The offensive gameplan vs the Steelers

[Royale with Cheese]

27 minutes ago, Billsfan1972 said:

I got it, but those last two drives, where the Bills just gave it back to Pitt, without even trying for a first down was hard to stomach.

 

It also seemed they seldom threw it downfield.

 

Thankfully Duck was just terrible.  As easy interceptions as anyone could throw. 

 

So no credit to our defense I take it?  They obviously confused him all night which is why he was making bad throws.  The guy was efficient and 3-0 as a starter coming in.  We made him look bad.

[Nuncha]

2 minutes ago, Bangarang said:

The goal line drive where we ran it 3 times and lost yardage made me want to punch holes in the drywall. 
 

I will forever pound the table for Allen to throw the ball more. 

So hard to watch after they reached the 10 yard line.  WTF was Cueboll thinking?  

[Bangarang]

Just now, Azucho98 said:

So hard to watch after they reached the 10 yard line.  WTF was Cueboll thinking?  

I don’t think that was just Daboll. I’m sure McD had his say in the matter

[Lurker]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

I found some of the playcalling frustrating at times - the redzone series before the game tying FG being one such occasion and the two 3 and out all run sequences at the end similarly.

 

Those play calls in the last 10 minutes were atrocious.    Not just the calls but the personnel groupings.  Gore running parallel to the LS?    Really!??    They could have easily snached defeat from the jaws of victory if they had faced competent quarterbacking from Pittsburgh.   

 

I still can't get a read on Daboll after 14 games.   Sometimes he calls plays like Superman and other times like Jimmy Olsen.    It makes watching these game a real pain in the ass.   But since I'm a Bills fan, my ass is used to the abuse--so on to New England... 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2019 by Lurker

[Nuncha]

23 minutes ago, Lurker said:

 

Those play calls in the last 10 minutes were atrocious.    Not just the calls but the personnel groupings.  Gore running parallel to the LS?    Really!??    They could have easily snached defeat from the jaws of victory if they had faced competent quarterbacking from Pittsburgh.   

 

I still can't get a read on Daboll after 14 games.   Sometimes he calls plays like Superman and other times like Jimmy Olsen.    It makes watching these game a real pain in the ass.   But since I'm a Bills fan, my ass is used to the abuse--so on to New England... 

 

 

Gore running parallel to the LOS on 3rd and 1 has to stop.  

[Scott7975]

2 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

Mods might want to merge this with the older Daboll thread and I don't particularly mind if they do but I thought last night was quite an interesting chess match to reflect on in terms of how the Bills offensively approached the game against Pittsburgh.

 

My "bias" such as it is on this subject is well known. I think Josh is a better Quarterback when the ball is in his hands and he can feel in rhythm. I don't think he is as effective when supported by a run heavy game plan that just asks him to throw 1 down in 3 and be on point with that throw. The Bills last night rushed 38 times and passed 25 times and Allen was a relatively pedestrian 13/25 for 139 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 pick.

 

But last night the running was not just to try and take the ball our of Allen's hands. It was, at least in part, a reaction to the way the Steelers set up to defend us. The Bills have had success since the defeat in Cleveland running mainly 11 personnel with McKenzie joining Beasley and Brown, Knox and Kroft splitting time at Tight End and Singletary as the lone back. Last week the Ravens blitzed incessantly and the Bills struggled to adjust with their hot reads and had Josh holding the ball a little too long too often. The Bills came out last night the first couple of drives in mainly that same 11 personnel grouping and making a conscious effort to get it our of Josh's hands quickly. The playcalling on those two drives was 7 passes as compared to 4 runs. However, what they got in terms of a defensive plan from Pittsburgh was quite different. There was a lot of nickel (5 defensive backs) and, at least what it looked like from the broadcast angle, multiple dime (6 defensive back) packages. When faced with that sort of plan the right play is to try and expose that defense by getting physical and that was the adjustment that the Bills made by their third drive. They went to much more of the 12 personnel with DiMarco in the game at fullback and Smith in at Tight End over the two more agile pass catching options and decided to try and grind it out. The pass run ratio on the 3rd drive was 4 passes and 5 runs (albeit including a scramble on a called pass). They ended up going 14 passes to 22 runs the rest of the way (even excluding the final two drives which were both clock bleeding run, run, run and then the kneel down) and without having looked at the numbers yet (Sal C normally tweets them out at some point) my instinct is that both DiMarco and Smith had by far their highest snap counts in over a month.

