The Athletic breaks down Singletary’s big day: The Bills have primarily been a passing team, until Sunday - and it worked

[JoshAllenHasBigHands]

3 minutes ago, Bring it said:

My question is our offensive line that good and just had a bad day against the eagles or are they overrated?

 

Every team is different, and every scheme is different. What works against one team may not work against another team.  

[Yav]

13 hours ago, YoloinOhio said:

Foster just hasn’t been taking advantage of his opportunities on Sundays and I’m guessing he hasn’t been doing so in practice either which is why he’s not always active. Duke hasn’t done a ton but he’s done more than Foster. Mckenzie has made plays when he gets the Ball. Duke and McKittrick should be up this week imo. 

I agree. Duke does seem to catch the ball just not may targets. I’d like to see the Bills run to establish the pass with more screens and play action. I also love the jet sweep to McKenzie 

[Kelly the Dog]

The Bills did try five times to get one yard from Gore, up the middle, got shoved back, and stymied for no yards. That was terrible blocking by almost the entire line. That was a problem. 

[Rubes]

5 minutes ago, Kelly the Dog said:

The Bills did try five times to get one yard from Gore, up the middle, got shoved back, and stymied for no yards. That was terrible blocking by almost the entire line. That was a problem. 

On one of those, the blocking was actually not bad, but Croft whiffed on his guy. He was the one who came around to stuff Gore. Made me so crazy...

[Dopey]

21 hours ago, Yav said:

Its funny because some people on here will argue they have been running the ball. 

I would like to see more running like this past Sunday and then more play action and would it kill them to take a deep shot with Smokey? Foster seems to have forgotten how to track the ball and I think they can use a big body like Duke more than Foster especially with Brown and McK. 

They're running the ball at an avg of 28.5 times a game. And passing at just over 32 times a game. Removing the teams that haven't had a bye yet, there's only 5 teams with more rush attempts. Not arguing, but I think they have been running the ball. I would like to see Singletary get the ball more often, but I'm pretty sure they were easing him back into the game plan after the hamstring issue. The Athletic saying they have been primarily a passing team isn't correct in my view. Their lowest number of rushing attempts was 20, against the the Eagles. We were down that game and playing catch up. Also, those 4th qtr. comebacks were probably due to more passing than runs. Just my take.

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

22 hours ago, TPS said:

IT would be great to see an analysis of the short yardage plays to find out what the issues are.  I know some pointed out Morse getting pushed back.  If he's an issue in short yardage, then maybe the Bills should experiment with a short yardage package -- Feliciano at C and Ford at RG?  Just a thought.

 

Saw a couple of those goal line run plays on Cover1 just now, and it didn't look like Morse was the issue.  Never mind.

 

Or just don't run behind the center? Can also do toss plays out of goalline, or FB dives. 

21 hours ago, YoloinOhio said:

Foster just hasn’t been taking advantage of his opportunities on Sundays and I’m guessing he hasn’t been doing so in practice either which is why he’s not always active. Duke hasn’t done a ton but he’s done more than Foster. Mckenzie has made plays when he gets the Ball. Duke and McKittrick should be up this week imo. 

 

Fosters been seeing work at gunner too, so they must feel good about some combo of McKenzie/Roberts/foster at WR. Is Duke fully healthy now?

Edited November 6, 2019 by dneveu

[YoloinOhio]

11 minutes ago, dneveu said:

 

Or just don't run behind the center? Can also do toss plays out of goalline, or FB dives. 

 

Fosters been seeing work at gunner too, so they must feel good about some combo of McKenzie/Roberts/foster at WR. Is Duke fully healthy now?

Duke wasn’t on the injury report last week

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

I’ll admit I was relieved to see some screen passes to 26.  Finally!!!

 

Hes built for those plays. Runs like pac man. Same speed in any direction, instant change as needed. 

 

[Coach Tuesday]

8 hours ago, Kelly the Dog said:

The Bills did try five times to get one yard from Gore, up the middle, got shoved back, and stymied for no yards. That was terrible blocking by almost the entire line. That was a problem. 

More specifically it was poor technique.  They just didn’t get their pads low enough.  Morse in particular stayed too upright - the Skins’ DTs got lower and were able to drive him backwards.

 

Also, from those clips the three run blockers that really stand out to me are Roberts, Dawkins and Knox.  Have no idea why Joe B. graded out Dawkins so poorly this week because he was flat-out mauling from what I saw.

