A Few Thoughts about the Patriots* Game, in no particular order

[Nihilarian]

1 hour ago, LeGOATski said:

Nice write-up, as always.

 

I think there's a very good chance they have two new coordinators in 2022. I'm pretty tired of Daboll's one dimensional offense and the OL coaching.

Agreed. 

 

Since last seasons jump into the playoffs this Buffalo offense just hasn't been the same. 

 

That 2020 Buffalo Bills team beat the Patriots in New England 38-9 with ole smiley slamming down his sideline phone during that loss. WOWSER!

Best feeling as a Bills fan in forever!!!

 

The next game the Bills beat the Dolphins 56-26 in week 17. 

 

After that the offense went into a funk as they barely beat the Colts 27-24 in that first WC game. Went on to play the Ravens in Buffalo for the next game and the offense only scored 10 points all game.

 

The conspiracy theorist in me starts to think...did Billionaire Patriots owner Robert Kraft make a promise or something to the Bills OC Brian Daboll who worked for 11 seasons in NE... to reign in that budding super star the Bills have at QB?

 

Or, has the Bills OC just been stymied by opposing defenses in figuring out the Buffalo passing offense? Hard for me to believe that this passing offense could be held in check by a cover 2 shell defense so easily and against such bad defenses. Jacksonville 30th. Colts 28th. Pittsburgh 22nd. Tennessee 23rd. at least the Patriots had a top 3 defense. 

 

That home opener loss to the Steelers 16-23, the loss to Jacksonville 6-10! The loss to the Colts 15-41...the Bills offense gets up in the score in that game early and the complexation of the entire game changes as now the Colts playing from behind fall into Buffalo's defensive scheme where Wentz usually falls on his face.

 

And now only 10 points against the Patriots in a windstorm. Just keep running up the middle...and when the offense makes 8 yards on those two runs...throw it on 3rd and two. 

 

Yes, it's team game and yes the offense had its problems with drops in a windstorm. Still, 25 runs by the Bills vs 46 runs by the Patriots tells the story.

 

Far, far to much is still being put on Josh Allen's shoulders to carry the offense. While the game plans/play calls aren't up to the task of helping the QB. Diggs has shown that he is basically uncoverable and yet they can't get him the ball enough. 7 targets, 4 receptions?  Cole Beasley is another who is basically uncoverable and is almost always open, 3 targets, 1 reception? Seriously, all game 3 targets?  

 

All toll, Buffalo passing, 30 targets, 15 receptions...  vs 25 runs in a windstorm and how many of those runs up the middle into the strength of that Patriots defense? 

 

Until the Buffalo Bills, Bills OC Brian Daboll had a poor history as an NFL OC with his passing offenses in the 20's for four seasons, 32nd to 22nd.

 

With Josh Allen at QB the Bills passing yards, 31st in 2018, 26th in 2019, 3rd in 2020, 1st for awhile in 2021. Now sliding back to 8th in passing yards.  

 

Me, I would have thought some offensive changes would have been made after that 6-10 loss to the lowly 1-6 Jacksonville Jaguars. A darn shame that this seasons defense that is so good is being wasted because of such an underwhelming offense. 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Nihilarian

[Fred Slacks]

1 hour ago, Ga boy said:

Did you see how ecstatic the GOAT coach was at the end??  Can't say ever seeing him emote so much (except the phone incident).  In this one, he knew that if we won, everyone would have roasted him for his strategy.  We'll hang 30 plus on them in 2nd game.  Go Bills!!!

Also people acting like the run game was working fir them. They broke the long TD run. They kicked 1 field goal. All other drives ended in a pint for them. 
 

The bills had sustained drives. The penalties in the red zone. Those were the killers. 
 

Also would have been nice to get a PI flag on that pass to Knox in the end zone. I know I’m begging for stuff here but that was close. 

[Livinginthepast]

I think this game came down to coaching and nothing else. However, after some thought , I dont think that McD and Daboll were outcoached by BB et al.. McD just choked under the pressure and made decisions that put us in a position to lose. The challenge cost us a timeout. The choice of getting the wind vs not in the 2nd half was also key. The indecisiveness on the goaline that led to a 2nd timeout, was killer. The poor decision to kick a FG into the completely unpredictable wind. Not going for 2 right after the TD early on. For Daboll it was continuing to try and use the run when it was completely ineffective was idiotic and basically just killed the clock and gave us no advantage. The odd decision not to run Allen in the red zone. All of these things were small errors by the Bills coaches which accumulated for the Pats victory. People today are acting like the GOAT BB called a brilliant game plan by playing leather helmet Knute Rockne run football and that his defense had all the answers for Allen. This is ridiculous. Most college coaches could devise a game plan to stop the Bills running game when its as bad as it has been this season. In addition, relying on the wind to stop Josh was only working part of the time. It makes me livid when people praise BB as a genius when his greatest skill is not some incredible game plan but a combination of luck and relying on the opposing coaches to make stupid mistakes (which McD and Daboll did with abundance).

