Comparing the Super Bowl to the AFC Championship Game

[Arm of Harm]

1) The Bucs did an outstanding job with defensive coaching. Instead of the defeatist, "give 'em the short stuff and hope they make a mistake" soft zone philosophy the Bills employed against the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game, the Bucs made them earn everything. This was exactly the defensive philosophy I wish the Bills had employed in their game against the Chiefs.

 

2) The Bucs players played much better than the Bills had. The Bucs controlled the line of scrimmage on both offense and defense, whereas the Bills were dominated by the Chiefs on both sides of the ball.

 

3) I wish the AFC Championship Game had been officiated the way the Super Bowl had been. The Chiefs were doing things which beyond question should have been flagged in the AFC Championship Game. Nice to see that stuff finally get flagged, even if the flags came a game too late.

 

4) I said it at the time and I'll say it again: the Bills defense was absolutely humiliated, destroyed, completely dominated by the Chiefs offense. There is no excuse for that. On the 7 Chiefs drives which didn't end in kneel-downs, the Chiefs scored 5 TDs and 1 FG. That defensive effort was bad enough that it alone determined the outcome of the Bills/Chiefs game, without reference to anything the Bills offense did. Compare that to the 9 points the Bucs defense allowed the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Yes, I realize that could have been 12 points had the Chiefs kicked a field goal rather than going for it on 4th down. Call it 9 points or call it 12, either way the Bills defensive effort looks even worse now than it did at the time. The Bucs have provided an object lesson in how the Chiefs offense can and should be stopped.

 

5) Throughout his career Patrick Mahomes has been completely set up for success. His offensive cast would dominate the other team's defense, his coaching staff would dominate the other team's coaching staff. He sat and learned as a rookie, and became the starter in his second year. In contrast, Josh Allen began his career under just about the worst circumstances possible. He had what might have been the worst OL in team history. His WR corps consisted of Kelvin Benjamin, Andre Holmes, and the rookie WR Zay Jones. He was thrown in as a rookie, in game 1, after the starter's reps in the offseason had all been given to Nate Peterman. Hard to meaningfully compare numbers when you've literally done everything possible to set one guy up for success and the other up for failure. This is the first game that I can remember in which Mahomes didn't have the benefit of his supporting cast dominating the other team's defense, and in which his coaching staff failed to dominate the opponent's defensive coaches. In that situation Mahomes looked very human. Very very beatable. Claims that Mahomes is better than Josh Allen are becoming increasingly less convincing, at least to me. Allen clearly outplayed Mahomes in the second half of the 2020 season. I'm not saying I know which one is better than the other, because I don't. It will be interesting to see how things shake out over the next few years.

Edited February 8, 2021 by Arm of Harm

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

Am I crazy? Haha I watched the game last night and saw the exact same 'soft defense' that we played... the bucs just butchered them with a 4 man rush because the chiefs have no oline depth.  I think seeing how much pressure the bucs were getting is skewing peoples perception.  they hardly blitzed at all and they gave kelce a ton of underneath stuff...the guy was wide open the entire first half.  They knew that if the chiefs had to work for each first down eventually they were gonna get home for a huge sack.  We trusted our guys to do the same and just got outplayed...need to add a piece or two to the dline 

Edited February 8, 2021 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[Bferra13]

Good analysis. Yeah you have to think all the Bills' coaches were kicking themselves a bit during and after the Super Bowl watching Tampa. Not sure the Bills' have the personnel to pull that off, but we played way too passive in that game. Oh well.

[RalphWilson'sNewWar]

Buffalo

S. Diggs - 6’0 191

C. Beasley - 5’8 174

J. Brown - 5’11 178

D. Singletary - 5’7 203

D. Knox - 6’4 254

 

Tampa Bay

M. Evans - 6’5 231

C. Goodwin - 6’1 209

A. Brown - 5’10 185

Gronk - 6’6 268

Brate - 6’5 245

L. Fournette - 6’0 228

 

One group has the size and meat to impose it on the Chiefs Defense.

 

The other group does not and gets body slammed.  Literally.

 

 

 

[NewEra]

Even posts about certain games turn into an allen vs Mahomes pissing match 

 

Allow Josh to earn being as good as Mahomes before you just anoint him nonsensically.  You’re alleging that Mahomes’ team carries him.  🙄

14 minutes ago, Bferra13 said:

Good analysis. Yeah you have to think all the Bills' coaches were kicking themselves a bit during and after the Super Bowl watching Tampa. Not sure the Bills' have the personnel to pull that off, but we played way too passive in that game. Oh well.

The Bucs were extremely passive.  More passive than us.  They just have destroyers getting after Mahomes

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

1 minute ago, ScottLaw said:

I think the problem is McBeane has already invested heavily in the defensive line since 2018.... they've just done a bad job at it. 

 

Too much investment in their ex Carolina players who are slow, old and overall average players at this point. Thankfully there is nothing left to pick from. 

