A Few Thoughts about the Dolphins Game

[re enlightener]

the female announcer  was so irritating, and she didnt know anymore than the current stats, she said Zay was tt's go to receiver for example.  screw equal rights, get someone who doesnt sound like a 14 yo man boy.

[Foreigner]

What happened to our deep ball? If we had WRs named Watkins and Goodwin, that's what happened.

When WRs can't run routes, can't get separation, and can't catch the ball, that's what happened.

 

[transplantbillsfan]

Man, Taylor is still really underappreciated for how successful he is as a QB behind one of the worst OLs in the NFL when any other QB would be getting sacked or hit while they throw four interceptions.

See 1st half of Chargers game for reference.

Taylor escapes sacks so routinely and easily because of his athleticism that it's very easy to overlook these as plays he made almost or entirely on his own.

 

And I thought it was interesting how dynamic Dennison's play calling was in the 1st half. He had a game plan asking Taylor to throw a lot, and he did, and did it well. Hell, Taylor was on pace to throw it 35+ times for over 300 yards after the 1st half.

 

Then typically over-conservative in the 2nd half.

 

As for the deep throws... well stone-hands Jones doesn't help, but aside from that nicely placed dropped ball, were any of those guys really running open on those deep passes? I love that he's still throwing deep but would much rather see him overthrow than underthrow.

 

 

Fantastic win!!! 2 more, please

Edited December 18, 2017 by transplantbillsfan

[BB2004]

2 hours ago, Virgil said:

Please forgive the lateness and general form in which this was put together.  I watched the game at a bar, took on a bowl challenge, may have thrown up, and then had to wait to make the 90 minute drive home.  Then I saw the end of the Pats game and threw up again.  With that....

 

1 - Tyrod - If ever there were a game of Tyrod being Tyrod.  Great first half.  Some great throws, some terrible throws.  Good use of his legs to escape certain sacks as well as get some first downs.  The biggest question about Tyrod I have is:  What happened to his deep ball?  At the beginning of his career here, his deep ball ability was second to his scrambling ability.  Now, his deep throws don't seem to have a chance and usually end up out of bounds.  I'm happy we are taking shots deep and I know it's a low percentage play anyways, but his accuracy deep is concerning.

 

2 - McDermott - Playing a Dolphins team that just beat the Pats and have looked good as of late, this team showed up strong.  That was easily our best first half of football this season and the game felt relatively in control until the last few minutes.  In a game where we could have done very Billsy things, we didn't.  What's interesting to me is the aggressive play call we had this week vs last week against the Colts.  We go from punting in OT with 4 minutes left to going for it on 4th and 7 and almost 4th and 1.  I'm actually happy about the Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty against Groy at the end so that we'd kick for 3.  It's interesting to see this guy learn as he goes and ultimately I'm believing he'll be our head coach for a years to come.  

 

3 - Shady - 10k on the way to 12k.  I've said this in previous weeks, but it's almost too easy to take Shady for granted.  Our offense lives and dies with this man, so it should be no surprise that 2 of our first 3 TDs were thanks to him.  When we extended him after the trade, I was worried about his ability to produce 3 years into the deal.  I was so very wrong.  Shady is the heart of our team, is a spectacle on the field, and I hope he retires a Bill.

 

4 - Before all the fireworks exploded
Our conversations were so loaded, innuendo flying
Now what can we say?
Have a nice day
Looks like rain today...

 

5 - Cornerback depth - I know that this will make a few people want to throw up on here, but we need to draft or sign more DB's in the offseason.  Our pass coverage drops off dramatically when EJ Gaines leaves the field.  Johnson is a liability in coverage and our 3 game losing stream occurred when we were down 1 of our 2 starters.  I'm not blaming it on solely that, but the defensive play changes immediately.  We need to shore the depth up here.

 

6 - Defensive Containment/Tackling - If there's one thing that worries me the most about next weeks game against the Pats and our 2nd biggest issue on defense, it's the poor tackling and holding to our zones on defense containment.  So many big plays today were because of poor angles and bad tackling.  The Pats live off of taking advantage of these mistakes and we will get crushed if we keep that up.  I can't even count the number of plays I thought were stopped in the backfield only to have it be turned up downfield for a big gain.

