Comparing the Super Bowl to the AFC Championship Game

[dma0034]

This may surprise people but the Bucs copied exactly what the Bills were doing against the Chiefs except they got pressure with their front 4 and the LBs had the speed to cover Kelce and limit the run game. The Bills just didn't have the right players to cover the Chiefs. 

[1st Ammendment NoMas]

12 hours ago, CincyBillsFan said:

 

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?

 

 A Super Bowl ring. I miss it really badly.

[Rc2catch]

2 hours ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

Swing and missing on draft picks is one thing, but when you have the most expensive d line in 2020 at 50+ million (would been 60 had star played) and a top 10 and #54 pick to boot, man, you’d hope  you would be talking about it as a strength.  

I think everyone expected better production. Lot of emphasis on Star not being here but imo that’s not going to change much. We are missing that one impact player on the D line. Similar to how we got Diggs last year that’s what we need for a pass rusher this offseason. As everyone points out the positive thing is Beane gave the team easy outs on most of those contracts so he has a little bit of wiggle room this offseason if he’s eyeing an elite level talent and can acquire one. Grabbing a Khalil Mack or fletcher Cox or anyone elite level who requires constant double teams or will wreak havoc without a double team  will make a huge impact for us in my opinion. Our defense in wide receiver terms is we have a bunch of #2’s but we lack that stud #1 to takeover 

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

7 minutes ago, Rc2catch said:

I think everyone expected better production. Lot of emphasis on Star not being here but imo that’s not going to change much. We are missing that one impact player on the D line. Similar to how we got Diggs last year that’s what we need for a pass rusher this offseason. As everyone points out the positive thing is Beane gave the team easy outs on most of those contracts so he has a little bit of wiggle room this offseason if he’s eyeing an elite level talent and can acquire one. Grabbing a Khalil Mack or fletcher Cox or anyone elite level who requires constant double teams or will wreak havoc without a double team  will make a huge impact for us in my opinion. Our defense in wide receiver terms is we have a bunch of #2’s but we lack that stud #1 to takeover 

Agreed. I think I saw Scott law make a great point that, rather than have 3 almost $10 million guys, 2 $7 million guys, and two high rd pick rotating, you could have 1-2 superstars that just play more. 

[Dont Stop Billeiving]

16 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. 

Have to agree...didn't get nearly enough out of Addison/Butler (the ex Panthers) and Jefferson. I'd look to significantly restructure Addison (who I thought had his share of plays but not worth his current contract) and cut the other two. Although Beane swung and missed with last year's defensive line acquisitions, at least they structured the deals to get out of them fairly easily.

 

On the last part, I just reviewed Carolina's upcoming free agents list and it's bleak. Curtis Samuel is probably the only good player and I don't think we're a fit given his potential contract and our WR room. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/carolina-panthers/

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

3 minutes ago, Dont Stop Billeiving said:

Have to agree...didn't get nearly enough out of Addison/Butler (the ex Panthers) and Jefferson. I'd look to significantly restructure Addison (who I thought had his share of plays but not worth his current contract) and cut the other two. Although Beane swung and missed with last year's defensive line acquisitions, at least they structured the deals to get out of them fairly easily.

 

On the last part, I just reviewed Carolina's upcoming free agents list and it's bleak. Curtis Samuel is probably the only good player and I don't think we're a fit given his potential contract and our WR room. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/carolina-panthers/

Guessing at some point this season or next the list of McBeane picks have cycled out of the panthers? 

[Orlando Buffalo]

Two points about the officiating 1)the planning by the teams is at least partially based on expected calls by officials. The comparison of the AFCCG and SB was as different as possible. To go from only calling it when you absolutely have to call it in the AFCCG to looking for things to call should be unacceptable. 2) Our Defense was built around the way the NFL called holding the past 4 years when smaller speedier guys would get the call enough to make it worth having them. This year they called it differently but at least it was consistent throughout the season and we could adjust. I think we will adjust well and be back better next year.