Yea that I wouldnt disagree with our dline was very mediocre this year despite the heavy investment ...but gameplan wise we were spot on and quite often we are the team providing the blueprint on how to beat these top teams which is why we keep hearing about Leslie Frazier getting head coaching looks.  Obviously watching the chiefs complete an eight yard pass almost every play was frustrating but if we went to some blitz happy press man coverage we likely get beat even worse by the chiefs

[LABILLBACKER]

19 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Am I crazy? Haha I watched the game last night and saw the exact same 'soft defense' that we played... the bucs just butchered them with a 4 man rush because the chiefs have no oline depth.  I think seeing how much pressure the bucs were getting is skewing peoples perception.  they hardly blitzed at all and they gave kelce a ton of underneath stuff...the guy was wide open the entire first half.  They knew that if the chiefs had to work for each first down eventually they were gonna get home for a huge sack.  We trusted our guys to do the same and just got outplayed...need to add a piece or two to the dline 

This isn't rocket science.  Tampa's front 7 was far superior to ours. David could actually cover Kelce, Edmunds I guess can't or Sean doesn't think so. White is worlds better than Milano. Their front 4 put tremendous pressure without blitzing. Every fan knows where we need to improve. 

1. Front 7

2. OL

[BuffaloMatt]

O Line deficiencies and Pass rush. That's how they beat us and that's how they lost. 

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

1 minute ago, LABILLBACKER said:

This isn't rocket science.  Tampa's front 7 was far superior to ours. David could actually cover Kelce, Edmunds I guess can't or Sean doesn't think so. White is worlds better than Milano. Their front 4 put tremendous pressure without blitzing. Every fan knows where we need to improve. 

1. Front 7

2. OL

Lol not 'rocket science' ...thats exactly what I'm saying.  The bucs installed the same vanilla, soft 2 high safety coverage look as us and we are talking like Bowles is some kind of legendary coach and our coaching staff is hopeless and should all be fired 🤣 kelce got whatever he wanted underneath against the bucs the dude had like 5+ catches for 100 yards at halftime and was consistently wide open.  The bucs had some help with being able to attack a practice squad level player on the chiefs offensive line and the chiefs oline was absolutely gassed in the second half when they needed to work the ball deep down the field to get back in the game.  We can't directly compare our teams efforts to the bucs just because we both played the same team.  Losing fisher completely sunk them and their coaching staff made 0 adjustments honestly I feel much better about the bills coaching staff after seeing that game not worse.  If we had four quarters against the fisher-less chiefs i dont think we wouldve looked as dominant as the bucs but we wouldve gotten pretty consistent pressure.  They had to shuffle players all over the place 

[Fredo G.]

The refs also called the game closer. Witness 8 KC penalties in tge 1st half.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

1 minute ago, Fredo G. said:

The refs also called the game closer. Witness 8 KC penalties in tge 1st half.

This wouldve helped us immensely as well if we had the crew that was in the super bowl game...I cant fault the chiefs for taking advantage but they really mask the one weakness on their team by being overly physical on the back end.  That really opened us up to all kinds of exotic blitzes from them.

[Nextmanup]

Your point #3 is the one that makes me want to comment most.

 

There is no doubt the SB  was officiated with a different mentality than our AFC Championship game was.

 

KC was called for a lot of defensive holding/PI type stuff, whereas they really let that go in our game.

 

It was such a night and day difference, you have to assume the NFL reviewed our game, thought about it, and initiated a new game plan ordering the officials to be less lenient with that aspect of the game.

 

Would we have won our game with SB type officiating?  No, I don't think so, but the game would have been closer.

 

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Nextmanup

[BillsPride12]

Our front 7 just isn't good enough right now.  They would never admit this publicly but I wonder if behind closed doors there's some frustration on McDermott and Beane's end from the production they've gotten out of Edmunds and Oliver.  These two guys were drafted to be the cornerstones of our defensive rebuild.  Considering where our offense is at now and the fact we will still be able to win a lot of games in the regular season with our offense alone we will be drafting a lot lower going forward and I just wonder if Beane and McDermott are worried where they will be able to get some stud players for the front 7 going forward because I also don't think we will have the salary cap ability to sign big ticket free agents either.  I think that could be a real legitimate concern but like I said these guys are never going to let on to that through the media.  If Edmunds was our Kuechly/Devin White and Oliver was like our Aaron Donald our entire defense would look so much better.

Edited February 9, 2021 by BillsPride12

[NoSaint]

Tampa got to play with a lead most of the game - that helps them key in on a one dimensional offense 

 

Tampa played against an injured OL the whole day, that helps their already more talented DL get pressure while also playing with a lead.

 

they covered Kelce with tough physical presence. And sat a safety over tyreek. 
 

kc needed to see Watkins or hardman make a play to break the game back open and bust the simple defensive shell. Neither guy made that play.

2 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

This isn't rocket science.  Tampa's front 7 was far superior to ours. David could actually cover Kelce, Edmunds I guess can't or Sean doesn't think so. White is worlds better than Milano. Their front 4 put tremendous pressure without blitzing. Every fan knows where we need to improve. 

