Bocephuz

Thank you.. watching in real time should be about emotion/fun/energy as its very difficult to pick up detail and nuance. All 22 a few days after allows for objective detailed review

He did get antsy a little early here.. On another point.. I was very pleased that he made several really aggressive tight window throws in the red zone. The throw to Woods where he didn't get his feet down as well as both TDs throws were well placed aggressive throws.

In my opinion he is much more spooked by the blitzing lb coming from his right.. and that is what hurries his clock up. It's a shame because the rb does a good job picking up the blitzer. Cordy does initially get beaten.. but he recovers and drives the guy just far enough behind TT to save the pocket. Richie still looks great in the run game.. pulling etc.. but to my eye I agree that his pass protect has regressed a little. Not to say he has been horrible.. but definitely not up to the Pro Bowl pass protection level of last year. I think it would be smart to consider drafting a guard in the first couple of rounds to groom.

He was definitely being moved off his spot much more in the 2nd half. I'll have to watch again to comment on individual line play.

You certainly could... I'm not really making any statement about how good he is compared to other NFL QBs with this however. My main point was to get a better feel for how much of the low yardage total was on Tyrod and how much was attributed to factors beyond his control.

I agree that we need to let Tyrod be Tyrod.. the less stuff he has in his head the better. Just focus on little things like footwork, climbing the pocket etc, encourage him to trust his instincts rather than having every thing scripted out for him. Also.. I think my main take away is that his low yardage total is due mainly to having so few attempts ( 23) which can mostly be attributed to his receivers dropping key moving the chains balls that limit the total number of offensive plays.

Good stuff. To be the contrarian here: 1) would the screen to Clay really have worked? There looks like there is a defender coming hard right at his side. I think he could probably have avoided him, but I also think the presence of that defender was why he dropped the ball-- caught peaking at the defender coming towards him. - That defender is probably why he dropped the ball.. but that defender was on the back side of the play and had Clay caught it his momentum should have carried him away from that guy and towards a gaping hole with multiple linemen pulling and blocking for him. 2) On the Powell play, in a real time, i thought the CB made a good play on the ball and maybe deflected it. Less clear from the All-22 angle though. - It's somewhat tough to see.. but from what I can tell the ball got through cleanly, hit him in the hands and he stopped short not wanting to take the hit from the db coming at this face which made him cough the ball up. Tough play.. but Andre Reed would've caught that ball and taken it like a man. thank you.. I always wonder if they are coherent enough or note.

thx That's the frustrating thing... it would have been interesting to see how he would have done had those 1st downs not have been needlessly squandered Indeed. History shows he'll hit those more than he misses so I hope they keep taking shots. He's demonstrated a few times in the past that he can step up in the pocket and deliver. Hopefully they continue to work on that with him. I also noticed that for the most part was chopping his feet nicely while buying time on the shotgun snaps rather than being flat footed like he was in the Jets/ Ravens games. That tells me he takes well to coaching.

