colin

Go Bills!! This is where our mettle gets tested

the biggest statistical issue with allen is he throws too much in bad games. i know the clever take on the above is to say that means he's bad, because he's throwing a lot leading to bad games, but the reality is the NE, PHL, and BALT games both QBs had struggle stats, wind or just the nature of the game lead to some bad results for both QBs, and we played some salty Ds. the other issue, and this is a big issue to be correct, is Allen and our whole O are kinda slow starters/especially in the third quarter. garbage play to start in our first three games was followed up by big comebacks, and we were in the midst of one when allen got KO'd vs NE (i still think we win that game if they let him back in). in games where we are in control, we go into 4 minute mode with about 20 minutes left, so we don't get the nice stat padding that can come with pushing the pace when ahead. I should point out this is in contrast to tyrod, who PFF anointed the second coming, who was great at avoiding turnovers because he had no green light, and while he had some insane tendency to never lead a come back (i think had like one single win when down in the 4th or down by more than like 5 at the half) always had some nice garbage time completions and TD, and was unwilling to throw aggressive balls to bring the team back.

from going to games and dozens of different bars in NYC and NJ watching football, i have noticed pittz fans are legion in number and short of IQ. just so many hefty obnoxious overconfident yet lacking in any redeeming quality men and women sporting black and yellow smelling like black and mild. the nearly visible wafting cloud scented by body odor, stale urine, and poor life choices form the unholy musk of the steelers nation which draws them toward each other in order to ruin the drunken sports betting afternoons of so many good Americans.

good thread. i was going to make a joke about "my two balls on the deep cents" but thought better of it. carry on.

i hear you, but the thing is tom brady's O of old was never high difficulty. lots of screens, short passes, pre snap reads, and well designed runs. they usually made it easy and always reduced pressure. our O just assumes to have Ford block blitzers while our four foot WRs go deep over the top of cover 0. I don't think there is any need for the O to be so silly hard.

the thing that keeps getting hammered into my brain as i read these and watch the film is that our O is needlessly at a higher level of difficulty. our RT is TRASH wrt consistency. he will just randomly miss a block in pass pro or the run game (remember the stretch run to the right that had mad daylight but he just straight went the wrong way and blocked a blade of grass? yeah, that kinda stuff) our qb is (and obviously so) jittery at times and has been cheeks on the long ball, our WRs are smurfs who have trouble getting open vs m2m w pressure. Oh, and we only have 2 actual wr's and our TE will drop random passes. this isn't to say these guys aren't good at all, but these are the limitations we are working with, so why on earth are we trying to beat a top 3 D's cover zero blitz with these precise deeper passes so often? we clearly didn't practice any formations or combos that would good at beating these, or the coach just didn't want to call them. the one screen to roberts went for a mile AND WAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE OR AFTER. i dunno, i just think the d has the philosophy of don't think too much, play fast and hard, while our o seems to think "always be clever and drop back 50 times vs baltimore".

qb and o are pretty nasty, but not consistent. they lost JJ watt and clowney this year, imagine having that much fire power?!? also, it looks like they went up and down spanking NE between bad losses, but if you look at NE's last games, they got smoked by baltimore, beat philly in a game they prolly shoulda lost, beat dallas at home in a game they totally shoulda lost, and then lost on road and hou and at home to KC. pats have been soft for 5 straight weeks, AND IT'S GETTING ME HOPEFUL WE CAN TAKE THE DIVISION OMG

this team has been cheating since BB got there.

you are forgetting lee smith, who can either miss a block or get a penalty like no one's biz.

dude, this is so true. all of the analytics dorks and so on basically say "you have to be able to do X vs Y, or else you need a new qb/OL/WR whatever" as if to imply that they are the final say on football. Lamar Jackson can't do X vs Y in a lot of cases, and they don't ask him to. they dictate and use their scheme and player to great effect (top 2 O, top scoring i think). trying do not only what you are not good at vs a pressure d, but also something that requires a degree of difficulty that exceeds what most plays do, is a recipe for disaster. i really think dabol is too clever by half.

