Bocephuz

ahh.. good point.

If anyone has a link to an article/interview about the Bills issues with practicing this week please share.. thank you

Problem is.. Saffold has deteriorated physically.. and the "vet" mental bonus seems to be gone too. Seems like every week he miscommunicates/mishandles picking up relatively simple stunts.

Good point about the scramble one.. I was on the fence about making that an unforced error as he did run for a first down. Either way Diggs was open on the deep seem route and he did have a clean pocket. Should he get benched... absolutely. He's had the worst year in pass protect at Guard that I've seen since I started doing this Will he actually get benched... to your point... probably not I think both Brown and Saffold seem to be plus run blockers so that is probably a big reason they're not on bench. If it was my call I'd prioritize protected my $40 Mil franchise QB over getting a little juice in the run game.. but .. it's not my call

no doubt the level of competition was below average...

To me Josh is a mix of : Brett Favre - gun for an arm, mobile, creative, wreckless at times but gets away with most gambles Cam Newton - size, toughness, excellent runner Tony Romo - Josh's new throwing motion is pretty much a carbon copy of Romo's. There's been several interviews where Josh credited an offseason meeting with Romo as having a huge impact in how he approaches his throwing motion

In the past i used to do lengthy in depth posts with gifs.. don't have time for that nowadays I watched every passing snap to evaluate pass blocking performance as well as Josh Allen unforced errors committed (PASS BLOCKING ONLY EVALUATED.. did not evaluate running plays). Unforced error = Allen has time to throw, wr is open and he misses throw.. or.. Allen makes poor unforced decision OLINEMAN BEATEN = O lineman clearly loses his one on one matchup... or.. clearly misreads stunt/combo block ____ OLINEMAN BEATEN STATS DAWKINS - 0 SAFFOLD - 2 BATES - 1 GVR - 1 BOETTGER - 0 BROWN - 0 OL SUMMARY : The O Line had a much better showing in pass protect this week compared to the Miami game. -DAWKINS - 2 clean performances in a row for the Shnowman. Dawkins has had some very rough patches this year but he is trending back to his old pro bowl self.. just in time for the playoffs. - SAFFOLD - another week.. another instance of Saffold leading the unit in pressures given up. At least he only gave up 2 this week.. and was not a complete tire fire like most other weeks. -BATES - no bad snaps and only 1 mistake in pass pro that I saw. Q3 Bates does not pick up a twist stunt correctly and surrenders a pressure. Other than that 71 was very stout. Showed grit coming back into game after injury. - VAN ROTEN - Another solid showing for Van Roten this week. I only had him for 1 pressure surrendered. I believe he also shifted over to Center for a few plays while Bates was out. - BOETTGER - Welcome back Ike! Stepped in for a few series due to injury to Bates injury. Looked OK and did not give up any obvious pressures. - BROWN - 79 finally had a game to hang his hat on. He was not beaten at all on the outside speed rush this week ( his usual kryptonite). You could tell on a few snaps that he was overselling his kick step on the snap to make sure his right/outside was covered. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. We shall see though. QB UNFORCED ERRORS: Josh had 5 unforced errors by my count. Based on my history of doing this kind of analysis when a qb has 5 or more unforced errors the chances of his team winning decrease materially. - q2 - INT . Josh had protection .. just made a really bad unforced decision and bad throw for the pick - q2 - overthrow Singletary not pressure related -q3 - Rolled right and made horrible reverse field throw that could have easily been picked off. Sugar Rush Josh there. q3 - Clean pocket... has Diggs open on deep seam route but tucks and runs instead q4 - Josh bails out of clean pocket unnecessarily SUMMARY - The Bills really leaned into the run game last Saturday and also were playing with a lead most of the game.. so game script put a lot less pressure on the Bills O Line regarding pass protect. Nevertheless... the line played much better this week than in Miami. Josh did not have his best day between the 20's. Several unforced careless decisions and poor throws were made. He had several instances of bailing out of a clean pocket to early. That being said.. 17 really calmed down in the red zone. In particular the pass to McKenzie was a beauty as Josh stood statue calm in a clean pocket and waiting for 6 to cross and get open.. throwing a nice strike. Bates did another great job filling in for Morse and kudos to GVR and Ike for filling in admirably. Hopefully this is the game to get Spencer back on track.. and hopefully Ike replaces Roger Saffold sometime in the next few weeks.

