THE ROCKPILE REVIEW - No Match for the Patriots

[Shaw66]

The Rockpile Review – by Shaw66

 

No Match for the Patriots

 

It’s a point that’s been made many, many times by many, many Jets, Dolphins and Bills fans:  If you’re in the AFC East and you don’t play home games at Foxboro, it’s tough to make the playoffs.  You have to go 10-4 against the rest of your schedule, because you aren’t beating the Patriots, not when it matters. 

 

Every season, one or two or three mediocre teams, teams with lots of flaws, make the playoffs.  They make it by winning a couple of close games that could have gone the other way, hitting a little hot stretch, losing a few ugly games where they look like anything but a playoff team, getting lucky with injuries.   And they make it by not playing in the AFC East, by not having those two more or less automatic losses on their schedule. 

 

The Bills could have been one of those teams this season, and if a long line of dominoes falls just right next week, they could be.  But it’s a long shot, and for the Bills longshot is spelled B-E-L-I-C-H-I-C-K.  Belichick’s teams are consistently among the very best in the league, and only the Bills, Jets and Dophins have to play them twice a year.  Baltimore and Tennessee didn’t play the Pats at all this season, and Carolina and Atlanta, the other two wild card teams, each played the Pats one.  Carolina’s there only because they got a 48-yard field goal as time expired against the Pats. 

 

So that’s just crummy, that the Bills have to play the Patriots twice each year.   On the other hand, that’s the hand they’re dealt, and it doesn’t do any good to cry about it.   It just means that to make the playoffs the Bills have to be better, probably one game better, than one or two of the AFC wildcard teams.  So, be better.

 

So, what happened this time?   Pretty much the same things that happen whenever you play the Patrlots.

 

Belichick takes away what his opponent does best, and he did it Sunday.  Yes, Shady, because he’s Shady, had some highlight reel carries, but in the end Shady wasn’t going to beat the Patriots.  Belichick wouldn’t let him.  Job one for the Patriots was stop the run, and they did it. 

 

Okay, if the Bills knew the Pats would stop the run, the game was in Tyrod Taylor’s hands.  Tyrod’s just not that good, especially with a limited receiving corps.  If the Pats are selling out to stop the run, the QB’s job is to slice and dice the secondary, and Taylor didn’t do it.  Missed some long, missed some short, and looked like a raw rookie getting sacked for a 15-yard loss on what may have been the most important play of the game. 

 

The Pats had just scored to take the lead, and if the Bills were going to prove they belonged on the field with the best in the league, this was the time.  The offense had to answer; instead, Taylor took the sack that answered any questions anyone might have had about the outcome of the game or Taylor’s future in Buffalo.  Ugly.  Unbelievably ugly.

 

One characteristic of the Patriots is that they get better as the game progresses.  You may look good against them on your first possession, maybe you second, but over the course of the game they find the answer to whatever you’re doing and you’re done scoring.  On offense, it’s the same.  You stuff them for a possession or two, or a quarter or two, but gradually they figure it out, and by sometime in the second half, they’re moving the ball at will.  We saw it Sunday. 

 

Another characteristic of the Patriots is that they crush you with whatever part of their offense you DON’T focus on.  Yes, they take away what you do best, and then you struggle.  But when you take away what THEY do best, they just beat you another way.  Brady wasn’t all-pro on Sunday, in part, apparently, because the Bills pass defense is THAT good and because the Bills took Gronk out of the game.  So the Patriots ran the ball, and the Bills had no answer. 

 

The Bills weren’t ready for another Pats staple, the quick snap to catch the defense with too many men on the field.  Way too many.

 

Or for the quick snap before the defense can set, followed by the QB sneak or a simple dive play.  

 

Nothing’s new.

 

Of course, a loss to Patriots wouldn’t be complete without the Patriots benefiting from some outrageous officiating, rule interpretations, or whatever.  The catch rule is stupid and cost Clay a touchdown (on the ball he should have held when he hit the ground).  The replay situation is out of control; after ten minutes of studying the Benjamin TD, it’s probably true that the pass was incomplete.  But that’s not how the rule is written.  If the call on the field isn’t clearly wrong, the call on the field standards.  Not in a Patriots game.  Oh, and let’s be sure to give the Pats a generous spot or two – the refs are always good for a couple of those.

 

 

Maybe the Bills will sneak into the playoffs, and that would be great, but they aren’t a good team.  The offense just isn’t good enough.

 

Still, I like where the Bills are going.  McDermott preaches all the fundamentals, both technically and emotionally.  His team is prepared, executes, and doesn’t quit.  As he loads the roster with guys who fit his scheme, they’ll get better.  And he needs a QB who can throw, or an offensive coordinator who knows how to throw, or both.

