Chris Simms Game Analysis: Defense not as bad as I thought + illusion of blitzing

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

1 hour ago, thebandit27 said:

This reinforces my opinion that the difference in the game was the 2nd INT. We score on that drive and it’s 21-17 with the ball on TEN 25 (presumably after a touchback) instead of 21-10 on the BUF 12.

 

To me the difference was the 3 and out with 4 minutes left.  Gave a team that doesn't really take a lot of shots enough time to get 7.  Also - they had a 90 yard drive... 14 or 17-10 is much better going into half than 21-10.  Failures there by both sides of the ball.

[Billsfan1972]

1 hour ago, dneveu said:

 

To me the difference was the 3 and out with 4 minutes left.  Gave a team that doesn't really take a lot of shots enough time to get 7.  Also - they had a 90 yard drive... 14 or 17-10 is much better going into half than 21-10.  Failures there by both sides of the ball.

And all started with a bad call on first down.  One yard runs put pressure on the next two plays (shadow of goal line).  After the Bills pinned them deep, first play was offside and there was the difference.  1st & 5 vs. 2nd & 9 (as Tennessee was running Henry).

 

Actually the D was bad & has been all season.  Shutting down the Jets is no big deal.

Edited October 15, 2020 by Billsfan1972

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

12 minutes ago, Billsfan1972 said:

And all started with a bad call on first down.  One yard runs put pressure on the next two plays (shadow of goal line).  After the Bills pinned them deep, first paly was offside and there was the difference.  1st & 5 vs. 2nd & 9 (as Tennessee was running Henry).

 

Actually the D was bad & has been all season.  Shutting down the Jets is no big deal.

 

Thats the thing - mistakes all over (drops, presnap penalties, etc) and they lost.  They know they can't do that against KC and have a chance.

 

Hell, they can play really well this week and still get beat.  KC is that good.

[Charles Romes]

There seems to be a consensus that Singletary has gone from emerging superstar to bust.  The tape does not lie.  He has looked easy to handle basically all year.  

[MJS]

Before the game I said here that it's ok if Henry has a big game. Just stop Tannehill. Hit him, intercept him, make him move, and contain him.

 

This league is not about the running game anymore. If you stop the pass there is no way teams can beat you (within reason).

 

I would have much rather seen the Bills take the Titan's approach on defense. Drop into coverage. Don't blitz a lot. Disguise coverages. We were out our top two corners and our best coverage linebacker. Yet we were still blitzing and crowding the box and leaving our depleted secondary on islands.

 

But even if we did that we still probably would have lost given all of the mental errors that happened on special teams and offense.

46 minutes ago, Charles Romes said:

There seems to be a consensus that Singletary has gone from emerging superstar to bust.  The tape does not lie.  He has looked easy to handle basically all year.  

Not true. He played really well against the Raiders. Even before that game he had a good yards per carry average.

 

He wasn't used much because the Bills were behind and needed to air it out. Singletary is a good running back.

 

People throw around the term bust WAY too much. The guy has a down game and all the sudden he is a bust?

[Nihilarian]

18 minutes ago, MJS said:

Not true. He played really well against the Raiders. Even before that game he had a good yards per carry average.

 

He wasn't used much because the Bills were behind and needed to air it out. Singletary is a good running back.

 

People throw around the term bust WAY too much. The guy has a down game and all the sudden he is a bust?

I agree.

 

Plus the Bills no longer have a fullback and the Titans were keying on Singletary. Titans game, Bills 22 rushes vs 41 pass attempts.

 

Singletary did have a not so good game against the Raiders, 18 rushes for 58 yards a 3.1 YPC avg. HOWEVER, against that Rams top five defense 13 carries, 71 yards, a 5.5 YPC AVG. 

 

Currently Buffalo is 25th in rushing attempts, 28th in rushing yards. The Bills simply aren't making much of a commitment to the run game in my view. At least not like they are to the passing game. If only the Bills had a run game commitment like the Titans...Singletary had the same YPC AVG last season as Derrick Henry. JMO

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 hours ago, dneveu said:

 

To me the difference was the 3 and out with 4 minutes left.  Gave a team that doesn't really take a lot of shots enough time to get 7.  Also - they had a 90 yard drive... 14 or 17-10 is much better going into half than 21-10.  Failures there by both sides of the ball.

 

Don't overlook the impact of ST giving up that 40 yd punt return with 2 minutes left in the 1st, forcing the D to defend starting at the Bills 30 and leading to a Titans TD.

 

Prior to that ST miscue, it was a tied game.  After, it was 14-7. 

 

We also had 2 drives starting from our 9 yd line, not a miscue exactly and we need to sustain long drives, but no help from ST either.

 

43 minutes ago, MJS said:

Before the game I said here that it's ok if Henry has a big game. Just stop Tannehill. Hit him, intercept him, make him move, and contain him.

This league is not about the running game anymore. If you stop the pass there is no way teams can beat you (within reason).

 

And yet, if we let Henry grind it out and hang 200 yds on us, everyone would be all "Bills lost because they can't stop the run"

 

 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

1 minute ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Don't overlook the impact of ST giving up that 40 yd punt return with 2 minutes left in the 1st, forcing the D to defend starting at the Bills 30 and leading to a Titans TD.

 

Prior to that ST miscue, it was a tied game.  After, it was 14-7. 

