THE ROCKPILE REVIEW - Off and Passing

[Shaw66]

“Off and Passing”

 

Everything was pretty much as predicted on Sunday, except for the injuries.  Some rookie jitters, some blown assignments, some big plays, an auspicious debut, the Bills played as their fans had hoped, and the Jets played as their fans had feared.  1-0.  On to Miami. 

 

On a perfect day, this would have been a blowout – total blowout.  The Jets had no chance against the Bills defense.  Well, they had one chance - LeVeon Bell.  Once he went down with a hamstring injury, they had no chance.  The Bills won, 27-17, but it wasn’t that close.

 

The Bills scored on three straight possessions in the first half, and the only reason it wasn’t five straight was Josh Allen being Josh Allen.  Two costly, unforced fumbles by Allen kept the score from being 27-0 or more in the first half.  In addition, Allen’s two bad over throws into the wind in the open-end end zone also cost the Bills points.  The Bills should have had 40, because the Jets couldn’t stop them, but there will be no blowouts until Allen starts playing like a grown-up. 

 

One thing was apparent early, and throughout the game:  Stephon Diggs is who Brandon Brandon thought he is.  He seems to get open at will, and he makes catches consistently.  Even better, Allen already seems to understand how Diggs runs his routes, because Allen found him early and often.   And, as Bills fans had hoped, the presence of Diggs meant that Brown and Beasley could get open consistently, too.  The trio had 18 receptions for over 200 yards.  And just for icing on the receiving cake, rookie Gabriel Davis had two nice receptions, including a big third-down catch where he flashed his big-target credentials and his toughness.   It all added up to the long-awaited first 300-yard passing day for Allen. 

 

Allen, for his part, did fine.  Not outstanding – the two missed touchdown passes looked like JV-high-school play, but in general Allen was good in the pocket, escaped well, and found the right guy.  He completed over 70% of his passes, and if he’d completed the two gimme touchdown passes his 107 passer rating would have been 123. 

 

The running game struggled.  Singletary popped a couple of runs in the second half, but other than that neither he nor Moss saw much daylight.  Moss often was on the field on third down, perhaps a sign of things to come.  The two were in the backfield together occasionally.  The guy the Bills don’t want to lead the team in rushing, Josh Allen, was the leading rusher again.  If he were an actual running back, he would never see the field, because he puts the ball on the ground altogether too often.

 

The defense was what Bills fans have come to expect: A lot of three-and-outs, few missed tackles, excellent coverage, consistent pass pressure.  They gave up a long scoring drive at the end of the half, but they redeemed themselves with a big takeaway in the second half when the Jets were showing a little life.  Oh, and we saw the same occasional weak tackling by Edmunds.  His missed tackle on Jamison Crowder gave the Jets their only serious chunk play of the game, a 69-yard catch and run on third and seven.  The touchdown added the insult to his shoulder injury.

 

The bad news, of course, was that both Edmunds and Milano left the game with injuries.  The character of the Bills defense will change dramatically if both are off the field for multiple weeks.  Klein and Matakevich completely change the character of the defense, giving up multiple steps each to the two starters. 

 

Oh, and Tyler Bass.  The rookie certainly was shaky, going two for four on field goals in the Bills Stadium wind.  Actually, maybe three for four, but no matter – his kicks were anything but down the middle.

 

Bottom line, the Bills were fortunate to open the season with something that felt like a preseason game.  They might have a second next week in Miami; the Dolphins couldn’t do much of anything against the Patriots, and not because the Patriots dominated.

 

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

[TheCockSportif]

I enjoyed this writeup, as (almost) always.  Welcome back, @Shaw66!

[JoPoy88]

Very good and very fair; it’s nice to see someone not completely ballwashing Allen and waving away his mistakes and blaming Daboll or whoever. 

[CLTbills]

Awesome as always, Shaw. 

Bills are as advertised. Some sloppiness that I think can be attributed to having no preseason. I expect them to play even better next week in Miami.

