Shaw66

I don't know if it was the playcalling, but it did feel like the Houston game. They seemed to get away from what had been working. But the Rams defense also showed up. The offensive line was having real trouble protecting Allen. It was a dogfight.

He was in trouble. The receiver was covered. That's a play where the seasoned QB throws it out of bounds and knows he has another play. It was a critical time in the game. The Bills need to put together a drive and run clock to keep the Rams offense off the field for a few minutes. Shouldn't risk the turnover there.

“The Test” This was it. This was the test. This was the game, the first game in 2020 where the Buffalo had to show they could be a premier team. There’s only one question on the test: Can you win against premier competition when your opponent is bringing it? That’s what premier teams do; win big games simply by refusing to lose. When the bully is stealing your candy, do you put him on his back? Sunday afternoon, the Bills took the test. When the Rams asked the question, the Bills’ answer was “Go ahead. Punch me. Do it again. Kick me. In the end, we’ve got this.” You know what that game was? That was the Comeback Game. Same stadium, same first half blowout, same amazing comeback, similar lead changes at the end. Only difference was it was the Bills blowing the big lead, but that didn’t matter – miracle Bills win in the end. It’s hard to overstate the significance of the Bills’ 35-32 win in Orchard Park. So many things stand out. At one level, if you’re just a football fan with no rooting interest in the outcome, it was a spectacular football game. Big, big plays. The absolute poetry of the Bills offense clicking from the beginning of the game straight through their first offensive possession of the second half. The dramatic turn-around, including a horrible call that changed the course of the game. The sheer dominance of the Rams through most of the fourth quarter – they were as brilliant as the Bills had been. The gut wrenching, desperation touchdown drive. It was one great, great football game. Beyond all that, if you are a Bills fan, or even a Rams fan, it was a big game on your schedule. It was the first test. The Rams have passed the test their share of times in the last few years. They’ve had the answer. And they looked like they had the answer on Sunday afternoon, until the Bills said, “We got this.” Do you remember math class, when you took a test? There’d be a question, and the instructions would say “show your work.” Well, if a math teacher was correcting the Bills test, the first thing the teacher would see is that the Bills got the right answer. But when the teacher looks at the work, how the Bills got to the right answer, the teacher says, befuddled, “What in heavens name are you doing? This is one of the biggest messes I’ve ever seen, but yeah, you Bills got to the right answer.” The fact is, the Bills were failing the test, failing badly. The offensive magic was gone – the Bills couldn’t execute much of anything. The players looked gassed; the fourth quarter, which the Bills like to think is theirs, certainly was not. The defense couldn’t make a stop, anywhere. They were a step behind, play after play. The Rams offensive playbook was too much. And then there was Josh Allen. Josh Allen is the kid in math class who said the most brilliantly stupid things. The smart kids would snicker at the really dumb stuff he said. And, then, somehow, when the test came, he got the A. No. Not the kid in math class. Josh Allen is the underdog kid, the star in some only semi-entertaining Hollywood sports-feel-good movie who, in the championship game makes the most absurd, the most bone-headed plays in the game, only to win on the final play by throwing a pass to himself and breaking four tackes on his way to the end zone. He’s like Rocky in shoulder pads. Allen’s fourth quarter decision-making screamed :THIS GAME IS TOO BIG FOR ME.” He broke every rule in the book: dumb penalties, horrible sacks, ill-advised throws. It was rookie hero-ball play after rookie-hero ball play. The confidence had left his face; the pressure was grinding on him. Still, Allen was that underdog kid, the kid with the will to win that is so big, so irresistable, that in the end Allen was not going to lose. Allen is so much more than that kid. This wasn’t some Hollywood movie. This is an extraordinary football player. He’s just that good. You know when the game came apart for the Bills? When Aaron Donald, one of the few non-QBs in the league who can simply impose his will on the game, took it over. Donald did it on a few plays, but the most important play was Donald’s first fourth-quarter sack. He was lined up on the right defensive end of the line, the Bills faked a run to the right, Allen tucked the ball in his gut, and dropped for what was supposed to be a big play left. On the fake, the Bills essentially left Donald unblocked, assuming that he would trail the run fake down the line. Major mistake. You simply can’t leave a player of that calibre unblocked, ever. Either the Bills outsmarted themselves, or Allen failed to get out of that play. Donald was on Allen instantly, and Allen couldn’t get rid of it. Big sack. I think something else happened on that play. I think Josh Allen got up off the turf and thought to himself, “Okay, I have to be that good.” So, after what seemed to be a total team and personal meltdown, here comes Allen onto the field with four and a half minutes left saying. “I got this.” Here he was, good-Josh and bad-Josh, all over the field for four minutes, as suspenseful, as improbable, as maddeningly great and dumb as ever. At the heart of the matter, here was Josh Allen, going back to what works for the Bills, finding Beasley a couple of times, scrambling nicely to buy time to get the ball into Diggs. Then Allen found Kroft crossing the end zone and dropped a beautiful catchable ball to him, up and away from the defense, to win the game. A few miscellaneous thoughts about the game. 1. Ford at left guard. Seemed to hold his own against Donald, but sooner or later Donald’s going to get you. 2. McKenzie was featured a lot, like last season. In jet motion five times for every one the Bills actually give him the ball. 3. Allen’s arm strength is unprecedented. He just flips the ball, 35 yards downfield. Amazing. 4. Ram’s offensive attack is really special. They have an answer for everything. 5. Epenesa’s playing a role on a play here and there. He’s in the learning process. 6. This was the Singletary we saw last season. Pretty dangerous guy. 7. Taron Johnson was around the ball a lot. 8. Maybe Gabriel Davis actually IS Larry Fitzgerald. Tough, tough wideout. 9. Daboll’s first half play calling was fabulous. 10. Did anyone mention Allen’s three straight carries culminatiing in a touchdown. The spin move for the first down? Really? The answer the Bills had on Sunday is NOT the answer you’re supposed to have when a premier team tests you. You’re not supposed to let the bully beat you up before you win. But first, you have to win, somehow. And that’s what the Bills did. You know what felt good? The final play, the endless lateral play the Rams ran. It was well-schemed and executed beautifully. Why’d it feel good? Because Sean McDermott’s, rational, well-prepared football team, the process-driven team McDormott wants, the play-all-60-minutes team, reappeared. Every defender making a play, every defender running, every defender patiently executing until they ended the play. It was beautiful. At the end of the day, the process said “we got this.” That was a big test. GO BILLS!!! The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

