THE ROCKPLE REVIEW – Heal and Move On

[Shaw66]

I had a bad feeling all week about the Ravens game. I was prepared for what happened.

 

I wasn’t predicting a bad loss, but I could see how it could happen. Although much was made about the Ravens’ 0-2 start, the reality was that they were a toenail away from tying the Chiefs. And they were scary good in their win against the Cowboys. They had a running game that looked formidable, and their defense was solid. They were a bad matchup for the Bills.

 

So, when Derrick Henry ripped off his 83-yard run to open the game, I wasn’t surprised. I just sat and admired his truly awesome talent. A guy with his size and power simply should not be permitted to run that fast, but that is who he is. They said during the broadcast that he runs more like Eric Dickerson than anyone in the history of the game. For years I’ve said he runs like Jim Brown - great speed and power, and enough shiftiness to make people miss. Comparisons to Dickerson and Brown are laughable for any other running back, but not Henry. He’s always worth watching.

 

Lamar Jackson ran effectively, but not so much as to be the story. His passing was the story. Just flat out excellent.

 

I’m not too upset with how the Bills played. It clearly wasn’t good enough; the offense was unproductive, and the defense struggled. The defense likely would have played somewhat better if the offense had held up better. But it’s early in the season, and teams are going to have some bad matchups and some bad games. That’s how they learn.

 

In particular, I think now is the time to find out if Brady can do the job. Now, he has film to watch to understand how teams can shut down his passing attack. Now, he has the opportunity to find the weaknesses in the defenses the Ravens were running and to develop responses so that Josh isn’t just standing back there wondering where to go with the ball. In particular, the Ravens took away all the short, easy throws around the line of scrimmage. If they’re playing that tight, there have to be opportunities down field. Brady has to find those opportunities and get his team into the right plays to take advantage.

 

I was unhappy about one play, the gadget play. McDermott’s teams don’t run gadget plays well. Josh had a TD reception against the Texans in the playoffs, and there may have been one or two others, but most of the time McDermott’s gadgets fail in the execution. The fake punt last season, for example, was ugly. And last night’s Samuel-in-the-wildcat-toss-to-Josh was ugly, too. For one thing, the Ravens were attacking the line of scrimmage all night long, so any play that develops slowly behind the line is probably a mistake. Brady should have realized that he needed to keep that play in his back pocket. But there’s something more – the Bills just don’t run gadget plays crisply, with precise execution. I don’t know why, but they don’t.

 

More importantly, the Bills might actually have won the game if they hadn’t turned it over on that play. They had shown real life on the previous possession and tightened up the score, 21-10. The defense had forced two three-and-outs to begin the half and had taken the ball away on the last real possession of the second quarter. The Bills offense is not a big-play, quick-strike offense, although it can make big plays. What the Bills needed was another efficient, sustained drive for another score, a drive to keep their defense off the field and to establish some sore of control over the game. They didn’t need a splash play – even an explosive touchdown would have given the ball back to the Ravens, and that wasn’t what the Bills needed. The play was a bad idea, poorly executed, at the wrong time of the game.

 

The object is to finish each quarter of the season 3-1 or better, and the Bills have done that. If they’re good, they’ll learn some lessons from that game, and the next time they play the Ravens, it will be different.

 

A few players stood out to me. One was Dorian Williams. The guy is a tackling machine. Always attacking, always on target with his hits, and always wraps his guy up. He’s a guy who has to be on the field somewhere. Yes, he misplayed the touchdown to Hill, badly, but that’s a correctable error. I like that guy.

 

Bass let the Bills down. That miss was a bad miss at a bad time. In a come-from-behind situation like that, it’s the kicker’s job to bail out the offense when the offense stalls short of the end zone. Those points were critical at the time.

 

Looked to me that after Coleman had a nice reception over the middle, he got up, saw that he was coming off the field, and made some kind of gesture that asked, “Why are you taking me out?” He’s gotta learn, fast, that there are no prima donnas on this team. The last guy with that attitude is now playing in Houston, and the Bills aren’t going to live with another one. His two back-shoulder catches were excellent; his drop was a tough catch but he has to make it.