 

7 - Pass Rush - This has been the biggest issue for me this season and I'm happy to see Frazier making adjustments.  We aren't sending extra blitzers a lot, but it's more than we were.  Our front 4 got pressure on more than a few plays, while also almost creating a few turnovers by knocking the ball out of Cutler's hand.  Cutler's internal timer was going off all day and one of the main reasons we had our 3 turnovers.

 

8 - White - Is anyone else in contention for Defensive Rookie of the Year?  I had very little opinion of him when drafted but wow.  This kid plays like a seasoned veteran and I was happy he ended up with the game sealing INT.  He almost made a beautiful interception in the endzone by reading and cutting on a play perfectly.  No matter what happens this season, White is a true standout and positive from this season.

 

9 - Rivalry? - Does anyone else enjoy having the feeling of a rivalry again with the Dolphins.  I know that neither of us are really relevant in the big picture NFL, but I love to hate these guys.  Hating the Pats does nothing but make you drink.  But you can see the residuals from the Aaron Williams hit last year.  These guys really don't like each other and it was evident earlier.  I'm actually really disappointed in the Refs for not paying more attention to the after-play action.  We need to play smarter, but a lot of unsportsmanlike penalty calls (and blatant holds) weren't called today on the fish.

 

10 - Control - Two weeks left and we are in control of our own destiny.  Yes, we've been here before but we weren't supposed to be here this year.  It's been a very up and down ride but it feels good to think about where we are and what's coming up.  We have a head coach, a base of players, a lot of picks, and money to spend.  The BBFS in me says I'll probably regret saying this, but things might finally be looking up, regardless of how this season ends. 

 

All I want for Christmas is a Win over the Pats and broken Brady face.

 

Go Bills!!!!

 

Good write up Virgil.  I'm interested to see how well our secondary can contain Gronkowski next week.  Hope we can pull one out next week.

[reddogblitz]

6 hours ago, RobH063 said:

Nice write up Virgil. I agree with you 100% about Taylor's deep ball. It's either out of bounds or way overthrown in most cases.

 

He threw one to Zay, but it hit him in a bad spot. The hands.

[Big C]

I think Johnson is fine and Wright played well filling in for Gaines. I prefer not to have Wright start but he is a good backup. He makes some difficult tackles.

[Whitey13]

9 hours ago, ganesh said:

 

1. White is hand's down Defensive Rookie of the year. I hope he has a gr8 game against Gronk next week.

As much as I love Tre, Lattimore from NO is having just as impressive as a year.

[Pbomb]

11 hours ago, matter2003 said:

 

Nothing happened to his deep ball, we don't have any receivers who get open deep and he would rather throw it slightly out of bounds than give the other team a chance to pick it...

 

Thompson runs a 4.33 40 but gets ZERO separation on 90% of his go routes...how is that possible?

 

And Landry is a big time punk...

 

Deep ball sucked last year too with goodwin woods and watkins. 

[Royale with Cheese]

9 hours ago, transplantbillsfan said:

Man, Taylor is still really underappreciated for how successful he is as a QB behind one of the worst OLs in the NFL when any other QB would be getting sacked or hit while they throw four interceptions.

See 1st half of Chargers game for reference.

Taylor escapes sacks so routinely and easily because of his athleticism that it's very easy to overlook these as plays he made almost or entirely on his own.

 

And I thought it was interesting how dynamic Dennison's play calling was in the 1st half. He had a game plan asking Taylor to throw a lot, and he did, and did it well. Hell, Taylor was on pace to throw it 35+ times for over 300 yards after the 1st half.

 

Then typically over-conservative in the 2nd half.

 

As for the deep throws... well stone-hands Jones doesn't help, but aside from that nicely placed dropped ball, were any of those guys really running open on those deep passes? I love that he's still throwing deep but would much rather see him overthrow than underthrow.

 

 

Fantastic win!!! 2 more, please

 

The ball was knocked out of his hands....Jones didn't drop it.

 

Any other QB would throw 4 INT's?  Not just Peterman, a 5th round rookie who was lost in the game....any other QB.  So Taylor is probably the greatest QB of all time since any other QB would throw 4 INT's behind this line.  

