Our play calling....WTF?!?!?!?

[BEAST MODE BABY!]

Seriously, last year it took Hackett about 4 weeks to figure out how to call a RB screen with either Freddie or Spiller. Our offense was completely pathetic in the preseason this year. And then...

 

WTF happened??????? We're calling these crazy, interesting, creative read-option play-action plays. Jet sweep fakes. Where the hell did this come from? It's keeping the defenses off balance and we're making plays. I mean, we obviously have red zone issues, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around play calling that was so questionable last year and how it completely transformed itself.

 

I'm not saying this because we won. Even if we lost, the offense looks interesting. And we didn't have that at all last year. Does Sammy and Mike WIlliams and Woods together make that big of a difference?

 

Anywho, props to the team and Hackett and Marrone for doing something interesting, creative and unpredictable on the field. Kudos.

Edited September 16, 2014 by BEAST MODE BABY!

[CountryCletus]

Hackett went to a coaching camp for a week in June... He was super excited about it... Had to sell 50 boxes of candy bars to find raise....

[Captain Hindsight]

It's amazing what having a more experienced QB will do.

[Bills Fan888]

I felt the playcalling was much better when Jeff Tuel played than when EJ played last season. I feel like EJ really shackled Hacketts play calling.

[Dorkington]

I felt the playcalling was much better when Jeff Tuel played than when EJ played last season. I feel like EJ really shackled Hacketts play calling.

 

Who is Tuel playing for now?

[BEAST MODE BABY!]

Who is Tuel playing for now?

 

The Bills practice squad.

[Punch]

I felt the playcalling was much better when Jeff Tuel played than when EJ played last season. I feel like EJ really shackled Hacketts play calling.

 

The playbook was almost certainly limited to some degree last season, particularly compared to the first two weeks of 2014--- to suggest that it was opened up for Tuel compared to EJ is utterly asinine. It appears more creative and substantive this year due explicitly to EJ's growth and the coaching staff's confidence in him. This should be obvious to LITERALLY ANYONE with a functioning and attached brain stem.

 

You should immediately go sit in the corner for nonsensical rambling. Under absolutely no circumstances should you post again until you're told otherwise.

[DirtDart]

It's amazing what having a more experienced QB will do.

Ding, ding

[FireChan]

The playbook was almost certainly limited to some degree last season, particularly compared to the first two weeks of 2014--- to suggest that it was opened up for Tuel compared to EJ is utterly asinine. It appears more creative and substantive this year due explicitly to EJ's growth and the coaching staff's confidence in him. This should be obvious to LITERALLY ANYONE with a functioning and attached brain stem.

 

You should immediately go sit in the corner for nonsensical rambling. Under absolutely no circumstances should you post again until you're told otherwise.

 

I don't know. I think we pulled out more plays for Tuel as well. I thought Hackett's best called game in 2013 was against KC. We ran a flea-flicker with Tuel against Cleveland.

 

I think it was more Hackett and Marrone coddling EJ than EJ hampering them. They didn't want to throw him entirely to the wolves and have him run complex gameplans, but pulled out all the stops when Tuel was under center because it was our only chance to win.

 

Are you sure you didn't mean figuratively everyone?

Edited September 16, 2014 by FireChan

[Hplarrm]

Certainly the O performance could be better (one need only focus on the difficulty this team had converting red zone chances into 7s rather than 3s to see this. However the complaints about the playcalling when the TEAM won Sunday's game in a laugher and managed to pull off a tough OT win on the road simply comes off as lacking any understanding of context about playcalling for the season and even simply comes of as whining when the team is a surprising 2-0.

 

Limitations and even problems with the playcalling can easily be attributed to Hackett's weaknesses if you want, but recognizing the context demands that a true assessment also take into account:

 

1. It is clear this team limits its playcalling in a specific game due to a desire to set up future playcalling and tendencies for future games. One can certainly argue against this approach and feel the team should for the most part just try to win this week and not save any plays because they think it might work well against future opponents. However, this pre-season showed that even though the O was virtually completely unproductive, the O braintrust put a higher priority on not showing any scoutable material than on trying to build a habit of success. Preseason is different than regular season but in terms of how Merrone/Hackett talk about the O it seems to me part of the explanation for missing potential playcalls is that this team is saving some stuff for division opponents rather than produce any film about how they are gonna run plays they think might work well against NE or even the Jets. Do those who simply indict Hackett for missing calls he could have made think that part of the explanation is he is saving the full playbook for other opponents.

 

2. EJ has impressed with his performance so far, but from watching the Bills O as they develop this extremely talented young QB is that they are not using parts of the playbook that this PROJECT QB has not mastered yet (his progressions and options seem a bit limited to me so far as EJ develops his skills for multi-tasking and choosing between multiple reads. Folks seem to complain a lot last year about EJ locking on a single receiver and I felt part of this reflected the learning most young QBs need to do in looking off pro defenders and sorting through multiple options. I think EJ is a more accomplished QB this year as he gets more reps, but the play calling simply feels a bit dumbed down to me as our young QB learns to be a vet. An observer who ignores this context and reality might instead jump to the foolish conclusion that our professional playcallers who have forgotten more about working a pro offense than most of us observers can ever remember.