 

Now, let’s beat the Dolphins, just for the fun of it.

 

 

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 day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

[1st Ammendment NoMas]

good summary, and all pretty honest points, but you can not underestimate how the refs sway the momentum. Every time the Bills did something to put the Pats down or beat them, a call seemed to go the Pats way. By the 4th and 5th calls, you emotionally begin to check out and that's when the Pats take advantage. They are not so much better than everyone else, they just get so much more help. Look at the Steelers game and it says it all. 

 

The Bills would never be allowed to win this game and by the middle of the 3rd quarter they knew it and folded.

Edited December 25, 2017 by BillsRdue

[Maine-iac]

Well Shaw it seems you've soured on Taylor.  Can't say I blame you.  The sack was ugly.  Really ugly.  He made some nice throws.  Some good plays.  I still think he can play QB but no doubt there's a level of play above his that we are searching for.  I still say being a good team  starts with playing better defense and that's not on Taylor but the big games like today you need a QB who puts the pressure on the other team every drive.  I would like to see the team get better and if they can bring in a better QB that would be great.  A really good 0C wouldn't hurt either.  It's truly a hard measuring stick to put everything up against because the Pats chew even the best teams up an spit them out.  Brady spend entirely too much time surveying the field.  His jersey probably doesn't even need to get washed after the game.

[Hawaii50]

46 minutes ago, BillsRdue said:

good summary, and all pretty honest points, but you can not underestimate how the refs sway the momentum. Every time the Bills did something to put the Pats down or beat them, a call seemed to go the Pats way. By the 4th and 5th calls, you emotionally begin to check out and that's when the Pats take advantage. They are not so much better than everyone else, they just get so much more help. Look at the Steelers game and it says it all. 

 

The Bills would never be allowed to win this game and by the middle of the 3rd quarter they knew it and folded.

I agree totally!  Two opponents to beat.  Refs hardest.

[BadLandsMeanie]

Hey Shaw thanks.

 

I didn't get to see the game today because I got like a horrible horrible flu that came out of nowhere in about one hour I went from feeling fine to shivering under the blankets. Anyway I worked up the resolve to go to the doctor today which is where I was when the game was on.

 

You know those old movies where the slugger tells little Billy in the hospital he will hit a homer just for him? And little Billy listens on the radio from his hospital room and his spirits are lifted when the man comes through?

 

Well I am not little Billy and not in the hospital, but I decided to keep my radio off. And I can watch the games on my phone too. I didn't. Because I already felt horrible and I didn't want to watch what was going to happen out there on top of it.

 

It went about how one would suppose it would go, because it always does.

 

I just have one question please. At the end when it became apparent that the Bills had to turn it up, that they had to take some chances or lose, did Tyrod look like he didn't understand that? Was he his same reserved patient cautious self right up to the end?

[Maine-iac]

Tyrod made some big throws in this game.  The problem is, and some do not seem to understand, that you just aren't going to be able to throw on 3rd and 15 with any regularity  You need to get positive plays most of the time.   We had a number of really good drives.  Tyrod had two bad plays that you will hear all week.  He missed Clay on a deep route.  Clay was open long enough Taylor should have thrown it, the corner caught up to him later but the ball should have been there.  Then the sack.  It had me yelling at the TV and is a mistake Taylor makes too often.  I imagine he thought he could out run the guy but he didn't.  He got dropped for a 15 yard loss and then it's 2nd and 25.  To compound the whole thing they then ran Tolbert on 2nd  and 25.  Taylor actually made a number of nice throws, many of which were actually to the WR's.  A lot of other games it might have been enough but the refs, a couple big negative plays, and the defense folding and the Pats were too much.

[Richard Noggin]

57 minutes ago, BadLandsMeanie said:

I just have one question please. At the end when it became apparent that the Bills had to turn it up, that they had to take some chances or lose, did Tyrod look like he didn't understand that? Was he his same reserved patient cautious self right up to the end?

In a word: yes.

 

In more than a word: yes, AND he was oddly ineffective/slow in escaping pressure, and of course unwilling to throw the ball away to avoid sacks. Really just didn't process things with the requisite urgency.

[Shaw66]

15 minutes ago, Richard Noggin said:

In a word: yes.

 

In more than a word: yes, AND he was oddly ineffective/slow in escaping pressure, and of course unwilling to throw the ball away to avoid sacks. Really just didn't process things with the requisite urgency.