After watching the All 22 I compiled a list of passing plays that "could have.. should have been". As you will see .. there was one big obvious play that is on Tyrod solely. There were also several big drops that hurt in various ways. TYROD UNFORCED ERROR Q3: 5:38 - 55 yards lost - Woods sells the slant.. CB bites .. and Woods is wide open down left side with no safety in sight. TT throws off his heels rather than stepping up in pocket (pressure is coming from the right side blitzing LB. but RB picks it up). If Tyrod hits this play.. much of the post game chatter we are hearing about his "game manager" stats would not be happening. RECEIVER UNFORCED ERRORS Q2 : 7:38 - 20+ yards lost?? - Charles Clay drops a well thrown called screen pass. As you will see below.. the linemen are pulling his way and there is a great deal of space for YAC for Clay. This was a great call by Anthony Lynn to take advantage of the Rams aggressive DEs.. but Clay let his QB.. and the team down on this one Q2 - 7:22 - (5 yards and crucial 3rd down missed) - Tyrod makes a decisive quick throw to Goodwin who is running a hitch at the sticks. The throw is a tad high..and Goodwin takes a hit.. but nevertheless Goodwin really needs to come down with this one. The result is a 3 and out.. less plays for the offense and a punt. Q2 - 1:01 - 15 yards? - Woods is wide open with some space to run.. but drops a decently thrown in route. Q4 - 4:47 - 7 yards lost - Powell drops a slant pass and costs the team a chance to move the chains. It appears he alligator arms it as he doesn't want to take the hit. So here are some hypothetical adjusted numbers for Tyrod ACTUAL NUMBERS - 12/23 - 124 yds - 2 TDs - 0 turnovers NO DROPS - 16/23 - 173 yds - 2 TDs - 0 turnovers Keep in mind .. several of these drops would have resulted in 1st downs. 23 attempts is a very low number of passing attempts .. and this low number is mostly due to crucial drops that could have moved the chains and created more opportunities.WOODS DEEP BALL HITS/ NO DROPS - 17/23 - 228 YDS - 3 TDs - turnovers I think we would all take this stat line every week .. At the end of the day Tyrod hurt himself on missing the deep ball to Woods.. but in my opinion his receivers let him down more times than he let them down. I think I only saw 2 obvious unforced errors from Tyrod on throws ( an overthrown out route to Goodwin and the Woods deep ball). After re-watching this I feel better about Taylor than I did when watching in real time. History shows that he will start hitting his deep balls on a more regular basis.. and the recent past shows him starting to improve on the quick timing patterns as well as in the red zone. That combination .. along with limiting turnovers should be a winning formula for the Bills.

Good point.. but we are paying him a HUGE salary to run a lot of deep routes that WRs typically run.

In watching all these plays he is certainly does not have the route running/ separation skills that Watkins has and appears to be much easier to take out of a game than Watkins would be. That being said he's a tight end so it's not apples to apples. But still.. it seems clear to me that his route running is average.. but his run after the catch seems to be his forte. So get him the ball in space and let him run some dudes over rather than throwing deep to him In general.. from what I saw they played a mix of zone and man D looks. There were instances in both coverages where he didn't appear to be doubled in man.. or appear to have an extra zone guy shaded towards him.

Yes.. his best attribute is run after catch.. so more quick passes in space and less deep post and seam routes

The topic of what has happened to Charles Clay in this offense is likely at the top of many minds here at TwoBillsDrive. Many of us were probably expecting Clay to be one of the beneficiaries of the OC change to Anthony Lynn.. who many thought would manufacture some designed plays to feature Clay. I took a look at the All 22 of this Cards game and discovered a few things: ( keep in mind I of course do not know the play call but am just going off of what I see on the screen.. I also may have missed a play or two.. but this should analysis should at least be directionally accurate) I looked to answer the following questions: How many passing snaps did he get? Was Clay doubled most of the day? Was Clay getting open..getting separation consistently? Did Clay appear to be the first read often? __ ____ PASSING SNAPS Clay was on the field for 19 called pass plays by my count DOUBLE TEAMED/ BRACKETED: Clay appeared to be doubled or bracketed closely by two defenders on 4 out of 19 pass plays ( 21% of the time). Below is an example of Clay being bracketed/doubled on the first play of the game Clay is lined up next to the RT and runs an intermediate out route.. This is a designed roll out for TT and I'm going to assume Clay is the 1st read here. However.. as you can see he is nicely bracketed by 2 defenders and isn't really a good option There were several other examples where it was pretty clear Arizona was purposefully taking away Clay later in the game. In short.. double teaming/bracketing can account for 1 out of 5 missed Clay opportunities. Here's another one where he gets double the attention.. Clay is lined up in line next to the RT on this one. SINGLE COVERAGE/ NOT OPEN To my eye Clay was single covered.. and not getting separation or not open on 8 out 19 plays .. or 42 % of the time OPEN To my eye Charles Clay appeared to be open on 7 out of 19 pass plays.. or 37% of the time. In other words.. he appeared to have beaten his defender and gotten good separation 37% of the time. Below is an example where he is open but doesn't get the ball. Clay lines up in the slot on the right.. runs a crossing route on the goalline.. but doesn't appear to be the first read as TT is looking right to Powell right after the snap. The CB blitz doesn't give Tyrod a chance to progress to Clay..resulting instead in a completed slant short of the goal ine to Powell. TT actually does a pretty good job here in the face of the blitz. 1st READ? This was my biggest surprise.To my eye in reading where Tyrod was looking right after the snap and hitting his drop.. Clay was only the first read in 3 out of 19 pass plays .. or 16% of the time. The Bills were not able to execute on any of these opportunities. This was surprising in light of the fact that Watkins and Salas were both out. Below are 2 two examplesHere's an example where they were clearly targeting Clay up the seam as the first read.. but they don't quite execute. Given.. this is a tough throw for TT to get it over that linebacker.. however.. if Clay and TT had better chemistry this would have been executed somehow. Elite QBs make this throw SUMMARY Based on this game.. Clay's issues can mostly attributed be to him not getting separation when he is single covered. It also appears that Anthony Lynn did not really feature him too much in this game as by my count Tyrod only looked at Clay as a first read 3 times. That being said.. there were several times where Clay got separation and was actually targeted..but circumstances (CB blitz) or inaccuracy by TT resulted in misses.OUTLOOK When Sammy comes back.. that should eliminate most of the double teaming/bracketing that Clay sees.. so that should help Also.. I'd really like to see Clay running less deep routes and more crossing routes/ intermediate routes .. maybe even some deigned rub routes I also didn't really see any designed play action to Clay .. now that the run game is hitting I think some designed play action to Clay could really do damage Let's hope he can be featured more going forward.. and let's hope he and TT can somehow develop some chemistry as right now it's pretty clear they don't have much. OK .. flame away:)

