We're on to Cincinnati(Bengals coming to OP). Sunday 1/22 at 3pm. Opening Line Bills -5

[HappyDays]

2 hours ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Chris Simms is getting more and more unhinged lol Davis was terrorizing the dolphins.  Bills receivers were beating their man all game long. Just barely missed out on like 200 extra yards and 2+ more tds. 

If the dolphins weren’t scared of the bills receivers, they should have been 😂. They were very lucky to not lose that game by 20+ 

 

someone should probably tell him that the Vikings who have many scary wrs lost to the giants who have 0 scary wrs too haha 

 

 

We signed two WRs off the street that nobody else wanted and gave them both a good amount of snaps. That is proof enough that Chris Simms is right. Teams have figured out if you bracket Diggs the other weapons aren't consistently stepping up. The offense is mostly just Josh Allen making magic happen, that has been Chris Simms' point all year long. Hard to argue with him.

[Beck Water]

5 minutes ago, CorkScrewHill said:

injury report .. overall looking good .. hopefully it will remain so ...

 

 

 

 

Keep in mind it was a "walkthrough" and we saw a scary change last week

[Big Turk]

1 minute ago, HappyDays said:

 

We signed two WRs off the street that nobody else wanted and gave them both a good amount of snaps. That is proof enough that Chris Simms is right. Teams have figured out if you bracket Diggs the other weapons aren't consistently stepping up. The offense is mostly just Josh Allen making magic happen, that has been Chris Simms' point all year long. Hard to argue with him.

 

Who scares teams outside of Kelce in KC? Nobody.

1 minute ago, Beck Water said:

 

Keep in mind it was a "walkthrough" and we saw a scary change last week

 

If we lose DaQuan for any of these games we are f**ked. He is the best DL against the run and is a very underrated pass rusher as well.

[Straight Hucklebuck]

1 hour ago, Beck Water said:

 

On the fumble machine thing, I put up data on this partly through the season where I characterized each fumble as QB/C exchange, strip sack, or fumble while running.  At that time, the majority of Josh's fumbles were on QB-C exchange or strip sacks.  So unless you have data that differs for the last 3-4 games, your characterization of Josh as a "fumble machine" when he runs has been wrong to date.  That said, I don't like the way Josh holds the ball when he runs, either.

 

TL;DR for what follows: the problem with an immensely physically talented QB like Josh who can actually make all these plays, is that you can't just get in his grill and yell "stop doing this, always do that instead" without limiting or removing his special play ability.  Instead, it's about refining and molding his decision making, and that's much harder and takes more time.

 

Kurt Warner did an interesting interview with Brown and Tasker where he talked about how as a QB, he had no option but to learn to read the D and make correct, fast decisions because he simply couldn't make the special, Unicorn plays Josh makes.  He  points out that as a HOF QB, he threw a lot of turnovers and that if you're an aggressive QB who pushes the ball down the field, he believes you will make more good plays than bad so turnovers don't bother him so much.  That said, he talks about how he thinks it's hard to for a QB to live in a place where he has to make 15-20 special plays per game and that to be successful against the best defenses in the playoffs, a successful playoff QB has to be able to see and take the layups and maybe make 4-5 special plays per game.  He says he believes the offense in Buffalo is a good solid system (that would support Josh playing "in system" more).  He talks about how he'd like to see Josh play more in system in the red zone and not feel that he needs to run around and create so much.  He acknowledges that he was NOT one of the guys who can do all the special stuff that Josh can do, so he doesn't fully understand that mindset, but he says that one reason Mahomes and Allen are so special is that they CAN do both things well (play in system as well as create outside the system) and acknowledges that it must be a hard thing to balance out when you're used to making so many big plays.   I know some here don't like Kurt Warner's QB Confidential pieces on Josh but I think it's a fascinating listen.

 

My impression is that Daboll had no fear of lighting into Josh and setting him straight on anything.  They had a relationship built from the ground up, when Josh was coming into the league and depending upon his coaches to help him develop.  Daboll had the carrots, and Daboll had the sticks.

 

Now Josh is an established star, and he basically spoke up for Dorsey and got him the job so Dorsey is, to some extent, dependent upon Josh's good will.  We can kind of see that Dorsey is "low man on the (coaching) totum pole in that McDermott stuck him with John Butler, the DB coach, as his "Passing Game Coordinator" and Joe Brady as his QB coach then Mike Shula as "Senior Offensive Assistant".   Joe Brady is a great X's and O's guy, but outside of the backup QB Josh no longer has a real QB coach on the sideline with him who can coach QB vision or technique if something is getting away from him.  And while Daboll was unquestionably "running the show" by his 3rd year, I think Dorsey is running "Offense by Committee" and feeling his way.

 

Bottom line, I think the offense lacks a "single voice" and possibly lacks someone who feels like they have the clout to set Josh straight.  And I hope that's a problem they solve in the off-season because we have Russ Wilson as the shining example of what happens when an undoubted QB talent grows beyond being coachable.

 

I do think that Dorsey is overall feeling his way successfully.  Josh has said things in interviews about realizing that the QB has to be an extension of the OC on the field and see things the same way or it doesn't work, and that it took some doing but they're getting to a good place now (this was weeks ago, around the Thurs. nite games).

My frustration is fans and media don’t have much specific in their complaining about Dorsey.

 

1. They say things like, Bills aren’t good at running the ball, but then it turns out that Singletary and Cook range 4.7 ypc - 5.7 ypc.
 

And Dorsey has leaned on the run game as appropriate, cutting down Singletary’s snaps and upping James Cook, and probably most fans would like 2-4 more touches per game for Cook.