This and what Maineiac said are both accurate.   I mean, he threw some nice passes.  He missed on some.  Brady threw some nice passes and he missed on some.  But you just had the feeling that Tyrod was not going to deliver, that he couldn't deliver.   I felt that way most of the game, but I exploded at the TV when he took the sack.  It was SO amateurish.    Everyone gets sacked once in a while, but the good ones don't get sacked at that moment.   Everyone watching knew that that was the critical moment in the game.  The Bills looked like they could play with the Pats.  The Pats had just taken the team.  This was the moment of truth - could the Bills answer?   Meaning are the Bills up to the test?   Taylor answered question in one colossally stupid play, killing the drive on the very first play.  Four years on the bench in Baltimore, three years starting in Buffalo and he looks like JP Friggin Losman.   

 

Taylor didn't lose the game.   The Pats beat the Bills.   But the game would have been different with a real QB and a real passing attack.  

[LABILLBACKER]

At the end of the day or drought, things won't ever get better without a bonafied franchise QB and an OC who can get everything out of this guy. This ridiculous officiating favoritism toward NE will only end once Tom &/or Bill retire. 

[Jasovon]

Until the officiating changes we need to be a 14-2 team to make the playoffs. That's just the way it is. 

[Sky Diver]

 No mention of the horrific play calling or the poor coaching decisions, like going for a 50 yrd FG when we were down by 7 and the ball wasn’t carrying in the cold, damp weather? If I could see Hauska struggling with long kicks in warmup, why couldn’t the coaches?

[Buddo]

The officiating was appalling.

 

Would the Cheaters have won anyway?

 

Probably,  but it would be nice to see the outcome when the players are solely responsible for  the end result.

.

Games in the NFL are very often decided by momentum swings. Whenever the Bills looked like they had a momentum swing going their way, officiating, either on the field, or away from it, took that momentum away from them.

 

An area of Taylors play, I wanted to see a big improvement in, was in not taking stupid sacks. They themselves cause momentum swings, and put the team in bad downs and distances. I wanted to see that improvement, as I felt it was an area that any QB should be able to get better in. At the start of the season, I thought he might be achieving that improvement, but as the season has progressed, he's started to take more and more sacks for big losses. To the point where I suspect that many Bills fans around the country, spend a lot of time on a Sunday, yelling at their TVs 'get rid of it!'

 

Irrespective of whether or not the Bills make the playoffs, we still need better QB play, for a more consistent future. Taylor is probably the ideal backup QB for any NFL team, as he's about 0.500, and takes care of the football, but that simply isn't enough for a starter.

[Bring it]

You are right on point here Shaw. With a better Qb and passing game it makes the whole team better. It would be much more difficult to key on Shady and make the offense one dimensional.  Belichick of course knows this and simply used it to their’ advantage. 

Mcdermott has this team preparing and playing hard. Fundamentals and execution are better too and imo they have improved as the season progressed. Haven’t seen that in a while!   Merry Christmas!

 

[Shaw66]

5 hours ago, Sky Diver said:

 No mention of the horrific play calling or the poor coaching decisions, like going for a 50 yrd FG when we were down by 7 and the ball wasn’t carrying in the cold, damp weather? If I could see Hauska struggling with long kicks in warmup, why couldn’t the coaches?

I don't talk much about play calling because I think there is more or less no way to know what's good play calling and what isn't.  If the plays work, they were good calls and if they didn't, they weren't.   But they work or don't work mostly because of execution and matchups - catching a team in the wrong defense for the play you have called.  Unless you know the Patriots' defensive tendencies down to every last detail, you or I can't know if a play call was good or not.

 

Same with decision making.   Coaches make dozens and dozens of decisions during a game, and they get some wrong every game.  They have their philosophy about it, and it either works or it doesn't work on a particular play.   I think, for example, that in the first three quarters, you take the points the game is giving you.  You kick the field goal instead of going for it near the goal line.  Bills went for it, didn't make it, and I thought they'd made a mistake.  But then Poyer intercepts and having left the Pats deep in their own territory turned the decision into a winner.  

 

The 50-yarder, I agree they should have gone for it.   Too long a kick in challenging weather.  The downside of the missed kicked and a failure on fourth down is about the same.  The odds of making the first are better than making the kick.  

 

Still, I'm not going to argue with McDermott about it.  I'm going to argue about the style and philosophy of their offense.   That's what makes them beatable, not whether he decided to go for it on fourth down. 

[CommonCents]

The Bills are 2/15 on fourth down conversions this season, that's 13.3 percent. Haushcka is 7/9 from 50 plus, 77 percent or so. 

 

8 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

 The odds of making the first are better than making the kick.  

