9/19//21 Week 2 Bills @ Miami Postgame Thread

[Meatloaf63]

17 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Haha I was not losing my temper there.  Believe me, when I lose my temper, there's no ambiguity.

And I usually delete those posts

 

I take it as a fair point that you didn't intend "crapping all over" the Bills effort, but I think when you write that the effort "felt like" a drastically different score, perhaps some awareness that IS how it comes across (at least to me, and I don't think I'm alone). 

 

I may be influenced by the number of such takes in the GDTs and postgame.  It's become irksome.

 

I absolutely understand being surprised, seeing the score before watching the game, that it wasn't the Pass-fest that one might have expected.  Still seems like a serious Diss on both the defensive and the offensive effort.

 

 

I think with Josh still showing struggles, and  with a completion percentage hovering around 50% it just didn’t feel as dominating as it actually was. I myself felt strange most of the game, you keep looking at the score board and when it got to 21 you knew there were no worries, but still maybe because of how the 2nd half last week or 18 years of futility, it didn’t feel like a 35-0 ass kicking it was. Although I remember  cursing at Daboll watching Allen on what looked like a planned run on his last drive and wondered why he would open him up to that?

[Pokebball]

12 minutes ago, WideNine said:

 

Don't take it too personally... it is frustrating when so many fans think teams are going to be caught by surprise or roll over for our Bills this year.

 

They aren't - especially when the concensus opinion from NFL pundits and front offices was that the Bills were the 2nd best AFC team going into the season.

 

Teams are copying what worked well to slow this offense down and are bringing their "A" game.

 

But when your offense hangs over 30 pts against an NFL team folks need to step back and be a bit more realistic in their critiques.

 

Too many fans are expecting air-Allen against decent secondaries and solid 4-man rushes.

 

Teams are expecting a pass-first Bills team... they are not going to sneak up on anyone. If our opponents have the dogs up front to pressure with 4 and still stuff the run - coupled with solid secondaries then it is going to be tough sledding.

 

The offense as a whole has things it needs to clean up, but when they can put together enough back-breaking drives to seal a win like this it is a good win.

 

 

 

 

 

My biggest frustration these first two games has been the offensive line.  If any position has regressed from last year it's the Oline IMO.  I've developed a bias against them that I guess I need to get overthat.  To me, it seems at least one of them is getting beat every single play.  The only way we are able to gain one yard when we need it is the QB sneak. 

 

The back-to-back penalties by O linemen (Ford and Williams I think) on what should have been our last drive of the first half, after using all of our timeouts to save clock and give us time to get in FG range, is just unacceptable and so very frustrating.

[Warcodered]

41 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Mixed in with the offense:

M Hyde               FS                82  61%

 

Couple things:

1) I had not realized Wallace only played ~ 1/3 of the game.  Someone said "cramps" but I wonder if the taunting penalty had anything to do with it?

2) Any update on Hyde?  He met with the media after the game and I didn't hear questions about injury.

3) In addition to the guys with cramps (Edmunds), I had not realized how many of the starters got pulled, including Taron Johnson, Poyer, Milano etc.

Makes the "pitching a shutout" even more impressive

 

I would love someone in the media or who was at the game live to do an assessment of which DL are playing where.  It's very hard to decode from the Network film. 

From this a guess at the rotation:

Rousseau-Hughes

Oliver-Butler

Zimmer-Lotulelei  (Zimmer is listed as  a 1TDT on the Bills)

Addison-Epenesa

with a handful of % mixing things up and around

 

But it's hard to tell, and some of the PR about Zimmer pass rushing up the gut:

sounds as though it could have been

 

Oliver-Zimmer

Lotulelei-Butler

with a handful of mix-n-match

 

Anyone?

 

 

I mean our backups have embarrassed them before.

[Mango]

One thing that stood out to me re: the Bills during the KC-BAL game is guys making plays with the ball in their hand. Our YAC is abysmal with one player in the top 100 in the league. Last year we had 3 I believe, with Diggs at 13. 

A lot goes into that between Josh, Daboll, and the WR room. Two biggest factors I think are 1. Daboll likes the curl route more than most OC's (just by my eye) and likes it even more when Josh is cold to get him on target. 2. When Josh is off like he has been the last two weeks or earlier in his career, he doesn't put the ball in a great place to make a play after the catch. 

[YoloinOhio]

 

[billieve420]

O-line is hopefully the primary focus in the offseason just not good enough long term.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

6 minutes ago, Pokebball said:

My biggest frustration these first two games has been the offensive line.  If any position has regressed from last year it's the Oline IMO.  I've developed a bias against them that I guess I need to get overthat.  To me, it seems at least one of them is getting beat every single play.  The only way we are able to gain one yard when we need it is the QB sneak. 

 

The back-to-back penalties by O linemen (Ford and Williams I think) on what should have been our last drive of the first half, after using all of our timeouts to save clock and give us time to get in FG range, is just unacceptable and so very frustrating.

