This offense was doomed from the start

[PBF81]

1 hour ago, Roundybout said:

Im crying laughing at that rep by Saffold, he should be forced to return the salary we paid him. 

Morse didn't exactly do what should have been obvious either.

[SCBills]

I think some here nail it when they talk about how our offense was ill-designed for the playoffs and the weather conditions. 

 

We relied almost solely on the vertical pass game, which was never going to be ideal against a good defense, in poor footing conditions and low visibility.

 

It's not the sole reason we lost, there's plenty of coaching/roster decisions to be evaluated, but it played a big part.  

 

Do we beat them indoors?  I don't think so.  They're just better coached, more talented and wanted it more..   But I also don't think it looks like it did on Sunday. 

[since79]

1 hour ago, SoCal Deek said:

The offense was far from doomed. It performed very well throughout the year and would’ve been even better had Josh just stopped turning the ball over deep in the red zone (not intended as Josh bashing). But…we ALL knew that it would live or die in improvement at the offensive line; especially in the running game. That clearly didn’t happen. Not sure what the new OL Coach was doing all season long, but whatever it was, it was an utter disaster. 

 

We are best in the red zone when we continue to drive inside of it.  Josh is the most effective inside the ten where he is a multi threat.  When we struggled, we hit the 20 and immediately go for end zone strikes.  The opponent didn't even have to cover the first down or short.

 

When we struggled we got too aggressive.  Dorsey may have liked it that way.  A good coach would have recognized the flaw all year and been in Josh's ear to keep driving.

 

Even when we scored on Sun we continued to drive the ball. On the failed red zone attempts, get to the 20 and throw into the end zone from there.

[RunTheBall]

Dorsey needs to go. He’s in way over his head. We don’t have time for him to learn on the job. Allowing Josh to have so much input on the OC was a mistake.

 

I don’t care what the stats say, this offense hasn’t passed the eye test after the first 4 games and teams got some tape on us.

 

Zero situational awareness, zero scheming guys open for easy throws for Josh, zero matching of running/passing game, no screens, little use of RB. They are turning Josh into Cam Newton 2.0. Look at how easy Mahomes and Burrow have it with a guy who knows what he’s doing.

 

The entire offensive philosophy was backyard football. Hike the ball and Josh go make a play. Because Josh is so good with Diggs, that’s why it worked against a lot of teams. They are going to get him killed.

 

There’s too much for Dorsey to try and learn while the window is still open. I’d seriously consider Brady as a replacement or go get a guy who knows how to scheme past “Everyone go deep”.

[Steptide]

52 minutes ago, SCBills said:

I think some here nail it when they talk about how our offense was ill-designed for the playoffs and the weather conditions. 

 

We relied almost solely on the vertical pass game, which was never going to be ideal against a good defense, in poor footing conditions and low visibility.

 

It's not the sole reason we lost, there's plenty of coaching/roster decisions to be evaluated, but it played a big part.  

 

Do we beat them indoors?  I don't think so.  They're just better coached, more talented and wanted it more..   But I also don't think it looks like it did on Sunday. 

Someone on wgr this morning made a good point. They basically said teams like kc and Cinci offense dictate how a defense plays against them and that the bills offense is dictated by how the defense is playing. Basically saying, the bills offense needs to be pro active, not re active 

[BillsFanSD]

3 hours ago, Steptide said:

They draft Shakir, who had a great game early against the steelers. Then they basically keep throwing mckenzie out there while Josh is sailing passes 5 feet over his head on the sideline, rather than keep Shakir out there to get game experience and reps.

 

I haven't even mentioned cook, who was basically benched after he fumbled his first carry. 

The coaching staff and FO absolutely should have their feet held to the first on this topic.  Toss Elam in there while we're at it.  And why did we even draft Terrel Bernard?  Why are we drafting players and then not playing the players we drafted?  

[Scott7975]

22 minutes ago, Steptide said:

Someone on wgr this morning made a good point. They basically said teams like kc and Cinci offense dictate how a defense plays against them and that the bills offense is dictated by how the defense is playing. Basically saying, the bills offense needs to be pro active, not re active 

 

The difference is those teams have the players that can dictate how a defense plays.  We dont.  We also dont seem to utilize the guys we have.  Knox has been good all year but barely used or even looked at. Our backs seem to be just guys they put on the field but Dorsey doesnt really know what to do with them. We dont have a thought out complimentary run game either.  There is no rhythm to our offense. Sometimes it seems they just run the ball to say we ran the ball.  I actually think Daboll had that same problem. I think even the WR routes have become predictable.  Our O line is a terrible revolving door.  There is always someone allowing a jail break.

 

This team needs more talent on the offensive side of the ball.  They need to get more creative on offense. They need to develop a complimentary run game. Game planning needs to be better.  This offense is basically Josh being super human to mask everything.  He isnt going to be that every game.

[Scott7975]

32 minutes ago, BillsFanSD said:

The coaching staff and FO absolutely should have their feet held to the first on this topic.  Toss Elam in there while we're at it.  And why did we even draft Terrel Bernard?  Why are we drafting players and then not playing the players we drafted?  

 

I been asking this for two years.  Either we are drafting all really raw players, they dont trust the players, or they dont know how to develop players.  They only seem to play rookies when they have to.  Rookies dont seem to take a big role or show much skill until towards the end of their contracts.  

 

The staff and Beane dont seem to be on the same page either.  All off season and even during the season Beane tried to get them a pass catching run back and improve the TE position.  We dont use the TE much.  We almost never use a pass catching running back.  Both things we should have used.

[Marcus Aurelius]

4 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Doomed? Can we stop being overly dramatic.