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

23 hours ago, JoshAllenHasBigHands said:

This is written by Eric Turner at Cover1.  If you are not following his work, you are not meaningfully following the Bills from an Xs and Os/play calling/understanding the game perspective. 

Oh please. 

 

When he takes his personal feelings out of his work I might start to read his stuff again.  

 

The KEY to victory has always been balance.  Good passing and good running.  

 

Look at how well the Rams did w/o Todd Gurley

[JoshAllenHasBigHands]

38 minutes ago, SlimShady'sGhost said:

Oh please. 

 

When he takes his personal feelings out of his work I might start to read his stuff again.  

 

The KEY to victory has always been balance.  Good passing and good running.  

 

Look at how well the Rams did w/o Todd Gurley

That is a fire take. I don’t really know what feelings you’re talking about, but to pretend that his analysis isn’t the most technical stuff available to the average fan is just wrong.

 

Also, the Rams aren’t faltering because of Gurley, the Rams are failing because teams figured out that if they change the coverage once the coaches line is cut off after 15 seconds, Mcvay can’t feed Goff the play.

[Kelly the Dog]

54 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

More specifically it was poor technique.  They just didn’t get their pads low enough.  Morse in particular stayed too upright - the Skins’ DTs got lower and were able to drive him backwards.

 

Also, from those clips the three run blockers that really stand out to me are Roberts, Dawkins and Knox.  Have no idea why Joe B. graded out Dawkins so poorly this week because he was flat-out mauling from what I saw.

Joe B's grades have to be taken with a grain elevator of salt. 

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

1 hour ago, JoshAllenHasBigHands said:

That is a fire take. I don’t really know what feelings you’re talking about, but to pretend that his analysis isn’t the most technical stuff available to the average fan is just wrong.

 

Also, the Rams aren’t faltering because of Gurley, the Rams are failing because teams figured out that if they change the coverage once the coaches line is cut off after 15 seconds, Mcvay can’t feed Goff the play.

 

I've read his "stuff" here before he "moved on" and I even went to his web page. 

 

To me he had gotten worse over the years by not just sticking to football to analyze plays.  

the Rams drop off last season had to do with Gurley  or so I read and heard as to why they failed to beat the mundane Pats****

 

Still, I have always been a proponent of a good balance of running and passing.  

[JoshAllenHasBigHands]

7 minutes ago, SlimShady'sGhost said:

 

I've read his "stuff" here before he "moved on" and I even went to his web page. 

 

To me he had gotten worse over the years by not just sticking to football to analyze plays.  

the Rams drop off last season had to do with Gurley  or so I read and heard as to why they failed to beat the mundane Pats****

 

Still, I have always been a proponent of a good balance of running and passing.  

 

Its worth at least following his twitter. For what its worth, hearing your comments caused me to think: are we talking about the same guy? In my mind, that is the farthest from the way I would describe his work. Also, the fact that he gets so much affirmation from players on twitter about how he is correctly analyzing play calls, assignments, etc. tells me he knows what he is talking about. 

 

With respect to the Rams, there was an article written recently about why they are failing. It had to do with comments made by Pats after the Super bowl that they were easy to stop once they found a way to work around McVay calling in the plays after they lined up. 

[Wayne Arnold]

11 hours ago, Kelly the Dog said:

The Bills did try five times to get one yard from Gore, up the middle, got shoved back, and stymied for no yards. That was terrible blocking by almost the entire line. That was a problem. 

 

I 100% blame the play calls. How many OLines can bulldoze an 11 man front at will? That’s a crap ton of weight and an unfair task to ask of your linemen.

[Yav]

7 hours ago, Dopey said:

They're running the ball at an avg of 28.5 times a game. And passing at just over 32 times a game. Removing the teams that haven't had a bye yet, there's only 5 teams with more rush attempts. Not arguing, but I think they have been running the ball. I would like to see Singletary get the ball more often, but I'm pretty sure they were easing him back into the game plan after the hamstring issue. The Athletic saying they have been primarily a passing team isn't correct in my view. Their lowest number of rushing attempts was 20, against the the Eagles. We were down that game and playing catch up. Also, those 4th qtr. comebacks were probably due to more passing than runs. Just my take.

See the NE game for evidence. 

