A Few Thoughts About the Ravens Game, in no particular order

[Virgil]

Writing the first thoughts of the season shouldn't feel like this and I apologize for the quality, not to say that they are usually high quality anyways.  First off, I was at the game where it was raining and I couldn't really use my phone to take notes, so most of this is from memory.  Second, it was hard to keep myself at the game until the end and if Allen didn't come in, I probably would have left in the 3rd.  I've never left a game before the last 4 minutes, and that includes today, so I say that as an example of just how bad today was.  With that, here we go.

 

1 - Baltimore Fans - If I go to a game, I like to comment on the atmosphere.  The Bills fans absolutely represented today and we were out early.  Walking by the main Ravens lot, I was shocked at how empty it was at 10am.  Rain or not, even the local bars were fairly empty.  When I did make my way to the busier areas, I saw just as many Bills tailgates as I did Ravens.  It was surprising to see but reminded me how great a fan base we have and how we deserve better. Waiting in line to get into the stadium and at our seats, the Ravens fans were pretty tame and I never felt unwelcome.  Even a few fans said how impressed they were with the Bills fan presence.  

 

2 - Offensive Line - As for the team, I figured I'd start with the only pleasant surprise of the game.  I was expecting the QB's to have zero time to throw as the Ravens usually played with one safety deep and stacked the box.  For the most part, Peterman and Allen had enough time to throw and the offensive line wasn't the reason for the poor passing game.  Now, they didn't create big holes for the running game, but that didn't seem to be in the gameplan early anyways (more on that later).  Overall, they were fine.

 

3 - Defensive Line - I understand that one of the main keys to a strong defense is being able to get pressure with your front 4 and we just spent a ton of money in FA on our line, but I still don't know what I saw today from them.  First off, why was Yarburough out there so much.  In the first few drives, he was out there for the majority of the snaps and opposite of Lawson no less.  Where was Murphy and Hughes as our bookends getting pressure because Star and Kyle are eating up the middle?  I know that Murphy was on a snap count, but we put very little pressure on Flacco and even let him slide around inside and out of the pocket easily.  You just can't give Flacco that kind of time.  If that's what almost 20 mil in upgrades gets us, then we might want to hold onto our receipt.

 

4 - “Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” 

 

5 - Benjamin - I didn't have a personal opinion when we traded for KB and don't feel like we've seen enough of him to know what we have.  We know he's playing for a new deal in a period where WR's are getting paid well.  He showed flashes again the Panthers and then we didn't showcase him after that.  With that being said, today was not a good day for him.  I don't know if he's just slow or didn't care today, but he looked like he could care less about being on that field.  He didn't look back for the ball on a few plays.  His fight for the ball was lackluster at best and he dropped Allen's would be first NFL touchdown.  Overall, I didn't like what I saw from him at all today against a Raven's team that was missing their top DB.  He should have been featured and helped Peterman in his start but was instead more disappointment

 

6 - Peterman - Peterman now has a full 4 quarters of stats to his resume and it isn't pretty.  He had throws that were behind receivers, executed plays where he forced it to his first read, even though the play was clearly blown up, and made some beautiful passes directly to Ravens receivers.  Oh yeah, and he didn't execute a single first down in the first half; something only down twice before in the NFL (Peterman loves making history like that).  I was all for Peterman starting this game.  I'll admit that.  He looked good in the Panthers game and with the 3rd stringers.  But we all said that we needed to wait and see what he'd look like again against a real NFL defense. Well, we saw it.  I want to preach patience and remember that it's only his second year and only has prepped as a starter for a few weeks.  But overall, he's historically bad when he's in there.  We can say it's Daboll, the rain, or even the WR's, but I have to believe that anyone else gets at least a first down in the half.  It's nothing personal, but you simply can't be that bad.  

 

7 - Special Teams - The failed recovery of the muffed punt summed up the entire game for me.  We couldn't even fall on a ball correctly.  The first missed field goal was well short and I don't know if it was tipped or not.  We almost had one returned to the house on us and then we fumbled a snap.  It takes a team effort to lose this badly and all 3 facets of the team contributed.

