prepare them for that game.  

 

I agree with some who say that the Eagles were the better team.  That may be true.  But the Bills were steamrolled, and the Eagles aren't that much better. 

I think the blame can go around to all involved on the Bills from players to coaches.  But like you - I'm going to put this one on the coaches and it started early IMO.  This was my first game that I've gone to in a couple of years and I was very excited to see them play at home against a decent opponent.  I was due a loss in all of my gameday experiences, 8-0 up until that point (watched them beat the Dolphins for half of those games - most during the Marino years).  But I can tell you that was quite uninspired as you started your OP - I was left looking forward to Pizza and Wings as the highlight of the trip.

 

The first head-scratcher came right away.  They won the toss and accepted the kick going directly into the wind - they almost always defer.  And that was the time to defer if you believe in your D, want to make the Eagles Offense one dimensional, and want to give your Offense the opportunity to go with the wind and put some immediate pressure on a team with some internal strife. 

 

I get that they wanted the wind at their back in the fourth quarter, but you are facing a beat up and depleted secondary, but a really good run stopping team.  To come out with completely unimaginative playcalling that played right into their strength and put the team into an obvious passing down in bad conditions where you are looking at punting into the strong wind if you don't make it.  That just had me thinking to myself - what was that?!!!  It showed that they weren't going to attack the weakness of the Eagles that other teams had been exploiting.

 

They held on and still were leading deep into the second quarter.  The second big head-scratcher came on the 3rd down QB sweep that changed the game - I'm not so upset about that one call, but more of the philosophy of keeping your QB in the game by not taking hits and attacking the Eagle's weakness.  You've got to have a better play than that given the conditions and the opponent.  Moreover, why is Josh their short yardage back?  That set of downs was where the Bills needed to be aggressive, but they decided they were going to see if they could eek out a first down with conservative playcalling, culminating with putting their QB in harm's way as a short yardage back, and then decide if they wanted to push for another score or wind down the clock up 7-3.  They weren't attacking to put the opponent away - they were playing it safe to preserve the lead they had.  It's that exact stuff that prevents you from pulling away from opponents, and they've been doing it all season.  All it does is make you a mistake away from trailing or letting the other team back in.  That's exactly what happened.

 

The Bills were killing the Eagles on rollouts and they simply were not interested in utilizing that strategy until the Eagles proved they could stop it.

 

The Eagles did exactly the opposite .  They probed until they found what worked in the run game and then the Bills failed to have any answers.

Posted
1 hour ago, Logic said:

A few things bothering me about the Bills right now.

1.) Mid-season fall-off is legit. And there's more: It usually seems to involve getting absolutely man-handled in the run game. That's the primary catalyst, in my view. The Bills better hope they find the answer to their run defense woes, because Bill Callahan -- who would just as soon run the ball 50 times a game from the i-formation as greet his mother with a hug -- is on deck for this Sunday. If you think things are uninspiring in Bills land now, just imagine what a loss to the woebegone Redskins would look like. Yikes.

2.) At the midway point of the season, we pretty much know who teams are. Sure, there may be a scheme tweak here, a playing time adjustment there, but for the most part, you is what you is at this point. As such, I've come to realize and accept what the Bills are at this point in time: a middling team who is likely to eek out a Wild Card spot based on an easy schedule, but who has a long way to go to be consistent competitors and to be among the upper echelon of teams in the league. For a while, due to their record and stifling defense and the belief that the offense would improve as the year went on, I thought they might be more. I thought they might ALREADY be a really good team, and one with at least SEMI-realistic aspirations to win a playoff game or two. Now? Reality has hit, and accepting that reality will make the rest of the season easier to watch and accept. The Bills aren't "there" yet. The defense needs some edge rushing talent and direly misses Harrison Phillips on the interior. The offense needs a few game-breaking playmakers. 

