Bob in STL

Allen missed a briefly open Davis. He got the ball out late and it was behind him. All on Allen. Mostly we had a lot of poorly designed routes that were well covered. McKenzie actually brought more coverage onto Davis because of the route he ran. All this talk about what Davis could have done and should have done is garbage. Once they blew up the screen the Vikes played it by betting we would be impatient and go for the TD and they covered it. In the second half, once we reached the red zone they took away the end zone; it was not like they covered us on one play and got lucky - they knew what to do on multiple red zone plays because we do the same things. They never had to think about the run, or check downs.

Fourth and 2, how about calling a play that has receiving options to get either a TD or the first down? Allen got out of the pocket and there was no one to dump the ball to. I cannot describe how bad that play call was is in that situation. Once we got to 2nd and 2 none of the plays they called worked. Allen had a few tight window low percentage chances but for the most part the Vikes covered everything. They blew up the screen on 2nd down and covered the endzone in 3rd and 4th, even though we needed only 2 yard to get more chances. The book is out on Buffalo. The Vikes never even considered a run play other than containing Allen behind the line of scrimmage. The fact they never tried to get the 2 yards and keep the clock moving tell us a lot about them. Same for the final drive which ended due to a lack of patience on 2nd down. This is a repeat of the Jets and GB second half. The difference since the break is that we are not taking what is given. Dorsey is calling a garbage game, especially after halftime adjustments. The stockpiling of RB's made no sense when we did not even try to establish a running game, even when we had a two score lead. It appears that we trusted this season to a rookie OC and that may be a mistake. McD should get more involved with the offense because Dorsey is a bit over his head right now. I dread the Cleveland game if we have to play in wind, rain and snow.

Bringing in Riech at mid- season, or anyone else for that matter, would be one of the worst moves ever and could only create problems and confusion. Beasley and Sanders? they are both old and finished. Why not push for Lofton and Reed, that is just as likely to happen If Riech ever does come to Buffalo it is for McD's job, not Dorsey's. The only thing here that it is not outlandish is OBJ.

Thanks for the replays. Looks like the book on Allen is getting written these past few weeks. The 2nd and 2 broken play and toss into the ground is why we need to try to run at least a little more. Why was 26 not in there? Maybe Allen hangs in there and runs over to his left end. If the defender stays on Knox, Allen has a run for the sideline, and he picks up the first down. If the defender leaves Knox then he can get open. I am surprised that Allen threw it away so quickly and never let anything else develop. The 3rd and 2 play required Josh to hit Davis in stride and immediately - instead he waited too long. Knox was getting open in the right corner, would have been a safe play. Allen was locked onto the middle of the field. The 4th and 2 play was covered the whole way and never a threat. The D never worried about a run. Allen was flushed out of the pocket and was contained behind the line of scrimmage. The one-dimensional offense fails, even with an elite QB. No runs. No RPO's. No play was even designed to get the ball to Diggs, our most reliable weapon.

Great all white uni's in white snow, our QB will have trouble seeing receivers down the field. A snowy game helps Cleveland. They have Chubb, we can't or won't run.

We could have run or passed for 2 yards on second, third, or even fourth down. But for some reason we don't take what is there. Is Dorsey telling him to go for 6 at all costs, or is it Allen? It is low percentage losing football. One of many tactical errors that we keep seeing the past few weeks.

Agree. You take the 3 and make them score two TDs. We get the ball back in between those possessions and another 3 wins it. What hurts is we didn't even try to get the 2 yards on 3rd or 4th down, keep the drive alive and chew more clock. We lucked out that they missed the extra point.

No sense in arguing this, we all "hear things". If the problem is contracts, then that could be the price of success and Beane has to take care of it. With a salary cap, not everyone is going to get the big payday. All that other stuff (Araiza, Beasley, even Daboll,) are distractions from the past and they are not part of this roster. I have read Warrow's postings here and in SabreSpace. I don't know why he would bother to post on fan forums when he always seems to let other posters rile him up, and then he disappears. I feel his tweet was unprofessional, especially given the position he carries in the Bills media. Not a fan of his.

Morse and our guards are pretty week when it comes to getting a push on a play like that. You just knew the middle would be stacked and they would cave. The Vikings were looking for the sneak. The play I like best is put to a FB in the backfield to sell the dive up the middle, fake it to him up the middle so that he can help stem the flow on the Interior OL, Allen rolls right for the RPO - Allen could run or pass if it is there. We needed about 5 feet to have room to take a knee. The snap is critical, even having Allen taking a safety was a better plan, although I would not design the play to take one without trying to get out first. Taking the safety would be his instruction if the play is a bust. It is such an indictment on the offensive team's preparation that we can't execute these situational plays and secure the game. That falls on McD and Dorsey.