 

Lick your wounds, learn some lessons, and move on.

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were every-day people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

[nedboy7]

Great write up Shaw. 

No loss is as bad as it seems.  And no win is as impressive as it seems.  Welcome to the NFL. 

We will not see another monster backfield like the Ravens.  They came out with a playoff intensity. 

And no intensity isn't just on the coach.  These are grown men.  Not children. 

[SCBills]

If that’s what Keon did, and why he did it.. eh, I don’t hate it.  
 

Diggs took it to another level as a drag on the team, but we needed that fire at times.

 

Keon showed flashes of a break out game while whoever was coming in for him, receiving or blocking, wasn’t doing anything. 

[Success]

That one hurt - mainly because I'm not used to seeing the team on the bad end of a lopsided score.  It literally never happens anymore, until last night.  

 

My next day feeling is that this was just a situation of one team that was at home and desperate for a win to re-establish themselves in the AFC, and the other team was fat & happy basking in the hype of possibly being the best in the league all week.  A much-needed home win for the Ravens, and a much-needed wake up call for the Bills.

 

I expect we'll look back on this as an anomaly.  The schedule is pretty favorable for the next month+, and I think we'll see us stack up some wins and put some distance between ourselves & the rest of the AFCE.

 

[Sweats]

I can see that no one wants to talk about the elephant in the room here.....

 

We want to keep our O on the field as long as possible to come away with points and chew up the clock, i get it, but i'm seeing that we want to keep our O on the field as much as possible to keep our D off the field.......and why is that? Our D is compromised and a liability.

Well, let's consider that last night they looked lost, confused and unsure of assignments. Is that on coaching or is that on the Ravens spectacular play schemes? Baltimore has no hidden agenda with their play calling, run, heavy run and run some more......own the trenches and use the run to set up the pass. It's very basic schemes all around. It all starts in the trenches and builds from there.

So, it's safe to say it's not the Ravens spectacular play calling. I would say it's execution and you know what limits a teams execution?......coaching. 

 

So, why was our D ill prepared for play calling that most of us knew was coming?.........why was the D completely confused on assignments? Obviously, poor tackling is on the players, but our D schemes blow.

Injuries perhaps, but every team has injuries, so that is no longer an excuse in my eyes.

Could it be limited talent?.......yeah, probably a major factor in execution.

What about coaching?.......i am probably the hardest guy on our coaching staff, bar none. I don't understand how a running team can run through our D with very little effort untouched, mind you and our coaching staff either has no answers or clueless to change their game plan on the fly to correct.

 

Coaching 101.....when something is working for a team, you shut it down and limit its progression, forcing that team to change its strategy on the fly and do something else. You know, exactly what the Ravens did to us. They took away everything, they understood the assignment, they did their homework, they read the memo.

 

We had no answers for any of it.

I see some of you guys are okay with a loss and for the most part so am i, however, the Ravens basically came in with one plan.......run the ball and even when we knew it was coming, we did nothing, however, we tried every trick in the book to keep our compromised D off the field as much as possible.

 

Not a rant, just an observation.

[Drew21PA]

1 hour ago, Shaw66 said:

I had a bad feeling all week about the Ravens game. I was prepared for what happened.

 

I wasn’t predicting a bad loss, but I could see how it could happen. Although much was made about the Ravens’ 0-2 start, the reality was that they were a toenail away from tying the Chiefs. And they were scary good in their win against the Cowboys. They had a running game that looked formidable, and their defense was solid. They were a bad matchup for the Bills.

 

So, when Derrick Henry ripped off his 83-yard run to open the game, I wasn’t surprised. I just sat and admired his truly awesome talent. A guy with his size and power simply should not be permitted to run that fast, but that is who he is. They said during the broadcast that he runs more like Eric Dickerson than anyone in the history of the game. For years I’ve said he runs like Jim Brown - great speed and power, and enough shiftiness to make people miss. Comparisons to Dickerson and Brown are laughable for any other running back, but not Henry. He’s always worth watching.

