OLine/QB Unforced Error All 22 Review - Wild Card - Dolphins

[Bocephuz]

In the past i used to do lengthy in depth posts with gifs.. don't have time for that nowadays

 

I watched every passing snap to evaluate pass blocking performance as well as Josh Allen unforced errors committed (PASS BLOCKING ONLY EVALUATED.. did not evaluate running plays). 

 

Unforced error =  Allen has time to throw, wr is open and he misses throw.. or.. Allen makes poor unforced decision 

 

OLINEMAN BEATEN =  O lineman clearly loses his one on one matchup... or.. clearly misreads stunt/combo block

 

____

 

OLINEMAN BEATEN STATS

DAWKINS - 0

SAFFOLD - 1

MORSE - 0

BATES - 0

BROWN - 7

 

 

-DAWKINS - Dion was mostly solid. He had a few reps where his guy beat him on a speed rush to the outside.. but he recovered just enough to not make it a lost rep 

- SAFFOLD - Two weeks in a row of solid performance for Saffold. He had one false start.. but did not surrender any obvious pressures to my eye

- MORSE - Usual reliable self. Had one rep on Allen sack where Bates was pulling behind him on a fake run and Mitch didn't quite get over to fill Bates' gap and the blitzer got through. That being said.. i think it was just a bad play call by Dorsey... and bad timing on safety blitzing in that gap.. so not gonna penalize the center for that. 

-BATES - zero pressures surrendered.. and he played against Christian Wilkinson a lot. See above comment regarding the Allen snap. On live TV it totally looked like Bates' fault.. however.. watching all 22-- the play call clearly had him pulling out of that gap. 

- BROWN -  Absolute tire fire. If you saw Josh having to step up in the pocket.. or shift up and drift to his right out of the pocket.. it was because of Spencer Brown. #15 Phillips absolutely dominated him all day. On most reps.. Phillips just clean beat him to the outside on speed rush.. causing Allen to have to bail out of the pocket early several times. These edge rushes then set up several reps where Phillips faked outside.. got Brown to overshift.. and then he beat him inside for pressures. This was one of the worst ass whoopings I've seen an OT take. Granted Phillips is a stud.. but he had #79 on rollerskates most of the day.  

 

OL SUMMARY : Outside of RT Brown.. the o line had a very solid day in pass protect. The vaunted Miami inside DTs did not do much damage at all. Singletary was particularly solid in picking up a lot of the zero blitzes. The Line also seemed to communicate well against all the blitzing. 

 

QB UNFORCED ERRORS:  Josh had 6 unforced errors by my count.  Based on my history of doing this kind of analysis when a qb has 5 or more unforced errors the chances of his team winning decrease materially.  

  - UE 1: Q1 - #17 scrambles left, needlessly fakes a pitch and fumbles it out of bounds

-  UE2:  Q2 - INTERCEPTION - Deep attempt to Brown. Josh had time, should have thrown it away .. threw ball late/flat footed and off target to Brown. Romo was wrong about it being Smoke's fault

- UE3: Q3 - BAILS POCKET -  Josh had a clean pocket and could have hung in for another second.. but he stepped up and out of the pocket and underthrew Beasley on crosser over middle. 

- UE 4: q3 -INTERCEPTION - Clean pocket.. late throw to Beasley that gets tipped and picked. He should have thrown it away. 

- UE 5: Q4 - Clean pocket - overthrow in flat to Shakir

- UE 6 : q4 - Clean pocket - slant to Davis is low and behind. 

 

 

SUMMARY  -  4/5 of the O Line performed fantastically against the Fish. Allen had many instances where he climbed the pocket instead of bailing.. and for the most part he handled the pressure well. I think he's so used to Spencer Brown getting beat to the outside he naturally steps up and to the right. Last week Allen and Co. had trouble wiht the Patriots delayed cb, lb and s blitzes.  For the most part the Dolphins weren't that subtle. They crowded the line and sent everyone all at once most of the time. Singletary was amazing at pass pro this week.. much better than last week against Pats. Josh' 6 unforced errors were much higher than his usual 2 or 3. Some of that may be due to Miami DL getting their hands up into passing lanes. The Dolphins DBs had pretty tight coverage on some plays.. and on a few of those plays Bad Josh came out when he threw late to Beasley and Brown when he should have just thrown it away. The good news is that Allen did actually throw a couple away when noone was open.. so he has the aptitude to do that when nothing is there. 

