Rewatching the Game.....Enough Blame to Go Around, BUT....

[sven233]

Well, it's not getting much better working my way back through the game.  It was bad.  However, while there is enough blame to go around, looking back on it, I think we were a little to hard on certain players and coaches.

 

Now, I will say that I haven't looked at the All-22 yet to confirm what I saw from the broadcast angles, but I will do that and adjust anything if necessary.

 

1.  Tre White......far from the biggest problem in this game, so I am just going to get this out of the way now.  First, the TD.  I'm sorry, but if anyone if going to give him grief over that, I don't know what to tell you.  He was in good position, made a play on the ball, and the WR made an amazing catch.  But, other than that play, you never heard his name in coverage and he was solid in the pass game.  As for his 2 missed tackles that led to big plays.  Yes, they were a problem and he has to make those tackles.  However, on the 83 yard run, he was put in a terrible position.  We were completely aligned wrong at the snap and McDermott has admitted as much.  We were playing a gap defense, and the 2nd level was off a gap and should have been bumped over to Tre's side.  By the time the play was coming Tre's way, he was pretty much responsible for 2 gaps.  However, even with that happening, he put himself in position to make the tackle for a short gain and just didn't get it done like we'd want him to do there.  But for those just railing on him saying that he was horrible last night, that just isn't true.  Yes, make the tackles.  But he was done no favors by his teammates.

 

2.  Terrell Bernard......Again, he wasn't perfect by any means, but for someone making his first start at MLB, he did some good things.  He shot gaps and made a couple good stops in the run game.  His average depth of tackle on his run stops was only like a yard and a half or something.  He put himself in good position on several pass plays to take away throws that went unnoticed because the ball didn't go to those spots.  He did allow a couple of receptions that were killers, though.  It's going to happen, unfortunately, and the Jets attacked him a couple of times.  He did get wiped out of some plays for sure because of his lack of size, but he wasn't the tire fire that this board made him out to be last night.  Cover 1 actually just released a breakdown of his game and I would encourage you all to check it out.  He wasn't perfect, but he wasn't as bad as everyone was making him out to be.  Regardless, if your defense give up 16 points, you would take that any week of the season and should win those games.

 

3  Ken Dorsey....The most controversial one on this list for sure.  I will preface this by saying that he didn't call a great game overall.  There were certain calls in this game that were head scratching and unforgivable (I'm looking right at you Draw on 2nd and 15).  But there were definite times in this game where he had the right call at the right time and guys were running wide open and Allen didn't make the proper read.  When Allen said this game was on him, it really was.  There were several times that Dorsey had the right call and for whatever reason, Allen ignored his first read, second read, and sometimes his third read where any one of them would have allowed for a positive play and first downs.  Unfortunately, many of these brain farts for Allen turned into INTs instead of easy positive plays.  These plays were not on Dorsey.  They are on Allen.  Again, Dorsey deserves his share of the blame in this game.  If for nothing else, he deserves blame for not finding a way to reel in Allen when he was going off the tracks.  His game plan was fundamentally flawed, however.  I, and several others, noted going into the game that the weakest part of the Jets defense was their LBs in coverage over the middle of the field.  Kincaid and Knox should have eaten in this game over the middle.  And, for whatever reason, it looked like we wanted nothing to do with the middle of the field last night and I can't understand why.  Kincaid looked the part last night, especially on the couple of catches he did have.  But, he only had 2 catches on 2 targets!  That is inexcusable in this match-up.  The way the game set up and the way he played, he probably should have received 10 targets.  If Dorsey and Allen just want all the way conservative and just checked it down to Kincaid and Knox underneath all game, we probably walk out of there with a win.  All that said, Dorsey deserves his share of the blame for sure, but Allen did him no favors ignoring his intended reads on several occasions.  I am willing to bet the All-22 will be a lot more favorable to Dorsey than many want to admit.  He just didn't get any help at all from his QB.

 

There is plenty more we could get into this game about.  And, I am sure we will over the next couple of days.  But these were a few things that jumped out on the initial rewatch.  Again, if the All-22 shows a different story I will update my thoughts, but there is a lot of trash being talked about this game and I just am not sure it was all warranted.  What is warranted, is any criticism that Allen is getting today.  While I will say the first half was not terrible and was probably passable in many ways, that 2nd half was atrocious and maybe the worst football I have ever seen him play in the NFL. 

