The Autopsy and the Bright Side

[HappyDays]

23 minutes ago, Roundybout said:

Shakir ruled

 

Disagree with this. The big play was all Josh Allen being a unicorn. Other than that he was having trouble separating because the Ravens wisely put a true CB on him. Shakir still is not a separator IMO. He's a YAC specialist that needs to get the ball in space. You can't run the passing offense through him.

17 minutes ago, Big Blitz said:

No pass rush bc we were horrified of Henry.  

 

No pass rush because our guys couldn't win their matchups... Ed Oliver has been almost a non factor as a pass rusher this season. One big play against the Dolphins, invisible otherwise. Rousseau is maddening with his inconsistency from game to game. He should have had a big advantage going against a struggling rookie tonight and instead got swallowed up. Von is meant to be our closer, he is not going to have consistent impact through a game. Epenesa is a JAG. Rousseau and Oliver are supposed to be our guys up front and they didn't ever make Lamar uncomfortable tonight despite facing a middling OL.

[jkeerie]

The defense the Bills play does not match up with the offense the Ravens put out there.  They played their TEs and a big FB in Ricard against our lightweight nickel D.  They needed more DL and LB help to match the physicality.  

 

Once they built up a 2 score lead, their D could go on the attack.  They overmatched our oline and Josh had little time to do much of anything.

[Simon]

21 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Disagree with this. The big play was all Josh Allen being a unicorn. Other than that he was having trouble separating because the Ravens wisely put a true CB on him. Shakir still is not a separator IMO. He's a YAC specialist that needs to get the ball in space. You can't run the passing offense through him.

 

No pass rush because our guys couldn't win their matchups... Ed Oliver has been almost a non factor as a pass rusher this season. One big play against the Dolphins, invisible otherwise. Rousseau is maddening with his inconsistency from game to game. He should have had a big advantage going against a struggling rookie tonight and instead got swallowed up. Von is meant to be our closer, he is not going to have consistent impact through a game. Epenesa is a JAG. Rousseau and Oliver are supposed to be our guys up front and they didn't ever make Lamar uncomfortable tonight despite facing a middling OL.

 

I thought they spent almost the entire first half playing a chickenshlt defensive scheme that kept most of the DLine passive because of the threat of Lamar's legs.

[DapperCam]

10 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

I thought they spent almost the entire first half playing a chickenshlt scheme that kept most of the DLine passive because of the threat of Lamar's legs.

On offense and defense in the first half they played very passive. No blitzing, no pressure, no throws down the field, Allen sliding short of the sticks.

 

It was a philosophical choice, and a coaching fail. Hopefully a learning opportunity, especially if we face the Ravens in the playoffs.

[Alphadawg7]

40 minutes ago, FireChans said:

Welp, that sucked.

 

Let's start with the bad and end on a high-note with the good

 

The Bad

 

Defensively:

 

Safeties took bad angles and looked tentative, especially Hamlin. Rapp got hurt doing his human missile impression

 

LB's were attacked relentlessly until the second half when I think McD/Babich adjusted their assignments

 

Rasul Douglas was kind of a less than bright spot, Cam Lewis was on the receiving end of some bad whiffs as well

 

Next to zero pass rush in the first half and poor play recognition all around

 

Offensively:

 

Samuel looks like a complete zero of a signing (which sucks because I thought he would be pretty good reunited with Brady) -every play where he is in the backfield is a play where blitz pickup is never a factor

 

OL and pass pro was horrible.  The misdirection on disguised blitzes chewed them up. Everyone kinda was bad, but dishonorable mention goes to Torrence who clearly has some bad tendencies on tape that teams will continue to relentlessly attack.

 

I have said it once and I will say it again. James Cook is one of our best offensive players. Getting away from him entirely is a mistake.  I know folks have been really high on Ray Davis, but I am absolutely sick of the 1st down James Cook run for 7 yards and then taking him off for Ray Davis to get -1 on the next play. Let James Cook, for real.

 

My personal distaste for this WR group - I have to mention this but I will keep it brief. Teams that are comfortable putting CB1 on Shakir and playing close to the line of scrimmage are gonna be our kryptonite and the Ravens just showed the entire league how to do it. Mack and MVS are non-factors when we are in passing situations. Teams will feel very comfortable with a S or CB3 on them and dare them to make a play. We saw that in full force all game once we got behind. We are making Josh and co. play 10 on 10 or 9 on 9 because these guys just don't have the juice.

 

The call.  We all know the call. One of the worst calls I have ever seen and was DOA.  With the OL barely able to give Allen a second on a good day, running a pseudo-wild cat with Samuel for the first time on the year when all eyes will be on Allen is really bad. We didn't even set it up earlier in the year.  Bad bad bad bad. Will probably be the worst call of Brady's career

 

The offense in general.  We were a miracle Josh Allen throw away from scoring 3 points total.  PU.

 

The Bright Spots:

 

Defensively:

 

Great second half adjustments on defense, came out flying and gave us a chance to stay in the game

 

Bishop didn't stand out in a negative way when forced to come in

 

Health - we are riding out the clock on TJ and TB coming back.  Hopefully they are both back this week or the next, and I think this is the worst defensive game we will see this year.

 

Offensively:

 

Keon Coleman is a player. He was not my choice in the draft, but he had his best game as a pro.  Bad drop, but made two EXCELLENT catches against tight coverage when we needed it. I have concerns about making a living on those plays, but I am more convinced that he will be a star in this league sooner rather than later. I wish we had 4 of him.

 

Cook is still a weapon. Again, wish we used him more but I thought the Ravens front would neutralize him. He showed out, he just needs the ball more.

 

Anyway, that's what I got.

 

Good recap, and I pretty much agree with most of this. 
 

