Van Noy - "I've never seen them (Bills) do this as conservative they played"

[Logic]

For pretty much the entirety of the Patriots dynasty, their calling card was playing smart, mistake-free football and betting that you couldn't match them.

They'd run it, throw it short and medium to unimpressive skill players (Welker, Gronk, and Moss notwithstanding), move the chains repeatedly, and play sound defense and special teams.

They would out-execute you, out-T.O.P. you, and out-consistency you. When facing the Patriots, you HAD to play a mistake free football game, or you'd lose.

The Chiefs have now taken up this mantle. Gone are the days of Mahomes' first couple years where they're slinging it all over the yard. Instead, they too now play time of possession, ball control, take care of the football, out-execute you on the fundamentals, and dare you to play as clean and soundly as them.

This is now what the Bills are doing.

It's not as exciting as the "sling it all over the yard" stuff, but it's also way less high variance, and it's a proven championship winning formula.

The fact that this is the cleanest season of Josh's career (least negative plays, least turnovers) and he was an MVP favorite and the Bills are on the AFC Championship are not coincidences. This is winning football.

Don't think for a moment that if and when the Bills NEED to open it up and sling the rock, they won't. But as currently constructed, their strengths are running the ball, moving the chains, driving the ball methodically, and daring you to keep up. It's a good formula. We KNOW it's a good formula because we've seen it win multiple championships, and because the two teams in the AFC championship game this year both employ this formula expertly.

Whatever wins a trophy, I'm all for it.

Edited 14 hours ago by Logic

[Sweats]

All these talking heads with their "great knowledge" of the game.........bwahahahahahahaha.

 

They all said.......

Jets are going to show the Bills how it's done.............Bills won

Fins are going to give us a beatdown............Bills won

KC in the regular season will show the rest of the league how it's done...........Bills won

SF is going to whip the Bills into submission...........Bills won

The Lions are going to cake walk us............Bills won

Ravens in the post season are going to steam roll us................Bills won

 

Do you see the theme here?

[TheFunPolice]

didn't we open the Ravens game with some down the field passes? 

 

After that it pretty much went away, though 

[BillsFan130]

31 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

Should the Chiefs be worried that they threw for only 177 yards against the Texans?  The folks that need to give it a rest are those who, despite knowing what Brady's style was going to be since before the season, persist in not acknowledging it.

Because it was different when we played them in the regular season.

Not really- go back to that game. There were a lot of early down runs and the bills were in 3rd and long a ton .

 

Josh was a magician that game 

[GreenMtnBillsFan]

 

17 minutes ago, That's No Moon said:

Running the football is not the same thing as taking your foot off the gas. If they can control the line again and be productive running the ball they need to keep doing it. They need to maintain their balance as an offense. It is the identity of the offense and when they are actually the most productive. Use the run to set up the p/a intermediate passing game and carve them up. Make the LBs and safeties make decisions on every single play. Make the DL play honest football and not just chase Allen.

 

This is the way.

1000% agree. It seemed like the Ravens fully sold out to stop the run in the 3rd quarter and we just didn't execute on our passing plays as much to extend drives. That in turn allowed Baltimore to work back into the game instead of getting gamescripted out. There was nothing really there saying that the Bills were "taking their foot off the gas". The other team gets paid to play too, and they're going to make choices to try and get back in the game. That's football. 

If the boys can come out again and execute, extend drives, and keep that balance, they are in a great spot to beat KC and get to the Super Bowl.

Their ability to stay balanced and win/score in different ways this season has been so awesome to watch. It's one of (if not) the biggest reason why they are in the AFC Championship game this season. 

 

[BillsVet]

56 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

Should the Chiefs be worried that they threw for only 177 yards against the Texans?  The folks that need to give it a rest are those who, despite knowing what Brady's style was going to be since before the season, persist in not acknowledging it.

 

Just banish me to solitary confinement for a month to think about it Warden Norton.  