 

Lamar Jackson ran effectively, but not so much as to be the story. His passing was the story. Just flat out excellent.

 

I’m not too upset with how the Bills played. It clearly wasn’t good enough; the offense was unproductive, and the defense struggled. The defense likely would have played somewhat better if the offense had held up better. But it’s early in the season, and teams are going to have some bad matchups and some bad games. That’s how they learn.

 

In particular, I think now is the time to find out if Brady can do the job. Now, he has film to watch to understand how teams can shut down his passing attack. Now, he has the opportunity to find the weaknesses in the defenses the Ravens were running and to develop responses so that Josh isn’t just standing back there wondering where to go with the ball. In particular, the Ravens took away all the short, easy throws around the line of scrimmage. If they’re playing that tight, there have to be opportunities down field. Brady has to find those opportunities and get his team into the right plays to take advantage.

 

I was unhappy about one play, the gadget play. McDermott’s teams don’t run gadget plays well. Josh had a TD reception against the Texans in the playoffs, and there may have been one or two others, but most of the time McDermott’s gadgets fail in the execution. The fake punt last season, for example, was ugly. And last night’s Samuel-in-the-wildcat-toss-to-Josh was ugly, too. For one thing, the Ravens were attacking the line of scrimmage all night long, so any play that develops slowly behind the line is probably a mistake. Brady should have realized that he needed to keep that play in his back pocket. But there’s something more – the Bills just don’t run gadget plays crisply, with precise execution. I don’t know why, but they don’t.

 

More importantly, the Bills might actually have won the game if they hadn’t turned it over on that play. They had shown real life on the previous possession and tightened up the score, 21-10. The defense had forced two three-and-outs to begin the half and had taken the ball away on the last real possession of the second quarter. The Bills offense is not a big-play, quick-strike offense, although it can make big plays. What the Bills needed was another efficient, sustained drive for another score, a drive to keep their defense off the field and to establish some sore of control over the game. They didn’t need a splash play – even an explosive touchdown would have given the ball back to the Ravens, and that wasn’t what the Bills needed. The play was a bad idea, poorly executed, at the wrong time of the game.

 

The object is to finish each quarter of the season 3-1 or better, and the Bills have done that. If they’re good, they’ll learn some lessons from that game, and the next time they play the Ravens, it will be different.

 

A few players stood out to me. One was Dorian Williams. The guy is a tackling machine. Always attacking, always on target with his hits, and always wraps his guy up. He’s a guy who has to be on the field somewhere. Yes, he misplayed the touchdown to Hill, badly, but that’s a correctable error. I like that guy.

 

Bass let the Bills down. That miss was a bad miss at a bad time. In a come-from-behind situation like that, it’s the kicker’s job to bail out the offense when the offense stalls short of the end zone. Those points were critical at the time.

 

Looked to me that after Coleman had a nice reception over the middle, he got up, saw that he was coming off the field, and made some kind of gesture that asked, “Why are you taking me out?” He’s gotta learn, fast, that there are no prima donnas on this team. The last guy with that attitude is now playing in Houston, and the Bills aren’t going to live with another one. His two back-shoulder catches were excellent; his drop was a tough catch but he has to make it.

 

Lick your wounds, learn some lessons, and move on.

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were every-day people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

Good post Shaw

 

i actually felt the offense was moving the ball pretty well for the most part but for whatever reason couldn’t get some of those first downs we normally get - not particularly keen on some of the plays dialed up on those moments but - whatever learn and move on.

 

i KNEW if Henry got going and they got a lead early we were in trouble

 

happened as I didn’t want it to - but I’m with you “I’m not too upset with how the bills played”

 

butt whooped - grow and be better 

[SoonerBillsFan]

6 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I had a bad feeling all week about the Ravens game. I was prepared for what happened.