[Dont Stop Billeiving]

1 hour ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

Guessing at some point this season or next the list of McBeane picks have cycled out of the panthers? 

I do wonder if they wind up taking a flyer on Kawann Short when his monster contract is done after next season...he'll be 33 and he's barely played the last two years due to injuries, but he was a Pro Bowler prior to that. Played his best seasons under McDermott. Very similar situation to Darryl Williams when you think about it!

[Billsfan1972]

What was interesting to see and we continually are hard on the Bills is the Chiefs did not adjust on offense.  I'd say for the most part their play calling was abysmal.

 

On defense the officials made it a point of emphasis to call penalties on the Chiefs.  What I don't know is whether the Bucs were called to the same degree.

 

Another thing I saw was that Mahomes really looked to no one else but Kelce & Hill.  Take them away (i.e. chip Kelce off the line) and Mahomes was in trouble.  The second int Mahomes was throwing it to Kelce regardless.

 

Watkins was looked at once all game as an example.

 

Again the Bucs defense did not show that skill all year and Mahomes threw for 400+ the first meeting.  

 

A very good defensive game plan and frankly the Chiefs were way too cocky and paid dearly.

 

    

Edited February 9, 2021 by Billsfan1972

[NewEra]

3 hours ago, Rc2catch said:

I think everyone expected better production. Lot of emphasis on Star not being here but imo that’s not going to change much. We are missing that one impact player on the D line. Similar to how we got Diggs last year that’s what we need for a pass rusher this offseason. As everyone points out the positive thing is Beane gave the team easy outs on most of those contracts so he has a little bit of wiggle room this offseason if he’s eyeing an elite level talent and can acquire one. Grabbing a Khalil Mack or fletcher Cox or anyone elite level who requires constant double teams or will wreak havoc without a double team  will make a huge impact for us in my opinion. Our defense in wide receiver terms is we have a bunch of #2’s but we lack that stud #1 to takeover 

I don’t know if it’s just one elite guy.  The Bucs have 6 top notch guys in Barrett, Jpp, Suh, Vea, White and David.  Someone in the front 4 was able to win their one on one on almost every play.  If someone didn’t win from the start, white and David were there in coverage. It was a perfect storm.  
 

Big thumbs up to Jason Licht.  Brady may have recruited gronk, fournette and brown, but licht drafted White and Vea, plus traded for Jpp 3 years ago, signed Shaq barrett last season to a 1 year 4 mill contract then franchised him this year, signed suh last year and retained him.  Great GMing right there

[CincyBillsFan]

15 hours ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

 
what makes it all so much more annoying is all the money tied up in the D line. 

Mahomes attempts looks like a type o. Looks similar to me. 

 

Good catch it was supposed to be 117 attempts.

[Rc2catch]

16 minutes ago, NewEra said:

I don’t know if it’s just one elite guy.  The Bucs have 6 top notch guys in Barrett, Jpp, Suh, Vea, White and David.  Someone in the front 4 was able to win their one on one on almost every play.  If someone didn’t win from the start, white and David were there in coverage. It was a perfect storm.  
 

Big thumbs up to Jason Licht.  Brady may have recruited gronk, fournette and brown, but licht drafted White and Vea, plus traded for Jpp 3 years ago, signed Shaq barrett last season to a 1 year 4 mill contract then franchised him this year, signed suh last year and retained him.  Great GMing right there

I think a lot of our guys can step up and make more plays if we can get one elite level rusher other teams HAVE to focus on. I’m not worried about modeling Tampa it’s not like they’re some elite defense (however they played a great playoff stretch) They do have guys who elevate the play of others around them. A legit pass rusher makes our other guys look and play better 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

On 2/9/2021 at 6:16 AM, HeHateMe said:

We don't have a single player in our front 7 that would start on Tampa...  A lot of disappointment to go around with our defense.  Not much you can do with the talent disparity that big.