[Coffeesforclosers]

For those who've got the knowledge, I've got a question.

 

As a layman, Spags is famous for three things. Cover 0 Blitzing, Simulated Pressures, and blitzing DBs from anywhere on the field.

 

How do you make a Defense operating with these tendencies tip their hand pre-snap? How do dictate their play style? Do you just run heavy power.

 

Seems like last time, we just threw deep balls to Amari Cooper and Coop smoked his guy every time.

[26TrapDraw]

13 hours ago, Governor said:

They were playing 2 deep. You run the ball and hit underneath. We ran all over them for 3 quarters.

That’s why this offense is so dangerous and Josh has bought into it throwing underneath to backs in space using wide receivers to clear out running lanes. It’s just sound football. If Spagnola has KC’s defense more aggressive and throws all out blitzes at Josh I think he burns them bad.

i love how good this offense is. What makes it even better is that Josh understands exactly what the defense is doing and plays accordingly. I think we will hang  28-35 points on the Chiefs. Let’s hope our Defense can hold Mahomes and the refs to 27

Edited 13 hours ago by 26TrapDraw

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

He's not wrong. If the Bills were playing from behind I expect they would have turned it on. Josh threw it deep on that first drive. But that was followed by two Ravens turnovers with the run and short pass game productive and clicking up until halftime at which point clock management and avoiding the big turnover becomes a thing.

 

If Andrews catches that 2 point conversions I suspect the limits would have come off

[Einstein]

12 hours ago, vincec said:

The Bills can and maybe should open it up a little more. But when you’ve got a great running and short passing game, keeping the ball and trying to control the game with your offense is a good game plan; especially when your defense is mediocre.

 

They NEED to.

 

We won on Sunday because of 3 turnovers. Without them, our offense would have been outscored by 10+ points.

[Einstein]

1 hour ago, Logic said:

The fact that this is the cleanest season of Josh's career (least negative plays, least turnovers) and he was an MVP favorite and the Bills are on the AFC Championship are not coincidences. This is winning football.
 

 

It’s important to note that what we saw on Sunday against Baltimore is NOT the offense that made Josh an MVP favorite and put the Bills in contention for the 1 seed.

 

It was far more conservative than we have seen the entire season.

 

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

8 minutes ago, 26TrapDraw said:

That’s why this offense is so dangerous and Josh has bought into it throwing underneath to backs in space using wide receivers to clear out running lanes. It’s just sound football. If Spagnola has KC’s defense more aggressive and throws all out blitzes at Josh I think he burns them bad.

i love how good this offense is. What makes it even better is that Josh understands exactly what the defense is doing and plays accordingly. I think we will hang  28-35 points on the Chiefs. Let’s hope our Defense can hold Mahomes and the refs to 27

To me this is what Brady does that Dorsey never did. If he sees a tendency that he thinks can be exploited he builds the gameplan around that.

 

If winning means Josh has less than 200 combined yards he does it and Josh has bought in enough that he is fine with that. 

 

I wanted us to keep Diggs. We do not have this offense had he remained.

[Logic]

4 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

It’s important to note that what we saw on Sunday against Baltimore is NOT the offense that made Josh an MVP favorite and put the Bills in contention for the 1 seed.

 

It was far more conservative than we have seen the entire season.

 

It's also important to note that every gameplan is unique and opponent-specific, and takes variables like weather into play. 

It's also important to note that the Bills won.

[msw2112]

13 hours ago, BillsFan130 said:

The conservative offence worries me a bit. It kind of reminds me of the first 6 or so games of the season.

 

Against KC, going to have to open it up more and put the game in your superstar QBs hands

 

 

Correct, KC is not going to make as many mistakes (drops, turnovers) as Baltimore did, therefore the Bills are going to have to be more aggressive to score points on offense.  Hopefully, the Bills will get the lead at some point, but going conservative to protect the lead while relying on the other team's mistakes is not going to work in this game.

