Last night was a dominant win. But there was one obvious weak link holding us back... Zach Moss (lead the team in touches)

[BFLO]

If the Bills continue to rely on Moss to lead the team in touches, it's going to cost them wins. 

 

6 carries for 15 yards, and 1 fumble. That's 2.5 yards per carry.

6 catches for 21 yards on 6 targets. 3.5 yards per catch. (credit to Moss for catching all 6 targets) 

 

12 total touches/targets for 36 yards or 3 yards per touch. 

 

The Bills attempted 31 passes and ran the ball 24 times (excluding the final kneel down). 

 

55 offensive plays and Moss got the ball on 12 or 21.8% of the total. 

 

More than 1 in 5 plays went to Moss. Yet he accounted for 36 of 412 total yards of offense. 8.7% of the total yards, or about 1 in 12.  

 

Midway into the 3rd Moss accounted for +25% of the total touches. That's more than 1 in 4. 

 

In one of the best offenses in the league Moss consistently has put up pedestrian like numbers. He's average on a good day and below average on most days. He's the least talented and least effective player on offense, yet we give him the largest share of the touches. It's mind blowing. 

 

And it's not like feeding Moss the ball stopped Allen from taking hits either... 

 

I don't see how giving the worst offensive skill player on the team the most touches is a winning strategy in the long term. 

 

[YoloinOhio]

Most of plays were supposed to go to the rookie  but he got put in time out. Godspeed, Jimmy Cook. 

[Saint Doug]

I wonder why Motor wasn’t being given those touches. Were they showcasing Moss?

[Bruffalo]

100% agree, and I also think that if Cook doesn't fumble then Moss (hopefully) doesn't get the play time he got.

 

The man looks like he's running through pudding compared to Singletary, who isn't even fast. 

[TheyCallMeAndy]

Singletary is by far the best RB on this team and should be getting the most touches of any of them. 

[947]

There's no way Dorsey went into that game planning to get Moss 6 catches. Cook would've had at least 5 of those if not for coughing up the rock. And likely would've gotten 40+ yards on them. But I totally agree, too much Moss.

[RufusTheMad]

Sorry guys, I started thinking this last year, but this guy just isn’t a strong enough back up for the team we have now. He lacks a quick burst, rarely breaks a big play and seems to have suspect vision. I noticed a couple times last night when he appeared to notice the whole too late and it closed down on him immediately. I think we need a stronger back up. At this point, I think Duke Johnson would offer more. The only real compliment I can give Moss is that it does appear he has worked on his past catching .
Sadly, he appears a step too slow.

[Ramza86]

I was going to make a Moss thread.

I swear they really are clueless with personnel sometimes. 

 

Unless Singletary got nicked up there is no reason he shouldnt be getting 90% of the carries.

 

 

[stosh64]

 

[SDS]

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[clayboy54]

       And, it makes the field greener, too!

[Dave_Bills]

I think the plan was to have Cook more involved in the offense but the early fumble changed the game plan. I think the coaching staff knows what they have with all their RB's. Moss can help us and play a part. I think the Cook fumble made Moss more prominent than he otherwise would have been

[HOUSE]

We have this rookie RB on the practice squad and he would...

Oh never mind.....

 

[Beck Water]

I don't want to call you an idiot.  Let's say you're writing like a person without much understanding of what you see in the chess match of football.

 

Moss didn't lead the team in touches because the game plan called his number on a team-leading number of plays.  The Rams were playing to take away the deep and intermediate stuff and betting that the same Josh Allen who got throttled by Pittsburgh using that strategy last season opener (and embarrassingly, by Jax), would get throttled the same way or force the throw and get picked (that happened). 

 

Moss led the team in touches because he, like Singletary, was the check-down option in the passing game on a night when Josh needed to get the ball out quick in the face of pressure.  Moss had 2 more touches than Motor, so it's not as though he was being given a ton more, they were dividing the load between the two backs.  And probably it would have been more Cook and less Moss in that role except they needed the best chipping and blocking from the RBs and also, Cook fumbled.

 

Go look at some of the stuff quoted from Jalen Ramsey.  "I feel like we kind of had a mentality like, 'bend, don't break' a lot, because they were driving the ball but they weren't scoring, like, we were getting turnovers, interceptions, whatever it was."  That was their strategy, give up the short stuff, wager that Josh won't take it, and capitalize on mistakes.