They had the ball in NE territory and decide to get pass happy for no reason and end up taking a costly sack that pushed the FG attempt out and that contributed to the miss. (3 points right there). Later they had the ball down in the red zone and decided to pass the ball and again they got no points out of that drive, those two scoring opportunities result in at the very least 6 total points if we run the ball and don't convert 1st down or TDs and we end up tied with NE and head in to OT. 

 

That game the running game was effective and yet they try and get cute and try to be a "balanced team". If you're getting 4-5 yards a carry then keep running the ball until they show you they can consistently stop it. There is no reason to try and force a passing play.

 

They are passing more than they are rushing, and just because other teams are pass happy doesn't make it the right game plan for the Bills. Run the ball to set up play action.

[Buffalo716]

6 hours ago, JoshAllenHasBigHands said:

That is a fire take. I don’t really know what feelings you’re talking about, but to pretend that his analysis isn’t the most technical stuff available to the average fan is just wrong.

 

Also, the Rams aren’t faltering because of Gurley, the Rams are failing because teams figured out that if they change the coverage once the coaches line is cut off after 15 seconds, Mcvay can’t feed Goff the play.

I like Turner but he ISNT foolproof.  He actually blocked me years ago when we had a conversation and I showed him why he was off in his breakdown, he just blocked me after so we couldn't talk anymore

 

He is knowledgeable and definitely cares about the game but it's basically his opinion on breakdown's, and we all have those... He doesn't have the playcalls so all he can do is use his eyes to make a assumption about assignments or calls, sometimes he's right sometimes he's wrong

 

It's really not gospel tho he does work hard. 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2019 by Buffalo716

[Hapless Bills Fan]

On 11/5/2019 at 11:40 AM, Bring it said:

My question is our offensive line that good and just had a bad day against the eagles or are they overrated?

 

I think they didn't try to do against the Eagles what they tried to do against Washington.   They came out (and executed) a pass-heavy game plan on a blustery, windy day. 

 

[Bring it]

3 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

I think they didn't try to do against the Eagles what they tried to do against Washington.   They came out (and executed) a pass-heavy game plan on a blustery, windy day. 

 

Plus they were facing Fletcher Cox. When he’s dialed in Cox is one of the best!

[Hapless Bills Fan]

4 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

I like Turner but he ISNT foolproof.  He actually blocked me years ago when we had a conversation and I showed him why he was off in his breakdown, he just blocked me after so we couldn't talk anymore

 

He is knowledgeable and definitely cares about the game but it's basically his opinion on breakdown's, and we all have those... He doesn't have the playcalls so all he can do is use his eyes to make a assumption about assignments or calls, sometimes he's right sometimes he's wrong

 

There's also some subjective interpretation about what is happening.  Not sure which game, think it was NE, Josh threw a ball that just hit Gore's outstretched hand, thrown ahead and too wide of him.  Allen had a charging DE pushing his RT back into his face as he threw.  I initially thought Josh deliberately threw it a bit wide so it couldn't be hit and deflected by the defender, but would be caught by Gore or go OOB.  Later when I looked at the all 22 then back in slo-mo I found a couple frames where it looked as though the defender got a couple of fingers on it.  Turner went on and on about how the throw showed poor technique on Josh's part and his feet were wrong etc etc. 

Fast forward a couple weeks and Josh hit several similar throws with similar footwork and they're all "well, Josh's foot placement isn't right but it doesn't matter because you can see he makes a perfect throw blah blah"

 

Fast forward to a KC game where the announcers are looking at exactly the same route and a throw off target in a similar way by Mahomes and they're "let's take a closer look" and found a camera angle where you could see the defender's gloved fingers deflect as the ball went past and they announced proudly "Mahomes just doesn't make a throw that off target unless something like a deflection is involved"

Where am I going with this?  1) I like Cover1 and watch their breakdowns all the time, but I agree he isn't infallible and shouldn't be taken as gospel 2) I think both incidents I describe show where subjectivity creeps in to assessing a QB once you get past "did he complete the pass, or did he not?" level of simple scoring.  If it had been Allen the announcers would never have looked for the deflection because their storyline is "Allen is so erratic".  Cover1 didn't because his storyline was "Allen has poor footwork that is impacting his throws" (which he does sometimes, still).  Advanced stats wouldn't have scored it as a deflected pass but as a bad throw.