1. Front 7

2. OL

yup. 

1 hour ago, BillsPride12 said:

Our front 7 just isn't good enough right now.  They would never admit this publicly but I wonder if behind closed doors there's some frustration on McDermott and Beane's end from the production they've gotten out of Edmunds and Oliver.  These two guys were drafted to be the cornerstones of our defensive rebuild.  Considering where our offense is at now and the fact we will still be able to win a lot of games in the regular season with our offense alone we will be drafting a lot lower going forward and I just wonder if Beane and McDermott are worried where they will be able to get some stud players for the front 7 going forward because I also don't think we will have the salary cap ability to sign big ticket free agents either.  I think that could be a real legitimate concern but like I said these guys are never going to let on to that through the media.  If Edmunds was our Kuechly/Devin White and Oliver was like our Aaron Donald our entire defense would look so much better.

you can get a really athletic LB in the 20s still. An edge rusher is harder but not impossible. I’d think they hope Oliver continues to develop and Edmunds gets healthy though.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

It was a perfect storm. The KC line was hit by injury, the Tamp DL and front 7 is very good, and Mahommes was hurt.  

The Bills can get better OL play and can make a few moves to get better on the DL.  

The SB proved the Chiefs can be beat. The Bills are 3-4 players away.  They can find that many in FA and the draft and still be under the cap.  

Beane needs to be so much better in FA this time.  Ford and Edmunds need to get healthy and play better. Knox needs to get better.  All that can happen.  

[LABILLBACKER]

3 hours ago, ScottLaw said:

I think the problem is McBeane has already invested heavily in the defensive line since 2018.... they've just done a bad job at it. 

 

Too much investment in their ex Carolina players who are slow, old and overall average players at this point. Thankfully there is nothing left to pick from. 

When are these guys going to stop recycling Carolina players. It's getting kind of embarrassing at this point. 

11 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

It was a perfect storm. The KC line was hit by injury, the Tamp DL and front 7 is very good, and Mahommes was hurt.  

The Bills can get better OL play and can make a few moves to get better on the DL.  

The SB proved the Chiefs can be beat. The Bills are 3-4 players away.  They can find that many in FA and the draft and still be under the cap.  

Beane needs to be so much better in FA this time.  Ford and Edmunds need to get healthy and play better. Knox needs to get better.  All that can happen.  

Draft Najee Harris

Sign Hunter Henry

Spend the rest of the draft and whatever FA $ left on DL/OL.

[Rc2catch]

If buffalo tried to run a similar attacking defense to what Tampa did hill and hardman would of had multiple 50+ yard touchdowns. 
We do not have the personnel to play aggressive. That’s why halfway through the season we had to constantly try and scheme blitzes and when the blitz didn’t get home we got burnt. We don’t have the dogs to attack in the front 7. 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

16 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

When are these guys going to stop recycling Carolina players. It's getting kind of embarrassing at this point. 

Draft Najee Harris

Sign Hunter Henry

Spend the rest of the draft and whatever FA $ left on DL/OL.

Read My Offseason Plan - almost exactly what I wanted

[CincyBillsFan]

3 hours ago, BUFFALOBART said:

I was privately grumbling, about Josh Allen's playoff stats, but after Mahomes laid a bigger egg than Allen, I feel much better.

 

About those QB playoff stats:

 

Josh Allen

Passing:  77 - 120 - 817 yards - 5 TD's - 1 INT - 64% completion

Rushing:  25 - 145 - 1 TD

Total Yards = 962

Total TD's = 6

Total TO's = 1

Playoff Record = 2 - 1

 

Patric Mahomes:

Passing:  76 - 1117 - 850 yards - 4 TD's - 2 INT - 65% completion

Rushing:  13 - 52 yards - 1 TD

Total Yards = 902

Total TD's = 5

Total TO's = 2

Playoff Record = 2 - 1

 

Looks about the same to me. In fact I would give Allen the edge.  Am I missing something?

 

 

 

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by CincyBillsFan

[BillsFan130]

4 hours ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Am I crazy? Haha I watched the game last night and saw the exact same 'soft defense' that we played... the bucs just butchered them with a 4 man rush because the chiefs have no oline depth.  I think seeing how much pressure the bucs were getting is skewing peoples perception.  they hardly blitzed at all and they gave kelce a ton of underneath stuff...the guy was wide open the entire first half.  They knew that if the chiefs had to work for each first down eventually they were gonna get home for a huge sack.  We trusted our guys to do the same and just got outplayed...need to add a piece or two to the dline 

You’re right in a sense, but a few main differences:

 

1. They played two deep safeties but they were a lot more physical, especially with Kelce.

 

2. They took away the chiefs best weapon (hill) which the bills did not really attempt to do. (Still trying to figure that one out)

 

The big thing the bucs can do though is they can stop the run with two deep safeties, where the bills just simply can’t.

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by BillsFan130