Rapid Reactions Saturday Night vs 20/20 Hindsight Monday Morning

[SCBills]

15 minutes ago, falgobofu said:

Why the heck can we not do better against arguably the worst secondary in the NFL?!??? Josh Allen throws 46 times against them and barely breaks 250 yards passing. We only get one TD on a trick play on our first drive, disappointing to say the least. Many of those CB's cant crack a starting lineup in any other team. There has to be some blame on playcalling, motor is having a great day but with the lead we pretty much abandon the Run, definitely dont understand this. I hope Allen progresses but honestly till he starts throwing with anticipation then he is barely an upgrade over Tyrod. I want to be a fan but until he is not one of the worst pct of a starting qb and raises is QB Rating we will continue to have this discussion. I hope he makes a considerable jump next year at being a QB or i may be beating the table for a new QB. Love the kid but needs to improve.

 

Josh missed some throws, missed some reads, but overall he did more than enough for us to win that game. 

 

I don't put this loss anywhere remotely on him.   In fact, that's my biggest "hindsight" after watching the other WC games, was how well he actually played given the lack of talent around him comparable to only the decimated Eagles.  We asked him to do A LOT.  Threw for 264, ran for 92 and caught a TD.  If we won, that's what gets remembered....a gutsy performance by a second year QB in his first playoff game.  Since we lost, he has to deal with the fact he lost his mind for a few plays. 

 

In regards to your other point about the Texans defense.  JJ Watt is the answer.   Our WR's weren't getting separation consistently and JJ Watt didn't allow Josh to sit back there and wait. 

 

My other biggest hindsight takeaway was that our defense put up the worst WC weekend performance.  Very, very disappointing to see.  They gave up the second most points, one of the best passer ratings to the opposing QB and allowed a 16 point lead to be lost in one half.   It was, unequivocally, the worst defensive performance of WC weekend.  ...and we all just thought we could rely on them to carry us.... when in fact, we put it all on Josh, and he did ok... not great, but he did enough.

 

 

Edited January 6, 2020 by SCBills

[GunnerBill]

I still feel the same as I did afterwards, yep. I think the Bills let one get away. If they execute in any one of 3 big spots on offense they win the game. 

 

- the John Brown missed toe tap

- the Duke Williams dropped touchdown

- the failed QB power run in OT when we had 3 blockers to one defender and all failed to block

 

And then on the Texans winning drive the defense missed on two big plays as well - the 3rd and 18 and the double failed sack of Watson on the game winning play. 

 

Doesn't mean I don't put any blame on the coaches. Doesn't mean I don't think Josh had a few rough moments in the second half but I put this loss primarily on the fact we remain under talented offensively and the execution issues that have been there all season cost us in big spots. 

 

Oh and Deshaun Watson when it mattered the most after a poor first half put the Texans on his back. That was the mind of thing he used to do at Clemson. Him, Hopkins and Watt are the three elite (borderline elite still in Watson's case) guys on the Texans and they all had an impact late in this game. We need Josh to learn from his experience (he did not play a bad first playoff game by any stretch) and we need to put a couple more elite pieces around him on this team. You can't win Championships with Tre as your only true elite guy. 

[freddyjj]

2 hours ago, Ned Flanders said:

First and ten at the Houston 42 in OT.  Failing to gain even 5 or 6 yards here is inexcusable.

 

From then on, the proverbial poop hit a really big fan.   

The failure of Morse or Knox to block the LB Cunningham on the Josh student body sweep was the worst play of the game.

 

He gets 15-20 yds there and Bills win with a FG!

[Lurker]

2 hours ago, Casey D said:

According to Kubiak, the kill to the run at the end of the 1/2 was the right call and would have been a big gain but there was a missed block that blew up the play.  FWIW.

 

There was another run-pass option play in the second half where Josh gave it to Singletary for a 1-yard loss.   

 

They never showed a replay, but if Josh had kept the ball himself, the whole right side of the field was empty and he might still be running...

[Billy Claude]

2 hours ago, Ned Flanders said:

Look at this season's 8-8 Bears team...12-4 a year before with a relatively soft schedule and a QB on the rise (sound familiar?).  

 

The 2020 schedule is a death march compared to this past season.  Four trips out west and another to Nashville.  Long way to go until September, but going 10-6 next year will be a bit more difficult.

 

All true but the difference is the Bills have a lot of cap space and a full set of draft choices that the Bears did not have.

[Boatdrinks]

1 hour ago, billsfan1959 said:

 

Good post. This game really came down to lack of execution on 3-4 plays. I posted this in another thread:

 

 

All Knox has to do is get a shoulder into Cunningham and the next guy with a chance at Allen is getting destroyed by Ford at the 29 yard line.