 

Dawkins - 0 times beaten.. ( fyi)

Edited January 18, 2023 by Bocephuz

[CSBill]

Thanks @Bocephuz  Good stuff.

 

It leaves me with this one question: Is it time to bring Quessenbery back to RT?

 

 

[Bocephuz]

In my opinion .. Yes. Quessenberry should be brought back in at RT assuming he's healthy.

 

With Q in at RT.. they would likely suffer a bit in the run game as Brown is probably better run blocker. 

 

However.. it could not possibly be any worse than it is now in pass pro with Spencer in there. 

Edited January 18, 2023 by Bocephuz

[Andrew Son]

2 minutes ago, Bocephuz said:

In my opinion .. Yes. Quessenberry should be brought back in at RT assuming he's healthy.

 

With Q in at RT.. they would likely suffer a bit in the run game as Brown is probably better run blocker. 

 

However.. it could not possibly be any worse than it is now in pass pro with Spencer in there. 

I think Brown probably has a better matchup in this one.  CIN has good ends, but they are not speed guys and athletic freaks like J. Phillips.  I think Brown does better vs. Power at this point.

[Beck Water]

Great stuff @Bocephuz, Thanks!

 

I did not catch that Bates was assigned to pull on a "fake run".   If that is correct (and I'm not doubting what you see, but interpretations can vary) given the field position and the aggressive nature of the Dolphins pass rush, I can not over-emphasize what a Stone Cold STUPID call I think that would be.

 

Spencer Brown is becoming a  theme as a problem.  I caught an interview with Maddy Glab and Micah Hyde on the corny M &M show they do where he kind of mocked Bates for being a detail oriented guy with a pen and notebook taking copious notes.  Brown needs to step up his game.  Maybe Kromer needs to buy him a notebook.  Anyway someone needs to take him in hand.

 

18 minutes ago, Bocephuz said:

OL SUMMARY : Outside of RT Brown.. the o line had a very solid day in pass protect. The vaunted Miami inside DTs did not do much damage at all. Singletary was particularly solid in picking up a lot of the zero blitzes. The Line also seemed to communicate well against all the blitzing. 

 

Someone - think it was one of the Cover1 guys - commented that the OL did a good job picking up the zero blitzes, but the 4 and 5 man pressures (where I assume there were twists and stunts) was something they were "working on."  Do you have any input there from what you saw?

 

18 minutes ago, Bocephuz said:

QB UNFORCED ERRORS:  Josh had 6 unforced errors by my count.  Based on my history of doing this kind of analysis when a qb has 5 or more unforced errors the chances of his team winning decrease materially.  

  - UE 1: Q1 - #17 scrambles left, needlessly fakes a pitch and fumbles it out of bounds

-  UE2:  Q2 - INTERCEPTION - Deep attempt to Brown. Josh had time, should have thrown it away .. threw ball late/flat footed and off target to Brown. Romo was wrong about it being Smoke's fault

 

Josh had Morris completely open on a crosser 4 yards past the LOS, with a passing lane.  It was 1D Morris could easily have made it 2nd and 3 or 4.

 

18 minutes ago, Bocephuz said:

- UE3: Q3 - BAILS POCKET -  Josh had a clean pocket and could have hung in for another second.. but he stepped up and out of the pocket and underthrew Beasley on crosser over middle. 

- UE 4: q3 -INTERCEPTION - Clean pocket.. late throw to Beasley that gets tipped and picked. He should have thrown it away. 

 

Josh had Diggs shallow and completely uncovered on the R side of the field, about 3 yds past the LOS on 2nd down but could easily have gotten 5 yds and maybe more to make it 3rd and 5 or less.