Edited September 12, 2023 by sven233

[JohnNord]

Everyone takes a backseat to Josh, who single-handedly lost this football game

[Chaos]

3 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Everyone takes a backseat to Josh, who single-handedly lost this football game

In real life Josh led the offense to tie the game and send it to overtime.  He gave the team a chance to win. Then special teams proceeded to lose the game.  

[BillzFreak]

How dare you give Trey any credit. Don't you know he is washed and will never be good ever again!!!. Lol honestly I appreciate you're thread and that you took the time to rewatch such a poopshow of a game with an open mind and not just pure hatred to find every little miscue to complain about. Regardless of what so many think about yesterday there were positives to take away from that game.

[sven233]

4 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Everyone takes a backseat to Josh, who single-handedly lost this football game

 

Yeah....in the end this is what it comes down to.  There have been times in the past where he takes responsibility for losses and we know that it wasn't the case and he's just being a good teammate and leader.  But last night he was definitely responsible for the loss.  If he just checks it down and plays a boring and simple game, we win.  It wouldn't have been pretty, but we would have won.  Instead he actively hurt the team with his play.  He needs to get it together and I think he will.

[Big Blitz]

Up 10 in the 3rd quarter, then 7 - we threw 46 times against that defense. 
 

Allen hurt us.  
 

Coaching and play calling is why Allen hurt us.  
 

Our run plays were the throws at or around the line of scrimmage because we still have no faith in a north south run game.  
 

 

Did McD walk over to Allen once?  Oh right he’s doing defense.  And I’m sure Joe Brady is telling him you suck right now get your ***t together. 

[bigduke6]

cant turn the ball over 4 times,  end of story.   team as a whole played bad,  but the D kept us in it like usual.  all the O had to do was not be dumb.   we know what happened.

[sven233]

3 minutes ago, BillzFreak said:

How dare you give Trey any credit. Don't you know he is washed and will never be good ever again!!!. Lol honestly I appreciate you're thread and that you took the time to rewatch such a poopshow of a game with an open mind and not just pure hatred to find every little miscue to complain about. Regardless of what so many think about yesterday there were positives to take away from that game.

 

It wasn't an easy watch and not much got better going back through it.  But when you watch the game back, and some plays over and over while knowing the result, you tend to see more of what is going on in other parts of the field that could have made that play more successful.  And you see how someone doing something wrong on another part of the field puts other players in such a difficult spot and they have to eat the blame for it.  There was a lot of bad in the game, but it wasn't all by the players in the spotlight on certain plays.

[Success]

13 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Everyone takes a backseat to Josh, who single-handedly lost this football game

 

Josh said it himself.  The loss was really all on him.

 

He gave the game away. The other facets of the game for the Bills were very good (imo). I loved some of what I saw, especially from the D.

 

[sven233]

3 minutes ago, Big Blitz said:

Up 10 in the 3rd quarter, then 7 - we threw 46 times against that defense. 
 

Allen hurt us.  
 

Coaching and play calling is why Allen hurt us.  
 

Our run plays were the throws at or around the line of scrimmage because we still have no faith in a north south run game.  
 

 

Did McD walk over to Allen once?  Oh right he’s doing defense.  And I’m sure Joe Brady is telling him you suck right now get your ***t together. 

 

I have no idea what happened on the sideline or if anyone said anything to Allen.  Allen knows, but he tends to put so much on his shoulders that things snowball when they go wrong.  That was one thing Daboll was able to do when he was here.  If Allen was off or making terrible decisions, he had no problem getting in his face about that.  I don't know if anyone did that last night, but it surely didn't feel like anyone was trying to reign him in.  Sometimes you have to protect the player from himself.  That is on the coaches.

[Bangarang]

This team isn’t going to see any kind of success unless Allen and Dorsey are better. 

[JerseyBills]

18 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Everyone takes a backseat to Josh, who single-handedly lost this football game

No question.  3 points on a 50 yard FG in the 2nd half because his inexcusable play. 4 freaking TOs, just ridiculous.  Wtf happened to 17

[BuffaloBillsGospel2014]

14 minutes ago, sven233 said:

Well, it's not getting much better working my way back through the game.  It was bad.  However, while there is enough blame to go around, looking back on it, I think we were a little to hard on certain players and coaches.