Brown at guard may not be bad. He rarely gets beat with power. Kicking him into Guard would pretty much eliminate the speed rush weaknesses as an issue. Then again.. this regime tried to do the same thing with Cody Ford and we all know how that worked out. As Brown is a late round pick.. there’s really no compelling reason to go out of their way to “save” him IMO It could be the back. He had moments of brilliance in his rookie season.. but hasn’t been same since injuries

In the past i used to do lengthy in depth posts with gifs.. don't have time for that nowadays I watched every passing snap to evaluate pass blocking performance as well as Josh Allen unforced errors committed (PASS BLOCKING ONLY EVALUATED.. did not evaluate running plays). Unforced error = Allen has time to throw, wr is open and he misses throw.. or.. Allen makes poor unforced decision OLINEMAN BEATEN = O lineman clearly loses his one on one matchup... or.. clearly misreads stunt/combo block ____ OLINEMAN BEATEN STATS DAWKINS - 1 SAFFOLD - 6 MORSE - 0 GVR - 1 QUES - 1 BROWN - 4 OL SUMMARY : The O Line was solid in Q1 but absolutely melted down in Q3. Interestingly enough Morse going out with a concussion and all the shuffling did not appear to be the culprit for the poor O Line play. The 2 main culprits (as in most weeks this year) are Saffold and Brown.. and its hard to blame their mistakes on anything else but their poor technique and awareness. Lets dig in -DAWKINS - Looked pretty solid for most of the game.. back to his old self mostly. He and Saffold did have some miscommunication on a twist stunt.. but other than that 73 was reliable at LT - SAFFOLD - Saffold may be one of the worst pass blocking guards I've evaluated since doing these type of reviews. He gave up or was involved in 6 QB pressures against Miami (which I believe is the highest number I've recorded since doing these reviews back in the Tyrod era). Q3 was particularly rough. On consecutive plays he had 1.) False Start 2.) Completely unaware of a twist stunt .. stayed with the DT and did not switch over to the stunting DE .. giving up a big hit on Josh. He is nearly worthless as a pass blocker. My hope is that Ike Boettger can step in at LG and put Saffold on the bench. Ike is certainly not a world beater.. but he should be able to hold up a little better than Saffold. -MORSE - looked fantastic, stout in his reps.. unfortunately went out with an injury midway through the game - VAN ROTEN - Kudos to Greg Van Roten. I ripped him pretty good last review.. but he stepped in at Center for Morse and did a fine job. Held on by the skin of his nose on a few reps but did not break. No bad snaps to QB.. was only beaten one time from what I saw - QUESSENBERRY - Did surprisingly well at Guard filling in. - BROWN - Yet another poor showing. Gave up 4 QB pressures. He has almost zero chance when the DE does a speed rush to the outside. QB UNFORCED ERRORS: Josh had 2 unforced errors by my count. Based on my history of doing this kind of analysis when a qb has 5 or more unforced errors the chances of his team winning decrease materially. He had a few throws that were just off.. but in most cases he was on the move due to pass protection breakdown and the bad throws were forced .. Josh was impressive this game. His elbow seems to be fine.. He tried to hang in the pocket and had very few unnecessary pocket bails. SUMMARY - Saffold and Brown have consistently shown that they are not reliable in pass protect. With Saffold.. I think there may be an answer with Ike Boettger replacing him. With Brown... I'm not so sure an answer is on the roster. Quessenberry has not really performed any better than Brown at RT. The Bills most definitely need to acquire a legit RT next year be it in FA or Draft. Hopefully Josh will continue to rise above and hopefully the play of Saffold and Brown will not be a fatal flaw in the playoffs.

Cohesiveness is certainly important.. especially when you are trying to pick up stunts/twists etc. Hopefully Morse comes back and Bates kicks back over to RG to provide some stability to Brown in picking up stunts/ communication. Van Roten and Brown had zero chemistry on that last game.

