CincyBillsFan

First off this was an excellent gut check win against a strong division opponent. Take a look around the league today and you can see that these December division games can be tough. The Bills are 10 - 3 and are in first place in their division and the AFC. Last year after 13 games the Bills were 7 - 6. In the off season the Bills must focus on getting another stud on offense. They are wasting a generational talent at QB by not swinging for the fences in the off season on offense. They have only done it once and it was a home run with Diggs. In hindsight, McCaffrey should have been a higher priority then he was. He would have been a huge difference maker on this offense. Today there were to many bad drops that forced us to punt. A couple were routine catches that should have been made by Singleterry & McKenzie. The others would have been tough, contested catches that were not made by Knox & Brown. If they continue to drop these passes the Bills are going to lose a game they should not.

The Jets D will be the best defense we play the rest of the season and that includes a very good Bengal's D.

IMO the game was lost because of events that occurred immediately after Allen had scored his 2nd rushing TD to give the Bills a 14 - 3 lead with a little over 6 minutes left in the first half. A Jets 3 and out or even better a TO and the Bills likley go into the locker room up 17 or 21 - 3. At that point the game would have been pretty much over. Instead the Bill's D allowed the jets bad offense to drive 75 yards for a TD to cut the lead to 14 - 10. Even worse the Jets used up all but the last 30 seconds of the 2nd quarter getting their TD. Even then Allen drove the Bills to the Jets 37 yard line where they missed a long FG. Allen's two picks didn't help but IMO the 2nd biggest reason the Bills lost that game was with the score tied 17 - 17 in the fourth quarter the Bills punted the Jets back to their 4 yard line. From that point the Jets drove 90 yards using up most of the quarter to take a 20 - 17 lead. Even then Allen almost pulled off the miracle with a 25 yard strike to Diggs that was called back by a holding penalty and then a 60 yard pass from Allen to Davis that was dropped. The fact remains that the Jets defense is their greatest strength. In contrast their Offense with Wilson at the helm was putrid. On the road it was reasonable that the Bills offense would struggle. What was not reasonable was that the Jets could put together a couple of long, time consuming TD drives at critical points in the game.

Don't see how any one can come to this conclusion. Allen didn't play well enough to win the game but the loss was a team effort. The D's inability to stop the run was the single biggest reason the Bills lost.

Which is why focusing as much as they do on stats for MVP isn't warranted IMO.

To be clear and based on the replays I've seen Jackson's knee injury came in the pocket, not while he was running.

Yes

Did anyone else have the Bennie Hill theme song running through their head on that 30 second scramble by Jones at the end?

Again it's important to be precise here. Allen and the offense have struggled at times during games. At other times - first half against GB, 1st half against the Vikes, 2nd quarter against the Jets, during the 25 - 0 run on Cleveland (2nd & 3rd quarters), the last 2 possessions against Detroit, Allen and the Bills O has been explosive.

Accountable to us fans - No. Accountable to his teammates, coaches and himself - yes. And for the record Allen comes across as being incredibly hard on himself. Contrast that with Wilson or Rogers.

Don't forget McKenzie. When a team puts a guy that's a mismatch covering McK Allen will exploit the hell out of the situation like he did last year against NE and to an extent yesterday. The evidence is overwhelming that if a guy is consistently getting open Allen will throw hm the ball. To me the fault is with Shakir for not getting consistently open or worse running the poor patterns.

It also came on a drive where a few plays earlier Davis dropped a perfectly thrown TD pass from Allen.

The Vikings game was well in hand late in the 3rd quarter when the Bills went up 27 - 10. Allowing an 81 yard TD RUN was the event that set in motion the loss. And that was on the defense.

Bingo. Over the last 4 games any analysis of Allen's performance has to drill down to quarter by quarter. It's just plain lazy for people to say he's been playing poorly or not playing like the Allen of old. That observation only holds true for parts of the game. * In the first half against GB Allen played like elite Allen and had the Bills leading 24 - 7. * In the first half against Minn Allen played like elite Allen and had the Bills leading 24 - 10. * The Jets game was his worst of the last four but even in this game Allen was great in the 2nd quarter getting the Bills out in front 14 - 3 before a late first half drive by the Jets kept the game from getting out of hand. Even after that Allen maneuvered the Bills in 30 seconds into long FG range that they missed. * Allen did look tentative and off during the first quarter and a half yesterday as did the whole team. But Allen recovered nicely and was great in the last half of the 2nd quarter and in the 2nd half leading the Bills on a 25 - 0 run. A better and more accurate observation of Allen's performance over the last 4 games is that he's been inconsistent.

You mean like the TD throw to Diggs today?

Saying it's been 4 games is not correct. You exaggerate how poorly Allen has played over that period. To be precise: * Allen was on fire in the first half against GB putting up 24 points. * Allen was on fire in the 2nd quarter against the Jets putting up 14 points and leading the Bills to a missed FG right before half. * Allen was on fire in the first half against the Vikings leading the Bills to 24 points. * Allen was outstanding in the 2nd & 3rd quarters against Cleveland leading the Bills on a 25 - 0 run. So over the last 16 quarters Allen has been outstanding in 7 of them. And this is in spite of an injury which is reducing his effectiveness as a passer.

