DapperCam

It’s because Joe Brady has this dumb philosophy where he thinks we can impose our will on defenses. Why didn’t we have a playbook full of blitz beating plays against the Falcons? Same reason. It’s arrogance and probably just a lack of competence.

They showed a good behind the QB view on the broadcast and Allen had already begun throwing to Palmer when Knox came open. Palmer was also open for a TD, but Allen felt pressure from in front and never set his feet so it was a bad underthrow.

I just took a look at Allen's sacks. 2nd and 12 in the red zone, Texans rush 4 and get pressure pretty quickly. Allen should have thrown it to Knox for a 2 yard gain, but I kind of understand why he didn't (would have been 3rd and long either way). 3rd and 6, Texans show pressure but only rush 4. You can tell the pressure is getting to Allen because he takes a super deep drop back but Spencer Brown gets beat bad immediately. Allen escapes the initial pressure but it's a busted play at that point. Pressure was so fast none of the routes had a chance. This was his ridiculous 18 yard sack. 3rd and 6, Texans show pressure but only rush 4. Texans run a stunt that messes up our guards/center. Shakir was open, but Allen was already evading pressure when he broke out of his route. Ty Johnson was the safety valve, but the Texans covered it. RT gave up on his block and DE ended up chasing Allen down from behind. 1st and 10, Texans bring a corner blitz. Gilliam doesn't do a very good job and Allen has to immediately try to go up and to the right in the pocket to escape. LBer brings a delayed blitz and cleans up. I can't see downfield, but the Texans brought 6 rushers here (but Allen did keep Gilliam back to protect), so you'd have to think something was open. No safety valve or blitz beater route I could see). 2nd and 5, Texans bring 4. All of the routes are super deep other than an underneath route 2 yards past the LOS covered by 2 LBers. Both the RT and LT get beat like a drum here. This play had zero chance, and the sack was from the blind side. I don't think Allen should have to anticipate Dawkins getting beat like that. 1st and 10, Texans bring 4. Allen saw the bubble screen to Shakir was totally covered and opted to run. He probably should have just thrown this one at his feet. Edwards got beat bad closing the running lane Allen was trying to run through to scramble. 2nd and 10 (1 minute left last drive), Texans bring 4. Seems like Allen is looking for a specific deep route but doesn't pull the trigger, Knox is just uncovering when he bails, Cook is a safety valve but has a Texan on him and isn't a viable target here. Edwards gets beat causing Allen to turn the wrong way into the pressure. Honestly this one is kind of a play design fail and Allen is seeing ghosts here. There is also a delayed blitz/spy on this call but it doesn't really matter he's already down before the blitz arrives 3rd and 20 (1 minute left last drive), Texans bring 3 (really 4, but the 4th doesn't seem to rush). Right tackle and left tackle are both immediately beat. This is absolutely embarrassing. You have 5 blockers for 3 rushers and let 2 through clean before Allen's back foot hits on his drop back. The play is immediately dead and Allen has to bail. That 4th rusher plus a spy clean up. So I would say sack #1 he should have thrown to Knox for a 2 yard gain or thrown it away. On sack #4 it's possible somebody should be just starting to become open before he eats it due to the blitz. On sack #6 he probably should have just thrown to the feet of Shakir. The other sacks he had basically zero chance due to play design, down/distance, and offensive line play. For almost all of these the Texans are only rushing 4 and not blitzing. Usually there is also a spy (usually LBer number zero). Another theme is that immediate pressure leads to a busted play. It doesn't really matter if anybody is open (I don't think they are) because at that point Allen's eyes are no longer down field, he's just trying to stay upright. A few of these plays had safety valves, but for the most part they were totally covered and no viable (probably because Houston was getting pressure just rushing 4). This game was basically Mahomes in the Super Bowl last year, except I think Allen handled the pressure a little better.

I think the All-22 on this one is going to show an offensive line that was giving up pressure very quickly (especially the RT), and WR not getting open down field against sticky coverage. Definitely not getting open in time where Allen could throw it down field before he was pressured. Maybe we should have run more, idk. Houston seemed to be for the most part shutting that down as well. I think basically all of Allen's completed passes (except maybe one to Davis?) were less than 10 yards in the air. So actually he only took the easy plays, and for the most part Houston shut those down too. The heroics were a great player trying to manufacture something out of nothing. Basically the same thing that happened in the second half of the Dolphins game. This offense is broken, and I don't think it's really on the QB (who coming into this game was top 5 in basically every normal stat and fancy efficiency stat and is the reigning MVP).

Agreed, #1 seed dream is totally dead. Division is on life support, and the Pats need to lose this weekend to keep it alive.

Joe Brady was actually the Bills QB coach before he became OC, and he was the passing game coordinator at LSU before he was OC for the Panthers. It's supposed to be his strength!

Sure, we just need to be a basement team and pick the top defensive player in the draft like the Texans did with Will Anderson and have him on a rookie contract (and also have our QB on a rookie contract). Those guys don't grow on trees, and there is a reason Anderson went 3rd overall.

