Bills vs Ravens Divisional Round

[NewEra]

1 hour ago, Dan said:

Serious question for folks smarter than me… 

 

Aren’t some defensive formations a single high safety look?   Why not pull one of the safeties, keep TJ on the field and play single high safety looks in obvious run downs?    Why do we always have to pull TJ to get another LB on the field?

 

 

I keep seeing everyone talking stats, stats, stats to support why Lamar should be MVP.   But if it’s only about stats… why isn’t Burrow the MVP?  He had better stats than anyone.  Just go to nfl.com pull up your passing leaders.. boom. Select your MVP.  
 

I know the answer.  But no one supporting Lamar wants to talk about team play and context, they just bring up his stats.   It makes no sense.  
 

 

just kick their ass and be done with it all!

More to the point-  just last season the MVP was won by a guy with solid- but far from great stats.  Just the better record. 

 

To answer your question- because he didn’t even make the playoffs.  Stats and team success matters.  
 

beating the chiefs and the lions (on the road) should stand for something-  I think the loss to the ravens is being overemphasized in the eyes of many.

Edited 12 hours ago by NewEra

[Warriorspikes51]

Just now, NewEra said:

More to the point-  just last season the MVP was won by the a guy with solid- but far from great stats.  Just the better record. 

 

To answer your question- because he didn’t even make the playoffs.  Stats and team success matters.  
 

beating the chiefs and the lions (on the road) should stand for something-  I think the loss to the ravens is being overemphasized in the eyes of many.

 

Good! Give the Bills a full tank of mojo 

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

23 hours ago, 4merper4mer said:

We should get Mike McCarthy amirite?

Mike McCarthy is Sean McDermott is Mike McCarthy 

[Solomon Grundy]

33 minutes ago, Pete said:

It’s about time AJ has a great game. He made some big plays early in the season.   Hes been quiet too long

Not as good against the run as Smoot/Rousseau 

[Doc Brown]

34 minutes ago, Scott7975 said:

 

I have no problem with that. Thats the way it should be. I spend a lot of time on twitter though and it's more than just "defending their guy with passion" and as I said, thats from both sides. Its like going to chiefs planet or whatever their forums are.

You're better off spending time watching paint dry.

[sven233]

1 hour ago, 947 said:

The key to slowing Henry down is tackling him by his legs.  So many of Henry's runs show tacklers falling/bouncing off his upper body & waist. Get his legs & he goes down, it will hurt more in the cold & wear on him.

 

While tackling technique is certainly very important, I have always been of the opinion that the best way to stop him is to never let him take off with a full head of steam.  You have to muck things up in front of him and force him to shuffle and change direction.  He's a big, strong dude that can move, but stopping, starting, and changing directions are more difficult the bigger you are.  Just natural physics.

 

So, how do you do that?  Well, it isn't easy, but I have always believed the best way to do it is with sheer numbers.  There will most likely always be holes available against our defense because we are severely undersized in the front 7, but if you force him to take that extra 2-3 steps sideways to get to the crease, you are giving your guys that extra second or 2 to close the gaps quicker.  The perfect example was the first play from scrimmage when we played them earlier in the season.  We played a light box, the hole was open immediately and he was at top speed before he hit the 2nd level.  That's exactly what you can't do.  But, if you have more bodies up there mucking up the gaps, heck.....even if they are laying on the ground sideways, it is still going to be tougher to navigate and get through the holes than if you play a light box the entire game.

 

I look back on that week 4 game and it is so tough to watch because of how we did play a light box the entire game.  However, I am not sure we had a choice to do anything different.  With Bernard and Milano out, we were already scraping the bottom of the barrel for LBs as it was.  We almost couldn't have put 3 LBs on the field even if we wanted to.  And with Johnson out as well that day, even he couldn't stay down in the box to help because of all the inexperience in the secondary that was playing that day.  Obviously, Jefferson and Phillips weren't on the team at that time either, so our DT depth wasn't as good as it is now either. I mean, I hate giving the coaching staff a pass for that game because it is their job to figure it out, but man, their personele choices were really limited that day.  It's almost like I would throw that game out completely because these teams, especially us, are completely different going into Sunday.  I fully expect the game plan to look MUCH different on Sunday.  If it doesn't and we are still playing a light box the entire game, then I am going to have some serious issues with this staff.

