Being nitpicky: please let Allen pass the ball more

[HappyDays]

8 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Were they though?.. in conventional fashion?

 

The only big time downfield throw they connected on in structure (that I can remember) was the pass to Bateman over Hamlin.

 

I don't mean like 20+ yard plays downfield, I just mean literally passes that go more than 5 yards forward to a WR or TE. And yes by memory that's what Baltimore's passing offense was running through for the entire game. Whereas it felt like we ran a lot of screens and quick one-read passes or checkdowns. I see the argument that our personnel limited us somewhat but the overall gameplan seemed very deliberate, not just caused by circumstance.

[Since1981]

Any objective observer would say after the half, Buffalo offense was in OC slumber mode. 3Q you’d have no idea JA MVP was on the field without seeing the #17. They can’t take the foot off the O gas, our D needs O scoring to survive. 

[Augie]

We won.  I’m good. 

 

Every game is different, and the reason we won yesterday was the turnover differential. In those conditions, we did as much as we had to do to win. Next week may look very different depending upon where they think our best opportunities are and how we mix the run and pass. 

 

Maybe Josh is saving his Super Man game for the brightest lights. 

[Julio Hopkins]

2 minutes ago, longtimebillsfan said:

Let's not change what is working.

 

Our balanced, ball controlled offense is doing just fine thank you.

 

The more we keep Mahome off the field the better we are.

 

They tried that last year, they lost because of it.

 

Despite holding onto the ball for 37 minutes of the game they only scored 24 points.  The Chiefs only had the ball for 23:00 minutes and still had 361 yards.  Seven yards short of the Bills 368 with half the time of possession.  

 

The offense didn't get it done in the second half last year just like they didn't get done yesterday against the Ravens.  

[Big Turk]

11 minutes ago, longtimebillsfan said:

Let's not change what is working.

 

Our balanced, ball controlled offense is doing just fine thank you.

 

The more we keep Mahome off the field the better we are.

 

It's working because the Bills OLine is dominating  in the run game...

 

Bronco's #1 run D and Raven's #2 run D got dominated.

[oldmanfan]

28 minutes ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

I dont know WTH that was last night playcalling, but it was crap and we got lucky they turned the ball over 3x. If we don't let Allen be Allen and start taking some mid field shots at least, then KC is gonna beat us badly.

I would have put our fastest WR in the Slot and said "split the safety's on the way to the endzone" and have just let it rip.

We did not get lucky they turned the ball over 3 times.  We baited Lamar’s into a puck, Hamlin made a great play to force Lamar to try and change hands with the ball, and Bernard made a great play to punch the ball out.

[T master]

There is the old saying that "if it ain't broke don't fix it" BUT I wouldn't mind seeing a couple of shots deep to to put every body on notice that Josh ain't lost it, he did have the one down the field yesterday which was encouraging but another one wouldn't be bad .

 

But maybe because Diggs dropped that one last season , and Gabe wasn't much better he has decided to approach it a bit difference and allow others on the team to do the dirty work and to this point it has worked pretty darn good . Undefeated at home & going back to the AFC Championship game .

 

Can't argue with that ... GO BILLS !!!! 

[longtimebillsfan]

16 minutes ago, Julio Hopkins said:

 

They tried that last year, they lost because of it.

 

Despite holding onto the ball for 37 minutes of the game they only scored 24 points.  The Chiefs only had the ball for 23:00 minutes and still had 361 yards.  Seven yards short of the Bills 368 with half the time of possession.  

 

The offense didn't get it done in the second half last year just like they didn't get done yesterday against the Ravens.  

This is a much stronger team this year compared to last year's team.

[Julio Hopkins]

5 minutes ago, longtimebillsfan said:

This is a much stronger team this year compared to last year's team.

 

I hope so, because the Chiefs are a much stronger team than they were last year.  

[BillsVet]

1 hour ago, dave mcbride said:

The Ravens’ pass D has been lights out since week 11. In 7 out of 9 games they held opponents to under 200 yards passing. They also gave up 202 in one game and 251 vs the Steelers in the playoff game, but most of those yards were garbage time yards: 211 passing yards in the second half when the game was out of hand and not in doubt. At halftime, they were up 21-0 and had given up just 40 passing yards. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/rav/2024.htm

 

Ravens' last 7 regular season opponents (PIT, LAC, PHI, NYG, PIT, HOU, CLE) ranked 27th, 19th, 29th, 28th, 27th, 21st, and 22nd) in yards passing per game.  H/T to someone else who noted this in another thread.  Yes, they are coached well and made noticeable improvements, but they weren't top of the NFL either.    

