Never NEVER Give-up Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Ok, but we had like the second weakest schedule...Miami was TERRIBLE on defense and below average on offense and also had a big negative point margin...if you looked at just the stats between us and them you'd have bet your life savings we'd be the 10 win team going to the playoffs Forget stats and strength of schedule - we had 5 divisional losses and were a Jacoby Brisset (sp) away from 6. That turns 7-9 into 11-5 (if we count sweeping the Fish & Jets as we should have done)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatsFanNH Posted January 5, 2017 Author Share Posted January 5, 2017 PatsFanNH, all respect but I think you are missing the point on the passing plays. Taylor was routinely leaving yards on the field with the passing plays that were called, especially guys over the middle. Now one can debate if the problem is the design of the passing game, the OL which is mediocre in pass protection, WR injuries/depth or Taylor; and if it's Taylor, is it something coaching and experience can improve (eg Wilson 1st 3 years). But simply calling more passing plays at the present would likely result in more incompletions. Here's an interesting article interviewing Trent Dilfer about our passing offense, it's from last year but still on point I think. Great post! my main point was that the Bills are not that far away from being a playoff team. IMO hire the right coach and the Bills could easily be a 10 win team next year as I think a lot of the Os issues ARE scheme. Could I be wrong? Hell ya! I'm a fan of football but hardly an expert and I am just going by a small sample size as well (I only got to see 6 Bills games i think) I also felt there was not enough plays get the ball into your #1 threats hands in the open field. McCoy we all KNOW is an excellent receiver as well but I didn't see a lot of bubble screens or quick passes to him. Hell I can't remember if I ever saw him spread out wide try get a LB on him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zow2 Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Agree...but the Chiefs buck that assessment...with a so called "caretaker" QB. How do they do it? To me the Chiefs are good because Andy Reed has them playing disciplined football. They don't kill themselves with penalties and he has the respect of the refs so they don't go overboard and flag the Chiefs for ticky tack stuff. They also play every game with urgency. I never see KC take too many possessions "off" and even when they fail on offense their D bails them out and vice versa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatsFanNH Posted January 5, 2017 Author Share Posted January 5, 2017 To me the Chiefs are good because Andy Reed has them playing disciplined football. They don't kill themselves with penalties and he has the respect of the refs so they don't go overboard and flag the Chiefs for ticky tack stuff. They also play every game with urgency. I never see KC take too many possessions "off" and even when they fail on offense their D bails them out and vice versa. Penalties is DEF something a coach can clean up! You are also right I know in 2015 the Bills were the WORST team in the NFL in that category and I think they were in the bottom 1/3rd this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Great post! my main point was that the Bills are not that far away from being a playoff team. IMO hire the right coach and the Bills could easily be a 10 win team next year as I think a lot of the Os issues ARE scheme. Could I be wrong? Hell ya! I'm a fan of football but hardly an expert and I am just going by a small sample size as well (I only got to see 6 Bills games i think) I also felt there was not enough plays get the ball into your #1 threats hands in the open field. McCoy we all KNOW is an excellent receiver as well but I didn't see a lot of bubble screens or quick passes to him. Hell I can't remember if I ever saw him spread out wide try get a LB on him. Thanks. Certainly Whaley thinks we're not far away, but IMHO the primary need is to fix the defense and also to instill discipline - enough with the stupid penalties and coaching mistakes (12 and 10 men on field). Especially with a young QB, the cure for a short drive is to give the O the ball right back again and again, let them get lots of chances to get something going. You're not wrong about the lack of bubble screens and quick passes as well as the lack of passes to Watkins. To me the Chiefs are good because Andy Reed has them playing disciplined football. They don't kill themselves with penalties and he has the respect of the refs so they don't go overboard and flag the Chiefs for ticky tack stuff. They also play every game with urgency. I never see KC take too many possessions "off" and even when they fail on offense their D bails them out and vice versa. This is a good assessment. They are disciplined, they have excellent special teams, and they play hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPS Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Would have helped to have Watkins, woods, and Clay together all season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave mcbride Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Oakland DVOA: 7th in offense 23rd in defense 11th in special teams 11th overall Buffalo DVOA: 10th in offense 26th in defense 23rd in special teams 19th overall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous Guy Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 To me the Chiefs are good because Andy Reed has them playing disciplined football. They don't kill themselves with penalties and he has the respect of the refs so they don't go overboard and flag the Chiefs for ticky tack stuff. They also play every game with urgency. I never see KC take too many possessions "off" and even when they fail on offense their D bails them out and vice versa. Bingo. It's