Big Turk

I think Allen is not running at times almost to a fault, which is in some ways holding the offense back... There have been multiple times where huge areas of green are in front of him to exploit but he chooses to throw a low percentage pass instead and those usually don't get completed. I get him not wanting to run as much, but there is a difference between running just to run and running when it's the best play available. Allen too often is now not running when it's the best play available and when he is near the sidelines and could easily outrun the defender and get out of bounds to avoid a hit. Seems like he has over-corrected in the other direction and gone from running maybe a little too much to maybe running not frequently enough(when it's the best play available). Hoping he finds a middle ground as the season goes on.

There are a lot of times that watching Cover1 all-22 clips that the spacing looks very poor...as in there are 4 Bill receivers within 10 yards of each other and huge open spaces with nobody. It makes the windows much tighter than they should be since all those defenders are being drawn to the same area. Seems to happen a lot when they go to those condensed formations. Think Dorsey needs to really examine these in more detail and work on better utilizing the open space available to him instead of having players bunching up all in one area. I know this was mentioned at times last year also, but it's even more noticeable this year since we have been using a lot of the condensed formations with 12 personnel.

The Bills only HAD 3 2nd half possessions as both teams ran the ball well and completed short passes which kept the clock moving. They scored TDs on their first 2 and missed a FG on the other one that should have been a kneel down with a better throw by josh and/or a better catch by Knox.

6:54 he means I think

I swore I have seen instances where initially fouls offset and then after it continued, the extra flag on whoever was assessed separately...maybe I am misremembering but I am pretty sure I have seen that happen in a game. It's all part of the game tho...because then they can show their wives "Look what I got for Xmas!" and it becomes "their" money, even tho it was technically the same money that they just used to give a present to the other person which would have come from a joint account...sneaky, sneaky...

Can we have an official "Stop starting idiotic threads" thread? There isn't anything close to something firable at this point. Annoying at times? Yes. Firable? C'MON MAN!

I believe Allen was not making the right line calls for the protection scheme, and this was noticeable in the first half because there were several times he had near immediate pressure while 2 or 3 of the OLinemen were blocking air. To me, that signals he is not setting up blockers properly. Seems like he/Morse/Dorsey got things figured in the 2nd half and things were better. I remember an interview where Allen talked about Morse making all the protection calls for him...I think maybe back in 2019? When he first started emerging and how it allowed him to not have so much on his plate because Morse was so good at getting them set right. Wondering if I am blaming the wrong person here and that should go on Morse if he is still the person making the line calls, or if Allen has "graduated" so to speak on that. I think he has and that he was setting those protections, but they didn't look right...similar to the Bengals playoff game, he was not getting those blitzes blocked up properly and it was causing havoc. IMO, this is a big reason why you have to take what happens on a given play with a grain of salt because we don't always know what their assignment was supposed to be based on the protection call made at the line or if it was changed. @HoofHeartedis there any merit to what my untrained eyes were seeing in both last night and the Bengal playoff game?

Why did you shake your head? That's actually true. Incidental contact where your feet get tangled up while looking at the ball and running is NOT PI. To understand rules, you actually have to know how they apply to all situations...too many people only know the basic rules but not the nuances.

Yup, probably misses a week or two to be safe but should be good...hit just looked awkward

There is definitely an aspect of that playing out. Honestly, I just don't think "how you look" this time of year matters much, it's all about what the win-loss column says. It matters how you look going into the playoffs and that you should be peaking at the right times. 2021 taught us this...Bills had one of the greatest single postseason offensive performances of all time in those 2 games, including the only perfect game in NFL history, but their offense was not "up to par" with what we have come to expect for much of that year and it was a big reason we went 11-6. In week 6, it simply doesn't matter "how you looked", just that you find a way to win, no matter how that is. It only matters that you've gotten things figured out and are heading into the playoffs with positive momentum.

Don't think anything rose to the level of automatic ejection.

I think bad O-Line protection calls from Allen had far more to do this with than bad line play. Although that might be on Morse too because I thought I remember hearing that Morse was the one who set the line calls to take that off Allen's plate...or at least he used to when Josh was still getting comfortable and getting his feet wet. Far too many times last night where the multiple people on the O-Line were standing around blocking nobody while 2 players were on top of Allen right off the snap...that points to them blocking the wrong people/direction.

I think at times he is hurting the offense by NOT running. It's almost like an over-correction in the other direction. He had plays last night that he could have made running where he made a low percentage throw instead. He needs to understand that AT TIMES, WHEN NEEDED, he is going to have to unleash that aspect of his game and not wait until they are desperate in the 4th quarter to do so. Don't forget the Bills started off last year with a very similar short passing game. Wasn't til post-UCL Josh that they started airing it out, which likely was a result of short throws aggravating it more than longer ones.

It's actually surprisingly almost identical...something like 2.88 seconds to 2.87 seconds before last nights game. If anything after last night's game it would be higher this year because he was holding onto it a lot.

Bernard stuffed Barkley on the goalline rush attempt to end the first half...he is Milano "lite". Williams is another clone just a little more raw and out of control which leads to him over-pursuing plays and being out of position too much on runs...should get better and better as he gets more reps. His pass coverage skills are really good tho...even in the Jags game he made some really nice pass breakups.

I mean the Bills scored both TDs in the 4th, wouldn't that seem to disqualify the statement above you just made?

Slot receiver seems to be multiple people so it's not really fair to compare McKenzie alone to Kincaid sionce McKenzie was pretty much in the slot every play last year...would be more accurate to compare McKenzie to Kincaid+Harty+Shakir.

Yeah for whatever reason the Pats often times gave the Bills fits on D...Colts too sometimes, although there were equal number of times the Bills blew them out. Jon Hand on the Colts and the "ippett" brothers on the Patriots D(Andre Tippett and Ronnie Lippett) used to give Kelly problems.

But with the caveat that Daboll has inside information on the offense and Allen that nobody else in the NFL would. That looks like it counted for something.

To me, a lot of it is on Allen not setting protections properly. I keep saying it, but it looked very similar to the Bengal playoff loss from last year. Allen seemed confused by the blitzes the Giants were running, didn't have the protections set properly and didn't know where the "answer" was on offense to get the ball out quickly. Seemed to get much better in the 2nd half, so hopefully that is a positive sign moving forward. There were several plays where multiple Bills OLinemen were standing around blocking air as 2 Giant defenders were on top of Allen almost unblocked from the snap...IMO, that points to protection calls being wrong and telling them to block the wrong people.

people really have recency bias badly on this forum. We beat bad teams worse than any other team in the NFL does typically.

He can't be involved more...he is trying to stay Anon as much as possible.

Yes, because the Bills passing attack was remedial under Greg Roman...same as it was in Baltimore...best run game in the NFL, passing game was like 8th grade level football.

I think the answer on O is that Allen is having trouble setting blitz protections properly in some looks he is getting...saw it in the Bengal playoff loss, saw in the Jags game, saw it last night. Appeared to improve in 2nd half... Guys were getting free when they had the people to block them, they simply were not in the right position to do so, and that is on Allen...and Morse if he is helping Allen still with those line calls.

Interesting look...Davis appears to be down with possession? Why was this not overturned on replay review...should have been looked at by the booth since it was a turnover?