While Poyer did want to renegotiate, even though he is not up for it, the Bills did make a move to improve his incentive clauses. Poyer chose to ride in a car for 17 hours to play against KC when he could have stay home injured. Not the sign of a malcontent. You basically made up everything else - like Diggs' contract, Araiza, Beasley ... all conjecture on your part. You have nothing to support these claims. The only thing that might be realis Daboll and McD maybe not on the same page, but even that is conjecture since Daboll's ultimate goal was to be a HC. Sorry, you are grasping with no facts, you are just throwing things out there. This is why a "journalist" like John Warrow, should either report the whole truth, or nothing at all.

Poyer being unhappy - Poyer was given incentive bonuses because he could not be restructured again. Football is a business. Diggs being unhappy. - Complete fabrication by you. behind the scenes with Zach Moss - He did not perform or fit in with the future plan. Football is a business. Araiza - I doubt anybody on the teams even thinks of a 6th round rookie punter that spent about one month of the summer in camp the teams handling of Beasley - Beasley was a very good player that has reached the end of his playing career. dabol vs. McD - his players were happy to see Daboll get promoted and do well. Allen lobbied for Dorsey. Nothing to see here.

Good point by @Big Turk

You cannot run it one or two times and then give up on it like we did in the 2nd half. We especially fail to run inside the red zone and we put everything on Allen all the time. It is ridiculous. Minnesota had just one great run, an 81 yard TD run. It came immediately after we took a 17 point lead. That play gave them a running game. Without that play Cook was 38 yards for 13 carries. Motor earned more carries but in the 2nd half he didn't get them. Why we needed to dress 5 RBs is quite bizzare.

He just did.

Not really. The initial play was already well covered, and the initial pass patterns were completed. Allen bought more time by getting out of the pocket rolling right, at this point the receivers are scrambling to get open so you cannot blame Davis for the route he runs, it is now street football. There were at least 3 Vikings there near Davis when Allen threw it. Peterson said after the game that he was free to sit on Allen and watch him after he escaped the pocket. Peterson also said Allen tries to fit the ball into tight windows rather than "take what was given". What was given was #26 all alone just past the line of scrimmage. The smart and safe play was to throw it to #26, get more yards and live for another down. Instead, Allen forced another bad pass, and the savvy veteran picked it. This is not on Davis, or the OL, or anyone else.

No doubt his receivers make mistakes, the OL misses' assignments, and the running game is not reliable. Add in that our defense is decimated with injuries, especially the entire backfield. The perception that Allen must carry the team and make all the big plays is the problem. I don't know if Allen puts it all on himself or not, but this is a team game. I just wonder what the OC is doing to help his QB manage the stress of the game and keep him steady.

No. You stay the course for the season. Stability is the better option. Forcing McD out just might piss off Beane too. I don't trust Pegula to strike gold twice. That said, I am questioning the work of Dorsey right now as I see Allen's game management and decision-making regressing and I see no run game. Both of these things are on Dorsey, not McD.

Your thinking is just feeding the problem. He is definitely knowingly passing up short throws in favor of the big play. He knows where the check downs are. On the final interception #26 was wide open and had room to gain some more yards. Peterson was not covering Davis, Peterson knocked McKenzie out of bounds (terrible on McKenzie that he let that happen), then Peterson watched Allen and covered a zone, he picked up Davis because Josh was locked on. Bottom line, the pass was careless, we still had more downs to play, you take the easy yards to Singletary. These plays are happening consistently in the past 3 weeks. The opponents see this. If he and Dorsey do not see this, and know this, then we have much bigger problems.

This quote from Peterson says it all on Allen: “Honestly, he’s great,” Peterson said. “He just has to take what the defense gives him. I think that’s the thing – sometimes, he just looks a little bit too careless with the football.” He just has to take what's given. He was doing that before the bye week. In the past 3 weeks Allen has been trying for deep balls and home runs and ignoring wide open check downs. This is the root cause of the troubles we are having closing out games. We held on versus Green Bay but the last two weeks we gave the games away.

Please stop with the favorable schedule baloney. After the past two seasons you should have learned we can lose to any team on any week. We need to win a damn football game before you even talk about going on a run. Right now we just blew the first seating in the conference for home field advantage, and we are 3rd in the division, 7th in the AFC playoff seating.

Either you pull yourself together or you switch teams. This is a sport called football, it is not life. Stop being soft, Bills fans are not soft. You move on.

The Bills OL, particularly the middle 3, are the reason he doesn't gain more yards. He is also a good receiver so why Allen stopped checking down to him like he did early in the season, is a mystery. Allen is throwing deeper passes the past 3 games with much worse results.

Why not successfully execute the snap and have a player (see: Davis, Gilliam) help push you from behind for a 1 or 2 yard gain - just like the last 10 QB sneaks that we ran. Best case. Get enough room to take a knee and win the game. Worst case: Get stopped for a safety. Even that is not the end of the world and it is actually a strategy used successfully in the past. After the safety punt it high and deep, cover the punt, and trust the defense to finish it. The Vikes had no timeouts. Not the same. Reich is a proven OC and did ok as an HC.

Terrible take after what just happened today.

I was at the 6-3 game. Took my young (at the time) son and I had to explain to him afterwards that going to games really was fun.