Couple minor notes:  I never liked the MVS signing and was praying someone would bump him off the roster.  So I don’t disagree he’s not bringing a lot to the table other than running fast in a straight line.  To his credit, Allen has missed him on 2 deep shots he was open earlier this season, but honestly I trust him to make the catch about as much as I trust Bass to make 50 yard FG.
 

But Hollins has value to this team still.  He’s supposed to be our 6th target, so he was never meant to be a high target volume guy.  Where I think the problem is really with Samuel being a non factor.  When we need to press the ball downfield it shouldn’t be Hollins we need to depend on.  It should be Coleman, Shakir, Kincaid and Samuel along with our backs that we look to in those moments.  
 

But like you said, for what ever reason Samuel has been a ghost and it feels more like they don’t know what to do with him.  Whatever they are doing isn’t working, and they need to get him going and get Mack off the field in those more pass heavy moments.  Or of if they can’t, then they need to get Knox more involved as a pass catcher run more 12 personnel.  
 

The only area I disagree with is Shakir.  Teams are not going to be able to cheat their CB1 short on Shakir if Coleman keeps building on this game, and I think he will.  

Coleman was close to a massive night tonight.  When Allen got sacked because O’Cyrus got torched, Coleman toasted his one on one on the outside and was wide open deep for a TD with an accurate pass from Allen had he not had the Ravens DL in his face of the snap.  Then of course the next drive was the one he dropped which would have been another big play.  
 

Seeing Josh and Brady come back to him and trust him to make those great plays down field after was awesome.  And I really think that this may have been a mini coming out party for him in terms of his involvement moving forward.  

[Simon]

1 minute ago, DapperCam said:

No blitzing, no pressure, no throws down the field,

 

I won't give them grief for the limited shots downfield; it would have been playing into the teeth of the Raven's D, imo.

[SCBills]

46 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

Unfortunately the game was lost way before that playcall which I agree is one of the worst I can remember

I could not disagree more with this.  
 

At 17-21, with our Defense figuring things out and Baltimore realizing they’re gagging on another close game… it’s absolutely not lost for Buffalo. 
 

And up until Brady spazzed out, I think anyone watching felt a Bills TD was inevitable.   I know from reading Mina Kimes reply section about the trick play that Ravens fans definitely felt that inevitable. 

[GoBills808]

Just now, SCBills said:

I could not disagree more with this.  
 

At 17-21, with our Defense figuring things out and Baltimore realizing they’re gagging on another close game… it’s absolutely not lost for Buffalo. 
 

And up until Brady spazzed out, I think anyone watching felt a Bills TD was inevitable.   I know from reading Mina Kimes reply section about the trick play that Ravens fans definitely felt that inevitable. 

I guess you probably thought the Chiefs playoffs game was close too but for the fake punt 

[DapperCam]

4 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

I won't give them grief for the limited shots downfield; it would have been playing into the teeth of the Raven's D, imo.

Ravens had the 32nd ranked pass D going into this game. Minshew threw it all over them. I personally wouldn’t have waited until we were down 3 scores to start pushing the issue.

 

[SCBills]

2 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

I guess you probably thought the Chiefs playoffs game was close too but for the fake punt 

This analogy makes zero sense. 
 

We have no prior issue with beating Baltimore in a big game & unlike KC, we had momentum when we called this trick play.  
 

It wasn’t called out of desperation.  It was called due to stupidity.  

[Simon]

Just now, DapperCam said:

Ravens had the 32nd ranked pass D going into this game. Minshew threw it all over them. I personally wouldn’t have waited until we were down 3 scores to start pushing the issue.

 

 

They ran the same D against Josh Allen as Gardner Minshew?

I'm a bit doubtful.

[GoBills808]

1 minute ago, SCBills said:

This analogy makes zero sense. 
 

We have no prior issue with beating Baltimore in a big game & unlike KC, we had momentum when we called this trick play.  
 

It wasn’t called out of desperation.  It was called due to stupidity.  

We were giving up over 8ypp before they pulled starters

 

Game was lost from the jump imo

[Bermuda Triangle]

 

[SCBills]

1 minute ago, GoBills808 said:

We were giving up over 8ypp before they pulled starters

 

Game was lost from the jump imo

Was Arizona lost from the jump?

 

We likely have two different views of momentum then.. because what you allude to was not the defense out of the half that got two straight stops. 
 

Then Brady decided to throw on a Ravens hat.  

 

Sudden change, Baltimore scores.  Game. Blouses. 

[Bermuda Triangle]

The DL once again failed to show up.  Oliver and Jones especially.

 

kincaid’s drop on the 1st possession was huge.  His blocking was not good, to say the least.

 

aside from ‘The Call’, I think Brady called a poor game, especially in short yardage situations. 
 

LBs, Lewis and the Safeties were really, really bad.

[Simon]

1 minute ago, Bermuda Triangle said:

The DL once again failed to show up.  Oliver and Jones especially.

 

kincaid’s drop on the 1st possession was huge.  His blocking was not good, to say the least.

 

aside from ‘The Call’, I think Brady called a poor game, especially in short yardage situations. 
 

LBs, Lewis and the Safeties were really, really bad.

 

I thought DaQuan had a pretty solid game.

On board with everything else.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Bright spot ...

 

McDermott to his credit when he gets thrashed usually adjusts and doesn't let it become a multigame skid. 

 

Another bright spot, is I can't think of another team in the AFC that can run the ball like that. Pittsburgh would like to but they can't.  Same with the Chargers.

[Simon]

1 hour ago, FireChans said:

I have said it once and I will say it again. James Cook is one of our best offensive players. Getting away from him entirely is a mistake. 

 

I was bitching about this all night.

He doesn't track teh ball well downfield but tongiht was tailor made for him with swings/flares and Brady blew it (and Josh also ignored it at times.)