CincyBillsFan

And Jackson's gaudy passing stats are entirely due to TN going into a prevent defense in the 4th quarter. When it mattered Jackson had 3 TO's and only generated 2 FG's going into the 4th quarter. This is the 2nd bad game by Jackson AT HOME in the playoffs. I would be concerned if I was a Ravens fan.

Prevent defense prevents nothing. This game is NOT over. And what a fantastic catch. Again, the usual posters would be criticizing Allen if that same pass had gone to knox and he dropped it. All we would here about is BALL PLACEMENT.

Yes. But Jackson is the better QB right now.

I do think he's a legit MVP for how he's performed within this offense. He's probably the only guy outside of maybe Kyler Murray who could have pulled it off.

Not true. Jackson benefits from a superbly designed offensive scheme. He has nice touch and has good accuracy over the middle but those sideline passes are cringe worthy. But at the core of Jackson's passing success is the threat of the Ravens running game. And that's fine but in the absence of a dominating rushing attack, which includes Jackson's own contributions as a runner, he would be considered an average passing QB.

It's the usual stuff from the clown posse that trashes him every chance they get.

No matter how many games I watch the use of the prevent defense will never cease to amaze me. That they go this route so often is a real head scratcher. And that was a nice throw by Jackson and an even better catch by the WR. I have to believe that any Bills fan watching this game can see where the Bill's offense is lacking and it ain't at QB. I bet the Ravens end up winning this game by 2 or more TD's.

I agree. They need to stick to their basic offense. One TD and they cut the TN lead in half. The Ravens get the KO to start the 2nd half.

We did. If our receivers made the plays like the last 2 we would have been up 21 - 0 at half. That last TD catch was a great example of tracking the ball and laying out for it.

Actually Allen's pass was more catchable. Jackson's pass was high AND in front of Andrews. Allen's was high but centered on Beasley. And let's not forget that Andrews is what 6 ft 6 while Bease is 5 ft 8? Also did anyone else just watch that amazing one handed catch for a TD and not think about Duke NOT making his catch in the end zone against the Texans? Look I know I'm beating a dead horse here but damn do we need to upgrade our pass receiving skill players at RB, TE & WR.

Mahomes is a modern day Marino - a complete outlier at QB. Marino threw for over 5,000 yards in his 2nd season. And you can't look at Mahomes success without considering the extraordinary talent he has surrounding him on offense. You would be hard pressed to find a QB with a better collection of play making skill players then Mahomes has. Jackson is unusual in that he went to a playoff caliber team that retooled it's entire offensive philosophy & talent pool to match his strengths at QB. I don't think another team in the NFL would have done this. And this is not a knock on Jackson who I believe should be the NFL MVP this year but he generates no where near the numbers he did with the Ravens on any other NFL team. As for Watson, I believe that Allen is on a similar timeline. This is Watson's 3rd year. Last year in his 1st playoff game Watson had a similar game to Allen's including a loss. IMO Watson is still improving as evidenced by his struggles in the first half against the Bills.

I'm not surprised given that deeply corrupt and/or incompetent institutions often double down rather then admit a mistake.

I have no problem with honest and fair criticisms of Allen. He has much to improve and warrants criticism. And I've posted on other threads that Allen did in fact get rattled after the fumble but we're only talking two series here. In the end he got the Bills into position to tie the game with a FG. And while I consider myself agnostic on Daboll (there's a lot to like and a lot not to like) his play calling in OT was fine. The QB sweep call should have won the game but for an egregious missed block. In fact the Bills were driving so I have to assume Daboll's play calls were at least okay here. And after Allen took a wicked shot to the head because of the missed block I'm not sure he was operating at 100%. But judging Daboll's OT play calling is hampered by the fact that the Bills got only one possession in OT. Like you I'm confident that Bean will get Allen more play makers and shore up the O-line. I'm also confident that Allen will continue to improve because he'll work hard to improve and he seeks out the coaching in the off season that enables him to improve. I also think that going from years 2 to 3 and 3 to 4 are where you see the biggest improvements in most young QB's. So we do have reason to be optimistic.

He reverted to hero ball ON ONE PLAY on the game tying FG drive (the lateral) and maybe on one play (the huge sack) on the drive before that. And like his overstated "accuracy issues" Allen DID NOT revert to hero ball in this game. In fact in the Bills ONLY OT drive Allen seemed calm and collected, or at least he did until he took that wicked head shot, as he drove the Bills down the field for the game winning FG. He made two excellent throws to convert 3rd & long on that drive. As for Singleterry not getting carries in OT that can be attributed to 2 facts: 1) On the QB sweep that should have won the game but for two guys missing a block it's likely that the play was so wide open because the Texans were keying on Singleterry. 2) The Bills only had ONE OT possession because our defense couldn't get off the field on a 3rd & 18.

They did? I'm a simple football fan and in spite of all that went before if either Knox or Morse make that block on a perfectly called QB sweep Allen possibly takes it to house. Or at worst we're in FG range to win it in OT. My problem with Joe B is that he often can't see the forest for the trees. Take a look at how other young QB's fared in their first playoff game. Those stats have been posted all over 2BD the last few days. A lot of great QB's had ugly first playoff games - even in games their teams won. The bottom line is that the Bills asked to much of Allen. Which is both good & bad. It's good because they were confident he could handle it. It was bad because when he had a bad play he lost it for a couple of series at a crucial point in the game. And why is Joe B surprised that after the fumble Allen hesitated on some of his throws in order to make sure he didn't turn the ball over again? I mean this was his FIRST 4th quarter in a playoff game and his FIRST ever OT game. On the drive that should have won the game for the Bills but for a BS penalty on Ford and missed blocks on a perfectly called QB sweep I saw Allen get his feet back under him and make two great throws to gain 1st downs on 3rd & long. The fact is that this was as classic a TEAM loss as you're ever going to see in a close game that goes to OT. And as I've posted elsewhere, if I had to choose the top 5 plays that lost the game Allen's play would NOT make the list. Here's the list off the top of my head and tell me I'm wrong: 1) missed block on QB sweep 2) ref calling a blindside PF on Ford 3) ref NOT calling targeting on the Texan who drilled Allen in the head on the QB sweep. 4) the defense allowing Houston to convert a 3rd & 18 in OT 5) Milano not wrapping up on Watson for a sack on that Texan FG drive that won the game. 6) Brown not staying in bounds on the failed toe tap catch that would have given us first & goal at the 2. 7) Duke not making a tough catch for a TD at the end of the first half. Look. More then 5 plays and not one involved Allen doing something bad. Go figure.