[Norcalbillsfan]

14 hours ago, Virgil said:

At this point, it's hard to not feel like a broken record when talking about the 2021 Bills.  They aren't physical enough in the trenches.  They have zero rushing attack.  The Bills can't beat anyone with a winning record.  As Bills fans, we try to make excuses and talk about any given Sunday, but after 12 games, it's time to start accepting that the Bills are not going to live up to the preseason expectations and they are no longer the Superbowl favorites we all hoped for.

 

1 - No Excuses - We've known all week what the weather was going to be like for this game and both teams had to play in it.  The weather did affect some kicks, but ultimately, it wasn't the hurricane we thought it would be.  Regardless, the Patriots came in and did exactly what we thought they would, and there was nothing we can do to stop it.  You don't get to pick the weather or where you play.  In the conference currently, the Ravens, Chiefs, Patriots, and Titans would all have home games.  Three of those four teams will be in brutal winter conditions.  With that being said, Beane and company built a team that isn't capable of winning low scoring, physical, weather affected games.  It's no longer an opinion, it's what the results tell us.  Our stadium isn't going to get magically get a dome next year and the those previously mentioned teams aren't going anywhere.  So what's next for the high powered offense that only seems to thrive in the right conditions?  That's a great question

 

2 - Allen - Josh is probably the only highlight of this game for me.  He did show off his arm through the weather and honestly placed most balls pretty well.  The offense didn't help him out much at all (I'll get to that later).  Josh threw for the only passing touchdown of the game on a dart to Gabe.  He should've had two, but the Pats defender held up Davis just enough on the second pass to throw off the timing (Nice no call refs) Josh had a few solid runs, but only one actually called by Daboll.  I can point the blame in a lot of places for this game, but Josh is clear for me.

 

3 - Drops - In a game where passes were at a premium, none of the receivers really came to play tonight.  Diggs had one good catch deep down the sideline that was a beautiful back shoulder catch.  However, he dropped a sure touchdown in the endzone that hit him in the hands, mainly because he lost track of the ball.  Knox had two big drops and got out-muscled in the endzone at the end of the game.  Sanders also had 3 drops while.  I'm not sure if you want to call Breida's fumble a drop, but it sure was ugly.  Why can't these units show up in big games is beyond me at this point.

 

4 - What you say when they give the guy the go-ahead?
What you gonna say? Olé!
What you say, what you say when your spitting up on your bed?
What you gonna say? Olé!
What you say, what you say when you've had enough of knuckleheads
What you gonna say? Olé!
What you say, now, what you say when you've seen enough bloodshed?
What you gonna say? Stop!

 

5 - Linebackers - Minus the last drive where Milano had back to back tackles for loss by shooting the gap, Edmunds and Milano were absolutely terrible in this game.  On the big run, Edmunds over-pursued the play (alongside Hyde) and he was getting engulfed by blockers all game.  Milano was also just pushed around off the ball.  For most of the game, we had 4 on the line and 4 LB/S about 5 yards off the ball, same as against the Colts and Titans (remember how that went?).  I can't wait to see the All-22 and the grades they hand out.  I'll put some of it on Frazier for not adjusting more, and you could argue they only scored 14.  But 14 in a game where the offense threw 3 total passes is completely unacceptable.

 

6 - Daboll - One Time.  Daboll called a designed run for Allen one time.  Take out the Motor run for 10+ at the end of the game and the Bills rushing attack averaged less than 3 yards a game.  In the same conditions where the Pats had over 200 yards in the 3rd quarter, the Bills weren't even close to being able to match it.  Watching our runningbacks go straight up the middle, while the Pats ran counters, cutbacks, and other zone style runs was an embarassment.  Daboll may be a great passing coordinator, but this is now multiple years in a row where he's shown zero ability to generate a rushing attack.  And, while I don't like putting him in harms way, to make zero attempt to utilize the best runner you have in Josh is pathetic.

 

7 - Redzone - I wish I could just place this all on Daboll, as the Bills had two redzone attempts at the end of the game result in zero points, but it was a team effort.  We had a false start on Knox, we had a no-call against Davis, we had Sweeney blocking Judon, and we had our kicker miss a FG, which made a future attempt at a FG a moot point.  The Bills could have won this game on multiple occasions, but it was all on display during those two redzone trips, as they have plagued us all season.  

 

8 - Defense - 3 pass attempts.  The Pats had 3 passing attempts, with two of them coming on the second to last drive.  Knowing that, they still rushed for over 200 yards and consistently got chunk plays against us.  We had the same scheme that's failed us twice before and still rolled it out there.  At this point, I don't even know what to say or do about it besides accept that we are a soft team who can't get home against the quarterback and only beats up on weaker opponents.  Seriously, 3 pass attempts and we still can't stop them.  