If I recall .. when he was drafted his measurables were off the charts for OTs. Clearly something has happened to him where he can't move like he used to. not a bad idea. shades of Cody Ford all over again I'm hoping they use the draft more than FA to do this as this constant patching up holes with mid level vets is not good long term solution. Unfortunately the one area where McBeane has whiffed most in the draft is OL.

Yeah... he's actually had some really bright moments where he's dominated.. but something's happened to him (starting mid last year) where he doesn't look like the athlete he was. Maybe injuries catching up with him... maybe them flipping him between LT and RT last year messed up his head.. IDK. But he has been hurting more than helping in pass pro for almost a full year now.

Gut feeling... didn't really watch the run plays much .. but its possible that Saffold and Brown are good enough in the run block game to justify their weak pass pro.. just speculation.. I don't really feel comfortable breaking down run game stuff.. too complex for me

Good observation... that was one instance where backup center had snap issue. That being said Morse has had a few bad snaps himself this year.. will be good to get Mitch back though and kick Bates over and get GVR on the bench. Agree need upgrades for GVR, Saff and Brown next year. Dawkins quite frankly has had some really rough patches this year... wouldn't mind seeing them taking a LT in rd 1 or 2 next year to groom as his replacement. Quess is decent backup .. Brown has had some tough matchups last few weeks this is true. Even so... he may be playing himself out of a job if he doesn't at least be more competitive in his one on one battles rest of year

In the past i used to do lengthy in depth posts with gifs.. don't have time for that nowadays I watched every passing snap to evaluate pass blocking performance as well as Josh Allen unforced errors committed (PASS BLOCKING ONLY EVALUATED.. did not evaluate running plays). Unforced error = Allen has time to throw, wr is open and he misses throw.. or.. Allen makes poor unforced decision OLINEMAN BEATEN = O lineman clearly loses his one on one matchup... or.. clearly misreads stunt/combo block ____ OLINEMAN BEATEN STATS DAWKINS - 1 QUESSENBERRY - 1 SAFFOLD - 2 BATES - 1 GVR - 2 BROWN - 3 OL SUMMARY : In general the OL was slightly better than last week but still below average -DAWKINS - Looked pretty solid for first few series and then was replaced by Quessenberry. Didn't really see an obvious injury. - QUESSENBERRY - Came in for Dawk midway thru the game and actually looked solid at LT. Only gave up one pressure.. looks much more comfortable at LT rather than RT. - SAFFOLD - Saffold was not as bad as last week.. but still had two ugly pressures given up. He seems slow off the snap.. both pressures were him getting beaten to the spot rather than getting physically bowled over. - BATES - Mr. Versatility stepped up for the injured Mitch Morse at Center and was his usual solid self only giving up one pressure all day and cleanly snapping the ball to #17. - VAN ROTEN - Gave up two pressures and the communication between he and Brown was poor on several stunts/passoffs. - BROWN - An outright liability. He led the way again with 3 pressures given up. Hutchinson clearly outclassed Spencer several time. Brown is completely vulnerable to the outside speed rush and eventually Dorsey had to keep #26 in a couple times to help the struggling RT with chip blocks. QB UNFORCED ERRORS: Josh had 2 unforced errors by my count. Based on my history of doing this kind of analysis when a qb has 5 or more unforced errors the chances of his team winning decrease materially. - Josh INT - Not really an error on Josh' part.. #44 Rodriguez made a heady play/ read the play fake and got in the throwing lane and tipped the ball - Bad Throw - Josh had one really bad unforced throw on an out to Diggs Josh was more decisive today than against Browns. For the most part he only escaped the pocket when forced. Dorsey also went to the quick game a lot in the 2nd half to protect Josh and get the ball out of his hands. Several plays where Josh hits his drop and the ball is out immediately on a hitch or a quick slant. This was very effective and got him the offense in a big rhythm. I would hope Dorsey calls more quick game going forward as the O Line is not really capable of holding up for plays calling for multiple late developing deep routes. However.. have to give O Line props as they held up in pass pro for the most important play of the game at end of q4 when Josh had time and room to climb the pocket and throw a 34 yd laser to Diggs that pretty much won the game for the Bills. Unfortunately I don't see anyone on the roster who can replace Spencer Brown effectively so Dorsey is going to have to work around him and keep backs/TE in to help him with chips .. or perhaps go with the quick game more to compensate.

and BTW ... I failed to mention that 26 Singletary continues to do the dirty work in picking up blitzes. He's been rock steady.

