The Day After. Next Day Analysis.

[Lost]

I'll start with the good things that happened during this game.  

 

1.  The pass rush.  We were getting in the backfield all game long.  Rousseau looked great but just couldn't quite get home.  Rodgers getting hurt may have actually been a blessing for the Jets last night as Wilson has fresher legs and was able to avoid that pressure on numerous occasions.  Perhaps with Rodgers in there the whole game we may have gotten a sack fumble or two of our own to put us in scoring position.  

 

2.  The Bills offensive scheme started off right.   A lot of quick release throws dialed up early and Josh Allen was quickly going through is reads and taking those throws.   

 

3.  The offensive line.  It's hard to call this a positive but a consistent theme last season was that it was poor offensive line play that cost us the game.  Despite not playing great, hat was not the case last night.  Cybo looked solid out there.  

 

4.  Corner play.  Our corners played admirably last night and while the Jets may have the best defensive backfield in football this year, ours is right up there as well.  

 

5.  Dalton Kincaid.  What limited amount we saw of him last night was all positive.   I dunno if they stopped calling throws in his direction as the game progressed or if Josh Allen just stopped making his reads but he seemed to be getting open and had no drops on the times he was targeted and fought pretty hard for yards after catch.  

 

 

 

The negatives.  

 

1.   Josh Allen.   His decision making single handedly cost us the game.  No other way to put it.   Early on when he was going by the script, he was efficient.   He was going through his reads quickly and taking all the underneath throws they were giving us.   We didn't always get the first down, but more importantly we weren't turning the ball over.  Allen was having a very high completion percentage early on in the game...but...he eventually got that itch and couldn't restrain himself.   Against a lesser defense like say the Chargers for example, Josh may be able to use his raw arm strength to make those downfield throws into double coverage and get away with it, but until the coaches get it in his head that it's not going to work against these elite defenses, we're going to see a lot more games like this one.   Josh also continues to take unnecessary abuse running the ball.   The one play where josh scrambled up the sideline and proceeded to get smacked by two defenders instead of running out of bounds, McDermott was visibly pissed and yelling into his headset saying something along the lines of "use your head".  Perhaps Josh thought he meant that in the literal sense.  

 

2.  Run D.  This was a liability for us last year and continues to be this year.   We are undersized at middle linebacker and have a pass rush that tends to over pursue a lot this usually means if the RB breaks one tackle there is a lot of green field in front of them and our aging safeties are a step or two slower than they used to be to get there and help make the tackle.   Thankfully teams tend not to use this advantage against us as much as they should.   

 

3.  James Cook.   I'm one of the people here who actually misses Singletary.  I thought he was an incredibly reliable blocker and always ran hard with the ball and even made a decent pass catcher when the ball came his way.   Cook has great speed when he can get accelerating, but against good D-lines he's not gonna see those lanes open up very often and he just doesn't have the power to break tackles and push for extra yardage.   Great situational player, below average every down back.  

 

4.  Playcalling.  I thought going into the game the Bills had the right idea.  Dorsey called a lot of quick release throws, crossing routes and throwing some screens to our back.   Some of the run plays I have issue with however.   They either aren't disguising the runs well enough or are pulling tackles to the opposite side to block and the play is blown up before they even get there.   Then there was a lot of draw plays where they run it right up the gut with cook directly at All Pro Quinnen Williams and those went about how you would expect.   The 2nd and 15 draw play in OT was probably the biggest head scratcher of them all.  

 

5.  Gabe Davis.   This man was largely invisible last night and I'm not sure why.  Maybe he was blanketed the whole game or his number wasn't called or josh just never looked his direction.  Truth is last nights game was too vomit inducing to even go back and watch the tape to find out.  

 

 

Overall.   I was completely prepared for the Bills to lose last night but not the way it happened.   I fully expected a low scoring dog fight between two good defenses and two of the best QBs in football.   What we got instead was the most Billsy loss of maybe the last decade.  But at least there were a few positive takeaways from the game.   I expect the Bills to be fine going forward.  They got one of their 4 toughest games out of the way already and slightly easier opponents coming up next few weeks so they can iron out the kinks.  

[BuffaloBillyG]

I'd like to add 1 positive and 2 negatives.

 

Positive:

 

Diggs. While his play was expected the way he came over to Josh late in the game, showed support and tried to get him going showed great maturity. That's how a captain acts. 

 

2 Negatives:

 

Special Teams. Aside from a great open field Neal tackle the ST was largely a "woof" Not great punting by Martin. Had one punt darn near blocked. Gave up the TD, that even if they throw the flag on the tripping a return like that in that spot should never happen.

 

Jordan Poyer. He's been a great warrior for this franchise for a long time. Last night he seemed to show that maybe it was just time to let him walk. He played 100% of the snaps last night and looked slow, took some poor angles and missed open field tackles. On the other hand, Rapp played 18 defensive snaps. Maybe Poyer just isn't that 100% snap guy anymore. Maybe getting Rapp back there and letting Poyer play the more limited role would help him stay fresh later in games. Either way I have to think the lack of speed in our secondary is going to keep costing us. 

[ngbills]

Scheme and team speed on O. 
 

Dorsey runs routes to get one guy open. Yet that one guy is rarely open and there are limited options except a check down. I have said it before ego is a dangerous thing for coaches. Dorsey wants to say look at the play design right? Just let the players play. Basic crossing concepts, pick routes, and quick downfield routes.  

[Bob Jones]

Hey Moderators: I'm sort of new here, but I was wondering should I start my own thread with my post game takes like Lost did here, or just post up to one of the many other post game threads already on here? LOL

[Ben]

We're on to vegas.

[PBF81]

Keep in mind though that the Jets OL is not good, well below-average.  Bigger tests of our push rush await.  

 

Kincaid played 80% of the offensive snaps. 

 

 

[Dillenger4]

Good writeup OP. But the CB's as a positive??

 

Benford was good but Tre was IMO one of  the top reasons we lost this game. Tre White missed/whiffed on 2 tackles that would have stopped the Jets from scoring FG's. One on the Hall long run and another on 3rd and long. Then Tre was burned 1-on-1 for the tieing TD by the Jets. How is nobody talking about TRE???

"Oh, he's an all pro... oh he was great in college.. oh we was injured". The dude sucks!!!! he cost us this game. weakest link on a great D.

 

Also - Lenrod Floyd - amazing game!!