CincyBillsFan

My guess is that one of the main reasons PFF had Allen as one their top rated QB's overall was that they understood better then most how badly the Bills O line performed and yet Buffalo's Offense and Allen's stats were still very good. In fact they were elite. Give Allen an extra second from interior pressure and he will do bad things to opposing teams defenses - bad things.

13 - 4 baby - book it Dano.

Again, Kelly and company played very poorly on offense that day. Injuries and a stout Denver defense contributed to this. But was the Bronco's D in the 1991 season any better then the Bengals D from last season? As for the weather, 33 degrees, dry and with light winds is as close to perfect January game conditions as you're going to get in Buffalo. My question stands, in that game with the offense struggling mightily, had the Bills D allowed the Broncos to go down and score TD's on their first two possessions would Buffalo have won that game?

The point I was making was that even the best offenses can have off days. In the 1991 season playoffs the Bills had a historically great offense with 4 future HOF players. Yet at home in good weather (for January) they managed just one FG. You could no more draw conclusions from that performance as you can from the Bills face plant against the Bengals in the 2022 playoffs.

You seem to suffer from both recency bias AND historical amnesia when it comes to the Bills offense: The recency bias is your belief that what happened in the playoff game against the Bengals was a broader indicator of Buffalo's offensive "struggles" in 2022. At the same time you fail to remember the 1991 season when the Bills had one of if not the most potent offenses in team history. With MVP/OPOY Thurman Thomas running the ball and future HOF players Jim Kelly, Andre Reed and James Loften on hand this was one explosive offense. Yet in the 1991 AFC Championship game that Bills offense could only muster THREE POINTS, AT HOME and on a perfect January weather day. Imagine how history would have changed had the Bills 1991 defense allowed Denver to score TD's on their first two possessions in that game?

The Bills were down 14 - 0 after the first 2 Bengal possessions. Their defense could not have had a worse start in a HOME playoff game. Consider this series of possessions from early in the 2nd quarter to late in the 3rd quarter: * Bills go 75 yards in 15 plays for a TD taking 7:41, score = 7 - 14 * Bengals go 65 yards in 14 plays for a FG taking 5:36, score = 7 - 17 * With only 1:49 left in the half Bills go 39 yards in 7 plays taking 1:09, punt * Bengals go 44 yards in 6 plays taking 0:40. Half * To start the 3rd quarter Bills go 65 yards in 14 plays for a FG taking 7:18, score = 10 - 17 * Bengals go 75 yards in 12 plays for a TD taking 6:25, score = 10 - 24 * With only 1:17 left in the 3rd quarter Bills start infamous drive that ends on 3rd & 2 with Davis dropping what would have been a 50 yard completion. Sorry, but the Bengals playoff game was lost for two primarily defensive reasons: 1) the D didn't show up at the start of the game. 2)And then when the offense managed to claw their way back into the game with two LONG, time consuming scoring drives the D failed to make a stop at two critical points in the game - after the Bills cut the lead to 14 - 7 & 17 -10. The D's shortcomings forced the Bills to rely more on the pass then they would have liked. The poor O line play made it harder for the Bills to execute any offensive scheme consistently.

Your own post makes a strong case for the problem being almost entirely on the O line. And saying we should have "run the ball more" conveniently forgets the frequent times RB's were stuffed for no gain or lost yards. This of course put us in passing situations over and over again. The fact is that Allen, in spite of playing injured, performed at a very high level considering how bad his O line was at the end of the season. Bringing in 3 new guards and RT Brown being healthy for off season training should at least move the Bills from having one of the worst O lines in the NFL to having an average O line. This alone will pay big dividends in 2023.

Immediate pressure up the middle gave Allen trouble like it does every QB. It made blitzes off the edge much more effective then they otherwise would have been.

I see it completely differently: * IMO the Bills had a very good off season. * I believe they significantly upgraded their O line with the addition of 3 new guards. * They added size and diversity to their RB room with the addition of 2 solid NFL RB's. * They improved their WR room through addition of 2 new vets and letting McKenzie go. * They had what looks to be a good draft with their top 3 picks all potentially starting in week one. * They will miss Edmonds but they added vet help on the D Line and in the D backfield. * They surprisingly kept Poyner & Phillips on the D. * McD calling the defensive plays is going to be a big improvement over Frazier. * Dorsey should improve going from his "rookie" season to his 2nd season as OC.

You need to be a bit more specific here. Against the Dolphins, IN THE PLAYOFFS, the Bills offense gained 423 yards and scored 34 points. Hardly "falling off a cliff". Sure they turned the ball over but that is not the same thing. There was nothing wrong with Allen's ball placement. In fact slightly under-throwing deep shots is by design to avoid missing a big gain on an overthrow. The reality, backed up by the stats and observations, is that Bills receivers didn't make a lot of great catches (by NFL standards) and dropped way more then their fair share of Allen's throws.