 

That was a crazy drive, for reals.  Flores must have been building up to a froth.  First, they force us to a 3-and-out.  Then, the result of the ST sequence (and the Fins take pride in their ST) was to give us a 33 yard field position advantage!  Finally, cap it off with Bass-O-Matic missing a 53 yd FG, which has NOT been his habit.

 

Agree on the penalties.  There's an element of chance to the holding - sometimes the refs call 'em, and sometimes they don't.  But the false start, we can't have.

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

6 minutes ago, Mango said:

One thing that stood out to me re: the Bills during the KC-BAL game is guys making plays with the ball in their hand. Our YAC is abysmal with one player in the top 100 in the league. Last year we had 3 I believe, with Diggs at 13. 

 

That's actually interesting because I thought YAC was a big gap for us last season.  I didn't know we had 3 guys in the top 100. 

 

As far as YAC passing, the Bills were overall mediocre last season (14th)

[Hapless Bills Fan]

14 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

 

 

 

😆

 

One of the things that Baldy shows is how Tua was unaware of unblocked rushers on those first two sacks.  TE goes across the formation leaving Taron Johnson unblocked, and somehow this doesn't register.  Next sack, back motions into the backfield, and somehow no one notices that means Micah Hyde has a free shot.

It's like "the Wheel is Spinning but the Hamster's Dead"

 

Now don't get me wrong, young QB and rookie QBs make these mistakes - Josh Allen certainly did as a rookie and sometimes his 2nd year - but Tua or whoever is setting their protections Needs to be Better.  It's not like Johnson or Hyde were being subtle about it.  They were like, "we're coming, Prepare to Die". 

 

I thought the Word on Tua was that he was gonna succeed as a Brees-type cerebral QB who could figure things out and process at lightening speed.  Not seeing it.

 

So glad Miami didn't draft Herbert.

 

 

[eSJayDee]

1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

Mixed in with the offense:

M Hyde               FS                82  61%

 

Couple things:

1) I had not realized Wallace only played ~ 1/3 of the game.  Someone said "cramps" but I wonder if the taunting penalty had anything to do with it?

2) Any update on Hyde?  He met with the media after the game and I didn't hear questions about injury.

Either you or what you're quoting transposed those #s.  I assume he played 61 defensive snaps, or 82%, same as Poyer.  They were pulled for the last series or 2, which IMO is a good thing.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Just now, eSJayDee said:

Either you or what you're quoting transposed those #s.  I assume he played 61 defensive snaps, or 82%, same as Poyer.  They were pulled for the last series or 2, which IMO is a good thing.

Either you or what you're quoting transposed those #s.  I assume he played 61 defensive snaps, or 82%, same as Poyer.  They were pulled for the last series or 2, which IMO is a good thing.

 

Yes, you're correct, I transposed the numbers.

 

I didn't catch it because I had thought Hyde went out for a while with an injury.

[Mango]

6 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

That's actually interesting because I thought YAC was a big gap for us last season.  I didn't know we had 3 guys in the top 100. 

 

As far as YAC passing, the Bills were overall mediocre last season (14th)

 

Good point on the team numbers from last year. I just pulled them up. We were so pass heavy last year that our total YAC was decent/mediocre at 14. But YAC/Comp we were 22 at 4.7 YAC/Comp. Actually a slight decrease from 2019 where we averaged 5.0 YAC/Comp. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 minutes ago, Mango said:

 

Good point on the team numbers from last year. I just pulled them up. We were so pass heavy last year that our total YAC was decent/mediocre at 14. But YAC/Comp we were 22 at 4.7 YAC/Comp. Actually a slight decrease from 2019 where we averaged 5.0 YAC/Comp. 

 

So as a related interesting stat.

 

Right now the Bills seem to be #5 for "intended air yards" but #10 for "completed air yards".

 

That tells me right now part of the problem is missing on deep shots.

[HappyDays]

Star had a good game.

 

 

After all the hand wringing over Star being lazy, etc., he showed up to camp in really good shape and it's carried into the season. Epenesa and Rousseau rightly got a lot of the credit for our pass rush yesterday, but give Star his due. The d-line is a lot better when he's doing his job.

[Mango]

3 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

So as a related interesting stat.

 

Right now the Bills seem to be #5 for "intended air yards" but #10 for "completed air yards".

 

That tells me right now part of the problem is missing on deep shots.

 

I would add, an over reliance on hitting the deep shots. We are just not hitting anything consistently running or passing. 

[YoloinOhio]

4 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

Star had a good game.

 

 

After all the hand wringing over Star being lazy, etc., he showed up to camp in really good shape and it's carried into the season. Epenesa and Rousseau rightly got a lot of the credit for our pass rush yesterday, but give Star his due. The d-line is a lot better when he's doing his job.

