“Chris Simms: Unbuttoned” a MUST watch IMO

[Big C]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Yea completely my point.

 

Lol I'm sorry it seems everyone is arguing with you on this when they actually agree.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

7 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

I enjoy Sims... I don't always agree with him but he has a really engaging style. I think he has been right about Allen a lot too. My only frustration on this video is that people keep referencing how the 49ers shut down the Rams the week before.... and I don't understand why none of the talking heads are quite catching on to why this is..... McVay runs Shanahan's scheme just with a bit more eye candy in terms of jet sweeps. The plays when you strip everything else out are meat and potatoes Shanahan stretch zone concepts. The reason that the 49ers have beaten the Rams 4 times in a row is because Kyle Shanahan understands McVay's playbook better than McVay does.

 

None of which is intended to downplay what the Bills did to the 49ers D, which despite its missing pieces has still been mostly solid this year. But man this "they shut down the Rams that was amazing" narrative really frustrates me. Gruden shut down Oakland in the Superbowl once too. It's easier when you have the other team's playbook.

 
Doesn’t McVay have Shannahan’s playbook too? 

[BuffaloBill]

12 hours ago, Buftex said:

I wonder if the cleaning lady knew her butt was going to be prominantly displayed!  Khakis look great on some people! 

 

Yeah it seemed odd to me they would film with her so hard at work in the background.

[GunnerBill]

43 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Gunner.....the SF 49ers have been a top defense most of the year, still top-10 in ypp, total yards, and a bunch of other metrics.  They play in a division where they play other good teams who do not run Shanahan stretch zone concepts.  I take your point that the Rams are easier meat for the 49'ers slicing because of the Shanahan/McVay connection, but that isn't the only time their D has looked good.  Salah is a good DC and that is a solid D.   I think you have to give him that "nit".

 

I accept this is a petty bug bear of mine but it really freaking irritates me. The 49ers defense is good. I like Saleh too. But "wow they shut down the Rams man that is so impressive" I have heard it about 15 times in the last 2 weeks from the talking heads without any of them ever stopping to say..... to be fair there is a reason.

[Shaw66]

13 hours ago, Stank_Nasty said:

So I’ve grown to love this dudes breakdowns and this is such an interesting one that I thought it deserved its own thread. Simms hasn’t been shy for 2 years now about being high on Allen, McDermott and the Bills. But what I find refreshing is that he pulls no punches with them or anyone else. Perfect evidence of that is him ripping our defense on a weekly basis in the middle of the season. 
 

Anyways... I thought this was just an awesome breakdown of the game and our coaches. I just really love the guys work. I know a couple others like @Hapless Bills Fan enjoy him as well. 

 

-first 15 min he breaks down Allen’s play and a couple of specific plays highlighting Dabolls creativity. 
 

-16:00 mark he starts in about the defense and how much more healthy and aggressive they have looked. Calls McDermott a “Code cracker” when it comes to planning for specific weekly challenges. 
 

-Ends by talking about how he was disappointed with the team by mid season and considered them a one and done but with the emergence of the defense he thinks they are legit Super Bowl threats. 
 

ENJOY! I think there are some fun discussion points in this. 

 

 

Stanky - Thanks for posting this.  I don't go looking for much to watch, but I should look for Simms.   This stuff is so good.   I mean, I get that I like listening to it because he's raving about Allen, but his analysis is right on the money, over and over.   He understands what's making Allen good, and what's making the offense good.  He REALLY understands what's making the defense good.  He gives details.  He talks about in like an ordinary guy, with enthusiasm, but he understands stuff that ordinary guys don't.  It's really good. 

 

He probably gets in trouble occasionally for being as frank as he is.  I thought it was hysterical that he commented on the stat they put up during the game, that in his first 13 starts, Mullen has more yards passing than anyone in the history of the game except Mahomes and Luck.  His comment was "one of those guys isn't even in the same universe with the other two."   How great is that?   And then he backed it up, explaining the Mullen gets the benefit of a genius coach.   

 

Great stuff.  Thanks.

[GunnerBill]

18 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

 
Doesn’t McVay have Shannahan’s playbook too? 

 

Yes, to an extent. And they generally play close low scoring games. There was one high scorer end of last season but the others... 20-7, 24-16, 23-20.... Both teams have actually legitimate good defenses. They also have an advantage when they play each other. And as good of a coach as McVay is (and I do think he is a good coach though not the genius some labelled him as initially) the advantage when it comes to understanding the stretch zone is with Kyle Shanahan. He might know that scheme even better than his dad at this point.

[Kelly the Dog]

Just now, GunnerBill said:

 

Yes, to an extent. And they generally play close low scoring games. There was one high scorer end of last season but the others... 20-7, 24-16, 23-20.... Both teams have actually legitimate good defenses. They also have an advantage when they play each other. And as good of a coach as McVay is (and I do think he is a good coach though not the genius some labelled him as initially) the advantage when it comes to understanding the stretch zone is with Kyle Shanahan. He might know that scheme even better than his dad at this point.

