A few thoughts about the Titans game, in no particular order

[Haslett_Stomp]

4 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

You dare criticize Josh?!? You must be spoiled.

 

4 hours ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Haha yea he missed that one...the decision was fine both those defenders were beat and he just has to get it almost anywhere out in front of sanders but he underthrew it 

 

Allen didn't underthrow Sanders, he intentionally threw it short to avoid overthrowing him and to attempt to secure the long gain.  😎

Edited October 19, 2021 by Haslett_Stomp

[Maine-iac]

Excellent write up but if I could spin my own angle on "the play".  Agree or disagree about going for it I can also see why they might try to keep the ball in their hands and decide there own fate right then and there.  My issue is why would we relegate that 4th down to a sneak.  Why try to sneak 1/2 a yard to get a first.  We were only three yards from the end zone.  If you are putting all your eggs in one basket why not use the whole field go for a 3 yard TD and let Allen rumble for 1/2 a yard if necessary.  Also I've seen plenty of debate on Edwards and I can't speak to how well he plugged the holes and if the runs Henry broke had anything to do with him or not but i will say Edwards hit Henry harder than anyone else and was the one person out there who brought him down where he hit him.  Didn't realize Edwards hit that hard.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Maine-iac

[Nihilarian]

Good stuff Virgil. I agree and couldn't have said it better!

 

Pisses me off too...this Titans team lost to the NY Jets! 

 

One word...overconfidence! It seemed like everyone was saying the Bills would win and it was just by how much. 

 

The Bills defense was so hell bent on stopping Henry that they forgot how to pass rush. Yet, they still couldn't stop Henry! 

 

Both Buffalo Bills lines simply aren't good enough and neither is the coaching. Buffalo played into their strengths as they tend to do on occasion. The Titans have the 24th ranked overall defense.

 

This loss might have just lost Buffalo the home field advantage to the 5-1 Ravens. Against a Titans team Buffalo should have beaten like the Cardinals beat them in week one, 38-13. 

 

 

 

 

[NoHuddleKelly12]

Way to encapsulate what I’m sure so many of us felt throughout this game—this one will stick in the craw for 2 weeks because we shouldn’t have lost, plain and simple—we are the better team and that still showed despite the outcome. Great job OP! 

[Mark Vader]

6 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Noticed most of his deep balls were under thrown last night. Which is weird for a dude with his arm. Again, another reason I disagree with saying he was "great". Still love him, but an off night.

Great? No.

Off night? No.

Josh Allen played a gutsy game and got us so close to winning that game.

Our last offensive drive and Allen was in command. That ridiculous completion to Gabriel Davis just made you feel like we were going to win. Just came up short.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

Some comments to your comments:

 

1  Trenches   Agree lost in trenches on both sides.

 

3 & 4 Pass rush & Henry.    Agree they were too worried about Henry that couldn't stop Brown much in 2nd half.  Saw some headline  about "Henry ran over Bills" etc.  143 yards is alot, but take away the 76 yard run and it's about 70 yards on 19 attempts.  Yes was big run but kind of play once you break through 1st line of defense, there's often no one left to stop him so becomes long gain.   Most players don't have the speed to out run everyone either, but he does.

 

8 Red Zone.  Think we are running to often on early downs when defense is more geared up for it, and not the best team at running.  So now we have 2nd and 8 and defense is geared to stop pass.  Would like to see more runs on 1st down, maybe run on 3rd and 2 when more expecting pass.

 

9  Offensive line  Isn't this 3rd week of this combo with Brown at RT??  Agree overall didn't look good.  Brown is young and improving so expect him to learn from this and by year end will should be a strength of line.   Not so sure Mongo has it in him though to get better.  We may be seeing his best.

 

10 The play   I'd have gone for it as they did.  You stated; "McD shouldn't have gambled the game on us winning in the trenches because the entire game showed you we'd lose"   I'd counter that with; "McD shouldn't have gambled the game on us winning the coin toss because the entire game showed you we'd lose if Tenn won the toss"  Admittedly I also think almost as good a shot of us going down the field and scoring a TD and win the game too.  But based on what I saw overall, I'd give Tenn a little better chance of scoring a TD on the first possession of OT than us.

[Solomon Grundy]

10 hours ago, Big Turk said:

McD said Boogie and AJ were inactive because they wanted to go with bigger bodies to try and matchup better to stop Henry. Outside of 2 runs, the 76 yarder and the 20 yarder they did a decent job, Tennessee was in 3re and long a lot.