 

42 minutes ago, longtimebillsfan said:

Let's not change what is working.

 

Our balanced, ball controlled offense is doing just fine thank you.

 

The more we keep Mahome off the field the better we are.

 

In last year's Divisional Round, Kansas City scored 27 points on drives that didn't close out a half or the game.  And Buffalo held the ball 37 minutes as well while winning the turnover battle.  

 

Buffalo's 2nd half consisted of 4 drives: TD, turnover on downs, punt, and the missed FG.  (Cue the person who references Bass' missed FG for why they lost).  

 

The idea your opponent makes a mistake isn't a dependable strategy, no matter how much you like your defense and particularly against KC.  Yesterday was a safe game plan and that's not all bad, but benefitted from Lamar's 2 turnovers, drops and bonehead plays (thanks Mark Andrews).  Team needs to pick it up another notch because KC is less likely to do that.  And the offense might need to bail the defense out.      

Edited 5 hours ago by BillsVet

[I'mBuff]

2 hours ago, K-9 said:

I think the play-calling was more geared to controlling possession and keeping Henry off the field. Not a totally wrong strategy, especially on a day like yesterday, given the stat I heard this morning: in their five losses this season, all by seven points or less, Henry had less than 20 carries and less than 90 yards. 
 

That said, yeah, I would like to see Josh throw it more, too. But unless Cooper is involved, he has limited options as we’ve seen at times this season.

Well you have to make first downs for that. All the predictable 1st down runs got stale and predictable and led to 3 & outs. Can’t continuously be 2nd and nine 2nd and 11. Needed a few shots down field to loosen up that D. 

[SectionC3]

The weather was a big factor yesterday. It's easy to suggest passing more. But conditions were bad, with respect to both traction and grip. The  only thing I disagree with from yesterday was not going full neanderthal and running tush push on the last third and goal.  But there's one other element to it - McGovern was in a lot of pain earlier.  Not sure if it showed up on the broadcast.  I think it was his left shoulder.  Maybe that prevented the tush push there.  

[Dr.Mantis_Toboggan]

1 hour ago, Big Turk said:

 

We played KC/Patriot ball. Short, high percentage plays to prevent getting behind the sticks and being put in positions where you have to try and force things. And just keep doing it over and over and over. Keep converting 3rd and shorts, keep the chains moving, get the ball out of Allen's hands quickly.

I get that, I’m just saying I think that the ultra conservative pass game made it feel like they were passing even less than they actually were.  
 

However, at times it also felt like watching somebody do the speed limit in their Lamborghini…
 

I am fine with the approach because more often than not it’s resulted in W’s under Brady, but sometimes it feels you’re setting yourself up for disaster trying to constantly string together 12-15 plays drives because it increases the likelihood of incurring a drive killing penalty. I think to beat KC, in KC we’re going to need some explosive, big plays mixed in there, otherwise you’re leaving too much up to the discretion of the zebras.

[Turk71]

Winning the turnover margin 3 to 0 but only winning by a failed 2 point conversion tells me the Bills needed to score more points. They had no killer instinct on offense and barely held on for the win.

 I am so glad it didn't go to overtime. 

If they get ahead vs the Chiefs they better keep going, I doubt KC turns it over that many times and trying to just hold on in the 4th quarter is not a winning strategy vs Mahomes.

[dave mcbride]

12 minutes ago, BillsVet said:

 

Ravens' last 7 regular season opponents (PIT, LAC, PHI, NYG, PIT, HOU, CLE) ranked 27th, 19th, 29th, 28th, 27th, 21st, and 22nd) in yards passing per game.  H/T to someone else who noted this in another thread.  Yes, they are coached well and made noticeable improvements, but they weren't top of the NFL either.    

 

 

In last year's Divisional Round, Kansas City scored 27 points on drives that didn't close out a half or the game.  And Buffalo held the ball 37 minutes as well while winning the turnover battle.  

 

Buffalo's 2nd half consisted of 4 drives: TD, turnover on downs, punt, and the missed FG.  (Cue the person who references Bass' missed FG for why they lost).  