3.) Brian Daboll is like Jekyll and Hyde. Some games he establishes a really good offensive rhythm, some games his offense is herky-jerky and can't get anything going. Hard to tell if it really is the Xs and Os or if it's the Willies and Joes. Most of all, I hate how easily he seems to abandon the run game sometimes. I understand that philosophically, he wants to follow the New England model of "tailor your offensive gameplan each week to specifically attack your opponent". The problem is that I don't think his offense is good enough or cohesive enough or talented enough yet to follow that model. What I see is a team whose offensive line is WAY better at run blocking than pass blocking, and who has two good running backs in Gore and Singletary and a quarterback who is WAY better on play-action than normal drop back passing. What does that all mean? It means that they should be operating a power run game with play-action deep shots built in. Instead they're insisting on being a ball control, pass-first, short passing offense. Again, I understand WHY Daboll wants this. Analytics all point to pass-first offense being the way to go in 2019. But on the other hand, it's all about winning games. No one is disparaging the Ravens for being run-first in THEIR march to a 5-2 record. Do what wins. Right now, running the ball seems to be the way to go.

4.) This leads me to my biggest gripe: Lack of intelligent use of Singletary, Foster, and McKenzie as of late. While lots of Bills fans want the team to be a player at the trade deadline, I don't really see the need. People want Robby Anderson. Well, we already have him. His name is Robert Foster. We don't use him. People want Gordon or Bell, both of whom are shifty, playmaking running backs without breakaway speed. Well, we already have him. His name is Devin Singeltary. We don't use him. As far as Singletary, I just can't figure out why the offense isn't using him more. He seems to be potentially the biggest offensive playmaker on the team, and he's getting maybe four carries a week. It's unacceptable and illogical. I also don't understand why the Bills can't ever seem to incorporate McKenzie and Foster into the gameplan in the same week. It's always either a McKenzie week or a Foster week, with the other guy being inactive. It seems quite obvious that an offensive lineup that features Brown, Foster, and McKenzie all on the field at once would be quite dangerous and difficult to defend. That's A LOT of speed. And why do we go two or three games at a time without using McKenzie, when he has proven that his presence as an end-around decoy on every single run play is a great boon to the offense? I feel like Daboll sees certain things work really well (like McKenzie as the end-around decoy and occasional pitch man) and then completely scraps them for the next week. Part of his "weekly hand-tailored gameplan" strategy. It's very frustrating. For a team without much offensive explosiveness, the inability/unwillingness to use Foster, McKenzie, and Singeltary -- arguably the three most explosive players on the Bills offense -- is baffling. Need a boost to the deep game? How about making Foster a meaningful part of the gameplan?! I mean...he was routinely collecting 100 yards a game last year against pro defenses. Did he suddenly forget how to play football?! Need a boost to your run game and offensive explosiveness in general? How about giving real run to Singletary and McKenzie?! 

Phew. That was a lot. Thanks for the opportunity to vent, even if no one listens. A middling football team who runs into inexplicable stretches of bad football defensively and who refuses to use their best offensive playmakers. Enraging. 

I'm always saying I don't know anything about football compared to what the coaches know.  And I believe that.  

 

What you say makes a whole of sense.  For the reason just stated, I don't know if you're right, but it sounds right.  

 

I've always said this was and 8-8, 9-7 year, and next year is the year they should be good, and they now look like they're falling back into about that spot.   We will see.  

 

I like what you say about Singletary, particularly, Foster and McKenzie.   The Bills need some flash on offense, not to be flashy, but to create problems for the defense.   Defenses know Gore will get his yards, but they also know the Bills don't run well enough for Gore to beat anyone with 170-yard games.  The threats are Beasley, Singletary, McKenzie, Foster and Roberts, and all of them seem to be after thoughts in the offense.  

