Ten things: A football nerd’s guide to the 2020 Buffalo Bills

[jletha]

From The Athletic so its behind a paywall:

 

https://theathletic.com/1863184/2020/06/11/ten-things-a-football-nerds-guide-to-the-2020-buffalo-bills/

 

"There was no run play in football more likely to produce a positive outcome than an Allen carry."

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by jletha

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

Whenever I hear "Allen's going to run with it", I immediately have the later version ('Cleveland Rocks') of the Drew Carey theme running through my head, where the mob is running out of the building.  No doubt Allen does a great job salvaging what he can from bad situations.  Rosen and Mayfield strike me more as sulking after having to be forced to run on a broken play.  The Bills did get the right Josh.

[Shaw66]

Well, that's an interesting read, but the piece suffers from stats overload.   

 

Stats are an interesting way to look at what happened, but they aren't necessarily a good diagnostic tool.   The fact that a team or player was 24th in the league in one category or another doesn't necessarily tell us what needs to change or improve.   

 

Still, it's an interesting overall look at the team.  

[Ethan in Cleveland]

3rd in the league with 16 fumbles and incredibly only 5 were lost which was still tied for 5th highest.  He has to clean that up this year.  

[MJS]

That's pretty impressive. Quite the statement that there was no more effective run play than a Josh Allen run, AND he ranked above Lamar Jackson in run effectiveness.

 

Singletary was also awesome and just got better and better as the season went on.

 

And this confirms what all of our eyes told us: Gore was terrible. He had the opposite trajectory of Singletary, getting worse and worse as the season went on. Hope he gave Singletary some valuable advice and leadership, but I'm glad we didn't bring him back for another year.

1 hour ago, Ethan in Portland said:

3rd in the league with 16 fumbles and incredibly only 5 were lost which was still tied for 5th highest.  He has to clean that up this year.  

And they often came at key moments. He definitely needs to work on securing the ball and probably sliding before contact as well.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

1 hour ago, MJS said:

That's pretty impressive. Quite the statement that there was no more effective run play than a Josh Allen run, AND he ranked above Lamar Jackson in run effectiveness.

 

Singletary was also awesome and just got better and better as the season went on.

 

And this confirms what all of our eyes told us: Gore was terrible. He had the opposite trajectory of Singletary, getting worse and worse as the season went on. Hope he gave Singletary some valuable advice and leadership, but I'm glad we didn't bring him back for another year.

And they often came at key moments. He definitely needs to work on securing the ball and probably sliding before contact as well.

I have no issue with his sliding.  He is a big boy and he took as many bad hits sliding as he did staying upright. He runs smart and knows when to get extra yards, go for end-zone, or first down marker.  But he has terrible ball security in the pocket.  Better protection will help and an offense that can get deep will take away some of the pressure.  

Edited June 12, 2020 by Ethan in Portland

[MJS]

2 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

I have no issue with his sliding.  He is a big boy and he took as many bad hits sliding as he did staying upright. He runs smart and knows when to get extra yards, go for end-zone, or first down marker.  But he has terrible ball security in the pocket.  Better protection will help and an offense that can get deep will take away some of the pressure.  

My point is sliding probably results in fewer fumbles.

[1ManRaid]

6 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

3rd in the league with 16 fumbles and incredibly only 5 were lost which was still tied for 5th highest.  He has to clean that up this year.  

I chalk that up to still being young and having bad decision making, trying to force that extra yard or two with an unnecessary truck or stretch.  They'll coach that out of him.

[Doc Brown]

6 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

3rd in the league with 16 fumbles and incredibly only 5 were lost which was still tied for 5th highest.  He has to clean that up this year.  

Yeah but how many quarterbacks fumble the snap, pick the ball up, and plow through two d-lineman for a first down while people  at home are snarfing down apple pie?  It's really hard not to love Josh Allen even if he laterals it to nobody in overtime of a playoff game.

[GregPersons]

3 minutes ago, Doc Brown said:

Yeah but how many quarterbacks fumble the snap, pick the ball up, and plow through two d-lineman for a first down while people  at home are snarfing down apple pie?  It's really hard not to love Josh Allen even if he laterals it to nobody in overtime of a playoff game.

 

Plays like that make me miss those old NFL blooper VHSes

[Chandler#81]

15 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

Well, that's an interesting read, but the piece suffers from stats overload.   

 

Stats are an interesting way to look at what happened, but they aren't necessarily a good diagnostic tool.   The fact that a team or player was 24th in the league in one category or another doesn't necessarily tell us what needs to change or improve.   

 

Still, it's an interesting overall look at the team.  

Damn, Dude. You’re awfully critical of writers when, well, Emperor, ‘nice’ outfit.. 

[Shaw66]

2 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

Damn, Dude. You’re awfully critical of writers when, well, Emperor, ‘nice’ outfit.. 

I just found it hard to read and, as I said, overly dependent on stats.  I don't feel enlightened by all those numbers.  

 

Interesting that the article didn't stimulate any interesting discussion. All the article did was get people focused on fumbles.  A review of the 2019 season comes down to Josh's fumbles?   Stats do that.  

[Chandler#81]

4 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I just found it hard to read and, as I said, overly dependent on stats.  I don't feel enlightened by all those numbers.  

 

Interesting that the article didn't stimulate any interesting discussion. All the article did was get people focused on fumbles.  A review of the 2019 season comes down to Josh's fumbles?   Stats do that.  

-and there’s an Army here who subscribe to that notion. They’re just bait-clickin’ the usual suspects. This passes for sports journalism these days..?

[The Firebaugh Kid]

The Jets clearly are headed for glory with Gore. 

[Shaw66]

21 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

-and there’s an Army here who subscribe to that notion. They’re just bait-clickin’ the usual suspects. This passes for sports journalism these days..?

Yeah, sports journalism has changed. There was a time when you could pick you Sports Illustrated and read almost any article and get excellent  insights into one thing or another.  No one has the time to that anymore.  There's more information and less insight. 

 

However, I gotta say that the quality of the Bill's beat writers is pretty good.  They know the team and they analyze things pretty well.  Maybe it's just easier to do the job when the team is better. 

[Shaw66]

3 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

Damn, Dude. You’re awfully critical of writers when, well, Emperor, ‘nice’ outfit.. 

Bottom line, I hear you and plead guilty.  I can criticize anything, just not my own stuff.