Chris Simms Unbuttoned on Colts-Bills: he's worried about us

[Hapless Bills Fan]

As always with Chris Simms, he tells it like he sees it and this telling is not flattering to the Bills

 

 

0) makes a stupid Josh Allen jingle "giddyup giddyup giddyup".  All good!

1) Says that the Bills overall, without Josh Allen, "without a doubt" deserved to lose this game.  Says we don't win this game without Josh Allen or some QB of that nature of whom "there are 3 others of them on the planet" (Mahomes, Rodgers, Watson), that type of guy.  Says we were dominated on both sides of the line of scrimmage, couldn't run, pressure, it didn't matter because Josh Allen was going to make a play.   Talks about the throws to Gabe Davis "are you kidding me" "unbelieveable throw".  Says the game overall was concerning to him about Buffalo because it was too "Josh Allen Centric".  Says straight out "The colts played better, it's just that the best player on the field was wearing #17 - in Blue"

 

I think he isn't fair to our defense, which did stiffen up and hold in the red zone - stopping the Colts for a FG on their 2nd drive.  They had some short passes defended for no gain and some great run D as well.  Holding Jonathan Taylor to 40 rush yards and the Colts to 55 rush yards in the first half (then only 15 more in the 3rd Q) is some pretty good D.  There was some very strong defensive plays. 

 

Can't take away, though, that in the first half we had 61 rush yards and 43 of them were Josh Allen.  Not being able to get a yard on 3rd and 1 was of strong concern to me.

 

2) Very critical of Phillip Rivers for the 4th down throw.  Says he created his own pressure by bailing backwards (instead of stepping up) and giving the DE the angle to rush him, says uncharacteristic for Rivers, he's usually really good about feeling pressure.  There was another close miss by Rivers that he criticizes - I think on their first drive of the 2nd half where they missed a long FG.  I dunno, I know Simms knows his football but I also think it's easy to Armchair Archie a guy when you're not out on the field.  So I kind of feel Rivers should get a little more respect from Simms.

 

3) Says the win has him worried about the Bills because it was too much depending on Josh Allen.

 

Point of interest to me:

About 5:20 in starts talking about the Bills Defense.  Says the Colts have balance, and we couldn't go overboard protecting our front in the run because the Colts pass.  Says they exposed us with the same 3 pass patterns all day - a shallow cross underneath, then either a slot corner route or a crosser that came from the other side and ended up in the same place.  Says they attacked the same two areas all day, 15 yds down the field just on the edge of the numbers, and the crosser, and if one wasn't open the other was.  (I'm thinking this was detecting and dissecting the edges of our zones). Says when we played two deep safeties in the 4th, the Colts exploited that and ripped off deep runs.  

 

The only note of hope he sounds is that with Baltimore, if we have less pass game to worry about, we can play the run better.

 

I wonder myself if the Colts noticed patterns in our zone coverage that we could shift or redo to take away "tells" in a relatively short time.  Maybe one of our former players or coaches here could help me out here?

 

Anyway, really good listen.

 

 

[Playoffs?]

I think he’s dead on in the first point. Josh Allen carried the team!  Defense made two nice 4th down stops, but otherwise was putrid. We got dominated on both sides of the line. We made enough plays to win, but if the Colts made a few of their own, we lose that game. Awesome to come out on top... lots of work to do for Ravens though!  Need a much better game. 

[Success]

It's hard not to agree w/ most of what he says - that game was almost entirely Allen, and we were dominated at both sides on the LOS.  The Colts basically controlled that game.

 

It's also a teensy bit of a hot take.  I need to see a pattern there - the team we saw Saturday isn't the same team we saw over the past 6-8 weeks.  That team's defense was swarming, got pressure and covered receivers well.  

 

Like everyone, I'm holding my breath until the Ravens game.  There were definitely reasons for concern that came out of the Colts game, but we may look back on it as more of an anomaly when all is said & done.

 

[TFBillsfan]

I really like Motor and Moss, but adding a dynamic RB to this offense next year is a must. Makes our offense even more potent! Hopefully Motor has a strong game against the Ravens.

[zow2]

He’s right.  and there were a lot of playoff firsts in this game 

- Colts are first playoff team to gain 450+ yards and have zero turnovers and lose.

 

- Every Colts drive went across the 50 and into Bills territory. and they lost. 

 

It’s a “house money” game this week.  We should have lost to Indy.  enjoy the ride. 

Edited January 12, 2021 by zow2

[Dablitzkrieg]

He's right.  The defense is going to kill this team if they don't figure it out.  The shallow crosses to Pittman and the TE's were open all day.  Even Lamar can make those throws.  It's tough when you can't affect the QB with pressure

[BillsfaninSB]

I agree with him.  Hopefully the Bills have a little more urgency this week. 

[Ya Digg?]