 

Instead, Allen showed that now, this year, he was willing to dink and dunk and take the checkdown.  This is a HUGE step forward in Josh's game.  Collinsworth correctly commented that earlier in his career, Josh wouldn't have done that.  I was literally jumping up and down and screaming because it's been the "missing piece" in his passing game.  You wanna send everyone on a jailbreak?  *Flick* get it out and at least get back to the LOS.  Get 1 yd, 2 yds, 7 yds, 8 yds.  Average 3.5 yds per reception.

 

It moved the chains.   10 plays, 11 plays, 15 plays.  Then when LA figured out that strategy of letting the Bills grind down the field was working against their need for points, they decided to send the house (cover 0) and Josh burned them like a blowtorch, right down the middle of the field to Davis. 

 

The only problem was Moss fumbling.  He can't do that.  Ditto Cook.  Muscle Hamster has to tuck it away and not double-catch it if he wants to be The Man in the slot.  And I need to watch to see what happened with Crowder.  My first impression was Josh shouldn't have thrown that one, but Crowder could have come back towards the ball and boxed out the defender.  I think that's a familiarity with Josh thing, the QB's he's played with would throw an arc you can't come back for instead of a dart.

 

The 4 turnovers were the problem, not Moss getting lots of options because he was the checkdown option in the passing game against the league's best defender, causing Josh to need to get the ball out quick. 

 

I personally would like to see MORE touches for Moss and Singletary and fewer designed runs for Josh.  Josh may love it and laugh as he's hit (Singletary said he was) but I don't want to see another season where Josh Allen is the best RB on the Bills.

 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2022 by Beck Water

[DabillsDaBillsDaBills]

5 minutes ago, Dave_Bills said:

I think the plan was to have Cook more involved in the offense but the early fumble changed the game plan. I think the coaching staff knows what they have with all their RB's. Moss can help us and play a part. I think the Cook fumble made Moss more prominent than he otherwise would have been

 

Do they? 

 

I think it's inexcusable to have Moss out-touch Singletary last night. 

 

Riding the hot hand is not a complicated philosophy, but it seems to elude McDermott. 

 

[JohnNord]

37 minutes ago, BFLO said:

If the Bills continue to rely on Moss to lead the team in touches, it's going to cost them wins. 

 

6 carries for 15 yards, and 1 fumble. That's 2.5 yards per carry.

6 catches for 21 yards on 6 targets. 3.5 yards per catch. (credit to Moss for catching all 6 targets) 

 

12 total touches/targets for 36 yards or 3 yards per touch. 

 

The Bills attempted 31 passes and ran the ball 24 times (excluding the final kneel down). 

 

55 offensive plays and Moss got the ball on 12 or 21.8% of the total. 

 

More than 1 in 5 plays went to Moss. Yet he accounted for 36 of 412 total yards of offense. 8.7% of the total yards, or about 1 in 12.  

 

Midway into the 3rd Moss accounted for +25% of the total touches. That's more than 1 in 4. 

 

In one of the best offenses in the league Moss consistently has put up pedestrian like numbers. He's average on a good day and below average on most days. He's the least talented and least effective player on offense, yet we give him the largest share of the touches. It's mind blowing. 

 

And it's not like feeding Moss the ball stopped Allen from taking hits either... 

 

I don't see how giving the worst offensive skill player on the team the most touches is a winning strategy in the long term. 

 

There actually was one run where he looked really quick and gained picked up a decent gain.  But the fumble in garbage time was inexcusable.  
 

I would agree that the passes to him were futile. 

[Beck Water]

30 minutes ago, Bruffalo said:

100% agree, and I also think that if Cook doesn't fumble then Moss (hopefully) doesn't get the play time he got.

The man looks like he's running through pudding compared to Singletary, who isn't even fast. 

 

Moss was being asked to run through masses of defenders.  He dragged them along.  Averaged 3 yds per touch.  Mix in just one longer play and that moves the chains.  He "did his job".

 

We needed an RB who could chip effectively and block effectively last night.  Moss >> Cook at this point with that skill.

 

Cook's time will come.

[mykidsdad]

37 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

Most of plays were supposed to go to the rookie  but he got put in time out. Godspeed, Jimmy Cook. 

Those plays he was running looked designed for cook. I think he was cook's backup for some of those designed passes. cook has a lot to prove.

[Beck Water]

34 minutes ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

Singletary is by far the best RB on this team and should be getting the most touches of any of them. 

 

Moss has better hands in the pass game, is better at chipping then releasing for the checkdown, and better at gaining a tough yard or two through traffic.

[Ray Finkel]

37 minutes ago, Saint Doug said:

I wonder why Motor wasn’t being given those touches. Were they showcasing Moss?

Motor averaged 6 yards a carry.  I was screaming at the TV on why he wasn’t in there