Joe Brady, Josh Allen, and the playcalling

[dlonce]

Wide receiver screens in this game were going nowhere. The field was too slick

[Don Otreply]

Yup, some frustrating moments, but that’s the usual thing in tight games, imo, they should have mixed in some longer pass plays, not a lot of them but enough to  keep their defense spread out a bit more, but what the hell do I know, lol. 

[zow2]

We were like an NHL team last night that got out to an early 3-0 lead, but was outshot 45-20 in the game and hung on for dear life.  That's what it reminded me of.  We just packed it in, weren't going to give Baltimore a mistake to capitalize on., played D,  made them earn their yards while tightening up in the red zone.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

 

[Bferra13]

1 minute ago, zow2 said:

We were like an NHL team last night that got out to an early 3-0 lead, but was outshot 45-20 in the game and hung on for dear life.  That's what it reminded me of.  We just packed it in, weren't going to give Baltimore a mistake to capitalize on., played D,  made them earn their yards while tightening up in the red zone.

Sounds very reminiscent of a real hockey team i know... hmm lol. Luckily the Bills closed the deal whereas that other said team would have folded quicker than a cheap suit.

[Carmel Corn]

The morning after, I still didn’t like the game plan by Brady.  Too much predictability on 1st down.  Not enough downfield shots.  The Ravens receivers didn’t seem to have issues running downfield routes, so why didn’t Buffalo try more?!?!

 

Brady needed to be more unpredictable.  Maybe some hurry -up offense might have keep the Ravens back on their heels some, but we never tried that.

[Captain Hindsight]

54 minutes ago, MikePJ76 said:

You could also credit the ravens for playing good defense.  
 

 

First day here?

[Tulsabillsfanz]

29 minutes ago, CincyBillsFan said:

The first Bills play of the 3rd quarter was the pitch play that had burned the Ravens in that last drive of the half.  It was stuffed for no gain.  All I could think was didn't Brady assume that the Ravens D coaches discussed THAT play extensively in the locker room and adjusted their D?  Sure Allen may have changed some calls but there was a clear intention of not being aggressive on offense the entire 2nd half.  It worked as we won the game but it was very risky IMO. 

 

 

That was shortly after they showed Harbaugh’s halftime comments that Baltimore must stop the run in the second half.  Baltimore was selling out to stop the run. We didn’t adjust our second half play calling to counter that. 

[Sweats]

2 minutes ago, zow2 said:

We were like an NHL team last night that got out to an early 3-0 lead, but was outshot 45-20 in the game and hung on for dear life.  That's what it reminded me of.  We just packed it in, weren't going to give Baltimore a mistake to capitalize on., played D,  made them earn their yards while tightening up in the red zone.

 

 

 

 

They scored just about every time they got near the red zone...........LJ had all day to run around in the backfield looking for the open receiver and had no problem capitalizing on it either.

The King bulldozed his way in for a TD in the 3rd quarter with very little effort from our D in trying to stop him........he just carried bodies into the EZ along the way.

 

When exactly did we tighten up in the red zone?

[Shaw66]

5 minutes ago, Sweats said:

 

 

 

Yeah, i was thinking the same thing..........we needed to even just attempt the threat of a passing attack to open the field up and it just seemed like our game plan was to just keep trying to run (sometimes it worked, sometimes not).

 

Almost as if to say, "So Baltimore, you've got a running game?.......well, we've got a bit of our own", which i ordinarily wouldn't argue with, however, this team is not built to go toe to toe with the opposition, we are built for chunk yardage which relies on passing, to set up the run.

 

Very, very unusual game plan yesterday.......but it worked.

And it's not even big chunk yardage.  It's just enough so that the ball is moving downfield and often your getting the first down with one or two plays, not having to constantly convert third downs.  

 

The Ravens obviously knew the Bills would run a fair amount, and they were ready.  And they knew the Bills like those short passes that really are extensions of the run. The Ravens were ready. And the Ravens were ready to tackle Shakir quickly after a catch.  They get credit for all of that.  The Bills just had to punish them for focusing on those portions of the Bills offense. 

 

And Allen threw poorly.  Just off the top of my head, he missed Cooper badly on one play, and he had someone - Kincaid? - going deep and overthrew him.  Allen threw one of his line drives instead of getting air under it. 

 

The bold part is most important.  McDermott's teams are almost always well prepared, and they have reasons for what they did.  Listening to him in his presser, he didn't sound like he thought the Bills got lucky.  He said the Bills did a lot of what they thought they could do and the Ravens did a lot of what they thought the Ravens could do.  Most telling was what he said about turnovers.  He didn't want to put the Ravens down, but in so many words he said "my team is good at the fundamentals, and if your team isn't, well we just saw happens."  I haven't wanted to jinx him, but Cook isn't fumbling any more.  Josh isn't making dumb plays with the ball any more. Receivers don't fumble. Players don't take dumb penalties. 

 

The Bills won because they play football better than the Ravens, and they do it by doing the most important things right, over and over. 