 

 

Perhaps severely hampered  ...

 

[mjt328]

I saw a thread on Twitter that I agree with completely.

 

One of the reasons the current Bills regime found success (while others failed), is because the front office/coaching staff always seemed to be on the same page.  Brandon Beane always seemed to understand how talent fit into the schemes his coaches were going to use.  This allowed him to grab late-round gems, and not waste draft picks on guys who would never be used.  

 

All that pretty much flew out the window this season...

 

Beane's big offensive additions in the offseason were Jamison Crowder, James Cook and Khalil Shakir.  He also threw a nice contract at Dawson Knox.  At the trade deadline, he also brought in Nyheim Hines.  Tons of slot options, and all moves that would theoretically build up the short passing game.  Then Ken Dorsey's offense is a non-stop downfield attack, which usually ignores the short/underneath stuff.  Despite him having no long-speed at the position, and his biggest downfield threat being Gabe Davis.

 

On defense, Beane spends a 1st Round pick on Kaiir Elam.  The coaching staff clearly had no use for a man-corner, first playing him behind Christian Benford and then refusing to replace a struggling Dane Jackson.  His third round pick was a linebacker, on a team that only plays Nickel and the starters get 100% of the snaps.  

 

[Mat68]

So keep Mcdermott and hire Oc number 3 for Allen.  We win the offense is better said Oc becomes a head coach and we are on rinse and repeat for Oc 4.  

[DJB]

5 hours ago, klos63 said:

I'm on the fire Dorsey train, but until the line is fixed, nothing good will happen.

I mean I agree to an extent, but why not design plays to limit our poor oline? Everything was a deep throw which predicates on having protection and a good line.

 

Where were the screens ? The quick slants or hitches? Crossers?  Quick timing routes to get the ball out of Josh’s hands? 
 

Like is Dorsey that much of a moron? Dude needs to go

[Steptide]

1 hour ago, Scott7975 said:

 

I been asking this for two years.  Either we are drafting all really raw players, they dont trust the players, or they dont know how to develop players.  They only seem to play rookies when they have to.  Rookies dont seem to take a big role or show much skill until towards the end of their contracts.  

 

The staff and Beane dont seem to be on the same page either.  All off season and even during the season Beane tried to get them a pass catching run back and improve the TE position.  We dont use the TE much.  We almost never use a pass catching running back.  Both things we should have used.

McDermott frequently says that players have to "earn" their playing time. While I agree to an extent, I also think it's an old school mentality. If you have a young, fresh buck with talent that can help your team, you play them

[Low Positive]

6 minutes ago, DJB said:

I mean I agree to an extent, but why not design plays to limit our poor oline? Everything was a deep throw which predicates on having protection and a good line.

 

Where were the screens ? The quick slants or hitches? Crossers?  Quick timing routes to get the ball out of Josh’s hands? 
 

Like is Dorsey that much of a moron? Dude needs to go

That's what the Bengals did. At the beginning of the year, Burrow was holding the ball waiting for Chase or Higgins to get downfield and was getting sacked at a high rate. He was sacked 5 times by the Browns on Halloween night. They shifted to the quick game that we all saw on Sunday and they feel unstoppable. It was a wholesale shift in offensive philosophy made midseason to mitigate poor OL play. 

[TheWeatherMan]

Hiring an unproven OC to run the pre season SB favorite offense is as big as a blunder as not firing your DC for allowing a team to win a game down 3 with 13 seconds left.  We got what we deserved…McD’s cronyism killed this  team.  

[BillsFanSD]

2 hours ago, TheWeatherMan said:

Hiring an unproven OC to run the pre season SB favorite offense is as big as a blunder as not firing your DC for allowing a team to win a game down 3 with 13 seconds left.  We got what we deserved…McD’s cronyism killed this  team.  

I actually don't mind this part.  The team had lots of first-hand experience with Dorsey.  They knew the guy way, way better than any of us did.  They knew his background, they knew (or should have known) how he thought about offense, his relationship with Josh and the other offensive players, etc.  If the people with years of experience working with him day in, day out thought that he was the right guy to replace Daboll, cool.  I'll trust their judgement.

 

Of course, the corollary here is that if you get that decision wrong, you need to admit as much and make a course correction.  I don't feel strongly about it, but I'm skeptical of the idea that we should allow Dorsey to grow into his role.  That would be okay if we were rebuilding, but you just can't waste time developing an OC when you have Josh Allen.

 

In other words, I would be happy if the team decided to throw a bunch of money at Frank Reich and make him the highest-paid OC in the league.  Surely this is an attractive job for a top OC.

Edited January 24, 2023 by BillsFanSD

[Boatdrinks]

Ok

[Nextmanup]

8 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Doomed? Can we stop being overly dramatic.

 

 

Depends on how you define "doomed" in football terms.

 

If "doomed" means fundamentally incorrectly structured to win a championship (at the moment), I agree, we are doomed.

 

 

[Meatloaf63]

8 hours ago, KDIGGZ said:

The question is, what happened to the offense from the beginning of the year? Was it figured out? After the bye it looked like a different team

It looked like they ran a different offense from the LA & Titans victories didn’t it? Some day I’ll go back and watch the first few games vs the last few.

[klos63]

4 hours ago, DJB said:

I mean I agree to an extent, but why not design plays to limit our poor oline? Everything was a deep throw which predicates on having protection and a good line.

 

Where were the screens ? The quick slants or hitches? Crossers?  Quick timing routes to get the ball out of Josh’s hands? 
 

Like is Dorsey that much of a moron? Dude needs to go

I agree the play calling didn't help,  but not sure how much you can hide an inferior line.