 

And the Bills deserve credit for for finding a way to use Bobby Hart, because he was useless as a stand-alone player.

 

 

2. “Dorsey doesn’t scheme anything open” or “there aren’t enough layups” in this offense. Then All-22 comes out and there are plenty of underneath options.

 

My criticisms of Dorsey most times are throwaway plays in the red zone where Josh rolls out of a tight formation and there is no one to throw to, instead of recognizing that Josh needs a designed run when you are 7 yards and in.

 

 

 

And I wish this offense varied tempo more. I don’t like always waiting until 1 second to snap the ball. 
 

Jet Sweeps? Okay, Isaiah McKenzie can do that once in awhile, but do I need it as a foundational piece? Probably not.

 

But I do think the offense is smoother with more presnap motion and window dressing. 

 

Our line is poor, especially at RT, so I’d like more 4-wide ideally. 

I want fans and media to get more specific. 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2023 by Straight Hucklebuck

[TH3]

1 hour ago, Big Turk said:

 

Except the Bengals rarely do that all night. At some point in the game their offense goes dormant for long stretches.  Inexplicably but it almost always happens and has back to last season.

This is correct...bengals are inexplicably a  one half team....you can look it up...its very consistant....

[Process]

2 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

 

Who scares teams outside of Kelce in KC? Nobody.

 

If we lose DaQuan for any of these games we are f**ked. He is the best DL against the run and is a very underrated pass rusher as well.

Mahomes has one of the best o lines in the NFL. It's significantly better than ours. Like not even close. 

[Big Turk]

2 minutes ago, Process said:

Mahomes has one of the best o lines in the NFL. It's significantly better than ours. Like not even close. 

 

That scares you in the pass game?  OK....

[HappyDays]

2 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

Who scares teams outside of Kelce in KC? Nobody.

 

Teams are scared of Toney, they at least have to plan for him. Our version of him on Sunday was Beasley... The one interception happened because the Dolphins could squat on his route without fear. If teams try to play that way against Toney he could take a quick pass to the house.

 

I agree in general that KC's offensive weapons aren't much better than ours, I think Simms is overrating them. But JuJu in his career has been more consistent than Davis when he's been healthy. For KC I would give a slight advantage to their weapons, a big advantage to their OL, and a big advantage to their play calling (which is more a compliment of Andy Reid than a criticism of Ken Dorsey).

[NewEra]

20 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

I really don’t think that’s true…bills are at home and the bengals losing 3 olinemen really mitigates the bills’ biggest issue.  

 

It’s also up to 5.5 now so you should’ve waited 😂  I could see it going over 6 when those guys are ruled officially out 
 

 

The sharps agree with you.  Most are on the Bills 

[BillsfaninSB]

I get the anxiety about playing the Bengals and by no means am I’m predicting a win for the Bills.

 

But the Bengals should be sitting at home this weekend and they should have lost to the Patriots.

 

I expect a tight game.  But this is fun!  So much better than the alternative of the drought era when we were pulling our pud this time of year. 

[Augie]

4 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Teams are scared of Toney, they at least have to plan for him. Our version of him on Sunday was Beasley... The one interception happened because the Dolphins could squat on his route without fear. If teams try to play that way against Toney he could take a quick pass to the house.

 

I agree in general that KC's offensive weapons aren't much better than ours, I think Simms is overrating them. But JuJu in his career has been more consistent than Davis when he's been healthy. For KC I would give a slight advantage to their weapons, a big advantage to their OL, and a big advantage to their play calling (which is more a compliment of Andy Reid than a criticism of Ken Dorsey).

 

It was also related to blatant defensive pass interference. I have a damning photo but it’s too large to fit here and I’m not going to waste time on it. The Dolphin defender got there early, hit him from behind and was wrapping him up….well before the ball arrived. I was surprised that didn’t get more mention during the broadcast. I thought it was on the WR initially, but that was clearly not the case. 

[Big Turk]

19 minutes ago, BillsfaninSB said:

I get the anxiety about playing the Bengals and by no means am I’m predicting a win for the Bills.

 

But the Bengals should be sitting at home this weekend and they should have lost to the Patriots.

 

I expect a tight game.  But this is fun!  So much better than the alternative of the drought era when we were pulling our pud this time of year. 

 

You don't think they have anxiety about facing us?

[JohninMinn.]

Homefield advantage in the playoffs goes up exponentially! Fans will be able to call pass interference.

[UKBillFan]

Just now, JohninMinn. said:

Homefield advantage in the playoffs goes up exponentially! Fans will be able to call pass interference.

 

They weren't able to last week!

[H2o]

A somewhat healthy Jordan Phillips would be a big boost to the interior of this line for getting pressure on Macaulay. 

[Mat68]

Sunday is going to be a great game.  I think Buffalo is better than Cincy.  I think they matchup very well vs them.  Buffalo wins or beats themselves.  I question Taylor and his offense.  Cincy is very good during the scripted plays after the offense stalls.  Buffalo wins 32-23

[JohninMinn.]

Just now, UKBillFan said:

 

They weren't able to last week!

That play was bang bang. The ones I'm talking about are the long drama passes.

[Wayne Arnold]

 

Can Buffalo's defense please humble this mfer?

 

"The window is my whole career"

 

"I never feel like an underdog"

 

Please shut him up.

[Big Turk]

"Big Game Gabe" making preparations

 

 

[nucci]

3 minutes ago, Wayne Arnold said:

 

Can Buffalo's defense please humble this mfer?

 

"The window is my whole career"

 

"I never feel like an underdog"

 

Please shut him up.

Do locker rooms have bulletin boards?