Good point on Goodwin throw and 2 min drill. Not necessarily a bad read by TT to go to Goodwin on that play.. just sloppy mechanics to get the ball there. Also illustrates that yes Clay runs routes over the middle.. and yes he is sometimes open on those routes.

Good point.. .they got away with it so Kudos to them.

Ahh... reference to all caps in title?

Here are my observations from watching the first half of the Jets game..focusing in particular on passing plays and the depth of routes. I am also just focusing on the first half as ..1. that's all I have time for.. and 2... 1st half reveals more of Roman's mindset in doing game prep for this one. .3. q4 was mostly garbage time prevent D.I don't have time to look at the 2nd half.. but based on the results I would venture to say not many adjustments were made. SHOTGUN VS UNDER CENTER By my count.. TT only lined up under center on a designed pass play one time. The rest of pass play formations were all shotgun or pistol formations. This could be one valid criticism for Roman ... .too much shotgun.. too much predictability. I would have liked to seen more of TT under center to keep the D guessing more.. and also to help with his footwork and timing Shotgun does tend to make throwing the short timing routes like slants and hitches more difficult. When you are under center you can time your throw by letting it go when you hit the end of your 3, 5 or 7 step drop. Being in shotgun allows you to see the field better.. but the tradeoff is it makes synchronizing your footwork with the routes a little more difficult ROMAN AND THE DEEP BALL There were 20 qualifying pass plays (I am not counting designed screen plays in this mix) Roman was calling aggressive deep route combinations 50% of the time in the 1st half ... ie.. receivers running routes of 10+ yardsOut of those 20 plays... 10 plays had intermediate or short routes built in (10 yds or fewer. is my definition ... I am also not counting RB in the flat as an intermediate route) These were not just 3rd and long plays... for example on a 2nd and 10 he sent everyone deep CONCLUSION - While Roman was definitely aggressively trying to stretch the field...( calling deep plays 50% of the time seems fairly aggressive to me) .. ..there were several plays where short timing throws were called for. There were varying levels of success/ failure with those plays. At the end of the day .. Roman called some short passing plays where guys were open and more often than not those guys didn't get the ball. DEEP BALL FAILURE DUE TO COVERAGE/PRESSURE EXAMPLE Q2 - 10:33 - 2nd and 10 TT actually lines up under center and takes a 5 step drop Max protect.. all 3 receivers on left side run deep routes TT hits his drop.. no one is open... safety is on that side deep 96 brings pressure up the middle to collapse pocket TT makes good decision to scramble SUCCESSFUL SHORT TIMING THROW EXAMPLE Q2: 2:00 - 3RD AND 2 TT in pistol. one step drop Max protect.. both FB and HB stay in to chip on DE.. TT hits Sammy on perfectly thrown slant for 1st down.. note the LB chips Sammy right before the catch.. and there are 3 guys in vicinity.. yet.. a clean throw and catch are able to be made These are the types of plays I would have liked to have seen Roman call more of.. SHORT THROW FAIL EXAMPLE Q2 - 1:23 - 2ND AND 2 Shotgun formation... Clay is clearly open in the middle of the field.. but TT locked onto his first read Goodwin at bottom of screen TT decides to go with Goodwin.. but his footwork on his drop is sloppy ...throwing his timing off and resulting in a poorly thrown pass SUMMARY: It was clear to me that there were times guys were open on intermediate routes that Roman designed.. and for a variety of reasons TT missed them or didn't see them. However... I only saw 3 plays (out of 20) that clearly called for timing passes ( 2 plays had all comebacks... and then the one slant to Sammy called play).. and this is why I think Roman is gone. For some reason he just didn't call that many simple short timing routes that would have moved the chains.