 

So obviously, errors on both throws, but disagree that Josh should have thrown it away because he had options

 

Post I wrote in another thread on the John Brown INT, if you want to have a look and weigh in.

Post I wrote in another thread on the Beasley INT, if you want to have a look and weigh in

 

 

Edited January 18, 2023 by Beck Water

[H2o]

Jaelen Phillips was eating Brown alive. 

[Brand J]

Dawkins was beaten on the Chubb sack/fumble. 

(14:05 mark) 

[blacklabel]

It was pretty noticeable that Brown was really struggling out there. He's been inconsistent all year. I know he had some injury stuff and you always wonder if that plays a part that we don't hear about. 

 

That said, I think his performance this season will have Beane searching for RT candidates through the draft and free agency. Brown has shown some flashes but overall just far too inconsistent. 

[Solomon Grundy]

2 hours ago, H2o said:

Jaelen Phillips was eating Brown alive. 

Draws, with Cook, toward Phillips would've slowed that speed rush down. I'd like to see some of that to help Spencer

[Lieutenant Aldo Raine]

1 hour ago, Chaos said:

Do we need to make the move to Case Keenum? Inquiring minds want to know. 

 

Right lol

[Beck Water]

36 minutes ago, Lieutenant Aldo Raine said:

Right lol

 

I Don't Think So

 

That said....

I had the impression McDermott is nonplussed and a bit at his wit's end with some of Josh's decision making the last couple weeks, and that if he had hair left, he'd be pulling it out.  He said there's a balance there, you prepare, you put the work in, and there's calculated risk, calculated being the operative, the key word.  He was asked if he felt the Bills had dodged a bullet there with the turnovers, and he said "Yeah.  I mean, that's not the way you want to live your life, if you want to win games.  That's proven, in the NFL.  I trust our players, though, that they're going to take great ownership of it, and get it corrected." 

 

Later, he said "it's something that's been addressed, directly, indirectly and will continue to be addressed, one way or the other, as we continue down the road here."

 

Not quite sure what "one way or the other" could mean, LOL.

 

On the other hand, going back up to @Bocephuz OP, on his Tuesday appearance on Kyle Brandt's Basement, Josh said that he felt he only made one really bad decision in the Dolphins game, and that was the deep throw to Brown. 

 

I don't know if I agree with that; I think on 2nd down, a decision to throw to a tightly covered Beasley with 2 other defenders in the vicinity, vs Diggs short of the chains but very wide open, really ought to be considered.

[co_springs_billsfan]

1 hour ago, JayBaller10 said:

Dawkins was beaten on the Chubb sack/fumble. 

(14:05 mark) 

The strip sack for a TD also seems like an unforced Allen error (to not throw hot or throw away or tuck the ball in properly)

[Brand J]

18 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

On the other hand, going back up to @Bocephuz OP, on his Tuesday appearance on Kyle Brandt's Basement, Josh said that he felt he only made one really bad decision in the Dolphins game, and that was the deep throw to Brown. 

Josh is hardheaded, for sure. His past coaches have said as much. It’s just something we’ll have to live with as fans. I know McD criticized Josh on that John Brown pass and Josh also took ownership of it, but looking back at the overhead view of the play, the throw was absolutely there to be made. It was just a bad ball. A terrible one actually, thrown against the direction where Brown was headed. One could say the QB and the WR weren’t on the same page, but Brown had nothing but green grass to his left and only X back there, not really in position to stop anything. If Allen threw it more towards the middle of the field and not a floater that drifted towards the sideline, it could’ve been an easy uncontested TD.

9 minutes ago, co_springs_billsfan said:

The strip sack for a TD also seems like an unforced Allen error (to not throw hot or throw away or tuck the ball in properly)

Josh should’ve read that blitz and looked for his hot man (Singletary). Didn’t even see the defender coming until late and then tried to fight his way out of it. 

[Beck Water]

24 minutes ago, JayBaller10 said:

Josh is hardheaded, for sure. His past coaches have said as much. It’s just something we’ll have to live with as fans.

 

I'm reminded of the joke about the mule trained with loving kindness.