Someone mentioned that Miami had 3 guys trying to block Star at one point 

Edited September 20, 2021 by YoloinOhio

[Coach Tuesday]

18 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

 

😆

 

One of the things that Baldy shows is how Tua was unaware of unblocked rushers on those first two sacks.  TE goes across the formation leaving Taron Johnson unblocked, and somehow this doesn't register.  Next sack, back motions into the backfield, and somehow no one notices that means Micah Hyde has a free shot.

It's like "the Wheel is Spinning but the Hamster's Dead"

 

Now don't get me wrong, young QB and rookie QBs make these mistakes - Josh Allen certainly did as a rookie and sometimes his 2nd year - but Tua or whoever is setting their protections Needs to be Better.  It's not like Johnson or Hyde were being subtle about it.  They were like, "we're coming, Prepare to Die". 

 

I thought the Word on Tua was that he was gonna succeed as a Brees-type cerebral QB who could figure things out and process at lightening speed.  Not seeing it.

 

So glad Miami didn't draft Herbert.

 

 

Yup it’s exactly what I said here:

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

12 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

Star had a good game.

 

 

After all the hand wringing over Star being lazy, etc., he showed up to camp in really good shape and it's carried into the season. Epenesa and Rousseau rightly got a lot of the credit for our pass rush yesterday, but give Star his due. The d-line is a lot better when he's doing his job.

 

On the other hand, Woof!  Bad missed tackle by Edmunds in the 2nd of those clips.  Got to stick that, Tremaine.

[Coach Tuesday]

1 minute ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

On the other hand, Woof!  Bad missed tackle by Edmunds in the 2nd of those clips.  Got to stick that, Tremaine.

He can’t - that’s a textbook example of a play where his height works against him.  It’s too easy for a short ball carrier to stick his foot in the ground and use his leverage against Edmunds’ height.  Big reason you don’t see many 6’5” MLBs.

[WideNine]

1 hour ago, Pokebball said:

My biggest frustration these first two games has been the offensive line.  If any position has regressed from last year it's the Oline IMO.  I've developed a bias against them that I guess I need to get overthat.  To me, it seems at least one of them is getting beat every single play.  The only way we are able to gain one yard when we need it is the QB sneak. 

 

The back-to-back penalties by O linemen (Ford and Williams I think) on what should have been our last drive of the first half, after using all of our timeouts to save clock and give us time to get in FG range, is just unacceptable and so very frustrating.

 

They are mostly the same unit that was in front of Allen last season albeit Ford was hurt and out of the lineup down the stretch.

 

The struggles they had vs better 4-man rushes and opening running lanes have not vanished nor Allen's struggles against nickle and dime 2-3 deep zones shells.

 

They are still pretty sloppy with unforced errors that they need to clean up, but they also know that they are giving up too many pressures so they have been pressing and jumping their snap count as well as holding.

 

Teams started out last year playing Allen by blitzing bringing the 5th rusher and playing man. The oline picked those up long enough for Allen to eat that up and I think fans are glued to those successes.

 

I believe Tennessee was the first to primarily pressure with 4 and drop 7 into coverage.

 

Teams that copied that blueprint had the most success containing this offense so expect that from every opponent.

 

KC, who was struggling last year covering receivers, sold out to stop the Bills passing in our playoff game.

 

Five Thirty-eight had a great breakdown of the KC defense that stymied our offense.

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-chiefs-defense-used-four-big-safeties-to-get-to-the-super-bowl/

 

"Spagnuolo deployed six defensive backs more in the AFC championship game than any other team has in a single game 2 since he became the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator at the start of the 2019 season.

 

All told, the Chiefs used a 4-1-6  3-personnel package on an incredible 75 percent of their defensive snaps.

 

But Spagnuolo wasn’t selling out to stop the pass completely. Instead of using three or four smaller cornerbacks to cover Stefon Diggs and the other Bills wide receivers, Spagnuolo trotted out bigger-bodied safeties to hedge his bets and help defend the run — just in case.

 

There were four of those big safeties on most plays: Tyrann Mathieu, Juan Thornhill, Daniel Sorensen and L’Jarius Sneed.

 

It wasn’t until late in the third quarter, when Mahomes and the Chiefs had taken a commanding 31-15 lead, that Spagnuolo ultimately switched to a more aggressive three-cornerback/three-safety form of coverage designed almost exclusively to stop the pass"

 

This year even Blitzburgh shelved bringing the extra man which is uncharacteristic of that defense and stuck to keeping extra dbs and safeties and playing zone shells and using creative zone blitzes (still bringing 4) while spelling their better pass rushers by dropping dline players into shallow zones while bringing dbs and safeties from the slots to confuse & overload protections.

 

I think I read that they only blitzed twice. 

 

So expect a sellout pass-first defense vs. our Bills every week. Hence the off-season focus of being able to run against those lighter boxes and safeties teams are using in the second level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by WideNine