[T.E.]

The coaching across the board was abysmal in the second half, and the fact that they escaped with a win shouldn't hide that. Over and over again, they turtle in big moments and become insanely conservative. 

[GunnerBill]

49 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

The TE screen to Knox was 100% a Josh Allen audible and not a very good choice

 

I did not spot it at the time but you are 100% right. Josh clearly kills the play and audibles. 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Just now, Carmel Corn said:

The morning after, I still didn’t like the game plan by Brady.  Too much predictability on 1st down.  Not enough downfield shots.  The Ravens receivers didn’t seem to have issues running downfield routes, so why didn’t Buffalo try more?!?!

 

Brady needed to be more unpredictable.  Maybe some hurry -up offense might have keep the Ravens back on their heels some, but we never tried that.

Different attacks. Bills defense was letting Lamar hold the ball forever by design, allowing WRs to eventually break free. The Ravens were forcing Allen to get rid of the ball.

 

I wanted them to use the RBs more in the passing game. I don’t think their LBs could keep up with the field conditions.

[Einstein]

1 hour ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

It just looked like a horrible called game all night.

Perhaps Joe Brady's worst called game in his Bills career.

 

- Not knowing to run QB sneak at the 2 yard line?
- Sweep after sweep that wasnt working yet he kept doing it

- Refusal to run play-action until the 4th quarter (and it worked when he finally did)

- Tight End screen on 3rd down against press man. Maybe a Josh audible but why is that even an option there?
- Completely neutered the best player in the league

Really hated the game-plan on offense. Frustrating. 

If it wasn't for Baltimore's 3 turnovers, I doubt we crack 20 points.

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Einstein

[Logic]

I am of the belief that it is incredibly difficult for the average fan to reasonably judge an offensive gameplan in the NFL for the reasons you state.

We, as fans, don't know the following:

- what the called play was

- whether or not the QB checked to a different play

- what the defense did or didn't show vs the original call to warrant a check

- whether that check was the right decision

- whether the protections were set correctly, which hugely impacts the play success

- whether the OL and skill players executed the play call the way it was supposed to be executed or committed an error

- what the defense did to confuse or outscheme the offensive playcall 

 

So we can all sit here from the comfort of our armchairs, without most of that information (maybe the really sharp viewers know the answer to SOME of those questions, SOME of the time, but most don't) and say "Brady called a bad game" or "what was up with those playcalls?". But the reality is that there are simply so many variables that fans are not privy to.

Using last night as an example, I think most of us were frustrated at how conservative the Bills seemed to be in the third quarter, how much they ran the ball on 1st down, how little they trusted Allen to make plays in the passing game, etc. 

But how do we know Josh wasn't checking to run plays based on looks the defense gave him? How do we know that Josh wasn't surveying the defense presented, deciding that a run play was the "right" call vs that defense, and then the offensive players just got out-executed by the defensive players?

I'll admit that the playcalling in the third quarter (and part of the fourth) vexed me at times. But I never forget two things: One, I'm missing a ton of information (as stated above), and two, the other guys get paid, too. It's not as simple as many want to make it out to be.

[mathja]

9 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

 

There was so much space out toward the sideline. I guess he wanted to try to use his blockers and get caught up in that muck. Not great awareness by Knox on this play.

[Einstein]

And on another offensive note, I don't trust Coleman at all. I'm genuinely at the point where I think he is better served on the bench. The offense looked fine without him for the month he was injured.

 

I have hopes for him in the future but he simply cant separate right now and when the ball is thrown to him he still has trouble catching it at times. On the play he was "interfered" with (which probably should have been OPI), the ball went right through his hands. 

And if you can't separate against a 30 year old DB coming off a torn ACL and torn achilles, then yikes.

[Allen2Moulds]

I understand the importance of running clock, and I guess ultimately it did work, because we took the ball all the way down to the 2-yard line.  But the shotgun call from the 2 was bad.  Josh needs to be under center there, run or pass.  The 2nd thing I was surprised about, was that after Hollins pancaked Humphrey out of game, we didn't target his replacement.  You saw it in the Philly game.  As soon as Quinyon Mitchell got hurt, the Rams attacked his replacement over and over again.

 

Overall:

The Good:  First half aggression on defense, running offense, Tyler Bass

 

The bad: 3rd quarter, got too conservative on both sides of the ball.

 

But hey, in all and all the recipe still equaled a WIN!!!

We just need to be better on offense next week against the Chiefs.  

 

GO BILLS!!!!!

[JoshAllin]

The play calling felt like the play calling vs KC in the division game. last year. It worked in that it kept them close with all the defensive injuries. This year it worked great up until the 2nd half. I think it would work better this year vs KC since they have their stars this time

[GunnerBill]

7 minutes ago, T.E. said:

The coaching across the board was abysmal in the second half, and the fact that they escaped with a win shouldn't hide that. Over and over again, they turtle in big moments and become insanely conservative. 

 

This is just not true.