McDermott may need to bring a stick

 

I do have the impression that for all the "holy spirit" that Morse joked about coming out of Dorsey, he doesn't have the pipeline into the space between Allen's ears that Daboll constructed and I'm not sure he has the capability to construct it.  🤷‍♂️ 

 

We may have to live with it, but I don't think McDermott has any intention of living with it.

 

24 minutes ago, JayBaller10 said:

I know McD criticized Josh on that John Brown pass and Josh also took ownership of it, but looking back at the overhead view of the play, the throw was absolutely there to be made. It was just a bad ball. A terrible one actually, thrown against the direction where Brown was headed. One could say the QB and the WR weren’t on the same page, but Brown had nothing but green grass to his left and only X back there, not really in position to stop anything. If Allen threw it more towards the middle of the field and not a floater that drifted towards the sideline, it could’ve been an easy uncontested TD.

Josh should’ve read that blitz and looked for his hot man (Singletary). Didn’t even see the defender coming until late and then tried to fight his way out of it. 

 

I think what I come up with for the throw to Brown, is that some thing was off there, but without knowing the play, none of us outside OBD can know what.  Brown 100% did something unusual with his route - he checked or paused.  If McD, knowing the play, felt it was a bad decision, and Josh is willing to acknowledge that, I have to go with them.

 

Totally agree that Josh should have read the blitz and looked for the hot read.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Beck Water

[BillsFan130]

I noticed you had Dawkins 0 in terms of beaten.

 

He gave up a strip sack in the 4th against Chubb.

 

Are you putting more of that one on Josh saying he should have stepped up in the pocket?

[Beck Water]

2 hours ago, JayBaller10 said:

Dawkins was beaten on the Chubb sack/fumble. 

(14:05 mark) 

 

You are absolutely correct.  Dawkins was beaten like a drum.  Was holding, too; didn't help him.

1 hour ago, Solomon Grundy said:

Draws, with Cook, toward Phillips would've slowed that speed rush down. I'd like to see some of that to help Spencer

 

seems to me like we don't run draws very often

Edited January 19, 2023 by Beck Water

[Beck Water]

9 minutes ago, BillsFan130 said:

I noticed you had Dawkins 0 in terms of beaten.

 

He gave up a strip sack in the 4th against Chubb.

 

Are you putting more of that one on Josh saying he should have stepped up in the pocket?

 

I was going to say that Josh didn't have a pocket to step into or time for the hot read, but actually he did have room to step up, and he could have pitched it to Singletary, I think.  But those decisions are bam-bam and an instant earlier, it looked as though both Morse and Bates were gonna lose their guys. 

 

Singletary did a good job of being QB friendly.

 

 

 

 

[BillsFan130]

Just now, Beck Water said:

 

I was going to say that Josh didn't have a pocket to step into or time for the hot read, but actually he did have room to step up, and he could have pitched it to Singletary, I think.  But those decisions are bam-bam and an instant earlier, it looked as though both Morse and Bates were gonna lose their guys. 

 

Singletary did a good job of being QB friendly.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for that screen shot/post.

 

Would be interesting to see how fast Chubb got off the edge, or if it was more him “drifting” and josh fell into him.

 

When I watched it live I thought Dawkins was beat as it seemed to happen fast, but will have to watch it again 

[3rdand12]

4 hours ago, Bocephuz said:

In the past i used to do lengthy in depth posts with gifs.. don't have time for that nowadays

 

I watched every passing snap to evaluate pass blocking performance as well as Josh Allen unforced errors committed (PASS BLOCKING ONLY EVALUATED.. did not evaluate running plays). 

 

Unforced error =  Allen has time to throw, wr is open and he misses throw.. or.. Allen makes poor unforced decision 

 

OLINEMAN BEATEN =  O lineman clearly loses his one on one matchup... or.. clearly misreads stunt/combo block

 

____

 

OLINEMAN BEATEN STATS

DAWKINS - 0

SAFFOLD - 1

MORSE - 0

BATES - 0

BROWN - 7

 

 

-DAWKINS - Dion was mostly solid. He had a few reps where his guy beat him on a speed rush to the outside.. but he recovered just enough to not make it a lost rep 

- SAFFOLD - Two weeks in a row of solid performance for Saffold. He had one false start.. but did not surrender any obvious pressures to my eye

- MORSE - Usual reliable self. Had one rep on Allen sack where Bates was pulling behind him on a fake run and Mitch didn't quite get over to fill Bates' gap and the blitzer got through. That being said.. i think it was just a bad play call by Dorsey... and bad timing on safety blitzing in that gap.. so not gonna penalize the center for that. 