This, although I think it's too early to tell about Jones. He does some excellent things on the field. I was just so pleased that the Giants decided to take a running back, leaving the QB field more open for the Bills. It's kind of amazing that Gettleman is screwing things up there while Beane, his student, seems to understand the job very well.

Good stuff. Thanks. This is excellent too. It's a good summary of the young QBs. I just think that as the league adjusts to the new offenses, not all of them will survive on top.

I'm not talking about this week or next week. I'm talking about what the next ten years will look like. Some of these young QBs are the Mannings and Bradys of the future, and some of them are the Flaccos. Carson Wentz was everyone's can't miss Wunderkind two years ago. Not so much today. I think Jackson will come back to the pack. I could be wrong, for sure. If I need a QB for next week's game, he's one of a half dozen I want. But if I need one for the next ten years, I don't think he's my guy. Mahomes? Yes. Watson? Yes. I wouldn't trade Allen even up for Jackson. Allen is the better long-term prospect.

I've never liked Cam. We'll see.

I know. I just think that when we get later in the season, when the defenses are better and the games are tougher, Newton won't execute. Newton's got better physical skills than Fitzpatrick. Fitz has better thinking skills than Cam. They're both top 10 today; I don't think either will be top ten in three months. Newton has had two seasons where his passer rating was better than Brady last season, and he's had one season when he's never thrown for more yards than Brady did last season. Newton now gets the benefit of the best coaching he's ever had, but the question remains whether he can take advantage of it.

I don't agree with this. I didn't watch much of Sunday night, and when I did watch, Newton looked really good. But I don't think that means Newton is a top quarterback, and I don't think anyone is ever going to say he's better than Brady. I don't think that in December anyone will be saying Newton is better than Brady a year ago. As I said, I think the game is relatively easy for QBs right now. The way receivers can run free in the defensive backfields is completely different than the old days. If you have a QB with good protection or good mobility, he can complete over 60% of his passes. Fitzpatrick looks like a star, but nobody is going to convince me that he's made this big jump in ability over the last two years. It's just that we're in a period when it's relatively easy to pass. Admittedly, we're also in a period when there are a bunch of young guys who can both run and throw - Watson, Allen, Murray, Jackson, even Mahomes. That's new. But the defenses will adjust - they always do, and the QBs who stay on top will have the same qualities that the QBs on top always have - brains, serious understanding of defenses, ability to read pre-snap and post-snap, all of that. Toughness, leadership. As the defenses adjust and those important qualities rise to the top, I think Newton will fall off the leader board. If Newton had those skills, he would have been dominant five years ago, and in my mind he never was. What we're seeing from Newton right now is what we always have seen with Belichick - give him a player with a special skill set and Belichick will find ways to use those skills. But at the end of the day, Belichick, any coach, needs a QB who can run an increasingly complex offense, a QB who can keep his cool and keep his ego in check. I don't think that's Newton.