I heard it on one of the shows and think it's nuts to but..........this is the NFL so who knows?

The announcers would go further and point out how Mahomes or Watson were so good because they got the ball into tight spaces where their receivers could make a play on it. The obsession some of us are showing at the Duke "drop" and the Brown missed toe tap is not to trash those receivers it's to point out exactly what you said in your post Hapless Bills Fan. Allen IS making a lot of the throws that impress us about a Mahomes or a Rogers. The problem, and it's been a problem all season, is that our skill players simply don't rise to the occasion and catch the DAMN ball. They are solid WR's that at times can get open against a zone defense. But that is NOT the same thing as play making WR's. We simply DO NOT HAVE a play making WR or TE.

I don't know but I think we have much bigger needs on offense then a new back-up QB. Barkley is good enough. The Jets game was not a reasonable barometer of how he would do if Allen went down for a couple of games. Or if you're going to use a Jet's game how about last years Jet's game? There's also the matter of CAP impact and some of the QB's being thrown around would not come cheap. I would rather spend the money to overpay for a solid FA RT that enables us to move Ford to guard then bring in another back-up QB.

I agree that Brown is a good receiver and everyone has bad plays. Allen had a couple in the game to. I think what we're trying to say to those piling on Allen is that for a first playoff game he did alright. Folks can obsess all they want about Allen's circus lateral but the reality is that with a little help from his WR's and a block on that sweep we'd be celebrating Allen leading us to a win and playing a fantastic game.

This isn't high school football where WR's get so open running that pattern that they catch that ball a couple of yards in bound and waltz into the end zone. The throw was exactly where it was supposed to be. That missed opportunity is 99% on Brown.

This is the crazy stuff that drives me nuts to. The way some of the Allen critics analyze EVERY throw he makes and claim it could have been better is absurd. No QB would look good in their eyes if they used that same criteria.

The missed toe tap by Brown on the sideline that would have given us a first & goal at the 3 was really bad. That play is made by most NFL level WR's. Watching the replay, the throw by Allen was even better then I remembered from the game. With upgraded skill players on the field I have NO DOUBT that the Bills would have led 21 - 0 at the half. And let's not forget the role field position had in limiting the Bills scoring production. One of my complaints about the Bill's D this year is that it allowed to many teams to get a 1st down or 2 and move the ball to midfield where they then punted us inside the 10. This game was a perfect example of this: * After that 1st TD drive the next 3 Bill's possessions started at their own 10, 8 & 4 yard lines! That we had two 70 yard drives to kick FG's was actually quite good. Had Duke & Brown caught those passes we would have had two 90+ yard drives for TD's.

But this is true of most QB's. Remember Watson's terrible throw that should have been intercepted at that start of the 3rd quarter? It likely would have been a pick 6 to. Of all the possible INT's this was by far the easiest one.

YAC is a bit of a sore point for me because the Allen critics claim that he doesn't generate YAC because his ball placement is poor. And while you can find examples of this, every QB misses YAC opportunities by this definition. And let's not forget that YAC is also driven by breaking tackles and busting moves. With the exception of a couple of Knox epic runs how many times have our receivers or RB's actually broken tackles or busted a move after a catch? Watch how players like Kemarra & McCaffrey make the first guy miss when the ball is tossed out to them in the flat. Or how many times did Beasley or Brown or McKenzie break a tackle on a WR screen or after catching a pass downfield? And excluding Singleterry, the simple fact is that with very rare exceptions our offensive skill players do not make great catches; do not break tackles after catching the ball or make guys miss in the open field. At least not to the extent that I see the better offenses on other teams do it. Throw in that our O-line doesn't seem built to execute screen passes (2 good ones the entire season) Allen's production is better then we have any right to expect.

First off I want Daboll to stay if possible. I'm assuming of course that as more weapons are added and Allen continues to improve Daboll will quit tapping the breaks on the O. Continuity in developing a young QB is important. And IMO Daboll's positives at this point outweigh the negatives. But if he were to go I would love adding Joe Brady as O-coordinator. What he's done for Burrow & LSU is astonishing. I don't see Daboll leaving Buffalo to take the OC job at Cleveland. He's been in Buffalo 2 seasons and he must be thinking he's on the brink of something special with Allen. And given Buffalo's CAP room he knows he's getting more talent on the offensive side of the ball next season. I also think that there are now real questions about the long tern viability of Mayfield. That Allen has moved ahead of Baker seems obvious to me. And while Daboll might like a challenge do you really think he wants to go through fixing a broken young QB after working with a very RAW Allen? Especially given the fact that Mayfield doesn't seem to be as agreeable as Allen? One final thought here is that if Daboll went to Cleveland and the Browns O got better would he really get the credit? McDanial is highly regarded as an offensive guy and folks are going to whisper that it's really MCDanial and not Daboll. In contrast any & all improvements in the Bills O is going to be credited to Daboll given that McD is a defensive guy.