 

Allen made his share of mistakes and shoulders his share of the blame; however, he doesn't have the playmakers around him at this point either. In spite of some questionable decisions on his part, some misses on some throws he should have made, some questionable play calling, and some poor blocking/pass protection on critical plays, Allen still put up 372 yards of offense and made some plays that should have resulted in more points had the execution been better by othe players (think Williams in the endzone).

For all the questionable play calls by Daboll, this one was great and probably should have resulted in victory. A missed block changed the outcome of the game entirely. Everything that happened before it is erased if the Bills players execute the play. Puts the whole thing in perspective, really. 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

2 hours ago, Ned Flanders said:

First and ten at the Houston 42 in OT.  Failing to gain even 5 or 6 yards here is inexcusable.

 

From then on, the proverbial poop hit a really big fan.   

 

Well... the illegal blindside block was pretty rough there at the end.  Allen got to about the 38.  I'm not sure what the playcall is there - i don't know what Hauschka would have said to McDermott but i think we would have tried to kick it there.  

[Lurker]

7 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

You can't win Championships with Tre as your only true elite guy. 

 

Especially when Tre had a meh day in 1-on-1 coverage...

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

2 minutes ago, Boatdrinks said:

For all the questionable play calls by Daboll, this one was great and probably should have resulted in victory. A missed block changed the outcome of the game entirely. Everything that happened before it is erased if the Bills players execute the play. Puts the whole thing in perspective, really. 

 

Easy first down there too and he probably trots out of bounds unharmed.  Instead he got absolutely lit up on 1st down.  

 

Imagine they get the PF there for lowering the head to initiate contact on Allen (the 2018 rule change everyone hated)... instead of buffalo getting a personal foul for trying to block a guy chasing the QB (the 2019 rule change everyone hates).  

Edited January 6, 2020 by dneveu

[billsfan1959]

15 minutes ago, Boatdrinks said:

For all the questionable play calls by Daboll, this one was great and probably should have resulted in victory. A missed block changed the outcome of the game entirely. Everything that happened before it is erased if the Bills players execute the play. Puts the whole thing in perspective, really. 

 

I know. As I said in a previous post, this play bothered me more than any other. Maybe because it was such bad execution on such a well designed play at such a critical moment, or because 3 separate players had the opportunity to block Cunningham and didn't.

[The Jokeman]

I'm still shocked our D allowed Houston to go ahead 19-16. 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

12 minutes ago, billsfan1959 said:

 

I know. As I said in a previous post, this play bothered me more than any other. Maybe because it was such bad execution on such a well designed play at such a critical moment, or because 3 separate players had the opportunity to block Cunningham and didn't.

 

It was one of those - was that your guy or my guy etc.  It def looked like it was knox's man though.  Morse pulling there to block that LB doesn't really make sense - he has more ground to cover than the linebacker does.  I think morse is there to cut block anyone who gets through the traffic clean like he did earlier.

Edited January 6, 2020 by dneveu

[colin]

my sober thoughts:

 

dabol is trash and needs to go.   if we ran these sweeps and screens and such all year instead of making it up as we go along we'd prolly be able to do them well.  

 

Our pass blocking is not good.  i could live with it if i absolutely had to, but letting spain walk, Ford inside, and a real RT might really help us.

 

we do not have real NFL weapons.  singletery is a good player, big fan.  he lacks speed and raw power, and his pass blocking kinda sucks but that should improve.  we need an RB2 with either speed, power, or both.  prolly not worth paying but Henry from Ten would be a MONSTER for us as RB2/1.  knox might end up being a keeper, but his bad plays have been too many and too big so far.  

 

in response to the post above about how houston has trash CBs -- CB vs WR goes down a chain like a poker hand, their top CB is on your Top WR (some exceptions i suppose, but in general), their 2nd on your 2nd, etc.  Given that our only two NFL WRs, brown and bease, are tiny and can't really get open vs press man quickly, we seem to only get guys open with long developing plays.  this is where our poor pass blocking kills us.  if we get a real WR or two, the whole game changes.  We saw brown fail to toe tap, duke drop a TD, and both of them dropped passes on the right boundry on consecutive plays which hit their hands (altho brown had a nice route and catch to convert 3rd and 10).  four passes to the right edge of the field from a right handed quarterback, two for first downs and two for either TDs or goal to go, and all of them are dropped.  that's straight trash WR play.  allen lost his damn mind in that game, but he was still our whole team.  we have got to go out and get some actual NFL WRs on this roster, pay amari cooper whatever he wants, or trade for someone, or whatever.  also draft a guy, i don't care, just make it happen.