-BATES - zero pressures surrendered.. and he played against Christian Wilkinson a lot. See above comment regarding the Allen snap. On live TV it totally looked like Bates' fault.. however.. watching all 22-- the play call clearly had him pulling out of that gap. 

- BROWN -  Absolute tire fire. If you saw Josh having to step up in the pocket.. or shift up and drift to his right out of the pocket.. it was because of Spencer Brown. #15 Phillips absolutely dominated him all day. On most reps.. Phillips just clean beat him to the outside on speed rush.. causing Allen to have to bail out of the pocket early several times. These edge rushes then set up several reps where Phillips faked outside.. got Brown to overshift.. and then he beat him inside for pressures. This was one of the worst ass whoopings I've seen an OT take. Granted Phillips is a stud.. but he had #79 on rollerskates most of the day.  

 

OL SUMMARY : Outside of RT Brown.. the o line had a very solid day in pass protect. The vaunted Miami inside DTs did not do much damage at all. Singletary was particularly solid in picking up a lot of the zero blitzes. The Line also seemed to communicate well against all the blitzing. 

 

QB UNFORCED ERRORS:  Josh had 6 unforced errors by my count.  Based on my history of doing this kind of analysis when a qb has 5 or more unforced errors the chances of his team winning decrease materially.  

  - UE 1: Q1 - #17 scrambles left, needlessly fakes a pitch and fumbles it out of bounds

-  UE2:  Q2 - INTERCEPTION - Deep attempt to Brown. Josh had time, should have thrown it away .. threw ball late/flat footed and off target to Brown. Romo was wrong about it being Smoke's fault

- UE3: Q3 - BAILS POCKET -  Josh had a clean pocket and could have hung in for another second.. but he stepped up and out of the pocket and underthrew Beasley on crosser over middle. 

- UE 4: q3 -INTERCEPTION - Clean pocket.. late throw to Beasley that gets tipped and picked. He should have thrown it away. 

- UE 5: Q4 - Clean pocket - overthrow in flat to Shakir

- UE 6 : q4 - Clean pocket - slant to Davis is low and behind. 

 

 

SUMMARY  -  4/5 of the O Line performed fantastically against the Fish. Allen had many instances where he climbed the pocket instead of bailing.. and for the most part he handled the pressure well. I think he's so used to Spencer Brown getting beat to the outside he naturally steps up and to the right. Last week Allen and Co. had trouble wiht the Patriots delayed cb, lb and s blitzes.  For the most part the Dolphins weren't that subtle. They crowded the line and sent everyone all at once most of the time. Singletary was amazing at pass pro this week.. much better than last week against Pats. Josh' 6 unforced errors were much higher than his usual 2 or 3. Some of that may be due to Miami DL getting their hands up into passing lanes. The Dolphins DBs had pretty tight coverage on some plays.. and on a few of those plays Bad Josh came out when he threw late to Beasley and Brown when he should have just thrown it away. The good news is that Allen did actually throw a couple away when noone was open.. so he has the aptitude to do that when nothing is there. 

 

Dawkins - 0 times beaten.. ( fyi)

Thanks for bringing ,once again your perspective from a seasoned and worthy perspective B !

also thanks for creating some sincerely interesting dialogue here from like minded folks 

[artmalibu]

Question to the OP.

 

Brown was a mismatch.  That said of the 39 pass plays how many times did Brown get help?  If Brown got beat on 18% of the pass plays, It would be nice to know what percentage of the time he got help.  That would give some clue to the job the coaches are doing in regards to game plan and adjustments.  

 

80% of the pass plays the O-line won, does not sound too bad.