not ALWAYS the QB...there are several ways to win in the NFL, with a good coach you can overcome "mediocre" QB play...look at the Pats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 The analysis also sets aside the impact of having to play NE twice a year. Face it - with a healthy Brady the Cheats have essentially owned the Bills for two games each year. It's hard to climb out of the 7-9 or 8-8 jail when you know there is a 0-2 climb up in the other 14 games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatsFanNH Posted January 5, 2017 Author Share Posted January 5, 2017 The analysis also sets aside the impact of having to play NE twice a year. Face it - with a healthy Brady the Cheats have essentially owned the Bills for two games each year. It's hard to climb out of the 7-9 or 8-8 jail when you know there is a 0-2 climb up in the other 14 games. Except this year you went 1-1, but failed win any other games in the division. I mean the Bills were the 40% of the Jets win total. Then add in 2 heartbreaking losses to Miami (by total of 6 points) and you would go from 7-9 to 10-6 (just winning 3 out of 4) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganesh Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 This kind of shocked me these are the stats for Oakland &a Bills D: overall oak 26th Bills 19th scoring D oak 20th Bills 16th Passing D Oak 24th Bills 6th Running D Oak 23rd Bills 29th Offense: Overall: Oakland 6th. Bills: 16th Scoring: Oakland 7th. Bills: 10th Passing: Oakland 13th Bills: 30th Rushing: Oakland 6th Bills: 1st Now this showed me a few startling things. One is you don't need a dominant D to win in the AFC as the Raiders were one win away from having a first round bye. Second you do need to be above average in all areas in at least one side of the ball. Look at Oakland they are just a little above average in passing but have a dominant run game. If (IMO) the Bills want to be a playoff team they MUST improve their passing ranking to average (16th-20th) and they will be a playoff team. I mean that is the ONLY stat that Oakland is significantly ahead of the Bills. (Besides overall O but up the passer rating that goes up to.) The difference is that Raiders knew how to finish off games. In the parity driven NFL, wins and losses are just a couple of plays made and not made. I laugh at people saying that the Raiders could have been an 8-8 team...The point is they figured out how to win those last second games..There is no luck or fluke to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zow2 Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 The analysis also sets aside the impact of having to play NE twice a year. Face it - with a healthy Brady the Cheats have essentially owned the Bills for two games each year. It's hard to climb out of the 7-9 or 8-8 jail when you know there is a 0-2 climb up in the other 14 games. Yep, but last year the Bills did overcome that a little bit by going 4-2 in division (which they never do!). When a club goes 4-2 in division they should definitely make the playoffs,,,like Miami did this year. Shame we wasted that great in-division record last season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleeding Bills Blue Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Without unbelievable 4th quarter comebacks, the Raiders could be 8-8 again this year. This is the type of "catch lightning in a bottle" type of thing that is tough to repeat year after year...a lot of teams pull out seemingly every close game one year and then in following years seem to lose them all or fall back to around .500 in them...they aren't going to be able to keep winning like that, eventually that defense has to get better Same with Miami. Who needed miracles against the jets, chargers, and rams to be where they're at. Luck - is what we need. And we are not getting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zow2 Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Same with Miami. Who needed miracles against the jets, chargers, and rams to be where they're at. Luck - is what we need. And we are not getting it. Miami had more luck when they became the opponent for Goff's first start. The Rams had absolutely zero offense that day, so you have to believe Keenum would have done enough. That's the game Miami trailed 10-0 until about 3 mins to go. The Rams D gave their O plenty of opportunity to grab a big lead but Goff could do nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleeding Bills Blue Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 Miami had more luck when they became the opponent for Goff's first start. The Rams had absolutely zero offense that day, so you have to believe Keenum would have done enough. That's the game Miami trailed 10-0 until about 3 mins to go. The Rams D gave their O plenty of opportunity to grab a big lead but Goff could do nothing. Yeah - he does not look very good. They'll blame it on the line and the lack of playmakers though. Then when he still sucks in 5 years.... they'll blame it on the development. To me, he looks like Gabbert. Just does not look comfortable back there. I don't know if jerry rice is going to make him comfortable either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatsFanNH Posted January 5, 2017 Author Share Posted January 5, 2017 Yeah - he does not look very good. They'll blame it on the line and the lack of playmakers though. Then when he still sucks in 5 years.... they'll blame it on the development. To me, he looks like Gabbert. Just does not look comfortable back there. I don't know if jerry rice is going to make him comfortable either. You put your playmakers with a Breese,Brady,Big Ben etc and I will say Watkins has a career year and McCoy has over 2k all purpose yards.. the bills have two very very good weapons that are under utilized IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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