 

Look, I've said it before in other threads here.  I don't want to see one light box when Henry is on the field on Sunday.  Not one.  Force the so-called "MVP" to beat you in your building, in 0 degree temperatures, with 1 legit WR threat (1.5 if Flowers plays because there is no way he will be 100% in the cold with the injury he had), and a couple of TEs.  They are great TEs and are a mismatch, but I will take my chances with Jackson having to throw the ball 35-40+ times in our building, in those temps, with whatever swirling wind will be present.  If he can do that, and truly beat us without Henry being a factor, then I will tip my cap and head to the offseason looking at ways to upgrade the size and talent level of our D-Line.  But I will have to see it to believe it.  I'm not saying we will shut them completely down because they are a good team, but I have a hard time believing they will put 35+ points on us if Henry has under 50 yards which should be the target. 

 

Load the box and use delayed blitzes to challenge the LOS.  Almost make it so you are triggering in 2 separate waves.  Quite honestly, anyone rushing should never get so up field that they lose sight of Jackson.  Keep him in front of you and work your tail off to disengage from blocks.  If you run by him when rushing, you will be out of the play because he is too fast to catch up to when you have to loop all the way around.  Heck, we have enough problems generating sacks as it is, so instead, rush to contain. I would rush 3, keep 2 spies in to shadow Jackson and to trigger on Henry, fire on Jackson if he keeps it when you see your opening and hope you can contain the WRs just long enough.  Double Bateman. Get physical with the TEs and force Jackson to have to make perfect throws in tough conditions on the road and let's see what happens.  I mean, because I am loading the LOS, that will almost force them to keep a TE to block, so you may be able to take care of 2 birds with one stone.  On offense, be who you are.  If we score 30, we should win.  Won't be easy to do any of these things, but this is my play to accomplish them.

 

I know it's wild to say to say force the "MVP" QB of the NFL to beat you with his arm, but we all know that even though he is vastly improved as a passer, he isn't one of the top throwers of the ball in the NFL no matter what the media wants you to believe.  Make him prove that he is and, if he does, so be it.

Edited 13 hours ago by sven233

[Scott7975]

 

[billsfan89]

45 minutes ago, 947 said:

The key to slowing Henry down is tackling him by his legs.  So many of Henry's runs show tacklers falling/bouncing off his upper body & waist. Get his legs & he goes down, it will hurt more in the cold & wear on him.

 

The key to slowing him down is hitting him at, near, or behind the line of scrimmage. He's a powerful dude but he's that much more powerful with a head of steam behind him. If the Bills defense can get first contact early then they can contain him. But if the front 7 can't hit Henry early and often that's gonna hurt. 

[Sojourner]

Like a couple of people have eluded to so far in this thread… Ed Oliver (and DaQuan Jones). 
 

Need dude(s) to have the game of his life. Both stopping the run and putting pressure early and often in Lamar’s face. Rosengarten and Ronnie Stanley are playing great and Linderbaum is no slouch.

 

 
 

 

[RiotAct]

11 minutes ago, Scott7975 said:

 

you know, I’ve always liked those “D Jeremiah” and GPG guys.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

21 minutes ago, Scott7975 said:

 

The ravens are so much better than the bills that nearly everyone picks them to win an extremely close game haha that never made sense to me.  Where are the two score win predictions if they’re that likely to win 

[Scott7975]

 

NFL preview of the Bills/Ravens game.

[BillsFan130]

Sunday Night Temps: -14 feels like -19 celcius. (Might be a degree or two warmer as that is late night, I believe)

 

Gonna be a cold one- Which I think favours the Bills

[hellofellowbillsfans]

52 minutes ago, Scott7975 said:

 

not that it matters but has Adam rank ever picked us to win anything lmao

[Dan]

17 minutes ago, BillsFan130 said:

Sunday Night Temps: -14 feels like -19 celcius. (Might be a degree or two warmer as that is late night, I believe)

 

Gonna be a cold one- Which I think favours the Bills

Personally I’d like it to be more windy than cold.  I think Josh has figured the winds in the stadium out and he’s far better than anyone else that comes into a swirling Rich stadium. 

[BillsFan130]

Just now, Dan said:

Personally I’d like it to be more windy than cold.  I think Josh has figured the winds in the stadium out and he’s far better than anyone else that comes into a swirling Rich stadium. 

Ya I agree with that.

 

The Good news is Lamar hasn't played in colder than 27 Fahrenheit- So the cold could be a little shock to the system for him on Sunday 

[Big Turk]

Interesting note...

 

The Bills have the most TFL's in the NFL.

[Blank Stare]

25 minutes ago, hellofellowbillsfans said:

not that it matters but has Adam rank ever picked us to win anything lmao

His predictions are rank. 

[Ramza86]

Im late to this party but....my god we CANNOT afford to start off slow like we have been doing. 

Ravens are playing too well right now. Uh....I swear if Henry rattles off some big runs again early im going to cry.

[HurlyBurly51]