SoCoBills

Petty of you to not just agree to disagree and instead go low road by calling another poster clueless. Having a different opinion does not make him clueless. Allen is exceeding expectations on all levels thus far. Everything and everyone can improve. Nobody is beyond that. Quarterbacks are responsible for mostly everything that goes on with the offense in some way or another. Allen can improve and that fact excites the F out of me.

I’m crazy pumped about Allen’s play thus far as I feel mostly all of us are so I don’t see why you are trying to absolve Allen of all responsibility to the death. Make all the excuses you want but yea - i’d Like for him to account for the blitz better than he has thus far at times.

If the argument is that “it was well timed and thus well disguised so it isn’t Allen’s fault” that’s fine. With experience though a lot of times the best quarterbacks change snap counts and use voice inflections and what not to get the defense to show their hands early. It’s all about command. In order to do that you have to get your guys out of the huddle quickly to have the time to play that type of mental chess.

Of course he has the ability to set protections. EVERY quarterback and I mean EVERY single one is expected to do this. I’ve heard of a rare situation or 2 where an inexperienced qb had an experienced center make all the line calls from time to time but that’s not the norm. SouthNYFan - the good ones account for that. In the end no matter what it is up to the quarterback to account for protections and make adjustments presnap. Brady isn’t rarely sacked just because he has some sort of super human OL. He gets the ball out fast for one and he’s also rarely fooled by defensive looks and sets his protections properly.

Also notice that on only 1 of those plays was Alexander on the field. Why? Because we were in Nickel. I agree with the analyst here - the Browns had an exotic run game planned for your average per-season game where we aren’t game planning for it. Some time in the film room could go a long way but eventually guys got to shed blocks too and that wide 9 was leaving our DTs in bad spots bc it forced them to line up differently as opposed to over the guy opposite them and that makes it easier for the Browns OL to attack and seal lanes and kill it on double teams. With game planning I don’t think the Browns see those same looks and alignments from the Bills D but a good learning experience all around.

Are you talking the throw to Benjamin? It wasn’t a throwaway but it also wasn’t inaccurate. That was a poor read by Josh. Benjamin stopped his crossing pattern to sit in the zone bc he saw the LB coming. Josh through the ball to where KB would have been had he not sat down. If Benjamin would have kept running to where josh threw the ball he’d have been lit up. One of the the toughest things for a rookie of any QB to do for that matter is to see the field ahead of the route. Josh missed it that time.

Is there treasure inside? ?

My pleasure, you could always just skip to the the final section under the heading “conclusions & takeaways”. A short synopsis of points: 1. KW and Star were pretty consistently doubled. On many plays both were doubled. So the perception that they both stunk up the joint isn’t totally accurate. 2. Edmunds needs to slow down and diagnose before rushing towards the LOS. This is a major concern not for the kids future but for the defense now. 3. The Bills D often ran nickel against 2 TE or even extra OL instead of TE sets. It’s the preseason so maybe they had specific personnel and specific packages they wanted to see and work with. 4. Game planning for these types of run looks I could easily see helping. The Browns threw a decent amount of more exotic looks against a D not game planning for it. The Browns struggled last week running so it was their emphasis this week and it showed.

