12/8/24 Game 14 GAMEDAY! Bills vs Rams post game Thread

[Bills!Win!]

Are the bills 10-3 or 3-10? I cant tell based off of the comments here 

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

6 minutes ago, BillsFan130 said:

This game really confirmed to me how stubborn McDermott and Babich are in their defensive strategy .

Weaver from Miami literally gave them the blueprint a few weeks ago on how to stop the rams by sending pressure and playing a lot of man.

And bills literally did the opposite of that.

 

Sat in their soft zone coverage for the majority of the time, and then when they did blitz? it was so predictable and obvious as stafford/Mcvay were a step ahead of them

Did they sit in soft zone all game? Lol I really didn’t get that vibe at all.  I guess I have to watch again but it seemed like we tried to play a lot of man to me and staffords ball placement was insane even when the coverage was good 

 

I feel like our corners were overly aggressive almost to a fault…didn’t seem ‘soft’ to me at all.  Or when people throw ‘soft zone’ out around here are they specifically talking about safeties? 

Edited December 9 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[BillsFan130]

Just now, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Did they sit in soft zone all game? Lol I really didn’t get that vibe at all.  I guess I have to watch again but it seemed like we tried to play a lot of man to me and staffords ball placement was insane even when the coverage was good 

A lot of the time, yes. But then they tried to adjust and send pressure and it backfired as well because they made their blitz looks so obvious lol. (Like the last Nacua TD for example, was a perfect cover 0 Beater with the screen)

 

Stafford and Mcvay basically knew what they were calling the whole time and were always a step ahead of Babich 

[TheyCallMeAndy]

Let’s show some love for the shoeless wonder Mach Hollins, dude has really come alive since Cooper was added. Big time step up. 

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

2 minutes ago, BillsFan130 said:

A lot of the time, yes. But then they tried to adjust and send pressure and it backfired as well because they made their blitz looks so obvious lol. (Like the last Nacua TD for example, was a perfect cover 0 Beater with the screen)

 

Stafford and Mcvay basically knew what they were calling the whole time and were always a step ahead of Babich 

I don’t even mean the blitz plays…seemed like our corners were really challenging their receivers and Douglas had a bad game…pretty sure nacua at least was manned up for a lot of the game 

 

it wasn’t like they were hitting drag routes and quick outs all the way down the field because our corners were playing soft lol that’s why I don’t get the label.  Everything was coming in chunks.  I noticed an extra safety in the box a few of the times I was looking for it too in the second half 

 

Edited December 9 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[BillsFan130]

5 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

I don’t even mean the blitz plays…seemed like our corners were really challenging their receivers and Douglas had a bad game…pretty sure nacua at least was manned up for a lot of the game 

Some of the plays you are absolutely correct, but usually man to man goes hand in hand with blitzing.
 

If you blitz, you are going to play more man and that's kind of what I was referring to with when they did blitz (and play man to your point), Mcvay knew it was coming as it was obvious .

 

I think something else to consider is the rams had 72 plays which is an insane amount, so we were bound to see some pressure looks out of all of those plays

Edited December 9 by BillsFan130

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

Just now, BillsFan130 said:

Some of the plays you are absolutely correct, but usually man to man goes hand in hand with blitzing.
 

If you blitz, you are going to play more man and that's kind of what I was referring to with when they did blitz (and play man to your point), Mcvay knew it was coming as it was obvious 

I guess my gripe is with this ‘soft zone’ term that gets thrown around…even when it wasn’t a man blitz the corners were playing pretty tight it seemed like.  I think we didn’t want to make things easy for their supposedly bad oline so we were trying to make Stafford hold the ball longer and hit deeper throws consistently and he did.  To me it was pretty different than your typical mcd game and seemed pretty inspired by how Miami beat them almost to a fault lol 

 

 

[Sestak4ever]

The defense did cost us the game, however McDermott made some bad choices where we had a chance to pull this out. On the goal line, instead of a qb push, it would have been best to roll Allen out where he could either throw for a td, run it in for a td or throw it away. Any of those would have saved that time out.

[BillsFan130]

4 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

I guess my gripe is with this ‘soft zone’ term that gets thrown around…even when it wasn’t a man blitz the corners were playing pretty tight it seemed like.  I think we didn’t want to make things easy for their supposedly bad oline so we were trying to make Stafford hold the ball longer and hit deeper throws consistently and he did.  To me it was pretty different than your typical mcd game and seemed pretty inspired by how Miami beat them almost to a fault lol 

 

 

Really eh? Respectfully I don't see it that way at all. They definitely pressured at times, but also remember the rams had 72 plays so we were bound to see some pressure looks from that large number of plays.

 

I think they got a bit desperate and blitzed/played man more in the 2nd half cause the zone wasn't working at all, but that kind of goes back to my original point where I think when they did blitz, it seemed so predictable 

 

 

Edited December 9 by BillsFan130

[CapeBreton]

Bills had no answer for Puka Nakua, what a player. I feel like the Bills really struggle against star QB-WR combos. This is why Joe Burrow and Chase/Higgins have the Bills number. Chiefs actually don't have great wide receivers so they are a good matchup for the Bills.