[Al Czervik]

Thanks for the write up as always Virgil!  This is my weekly go-to article to read on Monday mornings when I roll in to work.  

 

We need the entire team to show up this coming Sunday...a win would be fantastic for playoff aspirations and would also mean we're heating up and finding some consistency at the right time of year!

[dave mcbride]

The deep throw out of the end zone looked intentional to me. Taylor motioned the wr to come back to him, but the receiver (holmes?) didn't come back and just ran himself into blanket coverage at the back of the end zone instead. Feely mentioned it in the replay and it looked pretty clear to me. Throwing it away (presuming it was intentional) was the right move there.

[BuffaloHokie13]

We did pick up that CB off Oakland's PS that one writer thought was promising!

3 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

The deep throw out of the end zone looked intentional to me. Taylor motioned the wr to come back to him, but the receiver (holmes?) didn't come back and just ran himself into blanket coverage at the back of the end zone instead. Feely mentioned it in the replay and it looked pretty clear to me. Throwing it away (presuming it was intentional) was the right move there.

It was Thompson, I think.

[transplantbillsfan]

2 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

The ball was knocked out of his hands....Jones didn't drop it.

 

Any other QB would throw 4 INT's?  Not just Peterman, a 5th round rookie who was lost in the game....any other QB.  So Taylor is probably the greatest QB of all time since any other QB would throw 4 INT's behind this line.  

 

The "any other QB would throw 4 interceptions" was tongue in cheek and just playing to the Peterman crowd

 

C'mon now... can we please stop accusing anyone of thinking Taylor is the best QB of all time

 

It's not like we aren't still and still shouldn't be drafting a QB in round 1.

Edited December 18, 2017 by transplantbillsfan

[Royale with Cheese]

4 minutes ago, transplantbillsfan said:

 

The "any other QB would throw 4 interceptions" was tongue in cheek and just playing to the Peterman crowd

 

C'mon now... can we please stop accusing anyone of thinking Taylor is the best QB of all time

 

It's not like we aren't still and still shouldn't be drafting a QB in round 1.

 

Okay now I know it's tongue and cheek.  My apologies.

 

The reason I put the "Greatest QB of all time" is because of the "any other QB".   

[Starr Almighty]

12 hours ago, re enlightener said:

the female announcer  was so irritating, and she didnt know anymore than the current stats, she said Zay was tt's go to receiver for example.  screw equal rights, get someone who doesnt sound like a 14 yo man boy.

It wasn't all bad. I enjoyed when she kept calling TT, McCoy. It's hard to tell a RB and a QB apart these days. She was very well prepared ?

[transplantbillsfan]

2 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

The ball was knocked out of his hands....Jones didn't drop it.

 

Any other QB would throw 4 INT's?  Not just Peterman, a 5th round rookie who was lost in the game....any other QB.  So Taylor is probably the greatest QB of all time since any other QB would throw 4 INT's behind this line.  

 

As for the pass to Jones, I just watched it a couple more times. It won't be labeled a drop, but the ball landed squarely in his hands and he was just never able to cleanly catch it and there was really minimal interference by the defender.

 

It should have been a catch, that's why I think it's a drop.

[Royale with Cheese]

15 minutes ago, transplantbillsfan said:

 

As for the pass to Jones, I just watched it a couple more times. It won't be labeled a drop, but the ball landed squarely in his hands and he was just never able to cleanly catch it and there was really minimal interference by the defender.

 

It should have been a catch, that's why I think it's a drop.

 

Did the defender not knock it out with his hand?

A contest ball like that, IMO, can't be considered a drop.  

[Virgil]

6 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

Did the defender not knock it out with his hand?

A contest ball like that, IMO, can't be considered a drop.  

The defender made contact, but if he caught it clean, he could have held on. 

 

Zay needs to make that catch. 

[Manther]

8 hours ago, Big C said:

I think Johnson is fine and Wright played well filling in for Gaines. I prefer not to have Wright start but he is a good backup. He makes some difficult tackles.

I disagree on Wright.  He hurts the team when he is in the game.

[BuffaloBaumer]

I don't feel an ounce of rivalry between the Bills and Dolphins and as a fan, it does not even feel like they are in our own division. I think it's a bit of a stretch to see much between these two teams anymore....