I think you're right. The style of play is changing, and it looks like it is pretty easy for QBs right now. But it won't continue. The defenses will catch up, and who seem to be standing out right now will fall back to mediocre. I think that will happen to Jackson. But some guys will time it just right and get big money. Then the league will catch up to them, and they'll be overpaid. I think, for example, that's what happened with Flacco. He looked like the perfect QB, and then he wasn't.

You know, I was beginning to wonder if I was the only person who thought this about Moss. I thought he had some of the quickness and shiftiness that Singletary has, with a little more power. But Singletary is just barely quick enough to make himself effective, and so far Moss has looked to me to be just short of being quick enough. He doesn't out-quick anyone and he doesn't outpower anyone. Maybe it's the blocking, maybe it's the scheme, maybe he hasn't adjusted yet, maybe it's a lot of things, but I don't think missing him for a week is a huge loss. Losing Knox hurts more - he HAS shown that his skills can make a difference on the field, but still, I'm not too concerned about it. Receivers get open because of scheme - Knox isn't one to get open by using special separation skills. He gets open because the the offense is attacking the called defense in a way that leaves an opening that the tight end runs to. Knox is good at it, but Gilliam can do it well enough. Will there be a drop off? Sure, but not one that should matter all that much. Plus, I think we'll see Davis on the field in some of the tight formations where we were seeing Knox in the slot or split out just a couple of yards. Obviously, Davis isn't the blocking threat Knox is in the running game, but Knox's blocking isn't striking fear in the hearts of linebackers around the league, either.

The more I read about the Dolphins, the more worried I get. It seems like the Dolphins pass defense schemes were very predictable, executed poorly, and played to Allen's strengths. Add to that, the Dolphins pass rush was anemic. That's what added up to Allen's great day. We'll see what happens when they play tougher opponents, starting this week.

Well, it's easy to see what he was talking about on the throw to Knox. First, it may be that Allen's instructions were to throw it to Knox, period, after the guys going deep cleared the space. But if Allen had an option to go where he wanted, he could see that Knox was clear and would be the checkdown for the next two seconds, so Allen had time to look for the deep man on the incut. He could have looked and thrown, or he could have decided to come back to Knox. The point is that Allen had the time to make a choice other than the checkdown. I think it's likely that in two years he'll take that time and be able to decide to go deep. This guy's point is, I think, that Allen still hasn't settled all the way down and still isn't seeing everything. It's similar to the point he made when Allen missed Diggs on the shallow crosser to the left. When Allen checked his #3 guy on the right side, he turned his feet to get ready to throw to that side. Then he came back to the left and threw, but he didn't reset his feet, so he was throwing across his body. He has just kind of antsy. He knew he had time, but he wasn't quite patient enough to reset. As I said, that's the kind of stuff that comes with experience. And, as you say, all the QBs make those mistakes as they're learning, even sometimes when they've been doing it for ten years. I've seen Mahomes do similar stuff - the announcers make him out to be a god, but his inexperience shows up every game, too.

It's more for me than for Allen. It was interesting to me to see the openings that Allen missed and to see the keys that should have shown Allen that he had another play. The point he doesn't make, the point we all get, is that these are instantaneous decisions the QB has to make, and it takes years of playing to understand the keys so intuitively that you just know to go to another guy. Like that thing about the middle linebacker turning to run with the checkdown back. You've got see it, out of the corner of your eye and know that that hip and shoulder turn is leaving a whole in the middle that your receiver can see and sit in. It isn't something you pick up instantly; it's experience and some bad decisions and a variety of things. Allen's still learning. What I've said for a couple of years now is that it will Allen's fourth and fifth years when he starts to show master quarterback skills.