 

Also statistically the Bills had a 75% chance of converting and a 63% chance of winning by going for it on that play versus a 42% chance of winning if they kicked the FG. Easy to say it's the wrong call because it didn't work but statistically they would make it much more often than not.

The problem with that thought is that Henry usually gets his big runs on stretch plays. Wouldn’t had been better to have guys that can pursue? 

[skibum]

9 hours ago, Saint Doug said:

I’m not understanding the 42% percent rate. Can you walk me through how you got that number? It seems before the coin flip, the chances should be 50/50 for either team. 

Less than 50% because they would have to make the field goal first, which has its own probability of not happening. 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

All this great analysis and for me none of it matters. 

The Bills are soft. They have been for years and I really don't know why that is.  Allen is the toughest guy on the team followed by Diggs and our two safeties.  Both lines are soft.  The Bills are a finesse team.  When they play a bully they get physically beaten.  This was not scheme.  It was a flat out beating at the point of attack.  

 

 

[TampaBillsJunkie]

I'm with you on the disappointment and the anger.

[NoHuddleKelly12]

50 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

All this great analysis and for me none of it matters. 

The Bills are soft. They have been for years and I really don't know why that is.  Allen is the toughest guy on the team followed by Diggs and our two safeties.  Both lines are soft.  The Bills are a finesse team.  When they play a bully they get physically beaten.  This was not scheme.  It was a flat out beating at the point of attack.  

 

 

I understand your point but it may be an oversimplification because we certainly have shown we can be ‘the bully’ against most other teams we play—we didn’t finesse the Chiefs or anyone else since Pittsburgh imho, and until we see more of a pattern this year to the contrary, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt to have a one-off game or 2 over the course of a very long year. And not for nothing, we still had plenty of opportunity to come away with the W even after taking Tennessee’s best shot, so let’s see what the future brings us. 

[GunnerBill]

5 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

All this great analysis and for me none of it matters. 

The Bills are soft. They have been for years and I really don't know why that is.  Allen is the toughest guy on the team followed by Diggs and our two safeties.  Both lines are soft.  The Bills are a finesse team.  When they play a bully they get physically beaten.  This was not scheme.  It was a flat out beating at the point of attack.  

 

 

 

 

I don't know that I agree the Bills are soft. Are they occasionally susceptible to pure power football? Yes. But that is because this is a team built for speed and built to both pass the ball and defend the pass. The Browns and the Titans are the two teams currently doing what Rex Ryan's plan for the Bills was.... being the ying while the rest of the league yangs. So as more and more teams go to nickel base defenses those offenses power through. I think the problem on the oline is not about toughness at all. It is purely about ability. They just do not have enough talent up there IMO. 

 

[GunnerBill]

8 hours ago, Mark Vader said:

Great? No.

Off night? No.

Josh Allen played a gutsy game and got us so close to winning that game.

Our last offensive drive and Allen was in command. That ridiculous completion to Gabriel Davis just made you feel like we were going to win. Just came up short.

 

The only valid criticisms of Josh on Monday are he missed Diggs in the endzone on that second series. Not sure what happened there, did the ball come out funny? Maybe, but he has to make that throw. And then the penultimate drive we have no idea what the playcalls were, obviously, it did look a bit like the first down was a called shot play, but Josh still had time to come off that and had guys underneath he could have got the ball to. The second down play it looked like he came off underneath guys to take a deep shot and I think at that point of the game that was a poor choice, because you have to prioritise being on the field. I thought he got greedy there when the situation required patience. But overall, with a horrible performance by the oline in front of him I thought Josh was good. I'd say excellent first half. Not quite as good second half but still good. 

[CSBill]

Thanks Virgil. It's taken me two days to read anything here. You are spot on.

 

Plenty of blame to go around, all phases contributed to this loss: the offense, defense, special teams, and coaching all had a part.

 

Oh well, we can't change it. We can only fix it going forward. Everyone back to the film room and do what we need to not let this happen again!

[SydneyBillsFan]

18 hours ago, LeGOATski said:

Nice write-up.

 

Not complimentary football.

 

Disagree.

 

I thought the O-line and the D-line complemented each other perfectly - at the suck end of the scale.

[GunnerBill]

19 hours ago, Virgil said:

 

 

3 - Pass Rush - For a Titans team that gave up seven sacks to the NJ Jets, it's infuriating that we weren't able to generate any pressure in the second half.  I understand that we were trying, and failing, to stop Henry, but there were multiple 3rd and long plays in the second half where the Titans were obviously passing.  Yes, Henry was in the backfield for a few of those 3rd down plays, but the Titans didn't attempt to run the ball on a single 3rd and long play.  So fine, watch out for the draw on the first few occasions, but eventually take a shot and blitz on these 3rd and longs versus giving Tannehill all day to find AJ Brown.  Additionally, I don't understand Boogie and AJ being inactive for this game. 