 

What bothers me most is how easily teams seem to be able to watch the film and implement strategies that are very effective against the Bills.   Watching Fitzpatrick last week was horrifying.   There's a smart, veteran, journeyman QB whose coaches said to him "this will work," and Fitz did it all day long.   Then it happened again against the Eagles.  Pro football teams self-scout to figure out where their weaknesses are and to prepare on the assumption other teams will figure it out too.  Well, the Bills self-scouting sucks.  If the Eagles know they can run like that against the Bills, then the Bills should know too and have an answer.  The Eagles also knew Wentz could run scramble against the Bills, but one they did is keep his scrambling under wraps until the second half.  

 

Thanks for posting. Always interesting takes on the game.  

Posted
18 minutes ago, Ayjent said:

I think the blame can go around to all involved on the Bills from players to coaches.  But like you - I'm going to put this one on the coaches and it started early IMO.  This was my first game that I've gone to in a couple of years and I was very excited to see them play at home against a decent opponent.  I was due a loss in all of my gameday experiences, 8-0 up until that point (watched them beat the Dolphins for half of those games - most during the Marino years).  But I can tell you that was quite uninspired as you started your OP - I was left looking forward to Pizza and Wings as the highlight of the trip.

 

The first head-scratcher came right away.  They won the toss and accepted the kick going directly into the wind - they almost always defer.  And that was the time to defer if you believe in your D, want to make the Eagles Offense one dimensional, and want to give your Offense the opportunity to go with the wind and put some immediate pressure on a team with some internal strife. 

 

I get that they wanted the wind at their back in the fourth quarter, but you are facing a beat up and depleted secondary, but a really good run stopping team.  To come out with completely unimaginative playcalling that played right into their strength and put the team into an obvious passing down in bad conditions where you are looking at punting into the strong wind if you don't make it.  That just had me thinking to myself - what was that?!!!  It showed that they weren't going to attack the weakness of the Eagles that other teams had been exploiting.

 

They held on and still were leading deep into the second quarter.  The second big head-scratcher came on the 3rd down QB sweep that changed the game - I'm not so upset about that one call, but more of the philosophy of keeping your QB in the game by not taking hits and attacking the Eagle's weakness.  You've got to have a better play than that given the conditions and the opponent.  Moreover, why is Josh their short yardage back?  That set of downs was where the Bills needed to be aggressive, but they decided they were going to see if they could eek out a first down with conservative playcalling, culminating with putting their QB in harm's way as a short yardage back, and then decide if they wanted to push for another score or wind down the clock up 7-3.  They weren't attacking to put the opponent away - they were playing it safe to preserve the lead they had.  It's that exact stuff that prevents you from pulling away from opponents, and they've been doing it all season.  All it does is make you a mistake away from trailing or letting the other team back in.  That's exactly what happened.

 

The Bills were killing the Eagles on rollouts and they simply were not interested in utilizing that strategy until the Eagles proved they could stop it.

 

The Eagles did exactly the opposite .  They probed until they found what worked in the run game and then the Bills failed to have any answers.

Ayj - you show up right after Logic.   I really enjoy the things you say, both of you.

 

I hadn't really focused on it, but this notion of Allen being the Bills short yardage back is troubling.   It's just a bad idea.  I mean, I get that he has the size and the speed, I get the extra blocker thing, but I also get the injury thing.  He shouldn't be put at risk like that.   Plus, it's already become unimaginative.   

 

You know where his running skill is valuable?  On roll-out pass plays, that's where.  Don't stick him into the line on some power running play where he'll get popped from angles.  Roll him out and let the back seven deal with the run THREAT and try to cover the receivers at the same time.   Allen has good vision out there, which he showed again finding Beasley for the TD.  I think he knew Beasley would be there, but he found him nevertheless.  

 

As for playing to protect the lead.   That IS what they doing, and I generally don't mind that.  I know that most people around here are of the go-for-it mentality, but I'm not.   I believe what I heard some coach say - the reason you play the first half is to get to the second half.  You can't win the game in the first half, but you can lose it.  The Dolphins lost the game last night in the first half with that colossal defensive blunder.  But if you're going to be conservative, give it to Gore.   Conservative means don't give up the ball, so you don't let you QB carry it.  

