What Happened After Halftime of the Packers Game?

[cwater10]

Josh's elbow has been bothering him.  You can see it on the shorter and intermediate throws.  He looks like he is placing the ball instead of the nice effortless motion we are used to seeing.  But I also think it runs deeper than that.  There were signs earlier, before the injury.  The Tennessee game came up on one of my feeds the other day and I watched the first half.  It was surprising to see some of the same mistakes in the red zone early in that game.  There was what should have been a sure pick in the end zone that the DB just bobbled while running out of bounds.   There was another one hopper I think to Kumerow.  I think of the one hopper that could have won the Miami game.  And then the red zone pick to Levi Wallace in the Pittsburgh game.  

 

I think about the one criticism in the Rams game was that Josh ran too much.  I think about the KC game when Josh hurdled and landed on his a**.  He spoke in the following days about paying the price for that one with a nice bruise on his back.  And I think about a McDermott interview earlier, around that same time, saying something along the lines of wanting to save exposing Josh on plays like that for "later in the season".  I know this is totally conjecture, but I suspect that it was suggested to Josh after the opener, to stop taking the hits he can avoid, stop running unless absolutely necessary.  And I think that this message may have been put to him way more forcefully during the bye and then again at halftime of the Packers game, after the clobbering he did take on that sideline play.  In the post game interview after this past game against Detroit, McDermott, when asked about a Josh's runs, again sounded irked, saying that he really would prefer that Josh learns how to slide.  They have stopped letting Josh be Josh.  And that has never been a good place for Josh to be on the field.

 

It's really not much different that last year when Josh stopped the running for a long stretch and The Bills found themselves at 7-6.  He came out of the half against Tampa Bay and started running with abandon and the offense never looked back.  Was that what John Warrow was referring to as "Josh putting his foot down in the half time locker room" that day?  I don't know the answer to that and none of us probably ever will.  But it jumps out at me that when Josh plays with reckless abandon, both he and the entire offense are unstoppable.  When he is limited, either by coaching or by injury, he looks frantic and error prone.  Right now, I think that both of those forces are in play.  It is frustrating to watch.  We have heard the warnings...  If he keeps playing (running) like this, he will become Cam Newton in 10 years.  While I would hope for a longer run than that, I would rather see him flourish between occasional injuries for 10 years than to see coaching turn him into Carson Wentz in 1 or 2 years.  

 

This week in practice the elbow brace came off.  Hopefully that is a sign of healing.  With this stretch of divisional games at hand, hopefully the time has come for the coaching staff to let Josh resume being the athletic freak that he is.  When both of those happen, I think the dancing in the streets will resume.

Edited November 29, 2022 by cwater10
Typo

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

Gb and NYJ have good pass defenses and then he hurt his elbow and throws from certain arm angles hurt.  His mechanics get a little wonky on certain throws now.  I don’t think a mystery concussion would cause that 

Edited November 29, 2022 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[TheWeatherMan]

14 hours ago, ArtVandalay said:

 

 

This is the perfect example of a targeting penalty.   Launching headfirst into the next head area, and not even trying to wrap up.  I feel like Josh is beginning to get the Cam Newton treatment with the rash of missed yet obvious late or illegals hard hits.  

[BillsVet]

Teams watch film.  

 

Player/scheme versatility and talent in the right areas helps to adapt.  

[ALLEN1QB]

JA having GF problems tried getting a haircut & shaving that didn't help.

[hondo in seattle]

13 hours ago, NewEra said:

He misses Daboll.  
 

He’s favoring his elbow.

 

Dorsey is struggling with red zone play calling.

 

Our WRs aren’t getting open enough 

 

My guess has been that the elbow first became sore in the second half of the Packers game...  Twinges of pain that effect some throws but not others.  

 

 

[Bubba Gump]

16 hours ago, Pine Barrens Mafia said:

I think Josh was concussed in that game.

 

That's exactly what I thought as well. I was at the game and thought for sure the eye in the sky was gonna call down and have him pulled for an evaluation. 

[Allen2Moulds]

14 hours ago, NewEra said:

He misses Daboll.  
 

He’s favoring his elbow.

 

Dorsey is struggling with red zone play calling.

 

Our WRs aren’t getting open enough 

All of this!

[st pete gogolak]

I'm still struggling with what I'm trying to get at with this post.  It's such a statistical anomaly to go six games with incredibly good stats (one statistically mediocre game at Baltimore in the driving rain) with four picks (one 100% on McKenzie and another a tipped ball) to five games ranging from mediocre to downright awful, with a season's worth of red zone picks, game changing horrible plays, etc.  Maybe it is something physical or something mental but something happened either during the bye week or during the Packer game that has put our Super Bowl hopes in jeopardy.  I really believe one mistake free, "big game" performance and it's all in the rear view mirror.  At least that's my hope.

[NewEra]

13 hours ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

So here we are 5-weeks after that game and he’s what Pine? Still dizzy, having headaches, woozy, and nobody on the staff noticed? 
 

Josh secretly never told anyone?

 

The Bills were in on it and withheld from the league? 

 

🙄🙄🙄

Any evidence that he is favoring the elbow? 

I have eyes.  

[NewEra]

13 hours ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

He was asked point blank after the Vikings if he was limited at all in the game, he immediately responded “no” without hesitation.

 

Did you see any finesse on that ripper throw to Davis in the endzone that hit him in the hands that he dropped? 
 

I think fans make things up in their head to fit a narrative. 

I think you’re genes older brother 

[transient]

I also think this has been magnified by the defensive swoon. Early in the season when the Bills weren't punting part of it was the scoring, but a larger than expected part of it was turning the ball over. I want to say at one point there was a statistic that they were turning the ball over on 16% of their drives, either on downs or by coughing up the ball. At the time, the defense was covering for it and giving them the ball right back. They're not doing that now so the offense is getting fewer chances to put up points. Despite that they're still averaging 28+ ppg.

[mrags]

16 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

There was 2-3 plays in that game that might have done it. 

[Nextmanup]

One small point: it sounds great when you describe our win on opening night as against the defending Super Bowl champions.

 

It's actually much more accurate to say we beat a terrible team on the downswing, which is what they are.

 

Don't forget, 4 turnovers in that game!  It wasn't as great a performance as folks remember.

 

I thought we were phenomenal against Tennessee though; where that team went I don't know.

 

It's been gone now for 5 games I think.

 

 

[CaliBills]

When the game was over, and Josh was doing an interview on the field, he seemed a bit..... unsure or irritated (fidgety maybe).  Could be a multiple of things, the red zone INT's, his play in the second half.. I don't know, but usually in interviews he is usually calm.

but I know I consciously thought that he was forcing his answers.  Also it seemed some of the things he did in the 2nd half were actually either way off (like not processing it correctly) or was deliberate.  I even read on here someone said it seems he is tryin to throw the game or at least the points.  

 

Just a weird observation I had after the GB game.

Edited November 29, 2022 by CaliBills

[ngbills]

I think Josh is going to be this. A player with more highs and lows than the steady Eddie. Still potentially the best in the game but will have stretches of amazing followed by wtf periods. You just hope he is in his good mode at the right times.