HappyDays

I don't think a lot of Bills fans realize the advantage given to our RBs. Defenses are just ignoring them and dropping back into zones where they know our WR routes will end up. Allen checked the ball down to our RBs a bunch today and on every throw they had all this open space in front of them, but they accelerate so slowly they can't take advantage of it. We could be ripping off 10-15 yards a pass easily if we had a dynamic RB taking those check downs. Then the defense would be forced to creep up and defend the check down and all of a sudden our WRs would start getting open again. I have been banging this drum since the offseason. But it's too late to do anything about it now.

The problem is Breida isn't any good either. He is pure straight line speed which is not enough in the NFL. He lacks vision, side to side explosiveness, contact balance, pass protection. Literally the only thing he does is run fast. In the Steelers game everyone remembers the awful play call on 4th and inches. The play before that on 3rd and 2 we shot Breida out of a cannon and there was a gaping hole leading to a 1st down. But Minkah Fitzpatrick came up and stopped him dead in his tracks right before the sticks. The tiniest bit of contact balance or strength and he would have gotten a 1st down. If speed isn't enough to gain you a measly 2 yards when you need it, it isn't going to be valuable in your offense. The sad truth is that Beane neglected to upgrade the position. A lot of Bills fans didn't want him to, claiming RBs don't really matter and that you can get production out of any RB. We are learning as the season goes along that that is not true. A dynamic RB would be incredible in this offense. Unfortunately I believe we will have to stick a wad of gum on the problem until the offseason. In the meantime I would rather Moss and Singletary be used primarily as pass blockers. At least there they have some value.

McNichols is better than Singletary or Moss. Most Bills fans don't realize how bad our RBs are. It is not just run blocking. Defenses are selling out to stop our pass offense and a decent RB would take advantage of that. If Allen checks the ball down they are picking up an extra 1-2 yards. A decent RB would turn those into a 1st down with all the free space we are given. It is by far the biggest positional weakness on the team IMO.

This guy has genuine inside info about the Bills and he posted this a couple weeks ago: So you may be onto something. However he posted this before Brown's back injury, I don't know if the staff will be in any rush to start him at a new position.

I think when the all-22 footage comes out, we're going to see a lot of stills like this:

Rinse, repeat. The Rams are going to regret going all in with Stafford as their QB.

Stafford will be the reason the Rams do not win a Super Bowl.

But this isn't what I said. In fact I could take my OP and apply it exactly to Mahomes's performance in the Super Bowl. It isn't that Mahomes or Allen performed well; both were put in impossible situations and performed to the best of their ability. Performing well enough to win was not really possible in either situation. I'll dock Allen for the two careless interceptions, which Mahomes did not do in the Super Bowl. But I believe the o-line performance today mirrored the Chiefs o-line performance in the Super Bowl. And however a fan feels about one they should feel about the other.

Andy Reid is a generational play caller. Brian Daboll has historically been the OC of bad offenses. He found success for the first time in his career with Josh Allen as his QB. I don't believe that's a coincidence. I didn't personally see anything in the Super Bowl that I blamed on Andy Reid. If Chiefs fans who watched that offense all year believe he was responsible for some of that poor showing, I would defer to them. But nah I'm not holding Brian Daboll and Andy Reid to the same standards. And I shouldn't need to explain why. I don't know how you can make a claim like "Colt McCoy today performed better than Mahomes did in the Super Bowl" when the context of their situation was so different. Colt McCoy didn't have no running game and a jailbreak pass rush in his face on just about every play. This is my whole point. QB performance is context driven. I believe Allen today was in the same situation that Mahomes was in for the Super Bowl. If you want to dig into your opinion so hard that you're willing to argue Mahomes didn't play well in the Super Bowl, that's your right, but just about everyone else who watched that games knows Mahomes couldn't have really done anything different. And I suspect some Bills fans who did not blame Mahomes for the Super Bowl are still finding a way to blame Allen for the offense's performance today.