 

Now, I will say that I haven't looked at the All-22 yet to confirm what I saw from the broadcast angles, but I will do that and adjust anything if necessary.

 

1.  Tre White......far from the biggest problem in this game, so I am just going to get this out of the way now.  First, the TD.  I'm sorry, but if anyone if going to give him grief over that, I don't know what to tell you.  He was in good position, made a play on the ball, and the WR made an amazing catch.  But, other than that play, you never heard his name in coverage and he was solid in the pass game.  As for his 2 missed tackles that led to big plays.  Yes, they were a problem and he has to make those tackles.  However, on the 83 yard run, he was put in a terrible position.  We were completely aligned wrong at the snap and McDermott has admitted as much.  We were playing a gap defense, and the 2nd level was off a gap and should have been bumped over to Tre's side.  By the time the play was coming Tre's way, he was pretty much responsible for 2 gaps.  However, even with that happening, he put himself in position to make the tackle for a short gain and just didn't get it done like we'd want him to do there.  But for those just railing on him saying that he was horrible last night, that just isn't true.  Yes, make the tackles.  But he was done no favors by his teammates.

 

2.  Terrell Bernard......Again, he wasn't perfect by any means, but for someone making his first start at MLB, he did some good things.  He shot gaps and made a couple good stops in the run game.  His average depth of tackle on his run stops was only like a yard and a half or something.  He put himself in good position on several pass plays to take away throws that went unnoticed because the ball didn't go to those spots.  He did allow a couple of receptions that were killers, though.  It's going to happen, unfortunately, and the Jets attacked him a couple of times.  He did get wiped out of some plays for sure because of his lack of size, but he wasn't the tire fire that this board made him out to be last night.  Cover 1 actually just released a breakdown of his game and I would encourage you all to check it out.  He wasn't perfect, but he wasn't as bad as everyone was making him out to be.  Regardless, if your defense give up 16 points, you would take that any week of the season and should win those games.

 

3  Ken Dorsey....The most controversial one on this list for sure.  I will preface this by saying that he didn't call a great game overall.  There were certain calls in this game that were head scratching and unforgivable (I'm looking right at you Draw on 2nd and 15).  But there were definite times in this game where he had the right call at the right time and guys were running wide open and Allen didn't make the proper read.  When Allen said this game was on him, it really was.  There were several times that Dorsey had the right call and for whatever reason, Allen ignored his first read, second read, and sometimes his third read where any one of them would have allowed for a positive play and first downs.  Unfortunately, many of these brain farts for Allen turned int INTs instead of easy positive plays.  These plays were not on Dorsey.  They are on Allen.  Again, Dorsey deserves his share of the blame in this game.  If for nothing else, he deserves blame for not finding a way to reel in Allen when he was going off the tracks.  His game plan was fundamentally flawed, however.  I, and several others, noted going into the game that the weakest part of the Jets defense was their LBs in coverage over the middle of the field.  Kincaid and Knox should have eaten in this game over the middle.  And, for whatever reason, it looked like we wanted nothing to do with the middle of the field last night and I can't understand why.  Kincaid looked the part last night, especially on the couple of catches he did have.  But, he only had 2 catches on 2 targets!  That is inexcusable in this match-up.  The way the game set up and the way he played, he probably should have received 10 targets.  If Dorsey and Allen just want all the way conservative and just checked it down to Kincaid and Knox underneath all game, we probably walk out of there with a win.  All that said, Dorsey deserves his share of the blame for sure, but Allen did him no favors ignoring his intended reads on several occasions.  I am willing to bet the All-22 will be a lot more favorable to Dorsey than many want to admit.  He just didn't get any help at all from his QB.

 

There is plenty more we could get into this game about.  And, I am sure we will over the next couple of days.  But these were a few things that jumped out on the initial rewatch.  Again, if the All-22 shows a different story I will update my thoughts, but there is a lot of trash being talked about this game and I just am not sure it was all warranted.  What is warranted, is any criticism that Allen is getting today.  While I will say the first half was not terrible and was probably passable in many ways, that 2nd half was atrocious and maybe the worst football I have ever seen him play in the NFL. 