allen sucks to start, and was kinda ok after. the sack fumble was entirely on the blocking, that was disgusting. as a team, how can we not do anything vs good man coverage and a blitz? NE and Balt have sick secondaries, and they roughed us up up front, but the missed blocks and that are just too much. what really stands out to me (and don't get me wrong, Lamar outplayed Josh totally yesterday) is that the ravens have the whole O running plays that are easier to execute, while we have tight ends one on one blocking solid pass rushers, and slow to develop plays vs jailhouse breaks. obviously allen could read the D pre snap better, and the o line could just do their jobs better, but why are the majority of our plays more complicated than they need to be? all that said, a power back, real RT (a healthy Ty woulda done) and a big body wr who can run (parker in miami, that rookie in denver, there are a few of these guys out there) would have delivered a win for us today.

Our roster problems: We need at least one more OT. Ford needs to either make a huge step up, or move to og because we aren't likely to keep Spain. If Ford does step up we need a new og, in which case I suppose we can keep Spain but I don't see how we will know that Ford improves until into next season. We have a total of two WRs in the roster, Miami for example has three or four and their top two are better than ours. Denver too. We need a prototype. We kinda need another pass rusher. I'm 50/50 on this one, but a clowney or someone like that would super charge our d We need another Corner. We need another rb who can hurt a d. Lots of guys drafted this year and prolly next will do this. Last, and not least, the bottom 12 or so guys on our roster, and I think 7 or 8 of them are on O, are scrubs and we need to upgrade. This will help special teams a ton, and honestly might be the biggest difference between us and Baltimore. We won zero one on ones in special teams and our punter sucks too. If we added yards to our seven returns or punted better we prolly win the game

To me the biggest difference between Baltimore and buffalo on O is that Baltimore can pass and run block (which is helped with their disguise, I can count on three fingers the number of run plays we executed vs Baltimore which I didn't know were runs as soon as we lined up) and they have large targets. The one armed catch that Knox made was a perfect ball that came down in a place where only he could catch it. Smaller wrs need horizontal space to get open, we need at least one other guy who can be open while covered because our online and scheme just doesn't create large enough windows for ja at this point in his career.

Yes, they are. I think we are better in less wind, which we have had a lot this season. Something else: with only four days prep, our team had all kinds of stuff on o dialed up for the cowboys, with ten days we laid an egg on o vs the Ravens. Confirms my thoughts that dabol is a good and just either doesn't get his guys ready or more likely has no feel for calling a game.

I was really hoping we'd get a home playoff game, now obviously we won't. I will say tho: we play better on the road in a lot of ways. Visiting a suddenly falling Houston squad would be a possible playoff win

Crazy effort, but we didn't play smart and that's why we lost. Better punting and pass protection and we are one game away from being the number one seed. Allen wasn't good, pass blocking was trash, wrs and tes were bad. I honestly think we aren't built to be a great cold weather team. We are too small

it comes down to much more than just the QB, but we are gonna get a really good idea of a direct comparison in three days. the game will come down to if the bills can put a wrinkle in the base d (or nickle if they wanna do that all day) that forces baltimore into 3rd and long, but the story will be the battle of the best 2nd year QBs

i'd take him. he has a lot of skill, he just hasn't lived up to his potential.

joe in winsloe, the Allen crow server may have a meal to eat in this thread!

Bills 28 Ravens 13 our D solves the puzzle, the O keeps moving the ball and converts 4 TDs out of or 8 promising drives. Baltimore turns the ball over to us twice, their long meandering drives fail to punch it in and they get stuffed on 4th down a couple times.

bro, hammer on the nail!

i think we run base D, but do a lot of blitzing and delay blitzing. we obviously have to stop the big play, but just forcing a negative play and/or penalty early on a drive will result in some punts. our d, at least in principal, is set up to force long drives, which is what the ravens do well. we just need to make some plays behind the line to force 3rd and long and then we will get some wins. on O, we have to keep doing what we have been doing. use the raven's aggressiveness against them and get to the edge or hit the quick passes for yac. i do think we will be able to go over the top once they start biting on the underneath stuff too. super hard match up, but on paper at least we have our plan cut out for us. we just need not to get blown off the ball.

I want to throw these refs in the hudson

Garbage call

Awesome everything except our garbage kicker