 

We also had 2 drives starting from our 9 yd line, not a miscue exactly and we need to sustain long drives, but no help from ST either.

 

 

And yet, if we let Henry grind it out and hang 200 yds on us, everyone would be all "Bills lost because they can't stop the run"

 

 

 

Yeah - they let one go and it was downed at like the 3.  The others were a FC and a loss.  13.7 yard average on the year for roberts too, so he's actually been really solid returning punts.

 

The 40 yard return was a dagger.  

Edited October 15, 2020 by dneveu

[Charles Romes]

48 minutes ago, MJS said:

Before the game I said here that it's ok if Henry has a big game. Just stop Tannehill. Hit him, intercept him, make him move, and contain him.

 

This league is not about the running game anymore. If you stop the pass there is no way teams can beat you (within reason).

 

I would have much rather seen the Bills take the Titan's approach on defense. Drop into coverage. Don't blitz a lot. Disguise coverages. We were out our top two corners and our best coverage linebacker. Yet we were still blitzing and crowding the box and leaving our depleted secondary on islands.

 

But even if we did that we still probably would have lost given all of the mental errors that happened on special teams and offense.

Not true. He played really well against the Raiders. Even before that game he had a good yards per carry average.

 

He wasn't used much because the Bills were behind and needed to air it out. Singletary is a good running back.

 

People throw around the term bust WAY too much. The guy has a down game and all the sudden he is a bust?

3.11 ypc versus the Raiders. The zone totally neutralizes Singletary. He can’t beat the second level once run is read. 

[MJS]

19 minutes ago, Charles Romes said:

3.11 ypc versus the Raiders. The zone totally neutralizes Singletary. He can’t beat the second level once run is read. 

Rams, rather. Plus he was a weapon catching the ball out of the backfield versus the raiders and the Rams.

[marky]

The Bills were messed up, half asleep or hung over or something. Review the tape all you want. It means nothing if people are distracted and not ready for the game.

[appoo]

in that 2nd half, Allen was chewing up the Titans zone, except on one particular play of course. 

[Charles Romes]

28 minutes ago, MJS said:

Rams, rather. Plus he was a weapon catching the ball out of the backfield versus the raiders and the Rams.

That makes him a situational/third down back not an every down back which is why they trying to sign Bell. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

32 minutes ago, beavis said:

The Bills were messed up, half asleep or hung over or something. Review the tape all you want. It means nothing if people are distracted and not ready for the game.

 

They simply acted as though they wanted to be somewhere else, doing something else.

 

They were not "locked in"

 

BTW if you missed it, in his Weds presser McD said flat out "I did not have the team ready to play"

[BillsVet]

4 hours ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Completely agree.  They drafted Moss to play the Gore role in the 2018 offense.  Those days are gone.  Speed back is huge priority.

 

Reminds me of their approach to WR in 2017-18 when they sought out the big lumbering type receivers who couldn't separate but had a larger catch radius.   Those were some lean years in the passing game.  I'm not clear why they've been a step behind in prioritizing it, aside from a gadget type player. 

 

My theory is McD's strategy is what Beane adheres to.  And I'm not confident that McD knows enough about offense to know how to fit personnel to build an up-tempo scheme.

[jkeerie]

1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Don't overlook the impact of ST giving up that 40 yd punt return with 2 minutes left in the 1st, forcing the D to defend starting at the Bills 30 and leading to a Titans TD.

 

Prior to that ST miscue, it was a tied game.  After, it was 14-7. 

 

We also had 2 drives starting from our 9 yd line, not a miscue exactly and we need to sustain long drives, but no help from ST either.

 

 

And yet, if we let Henry grind it out and hang 200 yds on us, everyone would be all "Bills lost because they can't stop the run"

 

 

When you consider that the Titans had 4 drive starts inside the Bills 30 yd line...it's no wonder our D looked so bad and our offense couldn't keep up.  ST and turnovers killed us right from the beginning.  The Bills heads weren't in this game.

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

6 minutes ago, jkeerie said:

When you consider that the Titans had 4 drive starts inside the Bills 30 yd line...it's no wonder our D looked so bad and our offense couldn't keep up.  ST and turnovers killed us right from the beginning.  The Bills heads weren't in this game.

 

Turnovers are always really deflating.  They scored on the 2nd play over norman and you could tell it was just... gonna be a long night for that unit.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

23 minutes ago, dneveu said:

 

Turnovers are always really deflating.  They scored on the 2nd play over norman and you could tell it was just... gonna be a long night for that unit.

 

Except that we went right down and scored on the next drive.

Next series for the D was a 3-and-out

But then after the O went 3-and-out, that was the punt with the 40 yd return, tackle by Bojo and first-and-10 at our 30.

 

That was the point where I said "OK, all 3 phases of our game are AFU, gonna be a long night"

[K-9]

5 hours ago, dave mcbride said:

Man is Simms down the Bills’ RBs and running game in general. Indeed, after the game, McDermott basically said it was terrible that they couldn’t run better than they did against a D playing coverage/cover 2 all night. I wonder if we suffer from the illusion of Singletary being good rather than a mere change of pace back who is quick but not fast in space. There are a lot of negative plays with him and he is not fast enough to break really long runs. 

Singletary may be an illusion, but watching our OL get absolutely NO push between the tackles is a reality. We can’t run block worth a damn.

[TheBrownBear]

Good stuff.  Thanks for sharing.