McVay is also very good IMO at game planning and tweaking his playbook week to week for specific opponents. You know as well as anyone a scheme is not a static thing. Sometimes, maybe often times, the Rams just humiliate teams with plays that have 3-4 guys wide open at the same time. I don't even think Goff is all that good. Middle of the pack at  best. McVay is the good one.

[wjag]

I like Simms because he talks like a normal joe discussing football.  Slips in an occasional swear word.  But when he gets to breaking down plays, he adds a perspective that you don't always here.  For example, showing two fists tapping his head to indicate Sherman was recognizing the uh oh moment and changing the defense.  I certainly didn't pick up on that kind of thing before.  It does of course help to slow down the play and rewatch it in slow motion.  We are slaved to the TV view that only watches the ball.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

15 minutes ago, wjag said:

I like Simms because he talks like a normal joe discussing football.  Slips in an occasional swear word.  But when he gets to breaking down plays, he adds a perspective that you don't always here.  For example, showing two fists tapping his head to indicate Sherman was recognizing the uh oh moment and changing the defense.  I certainly didn't pick up on that kind of thing before.  It does of course help to slow down the play and rewatch it in slow motion.  We are slaved to the TV view that only watches the ball.

 

I agree with you, but Simms point in this case was that Sherman had responded to the defensive playcallers changing the coverage to Palms and was tapping his head with 2 fists after the play to say "WTF, wasn't that what you called?  I played what you told me...", and that others on the defense were not on that same page.  But Simms says he thinks Daboll and Allen were prepared for that coverage and the play would likely have worked anyway.

 

To your point, I just love some of his descriptions.  Like last week against the Chargers he said "it was good to see Josh Allen manage a game a little bit and not just be crazy and play like his ass is on fire and do stupid *****"  😂😂  That was great!

 

34 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

 

Yeah it seemed odd to me they would film with her so hard at work in the background.

 

Well, their target audience IS predominantly male football fans, so....

[GunnerBill]

1 minute ago, Kelly the Dog said:

McVay is also very good IMO at game planning and tweaking his playbook week to week for specific opponents. You know as well as anyone a scheme is not a static thing. Sometimes, maybe often times, the Rams just humiliate teams with plays that have 3-4 guys wide open at the same time. I don't even think Goff is all that good. Middle of the pack at  best. McVay is the good one.

 

I think Goff is a really good Quarterback in that style of offense. I'd take him over Jimmy G and I'd take him over Tannehill as two other guys playing in primarily Shanahan variants of the WCO off the stretch zone. It's a push between him and Kirk Cousins (operating in the Kubiak version of it) in my eyes. They are pretty similar. Obviously Green Bay run a fair bit of that stuff too but needless to say I wouldn't take him over Rodgers. I am not sure you could take Goff and put him in a lot of other schemes and have the same success, I think that is fair, but I think you could give him to LeFleur, or Shanahan, or Kubiak or Arthur Smith (who I expect to be a HC somewhere next year) and he would be successful. I don't think he needs McVay but I do think he needs that style of offense.

 

I gave McVay a ton of blame of their O falling off the cliff last year because I actually think he did a really bad job of week to week planning. He stubbornly kept doing what he had done for two years even when it was clear he didn't have a running back and his offensive line couldn't execute. It took until the Ravens humiliated them in prime time for him to say "okay, I have to adjust here." I give him a ton of credit this year because he definitely has adjusted and he as mixed up their run game a little bit. Previously pretty much every run was a standard stretch zone cutback concept (other than when it was a receiver run on a Jet sweep). This year they are a bit more multiple in the run game and it has really helped. Their D has also taken a big step forward under a new coordinator. I picked them to win the NFCW at the start and I stick by that.

 

I think McVay is good. He has great energy, you can tell his players love playing for him, he didn't duck the difficult decisions in the offseason when he moved off long time coordinators and he is a good playcaller as a rule. But I think the sort of "boy genius" label he was given early on when the NFL hadn't really worked out what he was doing was just the Shanahan offense with window dressing was a bit over the top. Matt Patricia was the one who put the blueprint out there. Ignore all the window dressing. Just play it like you'd play an old school Mike Shanahan team (which was exactly what McDermott and Frazier went straight to after the first drive on Monday Night as well by the way). 5 and 6 man fronts 1 linebacker, stifle the run, restrict the play action and make them dropback pass on you. After Patricia put out the blueprint Fangio used it to beat them with Chicago's D and then Belichick killed them with it in the Superbowl. I suppose I have always kind of felt that style of offense is a good way of maximising average to above average talent. But when you have got top end talent it feels a bit like a straight jacket

[Kelly the Dog]

5 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I think Goff is a really good Quarterback in that style of offense. I'd take him over Jimmy G and I'd take him over Tannehill as two other guys playing in primarily Shanahan variants of the WCO off the stretch zone. It's a push between him and Kirk Cousins (operating in the Kubiak version of it) in my eyes. They are pretty similar. Obviously Green Bay run a fair bit of that stuff too but needless to say I wouldn't take him over Rodgers. I am not sure you could take Goff and put him in a lot of other schemes and have the same success, I think that is fair, but I think you could give him to LeFleur, or Shanahan, or Kubiak or Arthur Smith (who I expect to be a HC somewhere next year) and he would be successful. I don't think he needs McVay but I do think he needs that style of offense.