 

I wasn’t predicting a bad loss, but I could see how it could happen. Although much was made about the Ravens’ 0-2 start, the reality was that they were a toenail away from tying the Chiefs. And they were scary good in their win against the Cowboys. They had a running game that looked formidable, and their defense was solid. They were a bad matchup for the Bills.

 

So, when Derrick Henry ripped off his 83-yard run to open the game, I wasn’t surprised. I just sat and admired his truly awesome talent. A guy with his size and power simply should not be permitted to run that fast, but that is who he is. They said during the broadcast that he runs more like Eric Dickerson than anyone in the history of the game. For years I’ve said he runs like Jim Brown - great speed and power, and enough shiftiness to make people miss. Comparisons to Dickerson and Brown are laughable for any other running back, but not Henry. He’s always worth watching.

 

Lamar Jackson ran effectively, but not so much as to be the story. His passing was the story. Just flat out excellent.

 

I’m not too upset with how the Bills played. It clearly wasn’t good enough; the offense was unproductive, and the defense struggled. The defense likely would have played somewhat better if the offense had held up better. But it’s early in the season, and teams are going to have some bad matchups and some bad games. That’s how they learn.

 

In particular, I think now is the time to find out if Brady can do the job. Now, he has film to watch to understand how teams can shut down his passing attack. Now, he has the opportunity to find the weaknesses in the defenses the Ravens were running and to develop responses so that Josh isn’t just standing back there wondering where to go with the ball. In particular, the Ravens took away all the short, easy throws around the line of scrimmage. If they’re playing that tight, there have to be opportunities down field. Brady has to find those opportunities and get his team into the right plays to take advantage.

 

I was unhappy about one play, the gadget play. McDermott’s teams don’t run gadget plays well. Josh had a TD reception against the Texans in the playoffs, and there may have been one or two others, but most of the time McDermott’s gadgets fail in the execution. The fake punt last season, for example, was ugly. And last night’s Samuel-in-the-wildcat-toss-to-Josh was ugly, too. For one thing, the Ravens were attacking the line of scrimmage all night long, so any play that develops slowly behind the line is probably a mistake. Brady should have realized that he needed to keep that play in his back pocket. But there’s something more – the Bills just don’t run gadget plays crisply, with precise execution. I don’t know why, but they don’t.

 

More importantly, the Bills might actually have won the game if they hadn’t turned it over on that play. They had shown real life on the previous possession and tightened up the score, 21-10. The defense had forced two three-and-outs to begin the half and had taken the ball away on the last real possession of the second quarter. The Bills offense is not a big-play, quick-strike offense, although it can make big plays. What the Bills needed was another efficient, sustained drive for another score, a drive to keep their defense off the field and to establish some sore of control over the game. They didn’t need a splash play – even an explosive touchdown would have given the ball back to the Ravens, and that wasn’t what the Bills needed. The play was a bad idea, poorly executed, at the wrong time of the game.

 

The object is to finish each quarter of the season 3-1 or better, and the Bills have done that. If they’re good, they’ll learn some lessons from that game, and the next time they play the Ravens, it will be different.

 

A few players stood out to me. One was Dorian Williams. The guy is a tackling machine. Always attacking, always on target with his hits, and always wraps his guy up. He’s a guy who has to be on the field somewhere. Yes, he misplayed the touchdown to Hill, badly, but that’s a correctable error. I like that guy.

 

Bass let the Bills down. That miss was a bad miss at a bad time. In a come-from-behind situation like that, it’s the kicker’s job to bail out the offense when the offense stalls short of the end zone. Those points were critical at the time.

 

Looked to me that after Coleman had a nice reception over the middle, he got up, saw that he was coming off the field, and made some kind of gesture that asked, “Why are you taking me out?” He’s gotta learn, fast, that there are no prima donnas on this team. The last guy with that attitude is now playing in Houston, and the Bills aren’t going to live with another one. His two back-shoulder catches were excellent; his drop was a tough catch but he has to make it.

 

Lick your wounds, learn some lessons, and move on.

