PoundingDog

Listening from the enemy side gives you more insight, especially from a guy like Van Noy who has played in AFC East against the Bills for a long time. "That was the most coservative Bills team I've played against." He went on saying he does not believe that's because of talent issue. I remember someone else mentioned no turnovers ,1 sack, 1 penalty, almost no negative plays. Is this the new playoff formula McDermott is subscribing to now? Maybe it explain why no more throwing the ball all over the yard where wide receivers getting little receving action. Does Allen and WRs all buy into it? I guess we will see how it goes.

The best approach remains to find ways to run/pass involving Cook, Davis, Johnson, using the steady strength of our O-line. I mentioned the trio combined for 50 yard rushing on Nov 17. And Cook had 5 receptions for a total of 7 yards. There seems to have a lot of room to improve there.

We know prior to Bills getting Cooper, the issue is against man coverage. McDuffie is likely on Shakir. And Jalen Watson will probably on Cooper. I'd hope Cooper can be 50-50, though recent weeks perfformance is not enouraging. I remember the Nov 17 game he had 2 down field catches against man coverage - Watson is still on IR then. Is Watson all the way back? This game we have Coleman and Kincaid. I can see some jump balls to Coleman, but Coleman needs to be coached to read Spagnuolo's def4ense to adjust routes accordingly. Not sure Josh trusts him 100% in those situations. Kincaid maybe a key factor. He has the ability to open quickly but timing wise is not really there - I mean getting open at the right time depending on if he's 1st or 2nd or 3rd options etc.

I'm not so confident. Personally I believe we never marry the run game and play-action very well. There has to be something we give away to the defense on play-action to be so ineffective. The reason Bills are notoriously bad at defending play-action is because we rally to the ball approach and it exposes vulnerability to the pass off the action. But we don't seem to be able to do it against others. watch the 3rd quarter of Ravens game. Stop the run. Key on screens, Blitz some.

If the Bills expect to use the same script like they used on Nov 17, the result will be disappointing. I believe the saying "you learn more from defeat." The Chiefs will be ready. And they have important re-enforcement with that corner. Can Cooper beat that guy? What I remember of that game from the offensive side is how poorly we ran the ball. Cook/Davis/Johnson combined for 50 yards the whole game. The Chiefs have a defensive group similar to the Bills and they rally to the ball from everywhere, creating number advantage. I feel this time they have to do better. Mixon was able to run 88 yards on them, I feel the Bills have to find a way to at least match that. Bottom line - winning the trenches on both side and I think we have a chance to do that.

The ball placement is certainly not ideal. Like you said it is at the opposite side of his running direction so he had to turn his body around to catch while his momentum carried him away from the ball, probably caused him to fall/stumble before the ball was secured.

Sorry missing info - added. Yes Damar.

On the last 3rd down, Allen had Hollins wide open. Shakir is also not a bad option to beat to the corner. I hope this is something Allen learns for the Chiefs game. right now, you, I, people in the stadium probably all know Allen is likely to keep the ball. Sure defenses know that too. On the 2 point conversion defense, well designed play by the Ravens (wish the Bills have it too). Maybe this is area where Hyde and Poyer is missed. In the video below, around 2:50 mark, Benford was on Bateman near side. Damar had Andrews; Taron had Likely. Both Likely and Bateman "rubbed" the path of Damar to free up Andrews - wide open. I saw Taron communicated to Benford before the play (maybe for the WR screen between Bateman and Likely). This is a perfect man beater. ideally you want Benford stay home to take Andrews and Damar to pick up Bateman.

I think you guys are selling McDermott & Babich, especially the D players short. The Bills were ready for what the Ravens do and had excellent plan. The players sold out with their effort, the whole unit from the line to the secondary. Jones and Oliver probably had their best half game of the year. Hamlin really stepped up. In terms of rpo, watch an example at 4:29 mark of the video below. #94 played perfect watching the exchange between Lamar and Henry without committing too much either way, much like the Ravens DE played Josh and Cook at the end of the game offensive series on that last 3rd down. The 2nd half is a different story. I'll say the Ravens adjusted quicker than the Bills, especially on defense. The Bills had success on offense in the first half so no reason to do too much adjustment. A lot of people also mentioned Allen was not having his best game and you can see some of the misses in the first half. The plan was for the Bills to go up by 3 scores to force the Ravens abandon their run. It didn't happen. The Ravens offense went with big personnel but used Hill who is more shifty in short space than Henry to loosen up the Bills run defense. It worked and the Bills smallish D started to wear down. The Ravens scored every possession in the 2nd half except the Bernard's forced fumble. I don't know how much better the Ravens offense could be in the second half by using Henry more. I think they did all right. The difference is their best players - Lamar and Andrews committed 4 big mistakes (I consider Andrews 2 pt drop as a mistake) while the Bills best players played clean.

