THE ROCKPILE REVIEW - Now, That's What I'm Talkin' About&#

[Shaw66]

The Rockpile Review by Shaw66

 

Now, Thats What Im Talkin About! Bills Beat Broncos

 

Well, well, well what have we here? That looked like a real, honest-to-goodness football team at New Era Field, and for the first time in a long time Im not talking about the visitors.

 

The Bills handled the Broncos Sunday in workmanlike fashion, 26-16. Most of the rest of the football world might have called it a boring game, and its true, the Bills are playing a boring brand of football. But isnt it GREAT!!?

 

Sean McDermott hasnt said it in so many words, but Ive come to suspect that hes a devotee of Bill Belichick methods. McDermott admits he studies regularly, and he has a library full of notebooks to prove it. He must have spent some time studying Belichick, because Belichick is the best and thats what McDermott wants to be.

 

The evidence is in how his Bills team plays. Do your job already has become a cliché, but isnt it obvious thats what the Bills are about? Learn you job and do your job; everything else will take care of itself. If the coaches do their jobs studying the upcoming opponent, preparing the game plan and communicating the plan to the players, and if the players do what theyve been taught, good things happen.

 

Do your job has been on display since the start of the season, and the Broncos game was the latest and best example. The Broncos are not without their flaws (most notably their quarterback), but they are a good team. They have a good, maybe excellent, maybe even great, defense. They have a solid offensive line, good running backs, dangerous receivers. The Broncos are a good team. And the Bills just went to work against them. Every quarter, every down, do your job. The Bills didnt make a lot of spectacular plays; they just made a lot of good plays because they did their jobs.

 

The Bills style of play helps explain why Sammy Watkins is in Los Angeles. We all love the spectacular play, the kind of plays Sammy makes. McDermott and his GM believe it isnt necessary to make those plays to win games, and they certainly dont want to base the long-term fortunes of the team on those kind of plays; when youre built to win by getting explosive plays from explosive players, what happens when you lose the players to retirement, free agency or injury? McDermott and his GM seem to believe its a better, more sustainable strategy, to have good coaches and good players doing their jobs, every day, every week, every year. Like Bill Belichick.

 

Here are some guys did their jobs against the Broncos, and some other thoughts about the game:

 

1. EJ Gaines and TreDavious White. Being an NFL cornerback is one of the toughest and loneliest jobs in the game, especially on days when youre matched up against guys like Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas. Those guys can play. White and Gaines didnt, couldnt, stop them, but they contained them. They gave up some completions, but they didnt give up a lot of yards after the catch. They were always around the ball and they made good, sure tackles. They gave up 170 yards passing to the two studs, but they kept both of them out of the end zone. It was a workmanlike job by each of them.

 

White had his rookie moments, once when he seemed to take the wrong drop into his zone and allowed a 20 yard completion, and once where Sanders beat him long and White recovered to make the tackle and force the incompletion when the Bills challenged the ruling. On both plays it appeared that White misunderstood his assignment. To his credit, he kept at it, doing his job, making plays. In particular, the recovery on the deep ball to Sanders was a great athletic effort that gave his coach a chance to get the call reversed.

 

2. LeSean McCoy. CMon, Shady, have the common decency respect either the flag or your teammates by not stretching during the national anthem. Still, talk about a man who does his job! Play after play he pounded into the Denver defensive front, looking for any opportunity to make a play. Some backs would have quit by the fourth quarter, but not McCoy. On the final drive, after Von Miller gave the Bills a second chance, Shady converted two critical third downs, first with several nifty moves to get 7 yards on a third and 6 reception, and then with pure determination getting 2+ yards on third and 2. If Shady werent Shady, the Bills would have punted, Millers blunder would have been forgotten, and the Broncos would have had the ball with six minutes left, down 7. Instead, the Bills got the field goal, and the next time the Broncos had the ball, they were down 10 with three minutes left. That drive, and Shadys plays, ended the game.

 

3. Stephen Hauschka. You think maybe its a good thing to have a guy who can hit long-range threes like Steph Curry? Goodness. And by the way, watch him when he kicks those long ones. He looks like a guy whos just doing his job.

 

4. Preston Brown. The wheels need to be turning in Brandon Beanes head, wondering what hes going to do about the fact that his middle linebacker is not Luke Keuchly. Browns a solid player, a do-your-job kind of guy, but the persistent rumors are true: pass defense isnt his thing. It looked to me like his drops are late and therefore not deep enough. He isnt disruptive in the passing game. Nice player, and he does a lot of good things, but Im guessing the Bills will be looking for an upgrade.