There are 6 games left. 4-2 (11-6 record) very likely gets in, 3-3 (10-7 record) is more dicey and probably comes down to tie breakers. We have the tie breaker over KC and BAL. We don't have the tie breaker of HOU. We will get a chance to get the tie breaker over PIT. Now the PIT game is pretty big. We can likely go 3-3 the rest of the way as long as one of the wins is PIT.

I agree that wasn't ideal, but not counting turnovers in the redzone, the defense gave up 17 points. I cut them a little bit of slack with the TD at the end of the half too, because they had no rest between drives due to the kickoff return TD. If the offensive line was 15% better I think we probably win. Just a really bad game for them in terms of pass protection and run blocking.

A common theme in all of those games (except NE) is that the defense was a sieve in the first half and had the team down multiple scores before you could blink. It changes the mood of the game and the offense starts to chase points and force things because it looks like the defense won't make a stop all day. So +1 to your point here.

After the first couple of drives when it was clear Houston would be getting pressure on most of the drop backs, I'm not entirely sure why there wasn't a RB kept in to pass protect on basically every play. These are the sort of adjustments you need to do in game. Is it because Cook can't pass protect?

I think it feels less enjoyable recently for a few reasons: - The talent on the roster seems middling and getting worse. We have a lot of decently sized contracts going to pretty mediocre talents. For this reason, it feels like we're on a bit of a downswing at the moment. It should have really happened last season, but somehow we were one drive away from the SB instead. - Play calling has been bad since Dorsey took over. Even Daboll had his warts. I watch other teams and QBs have some fairly easy completions pretty much every drive. Whether it's a rub route where the guy is wide open, or a WR sits in a zone for a comfortable 15 yard pass. Every play in our offense feels like a struggle, even in the games we play well. - Situational coaching in crunch time is just bad, and probably won't ever get better. So the realization kind of dawns on you, that for the Bills to win a Super Bowl they need a heaping dose of luck and for Allen to go supernova for 4 games. It's possible, but not very likely.

I think the interception was his worst throw of the night for sure. He thought the LB was going to cover the flat and got fooled. The 3rd and 1 to Shakir is a set play. Of course he focused on Shakir form the snap, there was no chance the ball was going anywhere else.

I mean, let's be real. That very likely would have just led to punts just the same with 10 yards of difference in field position. I guess it adds up over the game, but as long as Allen isn't turning the ball over on his scrambles, I'd say let him scramble. Players need to work back to the ball and get open. If we are asking Allen to throw the ball away on 3rd down we've kind of already lost.

Pittsburgh and Cleveland both really just have one elite pass rusher. If Cook and Spencer Brown are healthy we should be able to run on them. Not sure what to make of Philly, they've been up and down all year. Houston is just by far the best defense in the league this season in terms of regular stats and advanced stats like success rate and EPA/play. Playing them on a short week on the road was always going to be a tall order.

This was a really bad game, but I'm not quite as doom and gloom as everybody here. I kind of suspected this might have been a loss with the short week. We match up really badly with the Texans. They are kind of like the Pats defense but on steroids for us. If we have to go on the road to Houston in the playoffs we are likely cooked. I wouldn't be surprised if we just drop one more game the rest of the season (depending on how the injuries shake out from this one...jeez...). No other team on our schedule can bring pressure like that without blitzing. Only Denver can really do that.

On 3rd and 1 was the attempted screen pass to Shakir, but Anderson batted it at the line. Allen could have lofted it more, but then Houston would have had more time to run downhill and potentially stop him short or break it up. Allen probably wanted to place it like 1 foot higher. A tush push is a 95% play there, and you call your time out, and then you have 4 downs and 30 seconds from the 20 yard line to try to score. Like I said, it's a tactical blunder, and Brady would never win at Risk.

Still though, coaching decisions in high leverage critical situations has been bad and probably won't get better. Just a slightly different strategy to get the first down and burn a TO and they would have had 3 or 4 more chances to try for the win. It's a tactical blunder.

Huge coaching blunder on 3rd and a long 1 with a timeout left and ~30 seconds left. Just tush push guys. It's a 95% play. Tush push twice and spike it if you have to on the second one. Just get a fresh set of downs and then you have 3 or 4 plays to try for the end zone. Our coaching is trash.

Houston started stacking the box and shutting it down. Maybe we should have stuck with it anyway, but I think that would have led to just as many stalled drives just in a different way. Either the protection needs to be better (on the 2nd to last drive the RT got beaten clean on literally every play), or the OC needs to have a counter punch of some sort.

Pass protection was the story of this game. Texans were getting almost immediate pressure with 4 all game. Defense tightened up and had a decent game in the end (curiously when some of the starters left the game).

I don't think there was a way to know when Allen threw the ball. His defender hadn't gotten picked off yet when he committed to the throw. Didn't matter anyway because it was OPI.

There have been 2 plays where if Shakir was faster or a little bit more savvy he would have scored.

I mean once it's 3rd and 18 and the RT gets beat off the snap I guess you gotta try something...

There was maybe somebody underneath, but would have been a 3 yard gain when we need more that that...