I went through all the run plays on the first drive and broke down what went right and what went wrong which allowed the Browns to run the ball down our throats. Play by play breakdown first and a short analysis of what to take away from it at the end. I highly suggest that those who want a short read as opposed to a long one skip to the takeaways and conclusions section at the end. 1st & 10 at Browns 30 – Singleback set with 2 TE’s lined up off right tackle one WR wide left and another WR tight right. Bills are a bit fortunate to only give up 3 yards. Browns had an overload to the right side with the run likely designed to smash between right tackle and the TE’s. Alexander does a good job on the weak side penetrating and coming down the line to squeeze the play. Star got chipped at the start of the play on a double team by the center and LG and then was handled 1v1 long enough by the C to be sealed out of the play. Kyle was double teamed by the RG & RT. Shaq Lawson has to win here 1v1 against the innermost TE but he get manhandled and sealed to the outside by Fells which isn’t a good look for him at all. If Shaq even holds his ground he and Poyer close up the lane for no gain as Poyer does a great job blitzing off the right side and is immediately into the backfield. Since KW was doubled and Shaq loses 1v1 against the TE, p(Fells) Poyer is not able to make the tackle. The 2nd TE, Njoku, went straight to the 2nd level and engaged Milano but Milano diagnosed decently well and helped seal the lane along with Edmunds. Edmunds wasn’t terrible here but he could have done better. He slides laterally but is too impatient and tries to engage the line of scrimmage and in doing so misidentified the hole and ran into the kyle Williams double team. He ends up able to help Milano and combine in on the tackle but it isn’t clean as a result of getting a bit washed up in the swamp. 2nd & 7 at Browns 33 – Singleback set with a 1TE 2 WR bunch off right tackle. Odd run fit presnap by the Bills because Hughes is lined up quite wide off left tackle whereas Star is between Center & Left Guard, Williams is between RG & RT and Shaq is lined up over the TE. Edmunds is over center with Milano over left tackle both 3 yards off the LOS. Star is double teamed by C & LG. Hughes is on a speed rush to the outside headed up field. Kyle is 1v1 against the RG but as he was already on the RG’s outside shoulder at the snap he is easily sealed out of the play. The RT pulls on the snap to the left which has to be a key for the linebackers and also for Shaq Lawson to diagnose immediately and know the run is to the left. Poyer came down into the box just before the snap in almost a 3rd LB role and is on what looks like a run blitz on the right side but he gets caught in traffic guarding against a potential cut back lane whereas Shaq doesn’t seem to recognize his keys. Shaq needs to crash down the line when the RT pulls and run down the line in a chase position. Edmunds also misses this key and he and Poyer attacked the same cutback lane. If anyone is most to blame on this play it is Edmunds. Milano engages the right tackle who pulled left as a lead blocker and does the right thing by maintaining outside contain, taking on the blockers outside shoulder and forcing the back inside to where help in the form of Edmunds should be coming but as Edmunds didn’t diagnose and hit the wrong gap he is nowhere near the play. It should be mentioned that Taron Johnson showed some great awareness where others didn’t. He started over the inside wide receiver to the right and came all the way across the field to make the tackle and did so in a hurry. 1st & 10 at Browns 42 – Singleback TE right and what looks like probably another TE wing on the right also. Outside WR on the right is motioned into the backfield on a fake reverse. This play is 100% on both Milano and Tre White and it is terrible so much so that they will hear it for sure. Milano was lined up outside of RT over the TE wing 2-3 yards off the LOS. On the snap he leaves his outside gap responsibility completely to try and play super hero by crashing inside so far he actually hits the gap between KW & Star before running into Jerry Hughes and knocking both of them out of the play. Tre is only to blame if this is zone and I am guessing it is but I can’t be sure. Tre also leaves and follows the motioning WR across the field late as he also thinks the reverse is on and appears to be chasing down the play. As a result the outside of the field is wide open. This isn’t a matter of Bills players being blown off the ball. This is all about football intelligence and recognition. Maybe with game planning and film study for run schemes like this these type of mistakes won’t happen? I would be remiss to not point out Shaqs hustle and show of speed on this play to chase down Hyde and knock him out of bounds. He ran from the Browns 43 all the way down to our 32 to make the play. 1st & 10 at Bills 32 – Incomplete Pass. 2nd & 10 at Bills 32– Singleback TE Right, 2 WRs left, 1 WR right. Hughes again is lined very wide off left tackle. Star just off the left of center and kyle between RG & RT with Shaq between RT & TE. Star get a 1v1 and is easily handled by the C. The LG pulls and attacks the gap between Kyle & Shaq. Milano came down and engaged the LG but Edmunds was too impatient yet again. I have no answers for what Edmunds was thinking except to say that he must not have been thinking at all. Edmunds had a clear view to take the key of the left guard pulling right because he is lined up 5 yards off the LOS directly over the left guard with no obstruction to his view of it happening. Edmunds wants to attack the line of scrimmage right away it seems with no care to diagnose what’s in front of him and make sure he’s in the right gap. Edmunds runs right into the KW double team group (again) in inexplicable fashion to the point I have no idea what he thinks he might be doing and just hits that group of guys and is stuck. As a result, even though everyone else seemed to do their job, because Edmunds didn’t get to where he needed to, the running back squeaks through a small lane and then into wide open space with ease. Ugly stuff by the youngster. 1st & 10 at the Bills 14 – Singleback with an extra offensive lineman lined up like a TE off of left tackle. To disguise the obvious intent to run to this strong side the browns put a WR in motion left and then on the snap he comes back on a fake reverse right but of course the run is to the left. Both of the Browns WR’s are stacked wide right as nothing more than a decoy to draw some attention from the safeties. There is nobody wide left. On the snap both the right guard and right tackle pull left. Adolphus for whatever reason appears to be trying to crash inside and the LT seals him inside easily and pushes him back to the point where he gets in the way of Star who read his keys correctly and was trying to crash down the LOS towards the pulling lineman. Other than Washington everyone else read the play correctly. Milano and Edmunds both got to their spots and met the pulling lineman and forced the running back inside to help. Hughes and Poyer both helped get the runner down for a short gain. 2nd & 6 at the Bills 10 – Strong I Form right with 2 TE’s right, one of them in a wing one yard behind the LOS and a WR out to the left. PA rollout for a first down at the Bills 3. 1st & Goal at the Bills 3 – Again the Browns have an extra lineman in off of left tacke with a WR tight and one out wide on each side. Singleback. Adolphus actually does a good job fighting and holding his ground against a double team. Hyde and Hughes were up on the LOS, Hughes over LT and Hyde over the extra lineman. Both do a good job crashing down inside and squeezing the pocket and Taron Johnson shows excellent instincts and great eyes by reading what is happening in the backfield and shooting freely into the lane early like a seasoned linebacker instead of a rookie nickel CB and makes the tackle in the backfield for a loss of 2 at the 5 but the ball is spotted at the 4. 2nd & Goal at the Bills 4 – Same set as on first down except flipped to the other side. Washington is doubled by RG & RT. Whoever #96 is was lined up as DE on the right side of the browns line and sheds his blocker inside and gets caught in traffic. Taron Johnson this time is a bit slow to diagnose from deep but it isn’t on him. This is really just a good play design and good execution. The WR out wide right is rushing inside to crack down on Johnson and Tre White is apparently in man coverage because Tre White is sprinting inside along with him so that when the runner bounces the ball outside there is nobody to contain. I give part of the blame to Poyer because he was up in the box and had outside contain responsibility and didn’t attack the outside shoulder as if he was anticipating another inside run but at this point can you really blame him? TD Browns and end of drive. Conclusions & Takeaways: As you can see here there were a lot of problems but it wasn’t all bad. When watching live I thought our defensive line of both Kyle and Star in particular were getting beat up 1v1 but that wasn’t the whole story. The Bills were playing a lot of nickel even against multiple TE sets and it showed. Kyle, Star and even Adolphus were often facing double teams. Edmunds and Milano both at times missed assignments and to be fair the Browns were throwing a lot different run looks at them for a preseason matchup. This should be a fantastic learning experience for them down the road and with game specific game planning and film review they should be able to clean up most of the issues that plagued them in this series. I do worry about Edmunds’s ability to diagnose rather than aimlessly attack a random spot and I do worry about our DE’s winning some 1v1 situations and being playmakersthough. At this point though it is important to understand that the sky is not falling. There were breakdowns by different guys on different plays and we have an extremely young MLB learning some hard lessons at the moment. When cuts happen we may also look to bring in some help if things don’t improve.

