Dallas @ Buffalo Postgame Thread

[BADOLBILZ]

16 minutes ago, AKC said:

Simpson was gracefully powerful with extra gears- he wouldn’t even appear to be accelerating but he would be putting space between himself and defenders. A top 5 back all-time IMO. Thurman had a supernatural ability to sense and utilize other players- and not just his own teammates- as blockers. His feet shuffled more than they chopped and he was an excellent back in his era. He just didn’t have the physical gifts of OJ., he was more of an instinct/intangibles back who was otherworldly at picking angles/position/speed.

 

Yeah Simpson is in the discussion of the VERY best RB's of all-time.

 

Thurman is not.    He was great........but he wasn't on that level.    He is often even an afterthought to Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith to national media discussion from that era.

[Warcodered]

 

[Logic]

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2023/12/18/24005803/nfl-week-15-hot-read-buffalo-bills-back-christian-mccaffrey-baker-mayfield

 

The Bills have a 69 percent chance to make the playoffs.

That’s right. The Bills, who even after the Aaron Rodgers injury lost to the Jets in Week 1 because Josh Allen threw three picks. The Bills, who barely survived the Tyrod Taylor Giants in Week 6, only to lose to the Mac Jones Patriots (yes, the Mac Jones Patriots) one week later. The Bills, who fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey after consecutive prime-time losses that stuck them at 5-5. The Bills, who have lost Matt Milano and Tre’Davious White for the rest of the season and DaQuan Jones for the foreseeable future. The Bills, who recently had to address comments made by head coach Sean McDermott during the 2019 season about the organization and effectiveness of the 9/11 terrorists.
 

Those Bills. They’re probably gonna make the playoffs. And after what we just saw on Sunday, are you gonna bet against them when they’re there?

Let’s talk about Sunday. The Bills beat the Cowboys 31-10; at halftime, they were up 21-3. It was a consummate shellacking of one of the NFL’s hottest teams—but the fact that the Bills beat the Cowboys is actually far less remarkable than how the Bills beat the Cowboys. They ran the dang ball. They pounded the daggum rock.

Buffalo ended the day with 19 total dropbacks on 65 snaps—a dropback rate of 29 percent, the lowest in any game of Josh Allen’s entire career. By run rate over expectation, which adjusts for game script, as well as down and distance, this was the highest run rate over expectation for the Bills in the last three years.
 

There are a few reasons why the Bills were capable of deploying such a run-heavy game plan. The first is James Cook. The Bills have been trying to find a young go-to back for years now, failing to find such in Devin Singletary and Zack Moss. In Cook, they seem to have finally found what they’ve long sought: a three-down player who can both churn out yards between the tackles and also run and catch on a full route tree. It’s a rare thing to have, but the Bills have it. Cook is now third in the league in scrimmage yards at 1,401. He’s on pace for over 1,000 rushing yards and over 500 receiving yards, which would make him the first player under 25 to have such a season since three players did it in 2019: Christian McCaffrey, Leonard Fournette, and Cook’s brother, Dalvin.

How many backs do you know that run corner routes out of the backfield?

Cook’s talent as a pass catcher speaks for itself—the success of the Bills’ rushing game, however, is a collective effort.

Buffalo really started investing in their handoff game—remember, all of this data is about the designed running game, not Josh Allen scrambles—at the start of the 2022 season, when Dorsey took over as offensive coordinator following the departure of Brian Daboll. The Bills hired Rams offensive line coach and run game coordinator Aaron Kromer for the offensive line job on their staff, and an accompanying jump in run game efficiency followed.

The Bills offensive line, often the culprit of disappointing losses in years past, is now the best Allen has played with. The starting unit hasn’t missed any time—they’ve played together for 867 of a possible 894 snaps. Left tackle Dion Dawkins is playing the best ball of his career; center Mitch Morse, who seemed last season like Father Time was coming for him, is enjoying a quiet resurgence; right tackle Spencer Brown, who needed to take a leap, has.
 