I think our offense's inability to sustain drives really killed the D last night. Jets had the ball for over 40 minutes and the D was exhausted by the time the 4th quarter rolled around. It's tough to get a breather when your offense either goes 3 and out or only gets one first down on a drive. I have a feeling that Roman getting canned was part play calling ( that mangled 3rd and 1 , 4th and 1 thing was pretty awful)... and also part him not making adjustments. I think they probably asked him to change and adjust before the game.. and then they looked at the film today and probably saw he wasn't changing his MO at all so they canned him. I think he was just stuck in the rut of run, run, run.... then go deep ...and he wouldn't adjust to the quick game (slants, hitches etc... ) if the game situation called for it. Even with that being said... I am somewhat conflicted about this firing. Roman did show that he could adjust in the Jets and Cowboys game to end the year last by going to the short quick game .. and Tyrod was starting to show he could handle that kind of strategy.

I think that is likely. This is really the first time I've seen him look skittish in the pocket for the majority of a game and I think the enormity of the moment got to him. The one consistent thing about him last year was his calm demeanor on the field .. he never really seemed rattled last year. But he sure was rattled this Sunday. Let's hope he reverts to his old form. Playing at home should help.

I'm not making any sort of statement about his overall play with this.. He had a few good throws too... just illustrating a few unforced errors in depth

Here's example 2 q3: 10:19 - 1st and 10 Tyrod hits his drop and has a clean pocket Contrary to popular belie that the Bills didn't try to go deep this game.. you can see here that this play has multiple deep routes built in. You also can see that nobody is really open yet at this point. Tyrod senses some pressure up the middle and inexplicably bails to the right. A simple side step to the left here would take him to a nice clean pocket to buy a few more seconds to scan the field If he steps left here.. maybe he sees Clay with a step on his man on the deep post.. But instead.. he bails right and throws Out of Bounds towards Woods for an incompletion.

Here are a couple of TT's unforced errors from the game broken down DISCLAIMER ( I am not a coach, I don't know the hot reads or route combinations called.. this is just my educated perception of what happened on each pass play) ___ Q1: 11:44 - 1st and 10 - first play of the game Tyrod hits his drop and has a clean pocket.. his first read is most likely 85 Clay on the right hash as that is where TT looks first Split second later he looks left over to where Watkins is running a hitch and Woods is running deep post.. Here is what he should have seen at this moment looking left... Watkins has a huge cushion and is wide open on his hitch. And even more enticing is Woods who looks completely open on a post route.... __ __ Yet... he immediately turns his head to the middle of the field and dumps down to Shady ___ ____ Here's EXAMPLE 2 q3: 10:19 - 1st and 10 Tyrod hits his drop and has a clean pocket Contrary to popular belief that the Bills didn't try to go deep this game.. you can see here that this play has multiple deep routes built in. You also can see that nobody is really open yet at this point. Tyrod senses some pressure up the middle and inexplicably bails to the right. A simple side step to the left here would take him to a nice clean pocket to buy a few more seconds to scan the field If he steps left here.. maybe he sees Clay with a step on his man on the deep post.. But instead.. he bails right and throws Out of Bounds towards Woods for an incompletion.

He did have a few reps where he held up well.. but that's an epic whiff