 

9 - McD - You have to start to wonder if the McD clapping process is starting to lose it's luster.  I'm not calling for McD or anything like that, but it's hard to deny how this team doesn't show up in big situations and continuously gets dominated by more physical teams.  As the head coach, get involved with the coordinators and demand changes.  I'm getting tired of seeing McD get fired up on the sidelines about the quick delay of game penalty or whatever else didn't go our way.  If he wants to get fired up, go off on a player for a penalty that kills a drive.  Lay into some guys after they allow a 50+ touchdown run.  Take over play calling again when you aren't seeing the results on the field.  Whatever it is, this team does not have the same swagger as it did last year and that's on McD.

 

10 - 20 vs 1 - The Pats were a joke last season and all signs pointed to a full rebuild.  As a Bills fan, many of us relished in the idea of the Pats fans having to endure a 20 year rebuild like the Bills went through.  1 year.  It took 1 year and a lot of money.  To be a full game and tiebreaker behind the Pats this late in the season, after giving up a home game to them, makes me want to throw up.  I agree that we didn't get to see much of Mac Jones in this game nor do we know how his career will go.  However, just to see them leading the division already after only one down year after all that we went through is ridiculous.  It honestly makes the drought feel worse to me because right now, I don't feel as comfortable as I did regarding us having to blow up parts of this team and having to fight the Pats again for the next 20 years. 

 

 

I typically try to wait a day to post these so that I can calm down a bit.  In this case, I feel the frustration is justified.  We don't have a team that can win tough, physical games and at this point, it's a systematic issue that isn't going to be fixed by moving around a few players or coordinators.  We need an entirely new offensive rushing system, which may require different players.  We need to abandon the rotating defensive line for tough, big, physical guys who can't be moved off the point of attack.  We need leaders on this team who are going to push every player though each game.  Right now, we are regular season heroes who will pray they will play dome teams who can't run the ball. 

1. I agree completely, josh showing up and making great passes in terrible weather makes me feel great about the future.

3. Drops hurt really bad. And I still think that back shoulder throw on the last drive in the end zone to diggs was on diggs. That was supposed to be a timing throw, break on the pylon. Diggs got into the endzone too far on his break. If he broke right on the pylon the ball was there, bills win.

 

5. Thank you for not making me feel like I was the only one that felt this way. I was at the game, after the Pats first 3 carries I said, "belichick knows Edmunds struggles shedding blocks, hes attacking it already" and he did all game, the Pats literally were just putting guys in Edmunds way and he couldn't shed or get leverage. Edmunds is 4x the athlete that any person that blocked him last night and he got worked. Milano didn't get a chance to shine in pass protection and got big boyed all night.

9. I was 3rd row from Bills bench. I watched McD and how he interacted with the team. I was hoping for some sort of ass chewing with the brieda fumble or Knox drop or the Harris 50 yarder. But it was all "let's go" with clapping. He was excited and into it. But I felt like there needed to be some more anger and accountability. I'm a huge mcd fan but I also wonder about his ability to instill toughness and aggressiveness on this team.

 

 

[CSBill]

For as much as we are all frustrated with the 220+ yards of running that NE had, the fault of this loss is on the Offense, as was the Jacksonville game. When you give up 14 and 9 points, you expect to win. This offense is suppose to be too good to lose games like this. The problem with this team is a very out of sync and unreliable offense. Two trips inside the 10 and no points. How can that happen?

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by CSBill

[BobbyC81]

7 hours ago, Livinginthepast said:

I think this game came down to coaching and nothing else. However, after some thought , I dont think that McD and Daboll were outcoached by BB et al.. McD just choked under the pressure and made decisions that put us in a position to lose. The challenge cost us a timeout. The choice of getting the wind vs not in the 2nd half was also key. The indecisiveness on the goaline that led to a 2nd timeout, was killer. The poor decision to kick a FG into the completely unpredictable wind. Not going for 2 right after the TD early on. For Daboll it was continuing to try and use the run when it was completely ineffective was idiotic and basically just killed the clock and gave us no advantage. The odd decision not to run Allen in the red zone. All of these things were small errors by the Bills coaches which accumulated for the Pats victory. People today are acting like the GOAT BB called a brilliant game plan by playing leather helmet Knute Rockne run football and that his defense had all the answers for Allen. This is ridiculous. Most college coaches could devise a game plan to stop the Bills running game when its as bad as it has been this season. In addition, relying on the wind to stop Josh was only working part of the time. It makes me livid when people praise BB as a genius when his greatest skill is not some incredible game plan but a combination of luck and relying on the opposing coaches to make stupid mistakes (which McD and Daboll did with abundance).