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were every-day people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

Our#1 pass blocking OL got their collective arses handed to them last night.  And yes Brady didn't adjust.

Edited October 1 by SoonerBillsFan

[Shaw66]

8 minutes ago, Sweats said:

I can see that no one wants to talk about the elephant in the room here.....

 

We want to keep our O on the field as long as possible to come away with points and chew up the clock, i get it, but i'm seeing that we want to keep our O on the field as much as possible to keep our D off the field.......and why is that? Our D is compromised and a liability.

Well, let's consider that last night they looked lost, confused and unsure of assignments. Is that on coaching or is that on the Ravens spectacular play schemes? Baltimore has no hidden agenda with their play calling, run, heavy run and run some more......own the trenches and use the run to set up the pass. It's very basic schemes all around. It all starts in the trenches and builds from there.

So, it's safe to say it's not the Ravens spectacular play calling. I would say it's execution and you know what limits a teams execution?......coaching. 

 

So, why was our D ill prepared for play calling that most of us knew was coming?.........why was the D completely confused on assignments? Obviously, poor tackling is on the players, but our D schemes blow.

Injuries perhaps, but every team has injuries, so that is no longer an excuse in my eyes.

Could it be limited talent?.......yeah, probably a major factor in execution.

What about coaching?.......i am probably the hardest guy on our coaching staff, bar none. I don't understand how a running team can run through our D with very little effort untouched, mind you and our coaching staff either has no answers or clueless to change their game plan on the fly to correct.

 

Coaching 101.....when something is working for a team, you shut it down and limit its progression, forcing that team to change its strategy on the fly and do something else. You know, exactly what the Ravens did to us. They took away everything, they understood the assignment, they did their homework, they read the memo.

 

We had no answers for any of it.

I see some of you guys are okay with a loss and for the most part so am i, however, the Ravens basically came in with one plan.......run the ball and even when we knew it was coming, we did nothing, however, we tried every trick in the book to keep our compromised D off the field as much as possible.

 

Not a rant, just an observation.

I think you're correct about the defense being a problem, but I think you're not completely correct about the cause. It's true, everyone knew they were going to run, but knowing they are going to run and stopping their running are two different things. Two points the announcers raised last night:

 

1. The Ravens come at you with two all-time great ball carriers.  Derrick Henry is a total stud.  His rushing totals in the last six seasons and so far this season are this:  1059, 1540, 2027, 937 (in 8 games), 1538, 1167, 480 (in four games this season).  Total stud.  Only Michael Vick may have been better as a running quarterback.  No teams put two stud runners in the backfield at the same time, and the only reason the Ravens can do it is that one of them is also a pretty good quarterback. That kind of talent in the same backfield at the same time is a defensive nightmare in ANY offense.

 

2.  But in the offense they run, it's really, really tough to defend. They motion people all over the place, fast guys you have to respect.  So, go ahead, respect the fast guy in motion, Henry pounding you up the middle, and Lamar running options. It's brutal. They showed one replay, and Collinsworth was just laughing - some linemen and tight ends pulled right, some pulled left, some went straight upfield. Understanding and responding to keys when the play can go anywhere on the field is a nightmare.

 

So, yes, the defense has to be better, but give the Ravens a lot of credit. Later in the season, teams probably will have figured out to slow them down a bit - the game is always about forcing Jackson to throw - but right now it isn't surprising that they can explode on you like that. 

 

What the Bills needed was for the offense to be better. It was 21-3 at the half, and the defense was beginning to get its legs under them.

 

The Bills needed some first-half points. Even one touchdown to get to 21-10, maybe a touchdown and field goal to get to 21-13.  It was Brady's first big challenge, and he failed, more or less. Allen had pretty decent protection, but he had nowhere to throw the ball. That's on Brady - the whole point of the offense and the kind of guys they're putting on the field is that they're supposed to always have an open guy. There were a lot of plays where Allen just kept looking and looking. We didn't see that in previous weeks. Now, it's possible that's on Allen, that he had guys but wasn't reading the defense quickly enough to find them. I don't think so. I think the options that were supposed to be there weren't. 