Bates has been worth every penny so far this year

In the past i used to do lengthy in depth posts with gifs.. don't have time for that nowadays I watched every passing snap to evaluate pass blocking performance as well as Josh Allen unforced errors committed (PASS BLOCKING ONLY EVALUATED.. did not evaluate running plays). Unforced error = Allen has time to throw, wr is open and he misses throw.. or.. Allen makes poor unforced decision OLINEMAN BEATEN = O lineman clearly loses his one on one matchup... or.. clearly misreads stunt/combo block ____ OLINEMAN BEATEN STATS DAWKINS - 3 SAFFOLD - 4 MORSE - 1 BATES - 0 BROWN - 5 OL SUMMARY : In general the OL was well below average in pass protect against Min. -Dawkins - Had a generally rough day. He was beaten cleanly one on one to the outside with a speed rush twice. He also did a poor job picking up a twist stunt and was beaten to the inside. Dawkins has not played up remotely close to his past Pro Bowl form. - SAFFOLD - Saffold was beaten badly several times. He is vulnerable to the outside/in move and gave up several one on one pressures resulting in the pocket collapsing. He also did poorly picking up several stunts. - MORSE - Morse played his usual steady game. He was beaten badly once (physically manhandled back into Josh' lap) and had a few close calls.. but generally was solid in pass protect against the Vikes - BATES - Had a very clean day in pass pro. He may be the best O linemen they've had this year in Pass Pro. - BROWN - Maybe he's not healthy...maybe he's rusty? Either way.. Brown had a very poor showing in pass protect. He was cleanly beaten by the outside speed rush several times. He was also beaten on the Outside/In move. Its' arguable whether or not he is an upgrade over Quessenberry.. who had a very rough outing against the Jets. QB UNFORCED ERRORS: Josh had 4 unforced errors by my count. Based on my history of doing this kind of analysis with Tyrod and EJ.. when a qb has 5 or more unforced errors the chances of his team winning decrease materially. The line did Allen no favors today.. and he generally covered up for their mistakes by gaining positive rush yards or scrambling to make a play. - Josh INT 1 Red Zone - Most of Allen's INTs come when he leaves the pocket and tries to improvise. In this case.. he was forced to leave the pocket when Spencer Brown was immediately beaten to the inside .. and Allen facing down a sack had to leak out to the right to buy time. That being said... Allen's throw to the sideline endzone was a poor choice and in that regard was an unforced error. - Josh INT 2 Red Zone / End of Game - Protection was solid.. pump faked several times. Just made a late, poor under throw over the middle that was picked off. If he trusts his feet, hits his drop and lets it go high over the middle in time to Davis on the post he likely has a good shot at the game winner. Ultimately .. this was an unforced error as the protection was good. In general Allen got the ball out on time and in rhythm.. particularly in the first half. A normal QB would have taken 2 or 3 sacks based on the breakdowns of Dawkins/Saffold/Brown.. but in general he turned those plays into positives. However.. the more he has to roll out of the pocket and improvise.. the more the risk level goes up for an INT. Once he's outside of the pocket he's a wild card. In general he didn't bail out on phantom pressure as much as he did in the Jets game. Of course this is only one game and all qbs have peaks and valleys. Allen has demonstrated that he can be a decisive, accurate, rhythm thrower when given a clean pocket. The Bills may need to pivot more toward a quick game/west coast kind of passing game and forego the deep drops as this O Line has consistently shown it cannot hold up on a consistent level.

seemed that way to me too. he was not his usual focused self. That 4th qtr td drive was only drive where he was consistently decisive and got the ball out on time and in rhythm