 

McDermott is fundamentally conservative.   I'm sure of that.  I've hoped he would open up the offense as time goes by.   He might still.   But he might not be willing to take more risks with the offense until he has a QB who plays like a veteran and until he has offense that is more consistently effective.   It isn't such a good bet to take chances with an offense that executes like the Bills offense has been. 

 

Thanks for posting. 

Posted
9 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

Ayj - you show up right after Logic.   I really enjoy the things you say, both of you.

 

I hadn't really focused on it, but this notion of Allen being the Bills short yardage back is troubling.   It's just a bad idea.  I mean, I get that he has the size and the speed, I get the extra blocker thing, but I also get the injury thing.  He shouldn't be put at risk like that.   Plus, it's already become unimaginative.   

 

You know where his running skill is valuable?  On roll-out pass plays, that's where.  Don't stick him into the line on some power running play where he'll get popped from angles.  Roll him out and let the back seven deal with the run THREAT and try to cover the receivers at the same time.   Allen has good vision out there, which he showed again finding Beasley for the TD.  I think he knew Beasley would be there, but he found him nevertheless.  

 

As for playing to protect the lead.   That IS what they doing, and I generally don't mind that.  I know that most people around here are of the go-for-it mentality, but I'm not.   I believe what I heard some coach say - the reason you play the first half is to get to the second half.  You can't win the game in the first half, but you can lose it.  The Dolphins lost the game last night in the first half with that colossal defensive blunder.  But if you're going to be conservative, give it to Gore.   Conservative means don't give up the ball, so you don't let you QB carry it.  

 

McDermott is fundamentally conservative.   I'm sure of that.  I've hoped he would open up the offense as time goes by.   He might still.   But he might not be willing to take more risks with the offense until he has a QB who plays like a veteran and until he has offense that is more consistently effective.   It isn't such a good bet to take chances with an offense that executes like the Bills offense has been. 

 

Thanks for posting. 

McD is fundamentally conservative - no disagreement, and I understand what you are saying about protecting a lead at the half, but as a coach you need to also find ways to show your Offensive team that you trust them and believe in what they can be.  Sometimes protecting that lead - does the exact opposite.  I just don't understand what they were trying to do on Offense at all - the first touchdown was all Josh extending the play.  The second TD the Bills had was yet another glaring example of why you get Singletary involved in the passing game in space. 

 

For some reason, the passing gameplan was designed without many short outlets or quick timing routes.  The Eagles were not defending the short routes well because they were focused on making sure they weren't getting beat deeper.  From the looks of things they were doing a lot of zone in the flats and shallow middle - the Bills routes were not exploiting that at all.  When they did - they had big plays.  They just had too few of them.

Posted
4 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

He's not going to stop missing field goals that are >50 yds especially in crap conditions.

 

Career, he's like a 75-80% guy from 40-49 yds and more like a 60-65% guy >50 yds.

 

Yes, it would have helped "momentum" if he'd have made it so we were back within 1 point, but it was a "hail mary" shot, not money.

 

If you want to point to a difference maker, not fumbling deep in our own territory inside 2 minutes is the play that has to stop.

 

Its becoming a trend. He also missed before the half against the patties.

Posted (edited)
24 minutes ago, Ayjent said:

McD is fundamentally conservative - no disagreement, and I understand what you are saying about protecting a lead at the half, but as a coach you need to also find ways to show your Offensive team that you trust them and believe in what they can be.  Sometimes protecting that lead - does the exact opposite.  I just don't understand what they were trying to do on Offense at all - the first touchdown was all Josh extending the play.  The second TD the Bills had was yet another glaring example of why you get Singletary involved in the passing game in space. 