 

on D we obviously need a SLB, i expect us to draft one early, but cb2 would be nice and if one is there, i'd like to drop big cash on premier edge player, clowny or that guy w the african name, whoever is there.

 

 

[billsfan1959]

1 minute ago, dneveu said:

 

It was one of those - was that your guy or my guy etc.  It def looked like it was knox's man though.  Morse pulling there to block that LB doesn't really make sense - he has more ground to cover than the linebacker does.  I think morse is there to cut block anyone who gets through the traffic clean like he did earlier.  

 

I agree. I believe it was Knox' responsibility. However, once Morse saw him miss the block, he should have blocked Cunningham. Just bothersome every way I think about it.

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

Just now, billsfan1959 said:

 

I agree. I believe it was Knox' responsibility. However, once Morse saw him miss the block, he should have blocked Cunningham. Just bothersome every way I think about it.

 

Yeah - or at least like... touched him?  Watching it in slo-mo its hard to tell what morse really could have done there.  I imagine its even harder to determine what he could do at full speed.  

[snafu]

I never knew that there were extra substitute referees on the sidelines at games.

I never knew that one random substitute referee could run onto the field and change a call in the middle of a game.

I doubt we will ever see that happen again.

 

It annoyed me on Saturday.

It annoys me today.

The Bills lost for far more reasons than that, but I mean, that's ridiculous.

 

ALSO: My kid yelled "come on!" yesterday when he was watching the Eagles/Seahawks game.  After hearing JJ Watt say that about 10,000 times on Saturday, I told my kid that he's got to find something else to say when watching a game.

 

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 hours ago, JoshAllenHasBigHands said:

Fans typically confuse execution failures for play calling failures.  

 

That said, John Brown taps his toes, Duke makes the end zone catch, and we get better blocking on that QB sweep, and we are talking about the Bills' blow out and how happy we were that Dabol was so aggressive.  A little more balance would have helped, but play calling is not the reason we lost this game. 

 

I realize you're speaking generally, but for myself: No, I don't think I do.  I fully acknowledge that we had a number of plays where better execution would have led to better results.

 

I'm not one of those calling for Daboll to be tarred and feathered or fired, because I do see all the places where better execution would lead to successful plays.

 

But there are also places where IMO Daboll just tries to be too cute, which is where we end up with Knox instead of Smith blocking, or Dimarco/Smith instead of Knox/Kroft lined up wide.  And there's something about the sequence of play calling/play design that sometimes just seems off to me.  If I were a better football guru, I could verbalize it better.  Brett Kollsman, the Film Room guy, calls some of it out in his "Unfair Criticism" thing on Allen - a slow developing route called for Beasley where the aggression of the Ravens D calls for quick-developing outlets.

[billsfan1959]

3 minutes ago, dneveu said:

 

Yeah - or at least like... touched him?  Watching it in slo-mo its hard to tell what morse really could have done there.  I imagine its even harder to determine what he could do at full speed.  

 

I slowed the clip down just to make it easier to follow everyone on the play; however, it didn't make feel any better at full speed 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

There's this

I thought so in real time but seeing it on all-22 confirms

It makes me so sick that they don't call helmet to helmet hits on our QB

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/01/06/uncalled-hit-on-josh-allen-could-have-set-up-a-game-winning-field-goal-for-bills/

[JoshAllenHasBigHands]

15 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

I realize you're speaking generally, but for myself: No, I don't think I do.  I fully acknowledge that we had a number of plays where better execution would have led to better results.

 

I'm not one of those calling for Daboll to be tarred and feathered or fired, because I do see all the places where better execution would lead to successful plays.

 

But there are also places where IMO Daboll just tries to be too cute, which is where we end up with Knox instead of Smith blocking, or Dimarco/Smith instead of Knox/Kroft lined up wide.  And there's something about the sequence of play calling/play design that sometimes just seems off to me.  If I were a better football guru, I could verbalize it better.  Brett Kollsman, the Film Room guy, calls some of it out in his "Unfair Criticism" thing on Allen - a slow developing route called for Beasley where the aggression of the Ravens D calls for quick-developing outlets.

 

This is exactly right.  There are some play calls that fall flat, especially when he tries to get cute. That is true of every offensive coordinator. For years, Andy Reid got hammered for calling too many screens. Hell, go to Foxboro and listen to the fans complain about McDaniels.  

 

The important point, however, is that Dabol is generally a good OC, and he has really helped develop Allen. Thats what the great OCs do. Develop there guys and put them in positions to succeed. I'm sure there are play calls he'd love to have back; but, on the whole, he is getting us there.