In the past i used to do lengthy in depth posts with gifs.. don't have time for that nowadays I watched every passing snap to evaluate pass blocking performance as well as Josh Allen unforced errors committed (PASS BLOCKING ONLY EVALUATED.. did not evaluate running plays). Unforced error = Allen has time to throw, wr is open and he misses throw.. or.. Allen makes poor unforced decision OLINEMAN BEATEN = O linemman clearly loses his one on one matchup... or.. clearly misreads stunt/combo block ____ OLINEMAN BEATEN STATS WINTERS - 2 FORD - 1 WILLIAMS -1 OL SUMMARY : In general the OL was decent in pass protect. Williams has a habit of getting beat by speed rushes to the outside.. and was cleanly beaten one time where his man directly forced Josh off his spot.. however.. often times Williams rides his outside speed rusher just far enough behind 17 to keep pocket integrity. Winters was physically tossed aside twice resulting in direct pressure in qb17 face. Morse had an excellent game .. winning his one on one battles and pitching in to help his neighbors as well. Ford was generally solid in pp.. however.. there was one rep where #95 completely dismantled him with an outside/in move resulting in nasty hit on Josh. Dawkins was his usual solid self at LT In the past i used to do lengthy in depth posts with gifs.. don't have time for that nowadays I watched every passing snap to evaluate pass blocking performance as well as Josh Allen unforced errors committed (PASS BLOCKING ONLY EVALUATED.. did not evaluate running plays). Unforced error = Allen has time to throw, wr is open and he misses throw.. or.. Allen makes poor unforced decision OLINEMAN BEATEN = O linemman clearly loses his one on one matchup... or.. clearly misreads stunt/combo block ____ OLINEMAN BEATEN STATS WINTERS - 2 FORD - 1 WILLIAMS -1 OL SUMMARY : In general the OL was decent in pass protect. Williams has a habit of getting beat by speed rushes to the outside.. and was cleanly beaten one time where his man directly forced Josh off his spot.. however.. often times Williams rides his outside speed rusher just far enough behind 17 to keep pocket integrity. Winters was physically tossed aside twice resulting in direct pressure in qb17 face. Morse had an excellent game .. winning his one on one battles and pitching in to help his neighbors as well. Ford was generally solid in pp.. however.. there was one rep where #95 completely dismantled him with an outside/in move resulting in nasty hit on Josh. Dawkins was his usual solid self at LT In general the Chiefs blitzed quite a bit.. and Singletary generally did a good job picking up his man. It is on 17 to beat the extra free man..either with his legs or arms.. and 17 was not decisive or poised beating the extra man consistently enough this game QB UNFORCED ERRORS: Josh had 5 unforced errors by my count. Based on my history of doing this kind of analysis with Tyrod and EJ.. when a qb has 5 or more unforced errors the chances of his team winning decrease materially. The game ending interception did not count as an unforced error by my eye as he was pressured and could not afford to take a sack there so he put up a prayer. However.. there were several unexplained flat out misses in situations where he had time and an open receiver. The first throw of the game in the flat to Beasley was an obvious one. The worst may have been a flag route to Diggs (q2?)where Allen had time, Diggs had a step and Allen just flat out overthrew him This should have been an easy 6 and would have changed the complexion of the game. Allen hesitating and not hitting Singletary to beat the blitz yet another. In general Allen very rarely got the ball out in time or in rhythm... and while there were 4 obvious situations where the OL failed him.. more often than not the errors were unforced and fell at 17's feet. Of course this is only one game and all qbs have peaks and valleys. Allen has demonstrated that he can be a decisive, accurate, rhythm thrower previously. Hopefully this was more of an anomaly rather than a sign of permanent regression

For your viewing pleasure... 75 dominating and driving Colts LB past the 1st down marker

this seems all to logical.. good info

agree completely on the ease off the double team thing. more i watch o line pass protect more i think ‘zone’ stay in your gap blocking for pass protect is way to go. gap integrity for O line should be same as d line. this is why i think Castillo should be fired. way too many unnecessary double teams Dawkins is likely an average LT at best.. which isn’t the worst thing. he’s definitely not a RT as his run blocking is poor

yeah.. his strength definitely covers up some technical flaws. but im ok with that.. technique can be learned .. natural strength and attitude lime that is somewhat god given

Dawkins = 37th ranked LT according to PFF - granted he has had to work with Vlad Ducasse and a rookie - that said.. he is in the bottom half of Tackles in Pass Block rating I almost called that a loss.. but that last minute save was just effective enough to get the job done. Allen certainly did a good job hanging tough on that one