[TonyBeets]

Thanks for the write up.  The bills didn't get the run game going because Greg Williams basically said "Let Josh Allen beat us" and Josh Allen beat them. 

[jkeerie]

2 minutes ago, JoPoy88 said:

Very good and very fair; it’s nice to see someone not completely ballwashing Allen and waving away his mistakes and blaming Daboll or whoever. 

I appreciate how Allen owns his mistakes.  I think the first fumble was the result of a good defensive play with the Jet defender knocking the ball out from behind.  The second, I thought the ground caused...but you didn't hear any excuses from Josh on either one.  

[Mickey]

24 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

  Two costly, unforced fumbles by Allen kept the score from being 27-0 or more in the first half. 

 

I am not sure I agree with the notion that those fumbles were "unforced". The first was a solid swat right on the ball from behind and on the second one, he got clocked, hard. It is not like he was waiving the ball around McCoy style and just lost his grip. 

Edited September 14, 2020 by Mickey

[CNYfan]

Gabriel Davis missed a block, total whiff, on one of the Maye sacks and also had a bad penalty.

he looks good but has a way to go.   

McKenzie  (fan favorite McKittrick) had many more snaps after those two miscues.  

[Shaw66]

7 minutes ago, Mickey said:

 

I am not sure I agree with the notion that those fumbles were "unforced". The first was a solid swat right on the ball from behind and on the second one, he got clocked, hard. It is not like he was waiving the ball around McCoy style and just lost his grip. 

Guess I missed the ball being punched out.   

 

I don't consider fumbles caused by hard hits as forced.   His job is to hold on to the ball when he gets hit.  

8 minutes ago, CNYfan said:

Gabriel Davis missed a block, total whiff, on one of the Maye sacks and also had a bad penalty.

he looks good but has a way to go.   

McKenzie  (fan favorite McKittrick) had many more snaps after those two miscues.  

Interesting.  Thanks.

[GoBills808]

The read option has got to go

[y2zipper]

I think we saw pocket awareness, quick decision-making and touch from Allen that we haven't seen in his first 2 years. Allen wasn't forcing the pass game, threw away once or twice, and his only misses were to receivers that were very wide open because most QB's can't roll to the opposite side then throw across their body. Nobody was covering Brown there because it's so uncommon to see a throw even go that way. As a passer, Allen was outstanding in a way we haven't seen before.

 

He does, however, need to show higher IQ as a runner. Secure the ball and go down, especially after he has the first down. On the first fumble, the ball got punched out, but Josh has to secure it instead of fighting for extra there.

 

I do definitely agree that Diggs' impact by sliding everybody else down a slide in his ability to make tested catches were on full display. I especially like Buffalo going to the rhythm passing game at the beginning of the game.

 

What I also take away is that Buffalo is going to try and make its living on offense by attacking defensive weaknesses. Days like this against good interior run defenses are going to mean the screen and option based attack we saw today, and it's going to ruffle the feathers of people who don't like the approach of Allen running. I think it's refreshing for Buffalo to move away from things that aren't working. They weren't a particularly good power running team last year, but it was refreshing to see it not forced down our throats when it doesn't work a la Gore last year.

[Marv Levy]

Will the Bills ever run a screen play?!

[BillsFan130]

13 minutes ago, Marv Levy said:

Will the Bills ever run a screen play?!

Is that sarcasm?

 

At the top of my head, the Bills ran 3-5 screen plays today, if not more.

[LeGOATski]

37 minutes ago, Marv Levy said:

Will the Bills ever run a screen play?!

They ran a successful one with Singletary.

[Logic]

5 minutes ago, BadboyBills said:

Not even a criticism as to the designed qb run plays?! Pretty disappointed in this. Play "like a grown-up"? Why cant Daboll coordinate like one? Josh was slinging it and they constantly went to these run plays for no reason. Only the second fumble was unforced btw and could've caused him a serious injury if he landed without bracing himself. Also, you're going to cry about 2 overthrows and one that was on the run to his left. I saw Aaron Rodgers overthrow the ball today, he must be inaccurate too. C'mon, give the kid a break and take a look at the unnecessary qb run plays Daboll was calling. What a joke of a post.