 

The Bills have been good at adjusting their game plan to their opponent's strengths and weaknesses and I'm fairly confident they'll do it in this game.  I liked Leslie Frasier - a good man and a good coach - but will never forget him saying that "we're going to do what we always do" in a playoff game, and seeing that result in the same outcome.  I think that was against the Bengals, after they were carving the Bills up in the game before Hamlin went down, and then proceeded to do the exact same thing for an entire game during the playoffs.  I have no doubt that led to Frasier "taking a year off."  Being a good coach and a good defensive coordinator may get you to the playoffs, but it's not going to get you over the hump against top offenses in playoffs.  Good needs to go to the next level, which is what I hope Babich and McDermott can do.

Edited 12 hours ago by msw2112

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

13 minutes ago, Logic said:

It's also important to note that every gameplan is unique and opponent-specific, and takes variables like weather into play. 

It's also important to note that the Bills won.

Yea I’m a bit puzzled by the objections to it lol. That was your classic ‘hold all their receivers’ type playoff defense with pretty bad field conditions sprinkled on top of it that we would’ve really struggled against in the past and we invested in the run game for literally that exact situation  

 

in the ‘wow look at Josh throw the ball all game’ days even throwing prime diggs and prime Beasley back in there Baltimore would’ve played two high all game and easily stopped the run while limiting the pass.

 

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Generic_Bills_Fan

[SoTier]

3 hours ago, BillsFan130 said:

Per the bolded- The ravens strength is their rush D. Number 1 in the nfl if I'm not mistaken .  So when you say the bills were exploiting the opponents weakness and us posters don't "understand that", respectfully your point doesn't make sense- Considering they were continuing trying to run against the ravens strength and got very little in the 2nd half.

The results in the 2nd half ? Only one 1st down in the 3rd quarter- 6 total points in the 2nd half- And barely over 100 yards in the 2nd half.

 

You think that's a good game plan? Or do you believe it was poor execution?

 

Cause objectively , the 2nd half offence wasn't good at all and it almost cost them the game 

 

Did the Bills not have success running the ball in the first half?   Three rushing TDs and a 21-10 lead suggests that they did.   The Ravens sold out to stop the run in the second half.   Given that they had an 11 point lead and the weather, the Bills chose to play it safe in the 2nd half rather than try to pass downfield a lot.   Moreover, some of the second half plays that failed were audibles, so they weren't part of the game plan.

 

 

[BillsFan130]

2 minutes ago, SoTier said:

 

Did the Bills not have success running the ball in the first half?   Three rushing TDs and a 21-10 lead suggests that they did.   The Ravens sold out to stop the run in the second half.   Given that they had an 11 point lead and the weather, the Bills chose to play it safe in the 2nd half rather than try to pass downfield a lot.   Moreover, some of the second half plays that failed were audibles, so they weren't part of the game plan.

 

 

Yes they did in the 1st half.

 

You said Baltimore sold out to stop the run in the 2nd half- That's exactly my point: Why are the bills slamming into heavy man boxes time after time?

 

If they mixed in play action more and took a few more shots in the 2nd half, I think the bills would have won this one easily

[BuffaloBill]

It’s interesting hearing a player’s perspective. The Bills had to learn from past mistakes and they have.

 

I have much more respect for the Bills coaching staff and JA#17 as they have shown growth. 

 

Now we have to hope it translates to two more wins this year.

[Billsfanatic8989]

I do believe the Bills would have opened it up if the game dictated it. But they played on their terms, with a lead, for most of the game. 

[BearNorth]

35 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

They NEED to.

 

We won on Sunday because of 3 turnovers. Without them, our offense would have been outscored by 10+ points.

The Andrews fumble led to a FG, The Jackson fumble and Miller return led to a TD, so yes 10 pts off turnovers and we won by 2.  Harbaugh also probably regrets going for 2 on the Likely TD, as a PAT there would have allowed a PAT on their last TD to tie at 27, still would have had to stop Josh & Co, who had the ball last with 2 TO's.