Glad you brought up the 2nd half choice.  So, after winning the coin toss, the Bills deferred the choice and New England took the ball.  The Bills then had the field choice and took the wind for the first Qtr.  Unfortunately, they only took advantage of it to score after the fluke punt play with the ball hitting the returners face mask.  
 

Then, for the 2nd half, the Bills took the ball, so New England got choice of the field and took the wind for the 4th Qtr.  Again, the Bills were unable to take great advantage of the wind, scoring only a FG, while the Pats ate up a chunk of the clock with their running game.

 

If it were me, I’d have set it up to get the wind in the 4th Qtr, in case you were behind and needed to pass.   I guess another factor was that the weather forecast called for possible snow squalls late so the Bills may have decided it was better to try and have scoring opportunities earlier in the 2nd half.  In hindsight, the snow squalls never materialized and the Bills were left trying to score in the 4th Qtr having to throw and kick into the wind and they were unable to.

[zow2]

We’ve played 3 rookie QB’s and lost to 2 of them.  That’s disgraceful for a team with SB aspirations.

Yes the offense was a disappointment in games vs Trevor Lawrence and Mac Jones. But it’s a team game and we LOST.  I don’t think i can get past losing to Trevor…and Mac never even had to throw. 

This season the lows are way worse than the good feeling after the highs. 

[Virgil]

13 hours ago, zow2 said:

We’ve played 3 rookie QB’s and lost to 2 of them.  That’s disgraceful for a team with SB aspirations.

Yes the offense was a disappointment in games vs Trevor Lawrence and Mac Jones. But it’s a team game and we LOST.  I don’t think i can get past losing to Trevor…and Mac never even had to throw. 

This season the lows are way worse than the good feeling after the highs. 

You aren’t wrong.  It only re-emphasizes the point that teams don’t have to pass against us. 
 

Think about Wentz throwing for less than 110 yards too 

[Xwnyer]

one comment I have about the run defense in this game and dont need all 22 to see it.  presnap our BDs and LBs started charging LOS creating major issues of getting caught up with the big bodies versus read and react.  This is what cause Tremaine and Milano to get caught and also allowed Milano to shoot gaps for losses.   But way to many time we had a tight box with 8 within 2 yards of LOS but by time ball was snapped all 8 were at the LOS.

[Maine-iac]

People can complain about the run defense or the lack of running game but ultimately I am just disappointed with the loss.  Although both the Titans, Colts, and Pats were match up problems the reason we lost the Titans and Pats games came down to execution and making plays when you need to.  We are not losing games because we can't stop the run or that we can't run the ball.  We are losing because we aren't controlling the things we can do like not giving up the big play, catching key passes for td's or first downs, and penalties.  While having weaknesses isn't ideal we aren't losing because of them.  We are losing because we just aren't playing well and doing what we should be able to do.  These weren't games we couldn't win.  They were just games we didn't.

Edited December 8, 2021 by Maine-iac

[PatsFanNH]

On 12/7/2021 at 10:54 AM, Ga boy said:

Did you see how ecstatic the GOAT coach was at the end??  Can't say ever seeing him emote so much (except the phone incident).  In this one, he knew that if we won, everyone would have roasted him for his strategy.  We'll hang 30 plus on them in 2nd game.  Go Bills!!!

The Pats will hang 30+ as well on the Bills D. They averaged almost 5 yards a carry WITHOUT ever throwing the ball. 

[Bill from NYC]

Nice work as usual!!!

 

[hondo in seattle]

On 12/6/2021 at 10:46 PM, Virgil said:

 

 

5 - Linebackers - Minus the last drive where Milano had back to back tackles for loss by shooting the gap, Edmunds and Milano were absolutely terrible in this game.  On the big run, Edmunds over-pursued the play (alongside Hyde) and he was getting engulfed by blockers all game.  Milano was also just pushed around off the ball.  For most of the game, we had 4 on the line and 4 LB/S about 5 yards off the ball, same as against the Colts and Titans (remember how that went?).  I can't wait to see the All-22 and the grades they hand out.  I'll put some of it on Frazier for not adjusting more, and you could argue they only scored 14.  But 14 in a game where the offense threw 3 total passes is completely unacceptable.

 

 

 

Edmunds and Milano aren't brutal Neanderthal linebackers in the mold of old LB legends like Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke, Jack Lambert, Sam Huff, Chuck Bednarick, and so on.

 

Given the limitations of our draft and cap resources, Beane and McD have - presumably by design - built a team that's good in just two areas: passing and stopping the pass.  We only use two linebackers most of the time and both those linebackers were chosen more for their coverage skills than their physicality and tackling abilities.  

 

It's a passing league so a lot of times Edmunds and Milano are the perfect guys to have out there.  But against bigger blockers and bigger runners, they often underwhelm.