 

8 - Overall Defense - I'm more upset with the play of our defense than anything else.  This was supposed to be our strength and we weren't going up against world beaters.  I didn't expect a big win, but I didn't expect to give up more than 20 points.  Not only was there little pressure, but had so many breakdowns in coverage that you'd forget we had an entire preseason to prepare for this game.  We weren't ready and our scheme was highly ineffective.  The middle of the field was left open again with a soft zone, we got thrown all over in a rainy contest, and we dropped some sure interceptions, maybe even pick 6's.  You can't even say that the defense gave up because the offense wasn't supporting them either.  We were down 14 immediately after some poor penalties and breakdowns in coverage.   Just a pathetic display.

 

9 - Daboll - I'm going to be upfront here and say that I wasn't happy with the hiring of Daboll.  I don't see what he's done to earn the jobs he's had.  His offenses have ranked near the bottom of whatever league he was in, but somehow it respected by the big name coaches.  With that being said, I feel like I can summarize his play calling by pointing out that he was sending his 2nd and 3rd string TE's deep on plays and actually took shots at them.  Let me repeat again that we didn't get a first down in the first half.  Our first one came in the 3rd on a busted play.  The Ravens stacked the box and dared us to beat them.  As a Bills fan, I want to be wrong about him.  As someone who looks at his track record and what I saw today, I'm not optimistic.  I'm looking forward to the All-22 to see if it's more QB than scheme, but Peterman was as much Daboll's choice as he was McDermott's.

 

10 - McDermott - As a head coach, you are the voice of the team and expected to support your players.  I know it frustrates the media when he gives bland answers and refers to the tape.  On the flip side, he's also the window to the team for the fans who pay to see the team.  His lack of comments and overall stoic demeanor about a historic loss in a season opener was bothersome to me.  I'm NOT saying his job is in jeopardy, even though I know people will copy and paste just this next piece, but a performance like this is what can get a coach or GM fired.  At the end of the day, McDermott had an entire off-season to prepare, draft, and sign players to create a final product on the field.  He made the choice to start Peterman and mentally align the players.  He failed in every single component of the game.  When we were beaten by the Pats 56-10, it was to a superior team and that game was at least 21-7 at one point.  We didn't look like we had any right to be on the same field as the Ravens, who were without their staring DB, TE, and missed the playoffs last year.  To me, this is the worst loss in the history of the franchise on that merit alone.  If I told you that our offensive line would be about average in the game and still told you the end result, would you believe me?  We had 3 blowouts last season and he was able to pull the team together and this was a road game.   Even for those thinking this would be a rebuilding year, we didn't get spanked this hard during our 3-13 season.

 

Next week we have the Chargers and I don't even know what to expect anymore.  Hopefully we can get some momentum from the crowd and some decent weather.  Allen has to start going forward or I think McDermott risks losing the team.  He's now butchered naming a starting QB twice in two seasons.  Rebuilding or not, you have to find victories in defeat to build on.  There weren't any today.

 

Go Bills!

[DRA3196]

great game summary. I had similar observations about the game, from my living room. Start Allen against the Chargers, and put this game behind us.

 

[Coach Tuesday]

Pretty sure Murphy re-injured his groin jumping offsides - not even kidding - THAT sums up this game for me.

 

McD looked “shook” in the postgame presser.  This coach was hand-picked by the owners and was allowed to hand-pick his GM.  Said GM has shown a horrid inability to identify talent or plan for contingencies and continues to piss away the bosses’ money on players like Boldin and Davis and Tolbert who are clearly over the hill.

 

This team is a mess and it starts in the owners’ box.  

[VaMilBill]

Post was mostly good. I think the o-line was pretty awful. They had a ton of holding calls and it seemed like there was constant pressure on the QBs. Not to mention they didn’t open any holes in the run game. 

 

Daboll is not looking good. He has literally coordinated awful offenses his entire career with the exception of Bama last year. 

[Virgil]

15 minutes ago, VaMilBill said:

Post was mostly good. I think the o-line was pretty awful. They had a ton of holding calls and it seemed like there was constant pressure on the QBs. Not to mention they didn’t open any holes in the run game. 