 

3. Player performance limits the playcalling- I do not think that Hackett has full confidence in his OL yet, as these players are so big and strong one should expect them to be performing a lot better in short yardage situations. I think the playbook shies away from using straight ahead power blocking in short yardage situations and instead relies a bot too much on misdirections and counters in situations it should simply bulldoze opponents if Hackett had more confidence in the OL. This may explain some of the missing playcalls.

 

4. The D has been pretty dominant- One of the big factors it strikes me in terms if playcalling in both games is that the D has really shown up pretty well amd Merrone/Hackett have been pretty reluctant to ask the O to carry the team to victory or take many risks. Even though the Chicago game was no laugher and the O was needed to step up, we still had amassed a 17-7 lead at halftime against one of the most productive Os in the league last year. Very early the Bills went into hang on mode and the playcalling took no chances of making it easy for the Bears O to get a short field because of risktaking by the Bills O.

 

You could see this even more clearly against the fish where even with a lackluster red zone performance by the O we still had turned this into a two score deficit for the fish merely by kicking field goals.

 

A better assessment of the playcalling and diversity of the Bills O will be seen when we get into a real shootout or EJ has to look at more progressions because Sammy Watkins is not showing collegiate separation on simple slant plays. The Miami D never successfully adjusted so the Bills playcallling stuck with the primitive and uninventive because the Fish never successfully adjusted.

 

 

[scribo]

Hackett started using PEDs.

[mitchmurraydowntown]

Amazing what happens when everyone is at risk to lose their jobs, I'll call late-night sessions with constant work.

[eball]

What happened? Here's a stab at it:

 

1 -- Last season is a complete wash; the veteran backup QB got hurt, EJ got hurt, WRs got hurt, Spiller got hurt, the OL was average, and (this was Marrone's fault) no other coaching help was provided. And it was the first year in a new system for all of the players. Go figure -- they pretty much sucked.

 

2 -- Hiring Jim Hostler to study upcoming opponents, determine their tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses, and help to develop the gameplans.

 

3 -- Hiring QB coach so Hackett can spend more time on the entire offense, not just focusing on QB.

 

4 -- In the "better late than never" category, getting Kyle Orton as the true veteran backup QB who can actually be of assistance in the film room and on the sideline.

 

5 -- Better talent overall, and healthy players. Full offseason of work for EJ.

 

This has nothing to do with "everyone's job is on the line" or somebody telling Hackett what to do -- anyone who doubted Hackett's intelligence was supremely short-sighted. Yes, there were adjustments that needed to be made and I do believe both Marrone and Hackett were a bit too sure of themselves they could transfer their success at Syracuse right into the NFL last season. But they've learned, they hired the additional help, and we're now getting a taste of what they probably really wanted to do a year ago.

 

I've seen and heard coaches who are dummies. These guys are no dummies.

 

Should be fun to watch.

[BillsFan-4-Ever]

it was a smoke screen So Vanilla it worked

Edited September 16, 2014 by BillsFan-4-Ever

[Kelly the Dog]

What happened? Here's a stab at it:

 

1 -- Last season is a complete wash; the veteran backup QB got hurt, EJ got hurt, WRs got hurt, Spiller got hurt, the OL was average, and (this was Marrone's fault) no other coaching help was provided. And it was the first year in a new system for all of the players. Go figure -- they pretty much sucked.

 

2 -- Hiring Jim Hostler to study upcoming opponents, determine their tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses, and help to develop the gameplans.

 

3 -- Hiring QB coach so Hackett can spend more time on the entire offense, not just focusing on QB.

 

4 -- In the "better late than never" category, getting Kyle Orton as the true veteran backup QB who can actually be of assistance in the film room and on the sideline.

 

5 -- Better talent overall, and healthy players. Full offseason of work for EJ.

 

This has nothing to do with "everyone's job is on the line" or somebody telling Hackett what to do -- anyone who doubted Hackett's intelligence was supremely short-sighted. Yes, there were adjustments that needed to be made and I do believe both Marrone and Hackett were a bit too sure of themselves they could transfer their success at Syracuse right into the NFL last season. But they've learned, they hired the additional help, and we're now getting a taste of what they probably really wanted to do a year ago.

 

I've seen and heard coaches who are dummies. These guys are no dummies.

 

Should be fun to watch.

This. Add Seantrell and a much better OL. Add Sammy Watkins and a much better WR corps. Add Boobie and a better running game. Add a good ST and better field position.

 

Hackett had no chance whatsoever last season to do what he wanted to. The most important reasons are EJ in year two, health, and just flat better players.