I think this is crazy. QBs are the most important player on offense obviously but they're not the end all be all. Switch QBs in the Super Bowl and I guarantee the Bucs still win, possibly by more considering Mahomes was better than Brady last year. Brady couldn't have dealt with that 4-man pressure anymore than Mahomes could. If anything it would have been worse. There is no book to beating a defense that can consistently get pressure with 4, unless you can run the ball. The Chiefs couldn't run the ball or pass protect, ergo their offense stalled out all night. It had nothing to do with Mahomes. I'm pretty sure if you ask anyone else who watches football they would agree with me on that.

Do you think Colt McCoy today played better than Mahomes did in the Super Bowl?

I actually don't want to fire Daboll. I just want him to do a better job understanding his personnel and overcoming some of the basic things defenses are doing to slow us down. And if he happens to get hired away in the offseason I won't be a tiny bit worried.

Okay but every time we run those plays we fail to execute. Eventually you have to stop calling them in critical moments. We all know Allen has an issue choosing what to do with the ball on read option plays, and he is more likely to fumble on those plays. So why does Daboll call that play on the most critical 3rd down of the game?

I can point to several. In our first trip to the red zone he called a Moss run followed by a swing pass to Beasley. This set up 3rd and goal from more than 5 yards out and we failed to convert. That's what happens when play calling leaves no margin for error. Two plays in a row that our offense has not executed well all year long. On a crucial 3rd and 2 late in the game he calls a zone read even though Allen has never been good at zone read plays. Allen was stopped short of the line of scrimmage and ended up fumbling the ball. This would be like calling a QB sweep with Tom Brady on 3rd and 2 where he fails to cut through an open hole. You could say "Brady should have cut through that open hole" but being realistic you shouldn't have called that play in the first place because Tom Brady does not run QB sweeps. An OC needs to understand his personnel. Running a short yardage run play with an o-line bad at short yardage run plays, and specifically a zone read with a QB bad at zone reads, is the opposite of that. He has done this several times over the past couple years and every time he does it is dumber than the last.

No I am almost positive we would have been shut out. There were no gimme plays today. Most of the gimmes we tried like screens and running the ball were not successful. And several plays that Allen made to get us into FG range would not have been made by Webb. I mean you watch offenses like Dallas and Arizona start backup QBs and find ways to manufacture yards and TDs, but somehow the Bills can't manufacture one TD with their starting QB in the game. It is really alarming.

I could point out several plays where Allen made something out of nothing. Where he manufactured production with pure ability. Did you see any exemplary play designs from Daboll today?

We needed one touchdown today. ONE. We have Josh Allen, an elite #1 WR, a very good slot WR, a solid #2 WR, a decent gadget player in McKenzie. It is inexcusable that that collection of players could not manufacture one touchdown, even with the o-line playing as poorly as it did.

I won't blame Daboll for the run game being poor. We have poor run blocking and RBs with zero explosiveness. Singletary and Moss would each be okay #2 RBs, on a good offense they would be #3s. Watch James Conner go off against a good defense today and you realize just how bad Singletary and Moss are. No OC in the league could create a successful run offense with them with this o-line. I will however blame Daboll for inexplicably trying to get the RBs involved, often at the worst times. Every time we hand the ball off in the red zone we waste a down. Typically we have exactly 2 chances to get into the end zone because Daboll insists on running the ball once to "keep defenses honest." I'm okay if we don't keep defenses honest. I will happily tell them before the play "this is going to be a pass into the endzone" on 3 straight plays and I still like our chances better than trying to run the ball. On a similar note, all the dumb screen passes to anyone not named Stefon Diggs are a waste of a down. All the quick swing passes to Beasley are a waste of a down. Zone reads with Allen choosing to keep or hand off the ball are a waste of a down. This is the part where someone says "you still have to run those plays to keep defenses honest." See what I said above. I would rather focus heavily on our strengths at the expense of balance for the sake of balance. Let Singletary and Moss pass block. Let Beasley run normal crossing routes. Roll Allen out of the pocket where he can decide to throw or run the ball. Daboll is way overthinking it right now. And I recognize that today the o-line was more to blame than anything. But he needs to do a better job keeping the offense on schedule and scoring in the red zone, and that means less wasted downs on plays that we never execute well.