Agreed. I've been posting about lack of pass rush for two years. People have said McD's defense doesn't utilize pass rushing DEs. Beane has failed multiple times on fixing the DL. Murphy was a huge expensive bust. Oliver had not lived up to his draft status but has not been bad. The free agents all under performed their contract status. Epenesa is still an unknown and we don't yet know how well Phillips can play because of injury. The most productive player in the front 7 is about to walk out the door and Edmunds still is clueless as a MLB. Hughes is getting older and may have one more productive year. Star is coming back.

They are set at DT. Just decide to keep Butler or Jefferson as the fourth DT and let the other go.

The fixes in my mind are to move Edmunds to OLB, add draft another DE and MLB. If the don't move Edmunds which I doubt they will then they will need to sign another OLB/Edge and draft two more edge/DE players, and hope Epenesa is better. Oliver to DE is not a good idea.

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

If you have the top paid CB in the NFL on your roster shouldn’t he be on the teams best weapons and not getting embarrassed. You don’t pay a CB top money to cover Sammy Watkins type players. It felt like our coaches coached scared all game. 

[TBBills]

The Bucs had the benefit of KC using 4 new O-Line, also turftoe, not to mention the refs actually called penalties on the KC DBs.

 

This was the difference in the game...

Edited February 11, 2021 by TBBills

[NoSaint]

On 2/9/2021 at 8:50 AM, dma0034 said:

This may surprise people but the Bucs copied exactly what the Bills were doing against the Chiefs except they got pressure with their front 4 and the LBs had the speed to cover Kelce and limit the run game. The Bills just didn't have the right players to cover the Chiefs. 

playing with a lead, and the chiefs line being thinner both helped, but their front 4 are nastier pass rushers and lbs better in space too. Double whammy when evaluating what the gap was.

[97bills]

On 2/8/2021 at 5:43 PM, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

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 

I don’t think so there edge rushes are light years better then the bills. Plus they we’re getting pressure up the middle. Just think of one game we’re Buffalo dominate a game up front this year I can’t think of one maybe the jet 

[97bills]

On 2/9/2021 at 1:20 AM, Rochesterfan said:

 

Totally disagree - the biggest difference in the 2 gameplans was that:

 

1) KC lost one of their best lineman at the end of the Bills game making the KC O-line significantly weaker in the Super Bowl.

 

2) TB had 2 guys outside and 2 guys inside on the DLine that could destroy any 1 on 1 blocking - meaning every snap 1-2 TB rushers were beating their men.  The rest of the TB defense was nearly identical to what Buffalo ran.  2 Deep safeties- mostly off coverage with trying to double Hill and Kelce.  The difference was the pass rush forcing Mahomes to throw in 2-3 seconds rather than 4-5 seconds.  The extra time to pass allows Hill to stretch the Defense and pull defenders deep - opening more space for Kelce.  The other big thing was the Kelce drops that multiple times kept drives going against Buffalo, but ended drives in the SB.

 

3) Officiating and Home field made a huge difference for KC.  They got multiple ticky-tac calls against our DBs and nothing called on their DBs.  In the SB it went the other way - KC got called for all of the close calls, the off sides, the PI, the holding calls and TB got away with the close calls.

 

The Bills defensive game plan is the plan that works - drop 7 into coverage and double Hill and Kelce, but it requires a pass rush.  
 

Early in the season these 2 teams played and Hill destroyed TB because they could not get a pass rush going against the original KC OL.  With out their Tackles - the DE/OLB combo could get up field and the DTs had their way with the guards/center combo and that prevented Hill from having time to break free for the completions.

It’s always about the pass rush no matter what game any WR can get open if enough time. The bills haven’t had a pass rush all year. And even no kelce got the ball a lot of those drops we’re because a defender was draped all over him. There wasn’t a bills player no were near him or hill it was hard to watch