[amprov56]

1 hour ago, Shaw66 said:

I had a bad feeling all week about the Ravens game. I was prepared for what happened.

 

I wasn’t predicting a bad loss, but I could see how it could happen. Although much was made about the Ravens’ 0-2 start, the reality was that they were a toenail away from tying the Chiefs. And they were scary good in their win against the Cowboys. They had a running game that looked formidable, and their defense was solid. They were a bad matchup for the Bills.

 

So, when Derrick Henry ripped off his 83-yard run to open the game, I wasn’t surprised. I just sat and admired his truly awesome talent. A guy with his size and power simply should not be permitted to run that fast, but that is who he is. They said during the broadcast that he runs more like Eric Dickerson than anyone in the history of the game. For years I’ve said he runs like Jim Brown - great speed and power, and enough shiftiness to make people miss. Comparisons to Dickerson and Brown are laughable for any other running back, but not Henry. He’s always worth watching.

 

Lamar Jackson ran effectively, but not so much as to be the story. His passing was the story. Just flat out excellent.

 

I’m not too upset with how the Bills played. It clearly wasn’t good enough; the offense was unproductive, and the defense struggled. The defense likely would have played somewhat better if the offense had held up better. But it’s early in the season, and teams are going to have some bad matchups and some bad games. That’s how they learn.

 

In particular, I think now is the time to find out if Brady can do the job. Now, he has film to watch to understand how teams can shut down his passing attack. Now, he has the opportunity to find the weaknesses in the defenses the Ravens were running and to develop responses so that Josh isn’t just standing back there wondering where to go with the ball. In particular, the Ravens took away all the short, easy throws around the line of scrimmage. If they’re playing that tight, there have to be opportunities down field. Brady has to find those opportunities and get his team into the right plays to take advantage.

 

I was unhappy about one play, the gadget play. McDermott’s teams don’t run gadget plays well. Josh had a TD reception against the Texans in the playoffs, and there may have been one or two others, but most of the time McDermott’s gadgets fail in the execution. The fake punt last season, for example, was ugly. And last night’s Samuel-in-the-wildcat-toss-to-Josh was ugly, too. For one thing, the Ravens were attacking the line of scrimmage all night long, so any play that develops slowly behind the line is probably a mistake. Brady should have realized that he needed to keep that play in his back pocket. But there’s something more – the Bills just don’t run gadget plays crisply, with precise execution. I don’t know why, but they don’t.

 

More importantly, the Bills might actually have won the game if they hadn’t turned it over on that play. They had shown real life on the previous possession and tightened up the score, 21-10. The defense had forced two three-and-outs to begin the half and had taken the ball away on the last real possession of the second quarter. The Bills offense is not a big-play, quick-strike offense, although it can make big plays. What the Bills needed was another efficient, sustained drive for another score, a drive to keep their defense off the field and to establish some sore of control over the game. They didn’t need a splash play – even an explosive touchdown would have given the ball back to the Ravens, and that wasn’t what the Bills needed. The play was a bad idea, poorly executed, at the wrong time of the game.

 

The object is to finish each quarter of the season 3-1 or better, and the Bills have done that. If they’re good, they’ll learn some lessons from that game, and the next time they play the Ravens, it will be different.

 

A few players stood out to me. One was Dorian Williams. The guy is a tackling machine. Always attacking, always on target with his hits, and always wraps his guy up. He’s a guy who has to be on the field somewhere. Yes, he misplayed the touchdown to Hill, badly, but that’s a correctable error. I like that guy.

 

Bass let the Bills down. That miss was a bad miss at a bad time. In a come-from-behind situation like that, it’s the kicker’s job to bail out the offense when the offense stalls short of the end zone. Those points were critical at the time.

 

Looked to me that after Coleman had a nice reception over the middle, he got up, saw that he was coming off the field, and made some kind of gesture that asked, “Why are you taking me out?” He’s gotta learn, fast, that there are no prima donnas on this team. The last guy with that attitude is now playing in Houston, and the Bills aren’t going to live with another one. His two back-shoulder catches were excellent; his drop was a tough catch but he has to make it.