 

How about Brown getting held on the Charless touchdown run? He was tackled from behind. That was about the worst bad call of the day, along with the ruling that the Sanders catch wasnt a catch. The other calls, the pass interference, the hit out of bounds, the roughing the passer? Each was marginal, but the players know that if they do those things, theres a risk theyll get called. It happened, move on, do your job.

 

5. Zay Jones. Anyone else starting to worry that Jones doesnt have the hands to be a reliable pizza delivery guy, let alone an NFL wideout? Sorry about that sausage and double cheese pie, maam. Let me help you with those paper towels. Andre Holmes was the guy whos supposed to have the bad hands, and Zays making Holmes look like genuine threat. It takes a while for most rookie receivers to work their way into productive roles in NFL lineups, and maybe Zay just needs time, but Im starting to worry.

 

6. Tyrod Taylor. To throw a bone to the Tyrod-detractors, Tyrod looked indecisive in the pocket on several plays. It didnt give me a good feeling. Still, I will not argue with 20-26 for 213 yards, 2 TDs and no INTs. Dare I say it? He did his job. You say you want 28 completions and 300 yards? I hear you, but its pretty clear that isnt Taylors job.

 

Throw to OLeary wasnt bad, was it? Finding Matthews on the same drive was pretty. Touchdown to Clay was excellent play design and execution. Scrambling, going down to a knee, getting up and scrambling for a first down was okay, too.

 

Its okay if the Bills keep Peterman on the bench for another week, dontcha think?

 

7. Sean McDermott. Maybe this offense will grow into a more diversified attack and start putting up more yards and more points, but its pretty clear that at least for now, this is run-first, run-the-clock offense that is going to take what it can get and count on the defense to keep games close and win it in the end. That last drive, the only drive that started in the fourth quarter, proves the point. About 15 plays total 4 passes, and all of them ultra-safe. McDermott was perfectly happy to run the ball, run the clock and when necessary send his defense on the field. He was rewarded when his offense held the ball and got the field goal. Last week, so long as he was within one touchdown, he didnt believe it was necessary to open up his offense. Its conservative, to say the least, but its hard to argue with his results so far.

 

Fake punt? No problem, do your job.

 

8. The crowd. The parking lots I saw were full, as usual, and once again they were pretty quiet before the game and, surprisingly, even after the game. A lot of the raucous rowdiness is gone, and I miss it. But in the stadium on Sunday, the crowd was back into it. A lot of noise on most of the Denver offensive plays. Better yet, there were a couple of those special moments, moments that havent happened much in the past several years, when the place is rocking, the noise is LOUD and persistent and then, somehow, a few seconds before the snap, it clicks up to another level. The noise doesnt go up gradually; it just steps up to a level that seconds before didnt seem possible, a level that feels like the beams and girders must be shaking. Really cool, and its gotta be the heads of the visitors.

 

9. The heat was brutal. After one play late in the game-clinching drive, Richie was standing still, about five yards beyond the line of scrimmage. He looked like he was ready to fall over and cause a 5,1 quake. Finally he walked back to the huddle. A couple minutes later, at the two minute warning, both Hughes and Williams raised their hands and walked to sidelines, begging for a blow. Thats one reason McDermott kept using his timeouts at the end of the game. His best players were spent.

 

10. The lines. It was a war, for all four lines. The Bills offensive line struggled to get anything in the running game and did a decent job giving Tyrod some space to work in. The Broncos offensive line struggled similarly, because the Bills front was aggressive all day long. Every yard was hard earned. One big difference was QB mobility when his line got Siemian in trouble, bad things happened to him.

 

The Bills might be able to stay in the game with any team in the league. Well find out next week in Atlanta.

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full days hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

[Charlottebillsfan2]

Shaw great post,

 

For a rookie HC it appears his guys are buying into the system pretty quickly.

[Figster]

Now thats what I'm talking about ,

 

thanks OP

[QCity]

Sean McDermott hasnt said it in so many words, but Ive come to suspect that hes a devotee of Bill Belichick methods. McDermott admits he studies regularly, and he has a library full of notebooks to prove it. He must have spent some time studying Belichick, because Belichick is the best and thats what McDermott wants to be.

 

The evidence is in how his Bills team plays. Do your job already has become a cliché, but isnt it obvious thats what the Bills are about? Learn you job and do your job; everything else will take care of itself. If the coaches do their jobs studying the upcoming opponent, preparing the game plan and communicating the plan to the players, and if the players do what theyve been taught, good things happen.