 

Daboll is not looking good. He has literally coordinated awful offenses his entire career with the exception of Bama last year. 

 

To be clear, I'm not saying the O-line was good.  I'm saying it was better than the dumpster fire I expected and couldn't be blamed for the terrible passing game. 

Edited September 9, 2018 by Virgil

[Dr.Sack]

Kelvin Benjamin is merely a symptom.

[DRA3196]

I can't blame Daboll just yet. Body language says a lot and Peterman did not look confident today. Allen on the other hand did. Peterman is too limited to be effective, lack of arm strength, Allen would have been throwing 40yd bombs all day and not playing small ball, regardless of our receivers ability to gain separation.

[Roundybout]

7 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Pretty sure Murphy re-injured his groin jumping offsides - not even kidding - THAT sums up this game for me.

 

McD looked “shook” in the postgame presser.  This coach was hand-picked by the owners and was allowed to hand-pick his GM.  Said GM has shown a horrid inability to identify talent or plan for contingencies and continues to piss away the bosses’ money on players like Boldin and Davis and Tolbert who are clearly over the hill.

 

This team is a mess and it starts in the owners’ box.  

 

Oh here we go, time to blame Pegs again. 

[VaMilBill]

7 minutes ago, Virgil said:

 

To be clear, I'm not saying the O-line was good.  I'm saying it was better than the dumpster fire I expected and couldn't be blame for the terrible passing game. 

Gotcha. Good on you staying through that suckfest today in crappy weather. Thanks for the great post

[TPS]

6 minutes ago, DRA3196 said:

I can't blame Daboll just yet. Body language says a lot and Peterman did not look confident today. Allen on the other hand did. Peterman is too limited to be effective, lack of arm strength, Allen would have been throwing 40yd bombs all day and not playing small ball, regardless of our receivers ability to gain separation.

Yes, you could see it in Peterman's eyes that something wasn't right; there weren't many on-target throws as a consequence.

[1st Ammendment NoMas]

14 minutes ago, VaMilBill said:

Post was mostly good. I think the o-line was pretty awful. They had a ton of holding calls and it seemed like there was constant pressure on the QBs. Not to mention they didn’t open any holes in the run game. 

 

Daboll is not looking good. He has literally coordinated awful offenses his entire career with the exception of Bama last year. 

I'm with you on the O-line. They were disgusting to watch. At least 4 holding calls, 2 offsides. Drive Killers. Ducasse is always getting pushed back. Miller was sad. Groy was not a leader and they were out of sync all game.

[Seasons1992]

Thanks for the honest assessment, Virgil. 

 

You may be right in saying this was the worst loss ever. Even in the 6-3 Browns nightmare, they still could’ve won. This game was lost immediately and no one did diddly-poo to help out. 

 

Put it in the Ballchucker next week and let’s see what a 3-13 season gets us from the minor leagues in the draft next year. I’m all for some draft maneuvering at this point to get 2 chips that will play 10 years for us.

 

remember kids......the ceiling is the roof. And it’s hot up there and it rains also......

[Wizard]

Solid summation of today's game (poor attempt at looking anything like a competent team).

 

The bottom line is this...last year the stars aligned and deservedly so for Bills fans. The only Super Bowl/playoff level quality of any team for the last 17 years or so was the respected fandom and passion that fans have for the Bills.

 

Josh Allen, Edmunds, and the cap room and draft picks are the things to hold onto.

 

Although a horrific game in every facet, at least the blinders were removed concerning Peterman, the lack of talent, the O-line, a lack of QB pressure, and a fairly thin roster in talent as well as depth.

 

Probably won't get much for some players, but Hughes and McCoy have value. Take your few draft picks, cut as many losses as possible, and use the year to evaluate the coaching staff, the scheme, the younger players, and the practice squad.

 

3-13 or 4-12 this year.  Not pretty...but it is what we have, so let's do the best with what we've got.

 

[DRA3196]

1 minute ago, BillsRdue said:

I'm with you on the O-line. They were disgusting to watch. At least 4 holding calls, 2 offsides. Drive Killers. Ducasse is always getting pushed back. Miller was sad. Groy was not a leader and they were out of sync all game.