Star was getting blocked 1v1 and he wasn’t winning and couldn’t block shed. Even if he did shed a block he looked completely incapable of moving laterally. He’s so stiff and slow it was shocking to see. Its sad to have to hope a guy wasn’t putting in max effort but that’s honestly what I’m hoping for at this point. Bc if that’s his max effort he doesn’t even belong in this league.

Peterman looks like his knee is hurting after that low hit....

Cool it with the feet, Rex ?

Ray Ray definitely looks like he belongs. He is dangerous with the ball in his hands.

Dirty Harry...making plays

Josh Allen is a heck of a football player. That much is for sure. The kids a gamer. Can he be consistently accurate enough and continue to make good decisions? Yet to be seen but so far so good.

Wow great play by Allen. He probably could have run it in too.

Kyle nooooooooooooooo

Star looks really bad. He’s being dominated in 1v1 blocks and can’t move at all.

3rd and 12 and McCarron with the IMMEDIATE checkdown. No chance at a first down with that mentality.

There you o Edmunds. Finally made a play.

Edmunds in the wrong run fits all day.

Great hustle by Shaq Lawson

His accuracy is pretty standout and how quickly he goes through his progressions and finds open receivers stands out. That said yea his throws don’t “wow” you at all. It seems like he loses some velocity oddly when throwing outside the hashes to his right from the pocket too. It just looks odd.

Cover 1 posted some stats from that first preseason game and according to them Allen was pressured ed if I remember correctly on over 43% of his dropbacks. Considering that I thought he looked very accurate. EDIT: Here is cover 1s post in quotes: “% Blitzed in game 1 per PFF Peterman 30% McCarron 8.3% Allen 39% Under pressure % Peterman 20% McCarron 33.3% Allen 43.5% #Bills #Billsmafia“ Also - the “bad misses” seemed more to be WR & QB not being on the same page than they were inaccurate. There were also several drops in that game which make the stat line look way less favorable than it should have. My only real real issue with Allen from game one is he seemed to trust and rely on his arm strength a bit too much because he’s probably used to not having to throw on time to fit balls in. He throw some balls to the sideline late which is always a risky move. As far as your question: Accuracy is rarely fixed if a QB is inaccurate but Allen seems very accurate when he’s set properly and clean so yea - it’s no easy task but it can be done. Some guys are inaccurate even when set with a clean pocket like EJ for example. Those are the guys where hopes are slim to none.