Are Brown and rookie right guard O’Cyrus Torrence perfect? By no stretch. But they aren’t enormous liabilities, and both can really move people in the running game. Just ask the Cowboys defensive line.

And of course, that’s the last consideration: Johnathan Hankins was out today for the Cowboys. Hankins isn’t a big name on a defense featuring Micah Parsons and DaRon Bland, but he’s a linchpin for Dan Quinn’s scheme. The Cowboys defensive line is built for speed and explosiveness—the other starting DT for the Cowboys, Osa Odighizuwa, is all of 280 pounds. They need the space-gobbling capacity of Hankins to survive against the run—especially with thumping linebacker Leighton Vander Esch out for the season. Rookie DT Mazi Smith is, theoretically, a Hankins replacement—but he has struggled in his debut season.

So the Cowboys had no answer for the running game—but that doesn’t change how impressed I am that Joe Brady and the Buffalo offense committed to it. The Bills are at 7-6, with the season functionally in the balance every week, and it’s very hard to take the ball out of Josh Allen’s hands. You want to let your star players carry you to the promised land. To see the favorable matchup and run the ball at a rate you hadn’t hit in ages requires a lot of faith in an offense that has been … mercurial. Kudos to them for sticking to their plan and executing it.

This dominant rushing performance from Buffalo, with their defensive performance considered (three meaningful points allowed to Dak Prescott and the Cowboys?), and the ever-present threat of Allen going thermonuclear? From my vantage point, the Bills look like a complete team for the first time all season. They’ve endured injuries and coaching changes and heartbreak and drama and somehow come out the other end looking like that which they were supposed to be all season: an AFC contender.

The hay isn’t in the barn. They have to stay perfect down the stretch in games against the Chargers, the Patriots, and the division-leading Dolphins to end the season. They could use some help in the wild-card race, as the field is crowded with 8-6 teams: the Texans, the Colts, the Bengals, and the Jaguars. But ask any AFC contender who they don’t want to play come January, and I promise you: The Bills are high on that list.

 

[davefan66]

What a great game.  Atmosphere was off the hook!  
 

Could not believe the number of cowboys fans.  Probably the most opponent fans I’ve seen at a game.  Even though they were heard in the beginning of the game, our fans were amazing.  One of the loudest games I’ve been to, even though there were a bunch of the other fans!

 

Cook was amazing.  Just ran crazy.  Don’t think it showed on TV how hard we manhandled them.  Dominated the LOS on nearly every play, especially the run game.  That trap they kept running was great. Couldn’t believe the cowboys couldn’t stop it considering we kept running it over and over!  Almost felt like I was playing Madden.  Loved how they kept with what was working.

 

Amazing win.  Took control of our own destiny!  Now next game up and Go Bills!

Edited December 18, 2023 by davefan66

[Warcodered]

 

[Dr Krentist]

22 minutes ago, Logic said:

https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2023/12/18/24005803/nfl-week-15-hot-read-buffalo-bills-back-christian-mccaffrey-baker-mayfield

 

The Bills have a 69 percent chance to make the playoffs.

 

 

Nice 😎

[CaptnCoke11]

It was fun watching all the espn/NFLN flip flopper “experts” talk about the game 

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

14 minutes ago, CaptnCoke11 said:

It was fun watching all the espn/NFLN flip flopper “experts” talk about the game 

My one thing is that a lot of the national talking heads I've heard (so far, I am at work and trying to get glimpses during breaks) has been how underprepared the Cowboys were rather than the Bills play.

 

And to be fair, the morning after with some tape it's apparent just how unprepared they were. Dan Quinn, who is supposed to be a good coordinator, was throwing 1 LB looks against our power running.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

1 hour ago, Big Turk said:

Bills move up to the 3rd best DVOA in football behind the 49ers and Ravens. Surprisingly, 2nd best offensive DVOA in the NFL behind only the 49ers.