 

Do your job has been on display since the start of the season, and the Broncos game was the latest and best example. The Broncos are not without their flaws (most notably their quarterback), but they are a good team. They have a good, maybe excellent, maybe even great, defense. They have a solid offensive line, good running backs, dangerous receivers. The Broncos are a good team. And the Bills just went to work against them. Every quarter, every down, do your job. The Bills didnt make a lot of spectacular plays; they just made a lot of good plays because they did their jobs.

 

 

 

"Execution over athleticism" is a good way to describe it. This doesn't mean we don't want playmakers, it simply means the primary focus is on execution.

[Magox]

I largely agree but I do believe this team will need more playmakers to truly make this a consistent playoff caliber team.

 

Me thinks with those 6 early draft choices and all those cap room savings moves we've made that this will be addressed.

[Shaw66]

"Execution over athleticism" is a good way to describe it. This doesn't mean we don't want playmakers, it simply means the primary focus is on execution.

That's an excellent way to put it. All things being equal, you'd rather have the better athlete doing the executing, but you can go pretty far on execution alone. That's why I said what I said about Brown. I don't think he's the athlete you want in the middle, but the Bills are getting a lot out of him because he executes.

[Antonio]

 

 

The Bills style of play helps explain why Sammy Watkins is in Los Angeles. We all love the spectacular play, the kind of plays Sammy makes. McDermott and his GM believe it isnt necessary to make those plays to win games, and they certainly dont want to base the long-term fortunes of the team on those kind of plays; when youre built to win by getting explosive plays from explosive players, what happens when you lose the players to retirement, free agency or injury? McDermott and his GM seem to believe its a better, more sustainable strategy, to have good coaches and good players doing their jobs, every day, every week, every year. Like Bill Belichick.

 

 

Exactly, McD and Company need to build a team, a whole team, not just the lines, the skill positions, the secondary, a whole team that complements each other and that BUYS IN.

[Shaw66]

I largely agree but I do believe this team will need more playmakers to truly make this a consistent playoff caliber team.

 

Me thinks with those 6 early draft choices and all those cap room savings moves we've made that this will be addressed.

I don't disagree. They still need a QB or more out of Taylor.

 

But don't confuse "playmakers" with "stars." The Belichick method makes a guy like Edelman a playmaker, and you can get an Edelman for a lot less than a Watkins.

 

And when your playmakers are good players but not stars, you get to backfill other positions with playmakers who aren't stars, because you have the cap room.

 

QB is the exception. Pretty much gotta have a special QB.

[Antonio]

I largely agree but I do believe this team will need more playmakers to truly make this a consistent playoff caliber team.

 

Me thinks with those 6 early draft choices and all those cap room savings moves we've made that this will be addressed.

Yeah, they will come to us and make us stronger.

McD will cut the players that are not buying his philosophy (Dareus isn´t at the moment) and get a hard working player with the desire to succeed with the team, not only in his stat sheet and banc account, and if they are willing to work hard they will get fair compensation (Shady new insentives).

[teef]

maybe i should be, but i'm still not worried about jones. as others have mentioned, i think it's a bit in his head, and with a few solid catches his confidence will go up, and we'll see the development of a young wr.

[Shaw66]

maybe i should be, but i'm still not worried about jones. as others have mentioned, i think it's a bit in his head, and with a few solid catches his confidence will go up, and we'll see the development of a young wr.

Hope so.

 

I haven't given up, but I AM worrying.

[billsfan60]

I don't disagree. They still need a QB or more out of Taylor.

 

But don't confuse "playmakers" with "stars." The Belichick method makes a guy like Edelman a playmaker, and you can get an Edelman for a lot less than a Watkins.

 

And when your playmakers are good players but not stars, you get to backfill other positions with playmakers who aren't stars, because you have the cap room.

 

QB is the exception. Pretty much gotta have a special QB.

I was pretty much done with Tyrod after week two and felt he needed to go before the bye week. Now I'm not so sure he isn't a special QB. Maybe after yesterday his leash got a little bit longer. You're right Shaw, he also did his job

Edited September 25, 2017 by billsfan60

[TigerJ]

Good edition of the Rockpile Review, Shaw. I will say, I don't think that McDermott and Beane are opposed to having elitely talented players on the roster. It's just that having a few elite players on a roster that resembles Swiss cheese for all its holes is not going to win you a lot of games. I think Sammy Watkins was traded not so much because he has elite talent as it was because he created roster and cap problems because of his injured foot and potential salary demands after this season. In comparison, I think Beane would say it will be easier for Buffalo to retain Jordan Matthews long term than it would have been to retain Watkins, and right now the Bills' QB situation doesn't really allow the Bills to leverage the presence of elite talent at WR into elite WR production.