 

I agree with all of that, but I don't think Jimmy G, or even Tannehill or Cousins are all that good. Tannehill is sometimes very good. I think JG and KC are average guys who put up big numbers in systems but I dont want any of them as my franchise QB.

 

Agree that Goff is pretty good in that system, but most of the time he is throwing to open, good WR and TE.

[Doc]

The 49'ers held the Rams' offense to just 13 points.  The other 7 were from a fumble return for a TD.

[The BLUES Brothers]

Who else takes pride when national respected sports guys talk great about The Bills?!?!

 

That was a great watch!

 

Thank you OP aka Mr. S, Nasty!

[GunnerBill]

2 minutes ago, Doc said:

The 49'ers held the Rams' offense to just 13 points.  The other 7 were from a fumble return for a TD.

 

And the 9ers scored a pick 6. Points actually scored on each other's defenses it was a 16-13 ball game. Again.... when it becomes like facing your own offense in practice it gives a defense the advantage. 

[Doc]

Just now, GunnerBill said:

And the 9ers scored a pick 6. Points actually scored on each other's defenses it was a 16-13 ball game. Again.... when it becomes like facing your own offense in practice it gives a defense the advantage. 

 

Yup.  My point was that the 49'ers' defense did pretty much shut down the Rams' offense.

[GunnerBill]

7 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

Yup.  My point was that the 49'ers' defense did pretty much shut down the Rams' offense.

 

Yep. They did. Nobody is disputing that. I just don't think it should surprise anyone that those two teams shut each other down. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

SO......stat I had not realized that Chris Simms brought up, and that just shows how much can get hidden by these "bulk stats".

 

We gave up 86 yards rushing to the 49ers.

 

44 of them were on the first drive.  Forty-four.  (I verified this myself, by the way)

 

For those who say McD and Frazier don't make in game adjustments....42 rush yards the rest of the game.  51% of the rush yards on the first drive.

Rest of the game....relative *crickets*

[DrDawkinstein]

7 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

SO......stat I had not realized that Chris Simms brought up, and that just shows how much can get hidden by these "bulk stats".

 

We gave up 86 yards rushing to the 49ers.

 

44 of them were on the first drive.  Forty-four.  (I verified this myself, by the way)

 

For those who say McD and Frazier don't make in game adjustments....42 rush yards the rest of the game.  51% of the rush yards on the first drive.

Rest of the game....relative *crickets*

 

One of Baldy's Breakdown tweets showed that adjustment. We basically moved from playing a 4 man front to a 5 man front. Took away a couple of gaps. Shut them down.

 

Great job by our coaches.

[Shaw66]

9 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

One of Baldy's Breakdown tweets showed that adjustment. We basically moved from playing a 4 man front to a 5 man front. Took away a couple of gaps. Shut them down.

 

Great job by our coaches.

That means that during in game prep during the week they asked and answered the question "what are we going to if we cant stop the run with four?  

[GunnerBill]

22 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

SO......stat I had not realized that Chris Simms brought up, and that just shows how much can get hidden by these "bulk stats".

 

We gave up 86 yards rushing to the 49ers.

 

44 of them were on the first drive.  Forty-four.  (I verified this myself, by the way)

 

For those who say McD and Frazier don't make in game adjustments....42 rush yards the rest of the game.  51% of the rush yards on the first drive.

Rest of the game....relative *crickets*

 

They made a huge adjustment. They wen to essentially a 5-1-5 defense on early downs. Played a lot of Tremaine as an OLB, Klein as a single linebacker.... it is kinda the consensus way to shut down the Shanahan scheme. It looks like a 3-4 but your 3 are in so tight it isn't really a traditional 3-4. Was what Belichick did to McVay's Rams in the Superbowl. 

 

What I thought was interesting was the Bills didn't start that way. Was almost as though on that first drive it was like "okay we are gonna see if we can just play our D and stop you" it didn't work and they just straight away switched it up. Didn't wait until halftime they just made the call there and then. 

 

The Bills make adjustments plenty from what I see. The last two weeks we have seen them make significant adjustments during first halves. On offense against LAC and on defense against SF. Our coaching staff is really good.

8 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

That means that during in game prep during the week they asked and answered the question "what are we going to if we cant stop the run with four?  

 

Yea and decided it was worth trying to stop them with 4 first but they were not gonna stick with that if it didn't work.