 

 

 

[Maine-iac]

50 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I don't talk much about play calling because I think there is more or less no way to know what's good play calling and what isn't.  If the plays work, they were good calls and if they didn't, they weren't.   But they work or don't work mostly because of execution and matchups - catching a team in the wrong defense for the play you have called.  Unless you know the Patriots' defensive tendencies down to every last detail, you or I can't know if a play call was good or not.

 

Same with decision making.   Coaches make dozens and dozens of decisions during a game, and they get some wrong every game.  They have their philosophy about it, and it either works or it doesn't work on a particular play.   I think, for example, that in the first three quarters, you take the points the game is giving you.  You kick the field goal instead of going for it near the goal line.  Bills went for it, didn't make it, and I thought they'd made a mistake.  But then Poyer intercepts and having left the Pats deep in their own territory turned the decision into a winner.  

 

The 50-yarder, I agree they should have gone for it.   Too long a kick in challenging weather.  The downside of the missed kicked and a failure on fourth down is about the same.  The odds of making the first are better than making the kick.  

 

Still, I'm not going to argue with McDermott about it.  I'm going to argue about the style and philosophy of their offense.   That's what makes them beatable, not whether he decided to go for it on fourth down. 

My only caveat to all of this is that this is what the Pats do.  For the most part nobody outscores the Pats.  While most give this credit to Brady and the offense and they definitely deserve a share of it.  The Pats defense always makes plays and most importantly they just get better as the game goes on.  Teams that beat the Pats always have a defense that literally has Brady running and/or confused for 4 quarters.  So as much as the blame will get dropped on Taylor and to some extent the refs for a reason.   I have to say the defense, like the offense, only brought about half of what it needed to beat the Pats.  We needed 4 quarters of offense and we needed 4 quarters of defense and we didn't get either.

Edited December 25, 2017 by Maine-iac

[Bills Pimpin']

Nice summary Shaw. One thing that stood out to me was how much more physical NE was. There were Bills laying on the ground getting medical help it seemed like at least once every series in the second half.

They hit harder both on offense and defense. Shady came out after a single play being tackled many times throughout the game mainly because he was tackled so hard. When Tolbert is in the game on second or third down consistently, the offense is doomed. I believe Cadets injury was instrumental in the lack of offense towards the end of the game because of this.

When NE was on offense, the offensive line blocks so hard, by mid third quarter the defense was spent. They couldn't handle them physically and the Bills knew it and the Patriots knew it. The Bills need to get some nastiness on the D-line this off-season.

Actually they need some nastiness everywhere, including the QB position. Tyrod is too passive, to quiet, too unemotional, too... Pussified and it affects his play. He doesn't want to throw into tight windows so when he does it's off. He so scared to make a mistake he takes terrible sacks and the more critical the situation the more magnified it gets. 

 

There were obviously some nice things too, they are just hard to point out after the finish. I agree they are on the right path, you can sense it. Romo continuously said how well coached the Bills were on the broadcast and I agree with him. We havent had that in some time. Things are looking up because of that. Go Bills

 

Edited December 25, 2017 by Bills Pimpin'

[SoCal Deek]

Shaw, the Bills lost to a slightly superior team yesterday but the motivation factor should have tipped the edge back to the Bills.  But ...they made too many unforced strategic errors to tip the scale back in their favor. Couple those coaching errors with the obvious referee bias and you have another predictable loss.

 

Nothing has changed for the Bills in 2017. Nothing. They'll miss the playoffs by a whisker and with two guaranteed losses to Brady before the season even starts, they'll look back on the couple of 'easy' mid-season games that got away from them.....again.

 

Rinse and repeat.  Oh yeah....GO GET A QUARTERBACK!!

[Maine-iac]

Taylor did it when he got sacked for a 15 yard loss but every game there are drive killing negative plays.  I am fairly certain even though Shady is a decent pass catcher we have one of the worst screen games in the NFL.  It's frustrating because not only are we missing out on some easy yards but it goes a long ways toward slowing down a pass rush.  Meanwhile if you suck at executing screens they are only going to come harder.  I remember in particular an 8 yard loss in the second half.  I wanted to beat up on Taylor for it again but watched the replay and it was the designed play.  It was just either horribly executed or NE completely was ready for it.

[SoCal Deek]

8 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

This.

 

Nothing has changed despite fans trying to convince themselves McDermott is some sort of great coach. The guys Dick jauron 2.0.

But he's a way better clapper!

 

You simply cannot play this sport without a quarterback. You have to move heaven and earth to find one. Look at the 49ers. They're a completely different team. Were they smart to go get Jimmy G?  No!  They were smart to know they had to make a change! The Bills keep trying to play it safe and see if they can change everything BUT the QB.  It is never going to work.