Thanks for correcting me of the 2000 year Ravens was under Bilick. Like someone said earlier. The Ravens organization is top notch. No surprise they got a top notch coach. They drafted well in general. But QB is a different animal. A lot of luck involved. Flacco is between good to great QB. For the Bills to hit on a generational QB Josh Allen is one of those rare events.

Or does Elam find his way on to the field against the Chiefs? Last year, he probably should play over a limping Douglas. Don't make the same mistake this year.

I give him more credit than Tomlin. I don't think he had HoF QBs winning his Superbowls. That is HARD to do in modern NFL. And He did twice.

Pretty assertive and straightforward. Two points I will comment on Half time adjustments. Of course he's not going to the details but you can tell pretty major adjustments from their side. On offense they went with big people as it's obvious personnel wise. On Defense it was more subtle but I guess stopping Cook and Allen run was high on their list. Bill countered but it took more than 2 drives to find something effective. He kept saying 4 great games to the Superbowl. And this is a man who has done it twice. It sounds simple but it really has depth. The Bills of past few years are perfect examples. We had highs of high (perfect games against Pats, 13 seconds game), also lows. What I got is you need element of steadiness. This season the Bills is probably the most steady, as a team, during the Josh Allen's era. Ever since the early season high and low ended in the Texans game, I don't recall the Bills' performance fluctuated a great deal.

I think this is step 1 of Josh's evolution as a passer, in that, less risky plays. The result shows as every mentioned, even at the sacrifice of lesser numbers this year. Once he's comfortable in that mindset, he may have more calculated risk-taking plays next season. The gun slinger mentality is still in him. More about decision making: when to take risk and when not to. That's a fine line. I promise had this year not going great offensively, you would likely see more risking taking shot or 50-50 balls from Josh. The success means he really does not have to, so far at least.

The Ravens is an odd ball offense which is a bad match up for the Bills D. The Chiefs' falls into the mainstream but with the best overall QB in the league running it. The Bills D is built for offenses like the Chiefs - the only exception is unstoppable WRs like Nacua paired with an exceptional QB play where you know the ball is coming but still couldn't stop it (and manifested in the loss to the Rams). The Chiefs have Kelce but I will contend that Nacua type is much more dangerous to the Bills D. All of that is to say the Bills D should have more confidence going against the Chiefs - I'm not saying we'll hold them to below 20 points with normal level of plays; just that the fear of the likes of Ravens or Rams blowing our defensive door wide open for 35+ points is not really there. And the other side of the coin is true is: the Chiefs won't beat themselves like the Ravens and Rams. Josh and Company have to earn everything hard way in the playoff against them. That has been the formula for Spagnuolo's D, not unlike the Bills D philosophy. You have to make play after play to drive the field. Along the way they can have HoF guys like Jones make a play or a timely exotic blitz to derail the drive.

Someone commented Rousseau didn't play the last defensive series, but I saw him celebrating after the onsite kick.

I don't know. The Ravens adjusted. I had to believe Harbaugh challenged his D line to man up and they did. 1st down play coming out the half time was terrible for the Bills.

If you just look at that, you would say the Ravens win handlily Then you see the turnover below: Turnover is critical between quality teams in the playoffs. We saw last night in Detroit as well. I am also very encouraged by the Bills rushing yards, out-pacing the passing yards. Remember Ravens has the #1 run defense. In January football, you need to be able to run the ball and we do have it now. Now they do need to pick up the passing game some heading into KC.

Look, the Bills offense personnel has changed. They have gone from the best weapons were at WR1 and WR2 in yester years, to now their best weapons are RB1, RB2 and RB3. If Cooper were 2022 Diggs, he would get targets. But instead he's behind Curtis Samuel. If Cooper gets favorable matchups, he'll get the balls, plain and simple.

Whatever works is the right call. No one argues that the Bills are headed to KC now. Strategy wise, if it is well thought process, he should sleep well at night. Look at the play sequence, on 1st down Cook gets to 5. I thought they may try a play-action but I get it they want to mill the clock. The next play Josh almost got in - I think that's their best play there and Josh is visibly pissed that he tripped so close. Then the run option at the gun where Josh kept the ball --- I think that's where they went to the well too many times and the Ravens were ready for it. Keep that thought because I think you will see the Chiefs taking that Ravens approach seriously next week. If I were to call the play, I'd use the Davis TD play earlier where they made it look like a tush push play but allowed Davis to have some time to choose the gap to run it in. You gotta develp some variations from the Tush Push, especially against the big Ravens NT.

Because it give Josh the option to give it the running back or running himself. The D end played perfectly

I said D needs two stops. They had one. This one would end it

I think the D needs 2 more stops to win the game. Ravens haven't punted.

They have given up running in the middle. Ravens NT Jones stepped up.

Bad 1st down. Did you see Allen got blitzed earlier?