 

We actually had pretty good success rushing too. Singletary had 21 rushes for 87 yards, which is solid enough, but did fumble twice. Gore was less productive and his legs are clearly declining even week on week at this point. So the question is was it the right approach? It helped the Bills shorten the game and grind out the win, so ultimately, it worked. I found some of the playcalling frustrating at times - the redzone series before the game tying FG being one such occasion and the two 3 and out all run sequences at the end similarly. The point when they needed a drive to win the game it came on the back of Josh Allen throwing the football. But it also helped to stop Pittsburgh's pass rushers from teeing off and helped out offensive tackles who both struggled early but found their feet later.

 

Ultimately, I think it was a really interesting chess match and a definite in game adjustment early from Daboll. It is not necessarily the offense I would like to see us run, but my point is more for those piling on Daboll this morning there was a definite method to what might have appeared to the naked eye to be madness. While I prefer the 11 personnel and the quick passing game as a fit for our Quarterback and the majority of our offensive playmakers it was good to see the Bills have a second plan that they can flip to pretty quickly and still be successful in finding a way to win.

 

You are correct on the snap counts.  Dimarco had 25 snaps(38.5%.)  Way more than he has had all season since week 1. 

Smith had 31 snaps(47.7%.) More than double his counts since game 9.

 

You can see snap counts here btw: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2019-snap-counts.htm

[GunnerBill]

6 minutes ago, Scott7975 said:

You are correct on the snap counts.  Dimarco had 25 snaps(38.5%.)  Way more than he has had all season since week 1. 

Smith had 31 snaps(47.7%.) More than double his counts since game 9.

 

You can see snap counts here btw: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2019-snap-counts.htm

 

Ta. Yea I know PFR tracks them.

[IDBillzFan]

1 hour ago, 4BillsintheBurgh said:

He almost got Josh's balls!

 

Watt wound up to throw a haymaker on that miss. I kinda half wonder at some point if Watt or other players get flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct on that one time they rear back a fist, swing to hit the ball, and have something change their position and they punch the QB in the head. 

[HappyDays]

I don't mind running it at the end, you trust the defense to keep Duck Hodges out of the end zone in a 2 minute drill with no timeouts. But I wouldn't mind if they mixed it up a little. For example call a one read pass where Allen is supposed to run it and slide in bounds if the read isn't there. Running Gore is effectively just giving up the series. In this game it worked but against better offenses you don't want to give the ball back that easily.

[Reed83HOF]

27 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

I don't mind running it at the end, you trust the defense to keep Duck Hodges out of the end zone in a 2 minute drill with no timeouts. But I wouldn't mind if they mixed it up a little. For example call a one read pass where Allen is supposed to run it and slide in bounds if the read isn't there. Running Gore is effectively just giving up the series. In this game it worked but against better offenses you don't want to give the ball back that easily.

That was the maddening thing, once we went with Gore and Lee Smith in the red zone, we got stuffed and have been getting stuffed on these plays; it is a huge problem IMO. While I don't like taking things out of the playbook - it just does not work for us at all and is a waste of downs.  

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

2 hours ago, JoshAllenHasBigHands said:

You play the team across from you. The Steelers lead the league in turnovers, so you shouldn't give them chances to get them. Plus, their QB is an UDFA. If you put the ball in his hands under pressure, you are going to be fine. If they are playing Tom Brady or Mahomes, it is a different story. 