I agree. He's a little redundant and talks with a lot of jargon, but he was excellent at pointing out Allen's flaws. It was really interesting. They are, undoubtedly, the kinds of things the coaches are talking to Allen about. He's seeing the field better, but he needs to be better still. How he shows Allen checking down to the back on the right when he should have recognized the mike turning and running to cover the check. That left the throwing lane open for the crosser down field. You can see as he explains how Allen should have seen it and gone over the middle. Nice analysis. And the guy's not being critical, he's just saying there's more that Allen has left on the field. At one point he marvels at the fact that Allen had a 400-yard day and was missing some of these opportunities. He didn't say it, but the message was that it could have been a 500-yard day. And he points out how bad the DB play was.

I didn't think so. First, they didn't throw at him much, so he had a good game just because of that. The guy is just so good they go away from him, which helps the defense a lot. The deep completion up the right sideline, he had good coverage and just missed making the play on the ball. He was just a tad late, and that happens. He missed what would have been a great tackle of a short third-down pass, again, just a tad late. He played it well. And the missed interception was also a close, tough play. If that was his worst game as a Bill, I hope he does it for the next ten seasons.

Sorry he's gone. In my mind, he was by some measures the greatest. The guy put together runs that were absolute things of beauty. Everyone else was running, he was gliding. RIP Exactly.

I agree with much of this. I don't agree that he's throwing it differently. Well, he is, as I said elsewhere just sort of flipping the ball - even the deep ball to Brown, he didn't really wind up and heave it. And I agree, he put air under it, which is a change. But the deep ball up the right side to Diggs, the one Diggs dove for, was on a line, just like he threw deep last season. No air. And he's thrown those 20 to 20 yard crossing routes the same way for three years now. I'm sure there are little things about his mechanics that have changed, but the real changes are simple. He has better receivers and better protection, so he has time to find the guy who's wide open and to deliver the ball in rhythm. He could do that last season, he just didn't have nearly as many opportunities as he has this season. And the other change is that he knows the offense and is seeing the field better. He's getting into the right play, he knows what he's doing, and he's letting his natural ability make the plays. I really don't think the guy went through some enormous remake in the off-season. He's just progressing. My comment about the Outsiders, and plenty of other people, too, was that they weren't looking at the guy last season. They weren't seeing what he was doing. Statistically, Trubisky and Allen were about the same guy. But anyone with a brain watching the two guys could see that Allen was the better quarterback, by far, even last season but especially as far as the future was concerned. People just kept letting their preconceptions of Allen control their thinking. All you had to do was look at him. To me, it was obvious.

I like Football Outsiders, but when you read what they wrote, it's easy to see that they are driven too much by their own numbers and not enough by just looking and evaluating. Their numbers under-valued Allen last year, and now they're overvaluing. They seem to think that through two games Allen is a surprise, because their numbers jumped so much. But I continue to feel that we've seen from Allen the last two weeks is not a surprise. He isn't doing things fundamentally differently. What's happened is that he's had another off-season to study and learn, he has a seasoned offensive line, and he has an improved receiving corps. The combined result is that the numbers have gone up, but it was pretty predictable. People were just two negative about Allen last year, when it was apparent that he was on his way to becoming a solid starter and probably more.

It's late in the life of this thread, but there's one thing I wanted to add: Allen always had the ability to do this, but Sunday he was regularly taking something off his throws. The balls seem to just float into the receivers' hands. Some he zips, like the TD passes to Gilliam and Davis, but a lot of them have a lot of touch on them. And related to that is effortlessly he throws the softballs. He just flicks them. Even the TD to Brown seemed like he could have thrown it 20 yards farther if he'd put any oomph into it.

I'd rather stick a cotton swab up my nose.

Thanks. It used to be easier to write. It was easy to be funny, because so many stupid things happened. And there was a lot to criticize. Now its fun but not funny, and there is no much to criticize.

Right. Complementary football. Bills have yet to show that they can run the ball effectively. If they can get the run game going, they'll be tough to beat. It may just be that through two weeks, the opponents' defensive game plan was stop the run and force them to beat us through the air. After Sunday, I don't think any teams will think that "force them to beat us through the air" is a winning strategy. No one's going to be challenging the Bills to pass.

I think you're correct, particularly the ACLs. There is very little training that anyone can do to help avoid ACLs, and what can be done is primarily strength conditioning, which can be done anywhere, anytime. Torn ACLs are about applying just the right amount of stress at just the right angle. It's a combination of events that you can't train for or prepare for. A lot of torn ACLs are non-contact injuries. This weekend was just a bad weekend. The hamstrings, shoulders, other stuff may be more directly related to this year's training regimens.