 

I just can’t see a top 5 dvoa team with 150ish net points missing the playoffs but i guess we’ll see 😂

5 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

My one thing is that a lot of the national talking heads I've heard (so far, I am at work and trying to get glimpses during breaks) has been how underprepared the Cowboys were rather than the Bills play.

 

And to be fair, the morning after with some tape it's apparent just how unprepared they were. Dan Quinn, who is supposed to be a good coordinator, was throwing 1 LB looks against our power running.

I think a lot of it is the threat of josh Allen passing…there aren’t really a lot of good options to defend the bills when they have the run game working.  At least if you pretty much force them to run one stop for a loss pretty much derails the drive. 

Edited December 18, 2023 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

5 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

I just can’t see a top 5 dvoa team with 150ish net points missing the playoffs but i guess we’ll see 😂

I think a lot of it is the threat of josh Allen passing…there aren’t really a lot of good options to defend the bills when they have the run game working.  At least if you pretty much force them to run one stop for a loss pretty much derails the drive. 

I don't disagree. Josh was huge, and the threat of what he could do always loomed.

 

It just seems incredible that A) We decided to actually exploit that advantage and B) Quinn never went "oh jeez, we are down by 17 and it's raining, our offense needs to get back on the field fast, we can't let them keep dragging the clock"

[stevewin]

4 hours ago, Logic said:

As someone who recently and repeatedly stated that I'm ready to see the Bills move on from Sean McDermott, it seems only fair for me to say this:

The team has very clearly not quit on Sean McDermott. They are not in any way acting or playing like a team who doesn't like their head coach or who want a change. If anything, the Dunne article seems to have united the team and provided an "us against the world" rallying cry.

Furthermore, yesterday's game was a "Sean McDermott's perfect ideal of what football should look like" game if ever I saw one. Masterful defense, the offense imposing their well, and physicality across the board. Very, very impressive.

The thing that stood out to me on TV is that you could SEE how hard the Bills were playing. The defense was absolutely flying around, hitting hard, popping pads, and playing MEAN and with swagger. The offense was physical and relentless. The whole team LOOKED like it was playing playoff football, whereas the Cowboys absolutely did not.

For the defense to play as well as it did, missing as many key players as it is, against such a great offense, was MASSIVELY impressive. For the offense to impose its will and dominate physically the way it did, just running the ball over and over and over, was also massively impressive, both from a physical standpoint and from a "Joe Brady is just gonna keep doing the simple and obvious thing until you stop it" tactical standpoint.

Yesterday was the most thorough, impressive, across-the-board win I've seen from the Bills in quite some time. Great jobs from both offensive and defensive coaching. Great jobs from both lines of scrimmage. Great jobs by the players in executing. Just a no-doubt-about-it 60 minute ass whoopin. 

What else can I say? Give Brady his flowers. Give McDermott his flowers. Give Cook and the o-line their flowers. Masterful, impressive, awesome win. GO BILLS!!!

When the defense kept taking those early shots on Dak, Dallas went from being pissed to I think bewildered - 'wtf are these psychos doing'?  And it just never stopped - on both sides of the ball.  Even Bernard I've never seen so hype - constantly yapping and getting in guys faces.  It was obvious they were determined from the onset to impose their will with physicality.  Let's hope they continue to do it the next three games and especially break the will of the Chargers and Cheaters early - then leave the Fins wondering what hell is about to be unleashed on them.

[Motorin']

12 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

I don't disagree. Josh was huge, and the threat of what he could do always loomed.

 

It just seems incredible that A) We decided to actually exploit that advantage and B) Quinn never went "oh jeez, we are down by 17 and it's raining, our offense needs to get back on the field fast, we can't let them keep dragging the clock"

 

He literally didn't have any LBers to play. Unless he moved Parsons to MLB. Which in retrospect is probably what they should have done. 

 

 

 

[Gregg]

[L Ron Burgundy]

Did anyone notice we didn't really use play action?  We didn't need to I know but...is that odd?  Hopefully that isn't like a staple of Bradys system.   