 Great point.  Exploit weakness capitalize on strength.  Basic strategy playing out there. 

[ILBillsfan]

I was wanting to see a play action pass on the failed first and goal disaster and then the second to last drive when we went three and out  and gave the ball back to the Steelers with 5min left in the game.  they were crashing so hard on the run it would of been wide open to a TE in the middle with the LBers coming so hard on the run stop

[Billsfan1972]

2 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

The run heavy, conservative approach is more McDermott then Daboll. The guy doesn’t seem to like offense and wants to play defense and burn the clock.... dude was signaling to the ref incessantly to run the clock with like 5 minutes left.? I don’t get why he’s so scared to make a mistake if the defense is so good. 

And pointing to the heavens & thanking god when the defense held......

 

And what if the defense made a mistake????? 

[Junyto]

I didn't agree with the last two drives. I thought they were too conservative just trying to run the football when clearly Pittsburgh was stacking the line of scrimmage. Anything short down the middle would've given us 6,7 yards easy with room to run. That would've forced Pittsburgh to use their timeouts earlier and we would've been able to pretty much run out the clock. 

The defense did their job yes but against a third string Qb it was expected. 

Don't give Brady the same kind of chances next week because he won't miss the open receivers or make the same mistakes they did I guarantee it. 

[whatdrought]

Good post. I think in one way it was very encouraging- It was adjustment. Our offense at times this year has not changed it's shape from drive to drive. I'm fine with heavy personnel if that's what is going to work. It's when we pigeonhole ourselves into one train of thought and refuse to adapt as the game progresses that I get bothered.

 

It became clear to me early on that the coaching staff new that our defense would do the job on the Steelers offense and that as long as we played sound football on the Offensive side, we'd win. That led to conservative playcalling and run heavy formations because, typically, running is less risky (especially against the Steelers opportunistic D) - the fumble by Singletary really sidetracked that plan, and I was glad to see them open it up with Josh when they needed to. That being said, I personally want us to come out attacking the Patriots with quick hits and outside zone runs. No need to be conservative there- play with the hair on fire. 

[Junyto]

2 hours ago, Lurker said:

 

Those play calls in the last 10 minutes were atrocious.    Not just the calls but the personnel groupings.  Gore running parallel to the LS?    Really!??    They could have easily snached defeat from the jaws of victory if they had faced competent quarterbacking from Pittsburgh.   

 

I still can't get a read on Daboll after 14 games.   Sometimes he calls plays like Superman and other times like Jimmy Olsen.    It makes watching these game a real pain in the ass.   But since I'm a Bills fan, my ass is used to the abuse--so on to New England... 

 

 

Right on, Brady won't make the same mistakes next week, the play calling was atrocious the last two drives. Any good Qb would've tied the game at least. They played not to win, but not to lose. It reminded me of the Jauron days. 

[QB Bills]

22 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

The run heavy, conservative approach is more McDermott then Daboll. The guy doesn’t seem to like offense and wants to play defense and burn the clock.... dude was signaling to the ref incessantly to run the clock with like 5 minutes left.? I don’t get why he’s so scared to make a mistake if the defense is so good. 

Totally agree. Him and Frazier have done wonders on the defensive side of the ball. But I wish he had zero say on what happens with the offense. He's far too conservative for the modern game. 

[Best Williams Available]

5 hours ago, Mrbojanglezs said:

I want to see Singletary and Yeldon combination. Hopefully they decide to give Gore some veteran rest the next two weeks because I think Yeldon has more to offer than Gore at this point. With Yeldon on the filed at least you keep the defense guessing with the threat of pass. When Gore is on the field they all key on him and he looks slow, still powerful but slow. His YPC is BAD.

They’d be dumb to not play Yeldon vs Pats as it was the only way they moved the ball in the 2nd half of game 1.