I disagree. After a bad start Allen played exceptionally well and threw some outstanding passes. He directed the O to 31 points and completed over 80% of his passes during the Bills 25 - 0 scoring run. And if not for a dropped pass by Davis that would have given the Bills 1st and goal and two holding calls negating first down inside the 20 the Bills would have likely had 38 points.

Fraizer's act is getting old. The Bills were up 28 - 10 with about 6 minutes left in the game and win 31 - 23 with the Browns having just missed recovering an onside kick at the end.

Allen also had two TD runs, led the Bills on two TD drives in the 2nd quarter including a 94 yard drive that put the Bills up 14 - 3 which given how anemic the Jets O had been should have iced the game. But the D then let the Jets drive 75 yards for a TD eating up the last 6 minutes of the 1st half. Allen still managed in 30 seconds to get the Bills into position to attempt a long FG that they missed. And for the record, Allen doesn't take sacks he gets sacked behind what at times is a porous O line. In any given game Allen is sacked about half the time he should be because of his uncanny ability to avoid the rush. The fact remains that the Jet's loss was on the D because they were going up against a very weak offense. In contrast Allen and the O were going up against one of the best defenses in the NFL on their home turf.

The question about offensive coaching arises from the complete lack of production in the 2nd half of the last 3 games. That is a big enough sample size to wonder if Dorsey and company are up to making the proper halftime adjustments. The Bills have scored 62 points in the 1st half of the last 3 games. This prorates out to about 40 points per game. So player execution and game plan have been excellent in the 1st half of the last 3 games. Allen has also been excellent turning the ball over only once during the 1st half. The drop off in the 2nd half can be more rationally explained by a failure to adjust the offensive game plan then a sudden, mysterious collapse in payer performance - including Allen. A bad 2nd half game plan will look a lot like poor player execution every time. IMO part of this can be blamed on the Bills lack of a running game when they need it and defensive inconsistency (long time consuming drives or quick scoring strikes) that lead to Allen and the offense pressing to much. And pressing against defenses that have adjusted from their first half beating at the hands of the Bills offense is a license for turnovers.

I disagree. Sure Allen contributed but the main blame should fall on the defense when it couldn't make stops at key moments of the game most notably after the Bills took a 14 - 3 lead and in the 4th quarter when the Bills pinned the Jets back at their own 4 yard line. The fact is that the Bill's O was going up against the Jets strength - a very good defense. In contrast the Bill's D was asked to shut down a bad Jets offense and they didn't. So this "bad news" only impacts Allen in the 2nd half? Because in the last 3 games Allen has been outstanding in the first half.

This stat actually supports the post that 10nemangang7 made. * In the first half of the last three games Allen has been brilliant both throwing and running the football: He scored 5 TD's with only one turnover (an INT). He led the Bills to 62 points and leads in all 3 games. Two of the leads were by double digits. * In the 2nd half the lack of an NFL quality running game forced the Bills to play a weird hybrid brand of offensive football where they passed as a substitute for running. At the same time the Bills defense either gave up game changing explosive plays - versus the Vikings - or allowed the Jets & Packers to go on long time consuming drives. As a result Allen and the O got antsy and tried forcing the issue to get the game clinching TD. The failure of the Bills to adequately address the deficiencies in their running game over the last four years is shameful. It's a problem that EVERYONE has identified but they have been unable to fix. Until they do fix this you will continue to get uneven performances out of Allen and O in the 2nd half.

I actually could see this happening. If we take off our Bills blinders we would see that while they've lost 3 games it was by a combined 8 points against teams currently sporting a cumulative record of 20 - 7! We've also beat 3 of the other leading AFC teams. The Bills absolutely control their own playoff destiny, including home field advantage. Of course this team could also go 4 - 4 over the next 8 games.

I disagree. The 81 yard TD run immediately after the Bills had taken a commanding 27 - 10 lead late in the 3rd quarter cost them the game. Everything after that was window dressing. Had the Vikings taken 5 or 6 minutes to drive for that TD then the lead would have been cut to ten with about 11 - 12 minutes left. Then the Bills likely would have kicked the FG to take a 13 point lead halfway through the 4th quarter after their drive stalled. The long TD run was a back breaker responsible for everything that followed.

As others have pointed out the 81 yard TD run was the worst thing to happen to the Bills on Sunday and that includes the two fumbles and two INT's. * The Bills had just taken a commanding 27 - 10 lead and one play later the momentum was flipped. * There will be lots of NFL games this season with red zone interceptions and fumbles recovered for TD's. But I bet this will be by far the longest TD run. * To allow the Vikings back in the game on an off tackle 81 yard TD run was a disgrace. I keep hearing people say that the Bills offense had plenty of opportunities to put the Vikings away. Well guess what they did when they went up 27 - 10 late n the 3rd quarter at home. That should have put the Vikings away. I think that the defenses inability to consistently get off the field while also giving up the big play AFTER the Bills O takes a big lead: see 24 -7; 27 - 10 against GB, 14 - 3 against the Jets and 27 - 10 against the Vikes, puts pressure on Allen and the O to get that last score to end the game. And with an anemic running game unable to grind out a drive it places huge pressure on Allen and he makes mistakes. This is different then a shoot out where each team is going up and down the field. It's trying to clinch the game while protecting a big lead and not making any mistakes in doing it. The defense is a much bigger problem then their ranking indicates.