[K-9]

1 hour ago, Beck Water said:

 

Jimbo don't care (said in my best "Honey Badger" voice)

 

https://twitter.com/thegreat__4/status/1736540961977589889

 

 

Nor should he. The last thing he should be concerned about is some inane barstool debate among biased fans. 

[newcam2012]

1 hour ago, Stenbar said:

I guess didnt fully explain my thought on that point. He didnt have any game changing points of decisions to make during the game, as the team obliterated the cowboys. There were no challenges to blow, or timeouts that needed to be used ir not used during the game. He didnt have to choose between a prevent nothing defense on the last drive, or to go man to man and blitz the qb. We all know how those games end usually.

Mostly true but man McD had his team ready to play and his defensive game plan was excellent. You have to give him his props yesterday.

 

This is coming from a fan who thinks the team is better off going in a different coaching direction. Give praise when praise is due.

 

Now, it's a different picture if you want to look the whole season thus far. However, if the team runs out (which looks to be a distinct possibility) then the season is probably looked at in a positive light. 

[WotAGuy]

McDermott had them ready to play, had a great defensive plan and won a huge game that gives everyone renewed confidence. 
 

A lot of fans sounded like they had written this one off with all the talk about “the Bills can afford to lose this one”, but the players sure didn’t accept that premise. 

[Stenbar]

20 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

Mostly true but man McD had his team ready to play and his defensive game plan was excellent. You have to give him his props yesterday.

 

This is coming from a fan who thinks the team is better off going in a different coaching direction. Give praise when praise is due.

 

Now, it's a different picture if you want to look the whole season thus far. However, if the team runs out (which looks to be a distinct possibility) then the season is probably looked at in a positive light. 

No doubt. I agree 100%. My only disapproval of his coaching is his gameday management. 

Yesterday it wasnt close. It looks like the team has a huge chip on the players shoulder in regards for backing McDermott, and the coaching leading up to the had the team spot on.

Not too mention our front office replacing hurt players with really good choices.

Something they didnt do last year

[Saxum]

10 hours ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

I have a few big reasons in my mind why I expect Dallas to fare better vs Miami than against us:

 

1) A big part of the Bills success was success with the O-line while Miami's is severely banged up. I think they were onto their 3rd string center yesterday.

 

2) Miami's run game (from what I remember and have seen clips of) is that they run out of spread, using motion and the threat of Hill and Waddle to open up holes for Achae and Mostert. A big part of the Bills success was sticking to jumbo packages and Dan Quinn just refusing to adjust. 

 

3) Last week the Cowboys beat the Eagles to take the division lead. They've been riding high and got full of themselves. We saw the pictures on tackling dummies thing. Now they are going to have something to play for, especially if the Eagles win tonight.

 

4) Miami's defense isn't as good as ours. Yes they've gotten better than the start of the year, but trust Dallas to keep up in a boat race rather than the physical slog the Bills slapped on them.

 

Edit: this isn't a prediction, but anyone thinking "oh Dallas lost the Bills, how can they beat Miami..."
 

Also, Dallas vs Miami is two teams who blow out bad teams and get smoked by good ones. It is the ultimate, what if you tape a piece of toast butter side up on the back of a cat? Do you create a perpetual motion devise? 

 

 

I think the weather was also a factor.  Cold rain tends to be worse than snow.   Miami weather will be better than that in December but mix sunblock with your warpaint,

[Nextmanup]

2 hours ago, Stenbar said:

I guess didnt fully explain my thought on that point. He didnt have any game changing points of decisions to make during the game, as the team obliterated the cowboys. There were no challenges to blow, or timeouts that needed to be used ir not used during the game. He didnt have to choose between a prevent nothing defense on the last drive, or to go man to man and blitz the qb. We all know how those games end usually.

It's the close ones where his coaching makes the difference, usually for the worse.

 

It's hard to screw up a blow out with a coaching decision, thank God.