 

The only point you made that I have a problem with is Ken Dorsey, I gave him the benefit of the doubt last season because he was a 1st time OC in a brand new offense but he's had a whole offseason and training camp to improve his craft but it's exactly the same. Rewatching the game and dissecting it it's almost exactly the same, when you can clearly see that Allen is struggling, why have him throw the long ball, no TE screens, no RB screens, Harty looked like he was going to be huge in this offense catching the 1st 3 and then he didn't catch a single pass. Allen played like ***** correct but Dorsey did absolutely nothing to help the guy out. If pressure and the OL aren't holding up then taking 15 seconds on go routes is just stupid and I feel like we have no chance with him at this stage but that's just my opinion, it's the 1st game of the season so he obviously can change things up but if he doesn't it will be exactly the same under Dorsey as last year.

[Chaos]

20 minutes ago, sven233 said:

 

Yeah....in the end this is what it comes down to.  There have been times in the past where he takes responsibility for losses and we know that it wasn't the case and he's just being a good teammate and leader.  But last night he was definitely responsible for the loss.  If he just checks it down and plays a boring and simple game, we win.  It wouldn't have been pretty, but we would have won.  Instead he actively hurt the team with his play.  He needs to get it together and I think he will.

3 turnovers 4 turnovers 10 turnovers. None of those stats requires a forfeit.  Game went to overtime.  Special teams choked.  Not the first time we have seen this.  

[SectionC3]

27 minutes ago, Chaos said:

In real life Josh led the offense to tie the game and send it to overtime.  He gave the team a chance to win. Then special teams proceeded to lose the game.  

 

In real life the stupid turnovers contributed greatly to the fact that he had to lead the team to the game-tying field goal in the first instance. 

12 minutes ago, JerseyBills said:

No question.  3 points on a 50 yard FG in the 2nd half because his inexcusable play. 4 freaking TOs, just ridiculous.  Wtf happened to 17

This.  We had them on the ropes at the half and we couldn’t finish.  Three dumb turnovers. 

24 minutes ago, Big Blitz said:

Up 10 in the 3rd quarter, then 7 - we threw 46 times against that defense. 
 

Allen hurt us.  
 

Coaching and play calling is why Allen hurt us.  
 

Our run plays were the throws at or around the line of scrimmage because we still have no faith in a north south run game.  
 

 

Did McD walk over to Allen once?  Oh right he’s doing defense.  And I’m sure Joe Brady is telling him you suck right now get your ***t together. 

This.  All day long.  Someone has to get in his face and tell him the truth and piss him off if need be.  It’s better for everyone, including him.  

[Pirate Angel]

Hard to overcome 4 turnovers 

[JerseyBills]

5 minutes ago, Chaos said:

3 turnovers 4 turnovers 10 turnovers. None of those stats requires a forfeit.  Game went to overtime.  Special teams choked.  Not the first time we have seen this.  

We received and should have never put our ST in that position 

[Chaos]

4 minutes ago, SectionC3 said:

In real life the stupid turnovers contributed greatly to the fact that he had to lead the team to the game-tying field goal in the first instance. 

But he did.  Losers dwell on what happend on the previous play. Losers blame blowing opportunities on others. In a fact based world, the Bills had a 50/50 chance to win the game, and the special teams choked.  
 

[SectionC3]

1 minute ago, Chaos said:

But he did.  Losers dwell on what happend on the previous play. Losers blame blowing opportunities on others. In a fact based world, the Bills had a 50/50 chance to win the game, and the special teams choked.  
 

And special teams were in a position to choke because QB1 bumbled the game away to the point where we had the same 50/50 chance to win the game with which we started and with which we had far exceeded at the half and, you guessed it, before we got stupid and causal with the ball. 

[Success]

It's funny - but w/ the way that game was being played, I was secretly hoping we wouldn't win the coin toss.

 

Conventional wisdom is that we had some momentum, so of course it made sense for us to get the ball first in OT.  But I loved the way our D was playing much more than the O.  It just felt like some weird play was going to win it, as opposed to a long, normal drive for a score.