 

The idea your opponent makes a mistake isn't a dependable strategy, no matter how much you like your defense and particularly against KC.  Yesterday was a safe game plan and that's not all bad, but benefitted from Lamar's 2 turnovers, drops and bonehead plays (thanks Mark Andrews).  Team needs to pick it up another notch because KC is less likely to do that.  And the offense might need to bail the defense out.      

You’re neglecting the Bills, who were 9th in passing yards and 5th in ypa. The Bills averaged only 5.7 yards per passing play after averaging over 10 yards per passing play the week before in the cold vs a top 5 defense (Denver). I don’t care who the Ravens played — they have great defenders and their defense was truly elite in the last half of the season. So the weak competition argument doesn’t convince me at all. They also shut down the bills’ passing game in week 4 too.

[Pete]

33 minutes ago, Julio Hopkins said:

 

I hope so, because the Chiefs are a much stronger team than they were last year.  

Are they?  They seem quite lucky this season

[Dr.Mantis_Toboggan]

27 minutes ago, Julio Hopkins said:

 

I hope so, because the Chiefs are a much stronger team than they were last year.  

Don’t agree. The record is obviously much better, but how they got there is much like the Vikings 13 win season under Kirk Cousins, just all of the 50/50 situations and even worse (blocking Denver’s FG to win comes to mind) happen to bounce the Chiefs way… and when they didn’t the refs were usually there to right the ship. But offensively, this Chiefs team has regressed majorly from where they were 2 years ago. Their run game is virtually non existent, Pacheco hasn’t been right all season, constantly battling injury, and Hunt is OK at best.  

Mahomes put his best WR on IR, the rest of the group hasn’t really had a chance to gel. Worthy makes some plays here and there, but Hopkins and Hollywood combined for 0 in the statistical columns against Houston.  This is not the same big bad wolf as in years past, this is a great defensive team carrying a mediocre offense at this point. The Bills are much more well balanced, and both their PPG and point differential are a testament to this fact.

 

There is no such thing as a sure thing, this is still KC in Arrowhead for the right to go to the Super Bowl, but I like our odds much more so this year than in season’s past, especially last year in Buffalo, if for nothing else than the simple fact that the Bills have linebackers this year, and damn good ones at that…

[ganesh]

2 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

We wont beat KC dinking and dunking, Spags will be ready for that.

I think we did that exactly the last time we met them

45 minutes ago, Turk71 said:

Winning the turnover margin 3 to 0 but only winning by a failed 2 point conversion tells me the Bills needed to score more points. They had no killer instinct on offense and barely held on for the win.

 I am so glad it didn't go to overtime. 

If they get ahead vs the Chiefs they better keep going, I doubt KC turns it over that many times and trying to just hold on in the 4th quarter is not a winning strategy vs Mahomes.

The offense did fine in the 1st half to take a 11 pt lead into half-time.  In the second half, they played conservative (to not lose) and the Ravens adjusted and started creating more offense.  If the Bills score TDs in the 2nd half instead of FGs, this game ends in a rout like the Denver game

[BillsVet]

37 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

You’re neglecting the Bills, who were 9th in passing yards and 5th in ypa. The Bills averaged only 5.7 yards per passing play after averaging over 10 yards per passing play the week before in the cold vs a top 5 defense (Denver). I don’t care who the Ravens played — they have great defenders and their defense was truly elite in the last half of the season. So the weak competition argument doesn’t convince me at all. They also shut down the bills’ passing game in week 4 too.

 

Who the Ravens played is precisely the point while we acknowledge their secondary was improved down the stretch.  

 

I refuse to believe Buffalo threw it 22 times because of the weather or Baltimore's improved pass D.   

 

This was more a function of Buffalo choosing to game-plan to achieve other objectives.  Maybe McD wanted to wear down that defense, protect their own, and be safe with the ball.  That would not be surprising given those were priorities all this past regular season.  

 

The Ravens are a very good team and no one is disputing that.  Their defense was first against the run in the regular season...yet the Bills chose to run it 63% of their offensive snaps.  

[Big Turk]

1 hour ago, Julio Hopkins said:

 

I hope so, because the Chiefs are a much stronger team than they were last year.  

 

I don't think they are...essentially they are the same team that just got every bounce imaginable and had teams inexplicably implode at the end of games.

Edited 3 hours ago by Big Turk