Are you being serious?

You must have watched a different game than I did.

What I saw from Daboll was a fantastic gameplan. 

The Bills used 3WR, 4WR, and 5WR sets frequently, dialed up 18 play-action passes, employed motion all day long that kept the Jets defense guessing, called and executed several different types of screens, saw their QB run for 60 yards and a score, collected over 400 yards offensively, and put up 27 points (that should have been more). Allen fumbling twice and missing a wide open John Brown in the end zone and not leading Beasley properly on a play that should have been a score are all not Daboll's fault.

I agree that it would have been nice to see Allen run a little less. Still, if he would just learn to slide instead of constantly playing hero-ball, I doubt we'd mind the rushing as much. That's about the ONLY valid complaint about the offense today.

I propose this: If you had a problem with Brian Daboll today, you're ALWAYS going to have a problem with Brian Daboll. He called a hell of a game today.

[ganesh]

56 minutes ago, BadboyBills said:

Not even a criticism as to the designed qb run plays?! Pretty disappointed in this. Play "like a grown-up"? Why cant Daboll coordinate like one? Josh was slinging it and they constantly went to these run plays for no reason. Only the second fumble was unforced btw and could've caused him a serious injury if he landed without bracing himself. Also, you're going to cry about 2 overthrows and one that was on the run to his left. I saw Aaron Rodgers overthrow the ball today, he must be inaccurate too. C'mon, give the kid a break and take a look at the unnecessary qb run plays Daboll was calling. What a joke of a post.

+1

 

As some said,  if you want the spectacular plays made by Allen, you are going to see some that does too much.  It is nice to criticize him on the failed plays after they are over.

[Kwai San]

Good write up @Shaw66 we will agree to disagree on Daboll calling multiple JA runs......just not needed when he called them imo.  Take what NY was giving and that was the passing game.  Kid coulda had 400 yards and a cleaner stat sheet and uni too.  Just my opinion.  But again - nice write up as very few of us have the temperament to do so.

 

Thanks man!

[Rk_Bills86]

Just a couple of things I'd like to add having watching a portion of the game:

 

1) Diggs is basically a better J Brown - and Brown in no bum

2) Allen showed some throws today that imo are examples of continued growth

3) The D is legit

4) The jets Run D (against RBs) is top 5 - so I'm not worried about a week 1 struggle again said unit

5) I do wish Allen would be a bit more careful with the ball - 1 true forced fumble and 1 butterfingers one

6) I mentioned it in another post - but if Allen throws for even 62% completion I think we win most games. 70% completion imo is basically always a win except for maybe against KC/NO/SEA

7) It was week 1 and we showed a TON of different plays that we did not use last year

 

 

Lastly, it looked like the Jets couldn't protect against everyone, and if they somehow did, Allen was able to run for it. Also the O-Line seems to be in a better spot than last year. And Allen's pocket awareness seems to be better.

[Numark3]

 

4 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

 

The Bills scored on three straight possessions in the first half, and the only reason it wasn’t five straight was Josh Allen being Josh Allen.  Two costly, unforced fumbles by Allen kept the score from being 27-0 or more in the first half.  In addition, Allen’s two bad over throws into the wind in the open-end end zone also cost the Bills points.  The Bills should have had 40, because the Jets couldn’t stop them, but there will be no blowouts until Allen starts playing like a grown-up. 

 

 

 

 

 

It is funny that when the team moves the ball, or scores, it is the "bills"

 

When they do poor, it is "allen"

 

At what point does "Allen" take credit for moving the ball without a run game?  he accounted for over 90% of the team's yards which is absurd.  Just an observation.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Crayola64

[billspro]

I always enjoy these. Nice to have football season back!