 

Lick your wounds, learn some lessons, and move on.

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were every-day people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

Great post from the "Adult Voice" of TBD!

[Sweats]

3 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I think you're correct about the defense being a problem, but I think you're not completely correct about the cause. It's true, everyone knew they were going to run, but knowing they are going to run and stopping their running are two different things. Two points the announcers raised last night:

 

1. The Ravens come at you with two all-time great ball carriers.  Derrick Henry is a total stud.  His rushing totals in the last six seasons and so far this season are this:  1059, 1540, 2027, 937 (in 8 games), 1538, 1167, 480 (in four games this season).  Total stud.  Only Michael Vick may have been better as a running quarterback.  No teams put two stud runners in the backfield at the same time, and the only reason the Ravens can do it is that one of them is also a pretty good quarterback. That kind of talent in the same backfield at the same time is a defensive nightmare in ANY offense.

 

2.  But in the offense they run, it's really, really tough to defend. They motion people all over the place, fast guys you have to respect.  So, go ahead, respect the fast guy in motion, Henry pounding you up the middle, and Lamar running options. It's brutal. They showed one replay, and Collinsworth was just laughing - some linemen and tight ends pulled right, some pulled left, some went straight upfield. Understanding and responding to keys when the play can go anywhere on the field is a nightmare.

 

So, yes, the defense has to be better, but give the Ravens a lot of credit. Later in the season, teams probably will have figured out to slow them down a bit - the game is always about forcing Jackson to throw - but right now it isn't surprising that they can explode on you like that. 

 

What the Bills needed was for the offense to be better. It was 21-3 at the half, and the defense was beginning to get its legs under them.

 

The Bills needed some first-half points. Even one touchdown to get to 21-10, maybe a touchdown and field goal to get to 21-13.  It was Brady's first big challenge, and he failed, more or less. Allen had pretty decent protection, but he had nowhere to throw the ball. That's on Brady - the whole point of the offense and the kind of guys they're putting on the field is that they're supposed to always have an open guy. There were a lot of plays where Allen just kept looking and looking. We didn't see that in previous weeks. Now, it's possible that's on Allen, that he had guys but wasn't reading the defense quickly enough to find them. I don't think so. I think the options that were supposed to be there weren't. 

 

 

 

 

You bring up some good points and that's what i love about these boards......a forum to bounce ideas and concepts around and people pointing out that we may not be necessarily right or wrong, just need to see the point from a different view.

We all see the games differently and from different points of view, so it's good to see differing opinions on the games, strategies, etc. and brining up points that i never even thought of or considered.

 

Case in point......you saw the game that our O had to score more points and i agree with that, however i am of the opinion that our D had to stop the Ravens from scoring points.

Both opinions i believe are right, just in how we saw the game i suppose.

[8BallSippin]

I'd like to have seen some screens, or plays designed to mitigate an aggressive pass rush.  Also, I still think McDermott is slow to adapt to in game changes, he changes made at the half worked, but you can't move toward those in the first half, in some fashion?  Good news is we pounded some bad teams, got destroyed by a contender.  Hopefully that gives way to an honest assessment of our capabilities, and we can find our pace.

 

The gadget play was all you need to demonstrate to someone who had not see the game, the Bills performance on the evening.  Yuck.

Edited September 30 by 8BallSippin

[behind a post WMS69]

Nice post, I always look forward to these.

 

I couldn't agree more about the wildcat, told my wife that was a really stupid time to try to get cute against a very aggressive defense. That play may have cost us the game.

[Figster]

After a painful loss I always feel a little better after reading the ROCKPILE REVIEW.

 

 In the exchange in hugs, words between Allen and Henry after the game. You could tell Derrick Henry's performance was while painful for the opposition to endure, was also admired from one elite player to another.

 

I agree, valuable lessons learned that can make Buffalo a solid contender come playoff time.

