The one Tweet that perfectly sums up the Bills' offensive struggles right now

[Jerome007]

11 hours ago, GoBills808 said:

this amazing cover2 beating offense (despite zero evidence of that) and somehow just forgot that teams can also run single high is the cherry on top of this nonsense

In the video he mentions the Bills DID try to beat single high. They took some deep shots, and sideline ones. They just whiffed on most of them, but they tried.

 

I know the WRs ain't scaring anyone, but it's always possible to get guys open going deep, and Josh sure has the arm strength! Kincaid could certainly be one to target as he is faster than most guys covering him.  BTW they also tried with him...and failed. Pass catchers AND josh were off that Sunday. Weird... or Josh is injured from the Ravens game. Yet t hey only lost on the last play of the  game.  

[Big Turk]

[Don Otreply]

Gotta be able to go long, when they crowd the short to medium pass lanes, no team succeeds being one dimensional, 

 

on by the way, nice catch and run for a td by Coleman, just saying, 

[CincyBillsFan]

One common theme that I agree 100% with is the notion that over the last 2 games Allen has pressed and when he presses he messes up his mechanics and can struggle.

 

So why is Allen feeling the need to press early in these games?  The answer is simple and IMO a legitimate point of criticism:  the Bills D has played poorly the last two weeks allowing teams to jump out to big early leads before Allen & the O can get settled in.  On the road it's especially important for the D to start strong.  Consider these facts:

 

* The Ravens scored TD's on their first 3 drives to go up 21 - 3 midway through the 2nd quarter. Is it surprising Allen was pressing after only a quarter?

 

*  The Texans scored two TD's on their first three drives to take a 14 - 3 1st quarter lead. Again this forces the Bills ad Allen to press on offense.

 

So in addition to Allen having to play great in almost every game for them to win the offense needs to get off to a quick start.  If they don't and the D allows the opponent to go up and down the field like a hot knife cutting through butter Allen tries to compensate and presses.  And when Allen presses his effectiveness drops significantly.

[Big Turk]

2 minutes ago, CincyBillsFan said:

One common theme that I agree 100% with is the notion that over the last 2 games Allen has pressed and when he presses he messes up his mechanics and can struggle.

 

So why is Allen feeling the need to press early in these games?  The answer is simple and IMO a legitimate point of criticism:  the Bills D has played poorly the last two weeks allowing teams to jump out to big early leads before Allen & the O can get settled in.  On the road it's especially important for the D to start strong.  Consider these facts:

 

* The Ravens scored TD's on their first 3 drives to go up 21 - 3 midway through the 2nd quarter. Is it surprising Allen was pressing after only a quarter?

 

*  The Texans scored two TD's on their first three drives to take a 14 - 3 1st quarter lead. Again this forces the Bills ad Allen to press on offense.

 

So in addition to Allen having to play great in almost every game for them to win the offense needs to get off to a quick start.  If they don't and the D allows the opponent to go up and down the field like a hot knife cutting through butter Allen tries to compensate and presses.  And when Allen presses his effectiveness drops significantly.

 

The offense has also played very poorly for much of the last 2 games, which is part of the reason why they have been down big early...they can't get anything going in the first half. Scoring 6 points in the last 2 first halves combined isn't going to cut it.

 

They have had the ball first in both of those games to take an early lead and haven't gotten it done.

Edited October 9 by Big Turk

[CincyBillsFan]

1 minute ago, Big Turk said:

 

The offense has also played very poorly for much of the last 2 games, which is part of the reason why they have been down big early...they can't get anything going in the first half. Scoring 6 points in the last 2 first halves combined isn't going to cut it.

But on the road against good teams offenses often start out slow.  Most of last season and so far this season the Chiefs offense starts a lot of games slowly and they rely on their D to keep it close until they figure things out. The Chargers game was a great example of this.

 

BTW the Bills scored those 2 FG's within their 2nd drives in both games.  The offense then disappears in part because as the D folds and gives up TD drives - 5 TD drives in the opponents first 6 possessions - Allen starts to press and the offense seizes up like an engine without oil. 