I would also argue that the defense giving up a 6 minute 75 yard TD drive at the end of the 1st half cutting the Bills lead from 14 - 3 to 14 - 10 was just as bad. Stop the Jets for a 3 and out and give Allen and the Bills the ball again and the half likely ends 17 or even 21 to 3. And don't forget that the Jets do have a very good defense and they were at home - two things that will frustrate an offense. What was the Bills defenses excuse playing a bad Jet's offense quarterbacked by Zack Wilson?

So you're going with Allen intentionally threw that INT or that Allen just sucks? Or if late in the 3rd quarter after going up 27 - 10 AT HOME the Bills didn't allow Cook to run off tackle for an 82 yard TD!

I would put it on a defense that allowed a game winning 90 yard FG drive without the Jets having to throw a pass. A defense in which after Allen's 35 yard run to put the Bills up 14 - 3 late in the 2nd quarter allowed the Jets to use up the rest of the half on their way to a TD cutting the lead to 14 - 10. And all this with the horrible Zak Wilson at QB. Sure it wasn't a good game by Allen but in the end he made a throw that almost no one else in the NFL could make and that if completed would have at minimum put the game in OT. That was a unique situation. The Vikes completely sold out to blowup a QB sneak. Best case scenario is Allen handles the snap and is stuffed for a safety. Vikes get the ball back and score to win the game. Like a lot of QB's make that and even worse throws when they don't see the defender.

The QB play was okay because the SF roster was a true SB roster. Or else we have to believe that Purdy was the next coming of Joe Montana.

This is not emphasized enough. The Bills were at the one inch line with an undersized center going against a Vikings front line that was overloaded to stop a QB sneak. Absolutely Allen should have been in the shotgun with the option to pick a hole to run into. Again, like "13 seconds" a big strategic failure by the Bills coaching brain trust at a critical moment in an important game. A Bills win that day and they are home through the playoffs with a much needed one week break.

Their defense is good but not great. Their O line is a shambles and now will have an immobile 40 year old behind it. Two years ago Jacksonville with a rookie QB not playing well beat the Bills. It's the NFL it happens. Rogers probably makes the Jets better. My guess is that 7 - 10 goes up to 9 - 8 at best. For the Jets to get to the 11 or 12 wins likely needed to win the division they have to add 4 or 5 wins. And I don't see the Jets sweeping the Bills do you?

Last season SF had a SB worthy roster without decent QBing. That is what a SB level teams talent looks like. As you point out the Jets DO NOT look like that. Oh and in the Cleveland game all the Browns RB had to do was fall down at the 2 yard line and Cleveland wins the game taking a knee.

So this "expert" supports his absurd AFC top 5 ranking this season by pointing out how wrong he was last season?

A perfect example was the first Jets game where Allen didn't play well. But the 35 yard TD run and the 70 yard dime that hit Davis in the chest down the sideline were both amazing plays. The sheer versatility of a guy who could do BOTH in a single game that he's otherwise playing poorly in is off the chart.

Was this before or after Allen turned up at the Kentucky Derby in a creamsicle themed suit?

I agreed that he listed that as an area for improvement. But it's also true that no matter how much Allen improves here it won't overcome poor play by the guys catching the well placed balls. For the record I thought that before the injury his ball placement was very good.

I may not be a football guru but doesn't generating more YAC also rely on the receiver breaking tackles, making guys miss tackles and outrunning tacklers? Allen said he was working on ball placement and from what I can recall that aspect of his game looked fine to me.

In March, April and the first half of May? You have to be looking for issues to get the wrong impression from Allen making an appearance at a few events this time of the year. Hell, he just was at the Hyde charity softball game hugging some kids whose parents were away on military deployment. Is that giving the wrong impression? And last I looked Allen has been at the Bill's OTA's right? Sorry but I don't get and I don't like this sniping at Allen on a Bills message board. There isn't a compelling football reason for it at this point. Get back to me when Allen has a Russel Wilson Denver Broncos like season.

Offensive line continuing to deteriorate becoming one of the worst lines in the NFL? Maybe. Lack of any play makers beyond Diggs? Maybe. Lack of a credible slot receiver that resulted in the Bills bringing back Beasley? Maybe. Defensive coordinators realizing that the Bills were deficient in multiple offensive areas and exploiting those deficiencies? Maybe. And in spite of all the crap the Bills put up with - like blizzards & Hamlin's near death experience as well as multiple bad weather games and Allen's injury, Allen's stats for the last 8 games of the regular season were: Record = 7 - 1 Passing yards = 1880; passing TD's = 16; INT's = 6 Rushing yards = 370; rushing TD's = 3; Lost fumbles = 3. Total yards = 2250; total TD's = 19; Total TO's = 9 Prorated out to a full 17 game schedule: Total yards = 4794; Total TD's = 40; Total TO's = 19 So yes, Allen wasn't at his best in the 2nd half of the season but the injury & bad weather alone would explain most of it. As an aside Danial Jones just landed a big new contract with the following stats: Total yards = 3913; Total TD's = 22; Total TO's 7 Cheery picking games are we? How was Allen in the two NE games and the Saturday night Miami game that won the Bills the division?

And Allen's "down year" saw him put up the following numbers (regular season + postseason): Team record: 14 - 4 Total Yards: 5671 Total TD's: 46 Total TO's: 18