While the defense was good in the red zone, they did not have a good game.  As has been said so many times since Saturday they were terrible on third down and they couldn't stop the tight ends or the crossing route.  He criticized them and rightly so in my opinion.  

 

Yes the team depends on Josh for much of the offense, but what team with a dynamic quarterback doesn't rely far too much on that guy?  With  as well as Josh has played, that part honestly doesn't concern me as much.  

 

I'm looking forward to the game - I feel oddly confident.  The Ravens definitely present a challenge - it's the playoffs - but the Bills overall have a better team and they also have the better quarterback

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

2 minutes ago, Dablitzkrieg said:

He's right.  The defense is going to kill this team if they don't figure it out.  The shallow crosses to Pittman and the TE's were open all day.  Even Lamar can make those throws.  It's tough when you can't affect the QB with pressure

They were open because the DB’s were running into other defenders on those all games. It was bizarre. 

[Augie]

I’m more worried than Chris, I’m pretty sure. 

 

Surprise me Bills! PLEASE!!! 

[buffaloboyinATL]

1 minute ago, Dablitzkrieg said:

He's right.  The defense is going to kill this team if they don't figure it out.  The shallow crosses to Pittman and the TE's were open all day.  Even Lamar can make those throws.  It's tough when you can't affect the QB with pressure

I wouldn’t  say they were necessarily “open”. The defenders were usually in position to make he play, but Rivers excelled at putting it just out of their reach, where the taller receiver could make a play.  I am worried about Andrew’s ability to do the same thing, but I don’t think Jackson is nearly as accurate as Rivers. 

[MJS]

He is right, but none of it was as extreme as he made it out to be. Yes, we did rely on Allen on offense. But I don't think that is a huge issue. We also have great wide receivers who can make plays when he throws them the ball. Two years ago we didn't have a receiver on the roster who could make those tough sideline catches that Davis made. We didn't have Beasley and Diggs with their expert route running to get separation.

 

Oh, and our oline was terrible and Allen was running for his life every time he dropped back. So yeah, the offense runs through Allen and the run game isn't good, but he has the help of an oline and receivers who can execute and help him make plays. He can't do it alone.

 

And the defense made some key plays when we needed them. And Rivers played awesome, far better than I thought possible. Have to give him and the Colts some credit. They came out and played well.

 

And honestly, I am glad that it was close. The team needs those close games sometimes to refocus them and strengthen their resolve. Adversity and failure are great teachers.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

What did he say that we don't already know? The truth is we are soft on both lines. Everyone knows that and feared being pushed around. The defense is puzzling. They had several stops for little gain but then would get gashed. 

Baltimore has a dynamic QB that will be hard to defend and a better secondary than the Colts. But the Bills have weapons and a QB that can challenge every spot on the field. Just play solid defense and don't give them any short fields and Bills win. I'm worried the Bills may press a little at first, but I think they settle down and take care of business and win by 10 points 

[CaliBills]

11 minutes ago, TFBillsfan said:

I really like Motor and Moss, but adding a dynamic RB to this offense next year is a must. Makes our offense even more potent! Hopefully Motor has a strong game against the Ravens.

 

I agree.  I also think the problem is our running scheme is just not good.  It doesn't seem to fit.

[BananaB]

I’m worried about the D but at the same time I don’t think Lamar can do what Riverd did to us in the air, even if we have extra guy playing a spy. It’s gonna be a totally different game plan for a totally different QB. 

[Big Blitz]

He made the final case for why Allen is the MVP.

 

He is exactly right with all of it.  

 

 

Our front 4 on defense is a problem and it has been all year masked by some games teams had no choice but to throw it.  We get to the QB when we bring 5.  

 

Oliver and Hughes were absolute ghosts Saturday.  In fairness to Ed he was going against one of the 10 best PLAYERS in the league (Nelson is that good) plus Ryan Kelly.  And the Colts did get rid of the ball pretty quickly.  

[LABILLBACKER]

He's 100% right. We should've lost without Josh making more ridiculous plays. Our defense got owned. Our OL was limited. Indy beat us on all 3 facets. Josh also had to be our mediocre run game. We cannot depend on JA for 95% of our offense. 

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

I have said this since the KC game—

our defense can basically focus on and stop one thing. They aren’t good enough to stop balanced attacks.  And when the Bills get a lead, it’s great— because they just focus on playing the pass. 
 

The good news is that there aren’t a ton of balanced offenses left— KC, GB, and maybe NO? Everyone else is pretty run or pass heavy. 

[Stank_Nasty]

All this talk about the D.... and yet they held the 10th highest scoring team in the NFL to 4 pts below their 28ppg average. 
 

It wasn’t a great outing but it’s was 24 pts, people. Good lord... if we are losing our minds over an average score given up I’d say that’s not the worst problem to have. 

Edited January 12, 2021 by Stank_Nasty

[Big Turk]

The good thing is...every game is different. What happened last game has little carry over effect to next week