 Can't be in sync if they didn't play together all preseason. When Groy filled in for Woods, he had Ritchie and Glenn to help him out. Dawkins is playing frustrated, Ducasse is a sub. Why we continue to pick up the Panthers 2nd tier players is mind blowing. Are they cap friendly, probably.

[Virgil]

4 minutes ago, Seasons1992 said:

Thanks for the honest assessment, Virgil. 

 

You may be right in saying this was the worst loss ever. Even in the 6-3 Browns nightmare, they still could’ve won. This game was lost immediately and no one did diddly-poo to help out. 

 

Put it in the Ballchucker next week and let’s see what a 3-13 season gets us from the minor leagues in the draft next year. I’m all for some draft maneuvering at this point to get 2 chips that will play 10 years for us.

 

remember kids......the ceiling is the roof. And it’s hot up there and it rains also......

 

Thanks for reminding me of something I wanted to add.  

 

I can't think of a game I've seen where I wasn't thinking about all the ways we could mathematically come back and win.  Even the 56-10 game against the Pats, we were within 2 scores at halftime I think.  When it was 17-0, I knew it was over and had absolutely zero hope.  

 

That's never happened to me a in a game before.  Ever.

2 minutes ago, DRA3196 said:

 Can't be in sync if they didn't play together all preseason. When Groy filled in for Woods, he had Ritchie and Glenn to help him out. Dawkins is playing frustrated, Ducasse is a sub. Why we continue to pick up the Panthers 2nd tier players is mind blowing. Are they cap friendly, probably.

 

Ravens fans were laughing that Ducrappe starts for us.  They couldn't get him out of there fast enough.

[US Egg]

.....need more Carolina castoffs.

[VaMilBill]

I gotta say too, Marcus Murphy looked really solid on every single kick return

[mjt328]

Even in most blowouts, it's rare to see a team play so poorly in all three phases of the game.

I'm not expecting much this season, but I don't think Buffalo will be quite this bad all year.

 

Our special teams allowed a big punt return, had a missed field goal, a dropped snap by the punter, and then failed to jump on the ball when the returner muffed it.  That's a 12-point swing on those plays alone (and more, considering the Ravens scored touchdowns after two of those mistakes).  Also consider that both of Nathan Peterman's interceptions led to Ravens touchdowns as well. 

 

I point all this out, because I think the defense has a good chance at rebounding.  It's hard to play when the rest of the team puts them in terrible position all game.  They clearly had some coverage breakdowns, and they still struggle getting pressure on the QB.  But the run defense was decent, and there were other times the secondary looked OK. 

 

[Jerry Jabber]

I’d say that was the second worst Bills game I’ve ever seen, with the first being the 56-10 blowout at home against the Patriots in 2007. 

 

Peterman is just like Trent Edwards, looked good in preseason, but terrible in the regular season. 

 

There’s a lot of blame to go around: having more than $50M in Dead cap space, losing three offensive linemen and not finding suitable replacements, WR’s who could not gain separation, DB’s that gotten beaten worse than a redheaded stepchild, almost a nonexistent pass rush. 

 

So, what brilliant words of wisdom are we going to hear from our beloved coach…Trust the process?! Being 1/11th? Earn the right to win? 

 

Every year, I spend a good amount of money on the NFL Sunday Ticket, but I’m giving the Bills another week and if they get blown out like this again vs The Chargers, then I’m canceling my subscription and saving a lot of money.

 

One thing is for sure, if the Bills are going to miss the playoffs, I’d rather they bomb out the entire season, trade players to gain better assets and be able to draft at the top of the draft. Otherwise, whenever the Bills play against the Patriots, the games will be the worst in franchise history…guaranteed!!! 47-3 will seem close compared to what the Patriots will do to the Bills.

[Steptide]

Today's game Imo was one of two things - 

 

1) today's game was a complete fluke. This team is not nearly as bad as what we saw today. 

 

2) this team is absolutely horrendous and won't win more than 2 games 

 

Call me a Homer, but I have a hard time believing this team is as bad as they looked today. Yes we have areas of need, but we DO have talent on this team, and I don't believe we're as bad as what we saw today. Time will tell