 

 

If by multiple, you mean two, sure. There were no more than that. On their final drive the Titans converted a 3rd and 6 with a pass to AJ Brown that was a backbreaker but I think it has created a perception that this happened a lot. It didn't. TEN had precisely four 3rd downs the whole second half. The Bills issues were 1st and 2nd down. 

 

Tennessee's 3rd downs in the second half:

 

3rd Qrtr 7.15 remaining - 3rd and 10 - not converted pass comes up 2 yards short, TEN goes for and converts 4th and 2

4th Qrtr: 14.17 remaining - 3rd and 5 converted - pass to AJ Brown for 13 yards

4th Qrtrt: 10.27 remaining - 3rd and 11 - not converted - pass comes up 5 yards short, TEN kicks a FG

4th Qrtr: 4.25 remaining - 3rd and 6 converted - pass to Westbrook-Ikhine for 8 yards. 

 

Edited October 20, 2021 by GunnerBill

[Ethan in Cleveland]

2 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

The only valid criticisms of Josh on Monday are he missed Diggs in the endzone on that second series. Not sure what happened there, did the ball come out funny? Maybe, but he has to make that throw. And then the penultimate drive we have no idea what the playcalls were, obviously, it did look a bit like the first down was a called shot play, but Josh still had time to come off that and had guys underneath he could have got the ball to. The second down play it looked like he came off underneath guys to take a deep shot and I think at that point of the game that was a poor choice, because you have to prioritise being on the field. I thought he got greedy there when the situation required patience. But overall, with a horrible performance by the oline in front of him I thought Josh was good. I'd say excellent first half. Not quite as good second half but still good. 

Agree though I would add missing a wide open Sanders in the corner of the endzone.  It was not one of those plays where Allen is looking to the other side of the field. He was rolling that way and chose to throw short to Singletary if I recall instead of Sanders who had beaten his guy by 2 steps

[GunnerBill]

Just now, Ethan in Portland said:

Agree though I would add missing a wide open Sanders in the corner of the endzone.  It was not one of those plays where Allen is looking to the other side of the field. He was rolling that way and chose to throw short to Singletary if I recall instead of Sanders who had beaten his guy by 2 steps

 

Yea, I think that one was a harder play, there was rush coming at him and that is a hard skill running to your left to open your body back up, but agreed, it was a play that could have been made even though it was certainly not easy. 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

6 hours ago, NoHuddleKelly12 said:

I understand your point but it may be an oversimplification because we certainly have shown we can be ‘the bully’ against most other teams we play—we didn’t finesse the Chiefs or anyone else since Pittsburgh imho, and until we see more of a pattern this year to the contrary, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt to have a one-off game or 2 over the course of a very long year. And not for nothing, we still had plenty of opportunity to come away with the W even after taking Tennessee’s best shot, so let’s see what the future brings us. 

You won't see much of a pattern because there are few teams built like Tenn. Gunner mentions this as well. 

If the play the Tirans again the Bills can beat them by getting ahead early. Had those two first drives been TDs instead of FGs the game may have been very different. Daboll needs to recognize this oline cant pass or run block against great D-lines. He needs to keep an extra blocker in. Bills WRscand Knox will get open if Allen has the time. 

[Virgil]

6 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

If by multiple, you mean two, sure. There were no more than that. On their final drive the Titans converted a 3rd and 6 with a pass to AJ Brown that was a backbreaker but I think it has created a perception that this happened a lot. It didn't. TEN had precisely four 3rd downs the whole second half. The Bills issues were 1st and 2nd down. 

 

Tennessee's 3rd downs in the second half:

 

3rd Qrtr 7.15 remaining - 3rd and 10 - not converted pass comes up 2 yards short, TEN goes for and converts 4th and 2

4th Qrtr: 14.17 remaining - 3rd and 5 converted - pass to AJ Brown for 13 yards

4th Qrtrt: 10.27 remaining - 3rd and 11 - not converted - pass comes up 5 yards short, TEN kicks a FG

4th Qrtr: 4.25 remaining - 3rd and 6 converted - pass to Westbrook-Ikhine for 8 yards. 

 

 

You dare correct me!?  😋.   You're right, it felt like a lot more than that