[Figster]

I don't disagree. They still need a QB or more out of Taylor.

 

But don't confuse "playmakers" with "stars." The Belichick method makes a guy like Edelman a playmaker, and you can get an Edelman for a lot less than a Watkins.

 

And when your playmakers are good players but not stars, you get to backfill other positions with playmakers who aren't stars, because you have the cap room.

 

QB is the exception. Pretty much gotta have a special QB.

The Bills got more out of Taylor vs Denver in my humble opinion.

 

Can they get even more vs the dirty birds?

[HappyDays]

Always look forward to these, nice write up.

 

On the Tyrod TD to Clay - apparently in his press conference Tyrod said the progressions on that play were 1st to Holmes, 2nd was to run, and 3rd was to Clay. So the play actually happened exactly as designed. The 1st read was uncovered, Tyrod started to run, then the 3rd read came open. That's a football play. I have to wonder how many others plays feature Tyrod running as a "read." That isn't something we would be privy to.

Edited September 25, 2017 by HappyDays

[Hapless Bills Fan]

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full days hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

 

Good post, Thanks!

 

"The Bills style of play helps explain why Sammy Watkins is in Los Angeles. We all love the spectacular play, the kind of plays Sammy makes. McDermott and his GM believe it isnt necessary to make those plays to win games, and they certainly dont want to base the long-term fortunes of the team on those kind of plays; when youre built to win by getting explosive plays from explosive players, what happens when you lose the players to retirement, free agency or injury? McDermott and his GM seem to believe its a better, more sustainable strategy, to have good coaches and good players doing their jobs, every day, every week, every year. Like Bill Belichick."

I don't know what went on behind the scenes before the Watkins trade, but to be a contender long-term a team really does need playmakers, so I do hope McDermott and his GM don't quite believe what you state. The Patriots certainly have them: no one could look at Gronk and think he's not an explosive player able to make explosive plays, likewise Edelman and before him Welker and before him Moss and before him Branch. Now that said, the Patriots do stress "do your job" and "play for the team" - Edelman answered Rex Ryan's trolling that he would do whatever the coaches told him to do to help the team win, be it serve Gatorade, play quarterback, block ... whatever. For long term success, teams need both playmakers and the ability to adapt and to develop replacements.

 

Now it may be that McWrestler and Mr Bean saw signs that Watkins was going to get restless and go public if he didn't get his 10 targets a game, or they may not have liked his off-season and training dedication or his willingness to block or his willingness to play hurt or....many reasons they might see him as not the player they need to build their team, regardless of his playmaking abilities.

 

But not needing playmaking abilities? That would be sadly mistaken.

[oldmanfan]

Hope so.

 

I haven't given up, but I AM worrying.

Shaw, don't fall into the trap if wanting instant gratification that is so prevalent today, not only with football but many walks of life. This kid Jones has played three games. No reason to worry just yet.

[billykaykay]

Hope so.

 

I haven't given up, but I AM worrying.

The catch in the Carolina game was very tough. The tipped pass in the end zone yesterday should have been caught, but it looked like the DB had a hold on his left shoulder.

[Shaw66]

Shaw, don't fall into the trap if wanting instant gratification that is so prevalent today, not only with football but many walks of life. This kid Jones has played three games. No reason to worry just yet.

Here's why I'm worried: Good pass receiving hands is something that I don't think can be taught very effectively to athletes at this age. It can be taught to six year olds, and if you drill them from six to 12, they'll have good hands forever. (Same, by the way, with a baseball swing. Kid plays little league on up, by the time he gets to high school it's very difficult to change his swing.)

 

So here's Zay Jones. Played four years of college football, and caught a ton of passes. Played in high school no doubt. He's a developed pass receiver. A guy with great hands, like Sammy, catches that TD throw on Sunday. A guy with just good hands catches the throw that he missed over the middle a little later.

 

It shouldn't have anything to do with being a rookie. He's been catching all kinds of footballs his entire life, and now he fails to catch three balls in two games in the NFL.

 

Maybe it's just jitters, but it's easy for just jitters to turn in a phobia that he can't get over.

 

Or maybe he just has bad hands.

 

How many games like this are you going to watch before you say he's a problem? I'd say about 2 more games. If he doesn't start actually catching balls he should in the next couple of games, I'm really worries.

[jimmy10]

I also noticed Richie standing there looking dazed at one point late in the game. All i did was sit there and drink water all game and my legs felt wobbly climbing the stairs. I know so many of the players grew up and played college ball in much more brutal weather than that yesterday, but i still can't imagine how hard that must be.