 

For some reason, the passing gameplan was designed without many short outlets or quick timing routes.  The Eagles were not defending the short routes well because they were focused on making sure they weren't getting beat deeper.  From the looks of things they were doing a lot of zone in the flats and shallow middle - the Bills routes were not exploiting that at all.  When they did - they had big plays.  They just had too few of them.

the point about SIngletary is really key.   That's one of those plays where the Bills film study paid off.  They knew they had that play and yet, as you say, we saw very little else like it.   Meanwhile, the little crossing patterns that Allen got his yards out of early in the season were covered completely by the Eagles.  That's what they took away, and the Bills never seemed to attack the holes they left.  

Edited by Shaw66
Posted
50 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

the point about SIngletary is really key.   That's one of those plays where the Bills film study paid off.  They knew they had that play and yet, as you say, we saw very little else like it.   Meanwhile, the little crossing patterns that Allen got his yards out of early in the season were covered completely by the Eagles.  That's what they took away, and the Bills never seemed to attack the holes they left.  

I'll probably try to stomach watching it again tonight on the Short cuts - I saw it live so I'm sure that I didn't see everything the same way you do on TV.  But I also saw what I saw and I know that people on TV just don't get the entire play perspective you get at the stadium.  What I saw was no one too open where the routes were designed.

 

I also wanted to say that I really had the same reaction as you on the Foster pass - but it seemed to me he lost the ball in the air or maybe we are just seeing why he was a healthy scratch and not too involved this season.

Posted
37 minutes ago, Ayjent said:

I'll probably try to stomach watching it again tonight on the Short cuts - I saw it live so I'm sure that I didn't see everything the same way you do on TV.  But I also saw what I saw and I know that people on TV just don't get the entire play perspective you get at the stadium.  What I saw was no one too open where the routes were designed.

 

I also wanted to say that I really had the same reaction as you on the Foster pass - but it seemed to me he lost the ball in the air or maybe we are just seeing why he was a healthy scratch and not too involved this season.

I was in the stadium, too.  Miss the replays, but I think I see more in the stadium.   Although I'm not really disciplined at studying the receiver routes, I didn't see a lot of free runners that Allen missed.  

 

I'm convinced the Bills were outcoached.  

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I was in the stadium, too.  Miss the replays, but I think I see more in the stadium.   Although I'm not really disciplined at studying the receiver routes, I didn't see a lot of free runners that Allen missed.  

 

I'm convinced the Bills were outcoached.  

I think you are 100% right on that - they were outcoached and I think McD knows it, too.  I didn't see anyone running free either.  FWIW, I really enjoyed being at the stadium - too bad I live too far away to make the games on the regular.    My buddy is an Eagles fan and he had a great time.  Commented how great people were in the area and what a friendly place it was.

Edited by Ayjent
Posted

as much as I like McDermott, there's no overlooking the schooling he received at the hands of Pederson. The 60+ yard run in the third quarter was inexcusable. We played prevent pass D and it looked like Wentz saw something and audibled out. With those winds how could we not know the Eagles were going to live or die with the run? On offense it looked like our game plan was run so as to give Josh a certain number of reps as opposed to giving us the best chance to win. We also should have stuck with the run.

 

Still none of us expected to go 15 -1 and this was a game I'm sure most of us had pegged as a loss before the season. It is some humble pie that I hope serves as a wake up call to our coaching staff who are seeing the likes of Ken Whisenhunt walk the plank for underachievement. Still I think the Bills are doing a better job with Allen than is being done with Trubisky, Darnold, Rosen and Prescott. 

 

We're in a better place than we were a year ago. .500 ball the rest of the way gets us a wildcard. That doesn't satisfy me either but I'll take over where we've been.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
On 10/29/2019 at 8:01 AM, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

He's not going to stop missing field goals that are >50 yds especially in crap conditions.

 

Career, he's like a 75-80% guy from 40-49 yds and more like a 60-65% guy >50 yds.

 

Yes, it would have helped "momentum" if he'd have made it so we were back within 1 point, but it was a "hail mary" shot, not money.

 

If you want to point to a difference maker, not fumbling deep in our own territory inside 2 minutes is the play that has to stop.


So... anymore excuses for SH?

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