[SCBills]

I'll see if I can find it to link later, but Kyle Brandt was phenomenal on GMFB about what happened yesterday, and what continues to happen in big games/big moments with JA/Bills Defense/McDermott.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

2 minutes ago, BillsFan130 said:

Really eh? Respectfully I don't see it that way at all. They definitely pressured at times, but also remember the rams had 72 plays so we were bound to see some pressure looks from that large number of plays.

 

I think they got a bit desperate and blitzed/played man more in the 2nd half cause the zone wasn't working at all, but that kind of goes back to my original point where I think when they did blitz, it seemed so predictable 

 

 

Im talking about how much cushion the corners were giving throughout the game.  This mcd soft zone criticism makes sense to me when the safeties are super deep and corners are giving a ton of cushion all game essentially gifting underneath stuff but that did not look like how it went to down to me at all 
 

I’m not trying to say we blitzed a ton lol I’m sure we would’ve if it was more effective though.  And got desperate for a whole half of football?  Isn’t that just a negative way of saying adjusted at halftime 🤣 I think the disagreement makes sense to me now at least haha if we’re gonna discount the whole second half then maybe my opinion would change a bit.  I wouldn’t say we stubbornly stuck to the same thing all game long though 

[JMM]

3 minutes ago, SCBills said:

I'll see if I can find it to link later, but Kyle Brandt was phenomenal on GMFB about what happened yesterday, and what continues to happen in big games/big moments with JA/Bills Defense/McDermott.

Could you give us a synopsis? Thanks.

[SCBills]

1 minute ago, JMM said:

Could you give us a synopsis? Thanks.

 

Basically said that this is the type of game that really gets Bills fans on edge.. A game where we come away saying "We have 17, how do we not win every game" and "What more can Josh Allen do?"

 

Prefaced by saying this doesn't mean the Bills won't win the Super Bowl, we very well might, but God forbid, we don't want to look back at this era and say that Josh Allen was unbelievable, but they just could never get it together around him.

[RichRiderBills]

I think this loss was good for us. Brings us down a peg. We will bounce back, but core issues will rear their head again - especially head scratches on game / time management. 

[Koufax]

Some thoughts from the game yesterday from the stadium:

 

1) Bills Mafia was great for attendance but got the wind out of our sails with a few early deficits and we were not as loud and helpful until the key drive.

 

2) Scoring ten points in two minutes is not a clear path regardless, but we can all agree and stop discussing that running and calling a timeout was bad football strategy. Everyone in our section was immediately doing clock math and knew it. We can all stipulate and move on but that is three pass plays in a row period. I don’t want to blow it out of size as long as we all know a mistake was made and better in December than January or February. Reverse of the Carroll/Lynch SB decision and a no brainer. 
 

3) Defense did not show up. Will need to look at it more closely but it felt like the D Line just did not play. Secondary got beat and didn’t make that one great play against two unreal receivers and a hall of fame quarterback all having a perfect day, but the lack of pressure (even getting close) made the task harder. This unit is under the microscope next week against Detroit and if they play like this in the playoffs I don’t like our chances.

 

4) Putting up 42 is unreal, but Josh is right that the offense needed to be better. The first  three and out was bailed out by a personal foul but was tradition bad bills start and would have given the ball right back to Stafford. 
 

Right before the blocked punt a four and out with three deep balls and no short possession game was the series people won’t focus on but was a lot more crucial to the game than the last minute stuff.

 

Our final series of the first half two more deep incompletions when we could have marched down the field. Then a three and out to start the second half.

 

I love our Superman but high probability.  Hard to fault the offense in a six touchdown performance but when Cook up the middle wasn’t there we had lots of higher probability drove sustaining options without getting into shootout mode right away. 
 

10-3 AFC East champs heading to Detroit for a redemption game and on track for great January opportunities. Go Bills. 

[nucci]

50 minutes ago, Bills!Win! said:

Are the bills 10-3 or 3-10? I cant tell based off of the comments here 

happens after a loss

[CincyBillsFan]

49 minutes ago, Bills!Win! said:

Are the bills 10-3 or 3-10? I cant tell based off of the comments here 

Correct in the long run this should not exert a big negative impact on the season.  Even with a loss at Detroit the Bills are still in a great position to go 13 - 4 and lock up the 2nd seed.

 

But in the short run it is concerning to see some of the same old problems manifest themselves in another ugly loss.

 

 

 

[gordong]

50 minutes ago, Bills!Win! said:

Are the bills 10-3 or 3-10? I cant tell based off of the comments here 

does it matter when the defense has the performance like it did yesterday?   forced One punt... ONE.   PUTRID performance

[Solomon Grundy]

Nobody is addressing the elephant in the room... SPECIAL TEAMS. They haven't been very SPECIAL the past couple of years.