 

And for the record we fans are deluding ourselves if we believe that the offensive talent as currently presented is explosive and consistently able to generate points. 

 

Over the last 6 seasons the Bills have made the strategic choice to favor the D over the O relying on their elite franchise QB to carry the O.  And to a degree it's worked as the Bills have enjoyed a prolong period of post merger success 2nd only to the Super Bowl years. And when the O has deviated from the McD definition of complimentary football actions are taken to reign it back in.

 

The current O is structured to play McD ball and Brady is the type of OC that McD wants to enforce the idea that the O will play a certain way.  And the desire to cut down on Allen's TO's and keep him healthy only reinforce that the O must play McD ball.

 

The problem though is that the defense, for various reasons, isn't good enough to play McD ball.  Melting like ice cream under a hot sun early in games is the worst thing a D can do trying to play McD ball.  In game adjustments are fine but once Allen starts pressing in response to his D giving up TD's it's difficult for the O to bounce back.  Making matters worse is the sense that a McD offense is not the best thing to run when you have an elite physical freak talent like Allen whose greatest strength is making off schedule plays.

 

It's the same dilemma we've been arguing about since 13 seconds and I see only one solution: either McD moves on or Allen does and I know which one I want to happen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GoBills808]

5 hours ago, NewEra said:

 While it was obvious to many that we were looking to attack the short passing game/rac that we’ve lacked for years.  It’s been discussed- but the mcd hater has to put his negative spin to say that his plan was to have a crappy offense without good WRs.

Ok two things then I am done discussing this

 

First- yes it was obvious to many they were looking to create a small ball offense. What was less obvious to many (including you iirc who waxed poetic about the depth of our WR room) was that it wasn't going to be good. I said from literally day 1 after the draft this offense they were attempting to build was going to produce a bad passing game and get Allen injured. 2/2 thus far

 

Second is I'm deliberately not bringing up McDermott or Brady much right now, I'm strictly talking about the offense. I didn't insist Dorsey be fired last year after his rough patch...doubt you can say the same lol. In fact I'm perfectly content watching our offense unfold almost exactly as foretold while people who didn't understand what was about to happen try lay blame on Allen of all people. I guess it would be gratifying if it wasn't so predictable

[NewEra]

26 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

Ok two things then I am done discussing this

 

First- yes it was obvious to many they were looking to create a small ball offense. What was less obvious to many (including you iirc who waxed poetic about the depth of our WR room) was that it wasn't going to be good. I said from literally day 1 after the draft this offense they were attempting to build was going to produce a bad passing game and get Allen injured. 2/2 thus far

 

Second is I'm deliberately not bringing up McDermott or Brady much right now, I'm strictly talking about the offense. I didn't insist Dorsey be fired last year after his rough patch...doubt you can say the same lol. In fact I'm perfectly content watching our offense unfold almost exactly as foretold while people who didn't understand what was about to happen try lay blame on Allen of all people. I guess it would be gratifying if it wasn't so predictable

Lol-  please show me where I waxed poetic about our WR room.  Maybe you’re alluding to my protest of the statement “this is our worst WR in 40+ years”……..

 

I’ve always said our WR room is worse this year than last.  I’ve always said that I was hoping to add higher end talent to this unit.  Maybe you’re confused by the fact that I’m a realist and have always understood that this would be a transition to a new WR unit and adding high end talent was doubtful due to that salary cap thing. 
 

I hope it was predicable that people would lay blame on Allen when blame was due.  Unlike you and others who lay no blame in Allen even when he has an OBVIOUSLY poor game throwing the ball with accuracy.  He was bad last game.  You won’t find anyone outside of this board that watched that game and thought otherwise.  
 

yes- I wanted Dorsey fired.  Thankfully he was or we would’ve likely missed the playoffs.  I laughed when Cleveland hired him and the results there are even more laughable.  17, 18, 15, 16, 13 points.  

[GoBills808]

1 hour ago, Jerome007 said:

In the video he mentions the Bills DID try to beat single high. They took some deep shots, and sideline ones. They just whiffed on most of them, but they tried.