 

Thank you OP  

Edited September 30 by Figster

[Shaw66]

2 hours ago, Sweats said:

 

 

 

 

You bring up some good points and that's what i love about these boards......a forum to bounce ideas and concepts around and people pointing out that we may not be necessarily right or wrong, just need to see the point from a different view.

We all see the games differently and from different points of view, so it's good to see differing opinions on the games, strategies, etc. and brining up points that i never even thought of or considered.

 

Case in point......you saw the game that our O had to score more points and i agree with that, however i am of the opinion that our D had to stop the Ravens from scoring points.

Both opinions i believe are right, just in how we saw the game i suppose.

I just don't think you can expect to have a defense that can shut down the offense that the Ravens are running these days. It's a devastating combination to have those two guys in the backfield and to have effective passing, to boot. The defense certainly could have been better and they will learn some things from what happened last night, but if the offense had been able to stay on the field and put up some points, that alone may have been enough to help the defense survive the game.

[LABILLBACKER]

2 hours ago, 8BallSippin said:

I'd like to have seen some screens, or plays designed to mitigate an aggressive pass rush.  Also, I still think McDermott is slow to adapt to in game changes, he changes made at the half worked, but you can't move toward those in the first half, in some fashion?  Good news is we pounded some bad teams, got destroyed by a contender.  Hopefully that gives way to an honest assessment of our capabilities, and we can find our pace.

 

The gadget play was all you need to demonstrate to someone who had not see the game, the Bills performance on the evening.  Yuck.

Belichick always adjusted after every drive. Not every quarter or half. That's the difference between good HC's and HOF head coaches.  That epic fail trick play may go down in Bills history as the worst ever.  You had to be drunk to draw that up. Van Noy single handedly stopped Samuel & Josh.

[Lost]

3 hours ago, Sweats said:

We had no answers for any of it.

I see some of you guys are okay with a loss and for the most part so am i, however, the Ravens basically came in with one plan.......run the ball and even when we knew it was coming, we did nothing, however, we tried every trick in the book to keep our compromised D off the field as much as possible.

 

 

We better learn how to stop the run quick because teams are going to take one look and see we now have the worst run defense in the league.  A league high 5.7 yards per carry given up, 3 most total yards given up and most 20+ yard runs.   Everyone will be trying to exploit that.

[Joe Ferguson]

Ken Dorsey and Nate Hackett are still laughing at that trick play.

 

Edited October 1 by Joe Ferguson

[Billever76]

4 hours ago, SCBills said:

If that’s what Keon did, and why he did it.. eh, I don’t hate it.  
 

Diggs took it to another level as a drag on the team, but we needed that fire at times.

 

Keon showed flashes of a break out game while whoever was coming in for him, receiving or blocking, wasn’t doing anything. 

This rotational philosophy that has now permeated every facet of the team is simply dumb....you don't take your best players off the field to give lesser guys playing time so you can have your stars rested 😂...you play your best 11 vs their best 11 mainly 

[FTLBillsfan]

Great post, as always. I had a bad feeling about this game mainly because the previous 2 games were just too easy being total blowouts where the Bills could do no wrong for the most part. I guess last night will quiet down the Josh for MVP talk for a while. Interesting though, the Bills are still the highest scoring team 1 point ahead of Washington but not leading in net points anymore.

[Old Coot]

Perceptive post as usual, Shaw.

 

Re the defense, I'd like to address what I think is a key factor: injuries, lots of 'em. We had guys playing on D last night that I'd never heard of. NFL D's must play as a unit and that takes experience.

 

When you combine out D with so many backups playing and the Ravens offense with all their motions and misdirection you get what we saw last night. With so many inexperienced players on D now we will be vulnerable to misdirection plays.

 

I think our D right now can't handle the top offenses in this league.

 

On a related note, we gave Lamar too much time on passing plays. What happened to our DL? 

 

On a positive note I like how much more active Josh is on his pre-snap gesturing and yelling. That shows growth.