To further my point, the Cardinals without both Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins are currently pantsing the 49ers. They're piecing together a run game with James Conner and Eno Benjamin. Can you imagine what our offense would look like if Allen and Diggs missed a game?

I very rarely see o-line performances this bad. It really was the Bucs/Chiefs Super Bowl all over again. It is frustrating because we needed exactly 1 TD to win this game. Maybe Allen could have overcome the o-line to get that 1 TD... I just can't blame him for slowly unraveling as the game went on. And even in the 2nd half he made some incredible throws. We just couldn't finish drives. Part of the problem is we don't have any explosive players on offense. Diggs, who I love, is not explosive, he is an elite route runner and chain mover. All of our other receivers are weaker versions of that skill set. In a game like this finding just one big play for a TD would have been the difference. Since that isn't really possible we're asking Allen to move the ball 5-10 yards at a time with abysmal pass protection and no run game. It isn't realistic to expect him to win with that game script.

Exactly what I said in the subject line... give Allen some credit for his play today. I'm not saying he played particularly well. Just that he was put in an impossible situation and I'm not sure any QB in the league would have done any better. Allen was the reason that we moved the ball. No circus catches. No explosive YAC plays. No big runs. Just Allen evading pressure and either running or throwing a rocket. It was basically the equivalent of Mahomes in the Super Bowl last year. No one thinks Mahomes played particularly well but he couldn't have done much more with the constant jailbreaks and receivers dropping passes.

I don't believe there was a specific series where Allen's individual failure caused the Bills to miss out on a TD. Maybe the all-22 will reveal differently. I will hedge myself a bit on his fumble. I recognize that he made a bad read. But he is not a zone read QB in general so I don't know why that play call is in our book, especially on crucial downs.

So I agree the 2nd half he started to unravel. I just don't know a QB that wouldn't have done the same. Every single QB that has ever played can be beat by rushing 4 and getting pressure, especially when there is zero running game to take the pressure off. That is what the Jaguars did all game long. The fact that we moved the ball at all is a testament to Allen's abilities as a QB. I mean I can't sit here and say Allen was impatient today. He checked the ball down a ton to Moss or Singletary or Sweeney. And every time the receiver was tackled immediately because they can't accelerate... Cover 2 can be beaten with short throws but we don't have have the offensive skill players to take advantage. So what is Allen supposed to do when it's a pass rush jail break with just 4 rushers, no run game, and no explosive player to hit on check downs?

I don't want to absolve him of any blame but I also can't point to a specific play he made that lost us the game. The interceptions didn't actually change the outcome. The one play I might point to is the zone read fumble. Singletary was the right read on that play. My thing is I already know Allen doesn't read those plays well and tends to keep it no matter what, so I put that more on Daboll for calling a stupid play that we don't typically execute well.

Not going to be a popular opinion but here goes. Allen fought his *** off today. He had zero help from his run game, as per usual. This doesn't need to be said but the pass protection was horrific. Allen had the **** kicked out of him all day; I'm pretty sure at one point in the 2nd half his arm was bleeding. Poor early down play calling gave us zero margin for error. There were WR drops at the worst possible times. Offensive penalties put us behind the sticks a bunch of times. I mean nothing went right. Despite all of that he hung in there and scratched and clawed to singlehandedly drag the offense down the field. Unfortunately he wasn't able to manufacture just one TD but he was put in an impossible situation. I already know people will bring up the two bad interceptions. Yep both of those were bad throws. They were also both on 3rd down when the Bills were out of field goal range either way. The interceptions did not change the game. I don't know another QB that could have even made it through the game without a serious injury, let alone won it. The offense has a lot of work to do but the last person I am worried about is #17.