 

I know the WRs ain't scaring anyone, but it's always possible to get guys open going deep, and Josh sure has the arm strength! Kincaid could certainly be one to target as he is faster than most guys covering him.  BTW they also tried with him...and failed. Pass catchers AND josh were off that Sunday. Weird... or Josh is injured from the Ravens game. Yet t hey only lost on the last play of the  game.  

yes that is how you beat single high, intermediate/deep outside routes

 

unfortunately that's also where the best athletes in the league reside

[RyanC883]

16 hours ago, Logic said:

If I'm not mistaken, the Ravens also reverted to the old "play tight man coverage and blitz the hell out of 'em" strategy we used to see a ton prior to Diggs' arrival.

So that would be two games in a row.

Granted, most teams likely don't have the DL or the corners necessary to do this as successfully and as often as the Ravens and Texans did it.

 

Logic.  This is a very good take, and it's rediculous you would not have a counter for the Ds counter.  But, as to the bold, well, at least teams with good DLs aren't often encountered in the playoffs.....

[Logic]

2 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

 

But, as to the bold, well, at least teams with good DLs aren't often encountered in the playoffs.....

100%

The one thing I'd say is that the playoffs are many weeks away, and this was always going to be a young team going through growing pains and transformation early in the year.

Obviously if things don't improve considerably on offense, playoffs won't even be a consideration anyway.

Edited October 9 by Logic

[RoscoeParrish]

1 hour ago, GoBills808 said:

yes that is how you beat single high, intermediate/deep outside routes

 

unfortunately that's also where the best athletes in the league reside

Step 1: Teams are running lots of two high safeties to limit passing attacks.

 

Step 2: Let’s intentionally limit our passing attack because teams are running two high.

 

Step 3: Teams no longer have run two high against us because they have nothing to fear.

 

Step 4: offense struggles

 

Step 5: ??????

 

Step 6: profit

[GunnerBill]

17 hours ago, Logic said:

If I'm not mistaken, the Ravens also reverted to the old "play tight man coverage and blitz the hell out of 'em" strategy we used to see a ton prior to Diggs' arrival.

So that would be two games in a row.

Granted, most teams likely don't have the DL or the corners necessary to do this as successfully and as often as the Ravens and Texans did it.

 

The Ravens didn't blitz a ton actually. They pressured a ton. But a lot of those were 4 man pressures. What they were doing well was disgusing who was coming so they'd rush a DB and drop a DE for example. And the Bills were confused and unable to identify and communicate.

[Jerome007]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

They pressured a ton. But a lot of those were 4 man pressures. What they were doing well was disgusing who was coming so they'd rush a DB and drop a DE for example. And the Bills were confused and unable to identify and communicate.

I don't understand why not ALL teams are doing this. It seems to work with very little downside. No huddle offenses can counter this, but still, very little downside. Even if it works "only" 10% of the time to get a free rusher, that's an impressive improvement, at basically no cost. And you can still blitz, do any kind of scheme in the backfield and all that.

[GunnerBill]

43 minutes ago, Jerome007 said:

I don't understand why not ALL teams are doing this. It seems to work with very little downside. No huddle offenses can counter this, but still, very little downside. Even if it works "only" 10% of the time to get a free rusher, that's an impressive improvement, at basically no cost. And you can still blitz, do any kind of scheme in the backfield and all that.

 

Two reasons:

 

1. If you get it wrong as a defense there is generally someone wide open and unlike with a blitz where you might rush the throw you are vulnerable. Gotta have confidence in your coaching and your execution to pull it off.

 

2. Not every oline is as baffled as the Bills were in Baltimore. And even if you execute if the offense can pick it up you have an unathletic DL stuck in coverage.

[Simon]

7 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Two reasons:

 

1. If you get it wrong as a defense there is generally someone wide open and unlike with a blitz where you might rush the throw you are vulnerable. Gotta have confidence in your coaching and your execution to pull it off.

 

2. Not every oline is as baffled as the Bills were in Baltimore. And even if you execute if the offense can pick it up you have an unathletic DL stuck in coverage.

 

I would add that it also can play havoc with your run fits and make you very vulnerable to a good ground attack.