IgotBILLStopay Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 My first and last Bills B&M game of the season. Please note this is just a raw first account not clouded by replays or reading any writeups - so there may be errors to the naked eye. We reached NRG Stadium bright and early and had seats on the Visitors sideline side (obviously). They let people in 1.5 hrs before kickoff - so was there at 10:30 am CT - one of the first in. Made my way down to the 4th row on the first level (our seats were on level 5). NRG staff very accommodating and let us go where we wanted. When we arrived - we saw Hauschka and Ferguson running some kicking drills. Ferguson had some family members at the game - so he sidled past the sideline (ha!) over to the first row divider to allow family and friends to take some pics. By the way, while the stadium was full, there were a decent amount of Bills fans sprinkled in (with #17, #12 and #34 being the most common jerseys - did spot quite a few Sammy #14 jerseys too). Soon the other Bills players joined them and were seen limbering up. The guys who immediately catch your eye are Allen (he is a big dude), Tremaine, KB and Phillips (#97). After some joint stretching and warm ups, all the Bills players went to their position groups and did some light drills on one half of the field. It all appeared organized. You had Peterman and Allen throwing in the middle overseen by their position coach, the WR group was near the sideline, OL and DL were near the endzone and the CBs were at the opposite sideline. After skills specific drills, the Bills players also did some light game situations where the offense went against the defense (Tre' and McCoy appeared to be the big talkers here). There was one play in particular where Allen flicked his wrist and Ray-Ray caught it 30 yards away going against Tre - of course this looked like flag football but still another Bills fan and I couldnt help drooling over the arm talent. The key point is that all the Bils activities were focused and organized unlike the Texans who just had some kicking drills going on. Even several Texans fans appeared impressed with the Bills pre-game routine. Felt good about McD. Onto the Game Let me just say that watching this Bills Defense gave me goosebumps. I am telling you these guys are ELITE!!! Was reminded of the 90s at Orchard Park where the crowd would go Brrruuuuucceeeee. That is how good the DL looked all game. They made Deshaun Watson look pedestrian. Of course Deshaun also played into this by trying to do too much. I remember the 3rd and 2 play where he had a first down for the taking but Dehaun was moving side to side. He finally scrambled and made the first down but you could hear the collective groans of the crowd. Houston's OL looked a lot worse than ours believe me! Hughes was flying in on every play, Kyle was stout, Lorenzo was all over the place, even Trent and Lawson got in on a sack each. It was a Bills sackapalooza and I loved every minute of it. The other great thing I noticed is that not only is the defense good, they know it and ooze confidence. You guys could probably not see this during the TV timeouts - but there was thsi TV timeout where Hughes was just dancing to the stadium music. Then he stopped and was air guitarring. Also, once in a while McD will call to Hyde from the sideline to relay some instructions - but, for the most part, he would let the defense play without much interference. In contrast, there were always instructions from the Houston sideline. BTW, Tre is a genuine stud. He covered De'Andre Hopkins brilliantly one on one and trust me, De'Andre was getting separation when anyone other than White was on him. If Deshaun had a bit more time or anyone other than Tre covered him, Hopkins would have had a 150 yard game. Hopkins may be better than Antonio Brown or Julio Jones or OBJ people. I also noticed how smart Tre was. Again maybe you guys did not get to see it, but he lobbied the refs quite successfully. I saw the refs pick up a couple of flags after he appeared to tell them that Hopkins was just whining. And last but not the least, the defense did beautifully to hold the Texans to a FG on a 1st and Goal from the one yard line! What more can you ask of them. They did not show the replay of the pass interference penalty that led to the first and goal on the giant scoreboard, but to my naked eye, it appeared to be a phantom call. The only small blemish from the defense was that last drive when Fuller and De'Andre reeled in passes and then we had two infractions including the pass interference before the 1st and goal. Even then they held them to three! If you cant win a game where the Defense allows 3 points, SMH man! OK, on Offense the news was not all bad. I thought the penalties killed us - so many illegal formations, false starts etc. And it is not that the crowd was that loud despite being a dome stadium. Ralph would get way louder. First the positives. Shady was not bad at all. Last year, there will be several three and outs where Shady would lose a yard or two on a couple of downs, but he would still get his yardage from a couple of long runs. Here he was consistently getting positive yardage. I think his longest run may have only been 14 yards. The Ivory hair yank by Jadevean Clowney looked real scary in real time. Apparently it is legal. Go figure. Overall, our O-Line was better than the Texans'. Also, this may be controversial - but I was getting quite irritated by JJ Watt's shenanigans. On every play he would be busy exhorting the crowd to make noise rather than paying attention to what his teammates were saying. Even his sack did not appear that impressive - he just fell forward and tripped up Allen. One more step back from Allen and Watt could not have gotten to him. I thought our OL handled him decently. About Allen, he does miss badly on some throws - there was one where Zay Jones was wide open - but Allen's pass was so wide, it did not even give Zay a chance to drop it. He also has a tendency to throw low - the only saving grace (particularly relevant for us) is that he did not appear in danger of ever throwing a pick. There was so much zing to the passes that even targeted receivers had trouble holding on - so CBs really would not have much of a chance. Also, it appeared the Texans only had a couple of sacks - it could have been more but Allen does a great job of eluding the rushers. It appeared that the Bills best Offense always came when Allen was scrambling. Also, the entire team seems to gravitate towards Allen - even when he was injured and sitting on the sideline, the Bills Offensive and Defensive players were constantly checking on him. Peterman, on the other had, my oh my. It started out well. That TD pass to Zay was thrown into a very tight window and thrown perfectly. But after that, every pass he threw - it appeared to be a pick waiting to happen. He does tend to telegraph his passes - I still dont know why coaches dont teach him the art of the pump fake. That would at least keep defenses honest. With a 1:37 left and you have the ball in a tied game, you are playing for two results in regulation. And yet, the genius of Peterman helped manufacture a third result. Once and for all, this version of Peterman is definitely NOT IT. Overall, I felt the offense did well enough to win the game and would have won it even with Peterman in there except for the the third leg of the stool -- Special Teams. Man that muffed punt return was a killer. First it was horribly short punt - the punter would have been released instantly for punts like that - so Ray Ray was scrambling to get to the ball despite calling fair catch - but sometime you got to let it go if you cant catch it and the rookie messed up. And to add salt to the wounds, the live ball was pushed more than 20 yards towards the Bills endzone before the Texans recovered it. Bojorquez was getting good hang time on his punts and I thought the wrost was behind him - and then came the blocked punt. I dont know how we can retain Danny Crossman after these miscues. Our punting game at least is passable despiet the blocked punt, but our return game is non-existent. Unlike the offense and defense, there does not appear to be a disciplined approach to it. Anyway, felt very deflated at the end since this game was very winnable. One line summary: excited about the Defense, not badly discouraged by the Offense and revolted by Special teams. 6 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Murray Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 (edited) 44 minutes ago, IgotBILLStopay said: About Allen, he does miss badly on some throws - there was one where Zay Jones was wide open - but Allen's pass was so wide, it did not even give Zay a chance to drop it. Edited October 15, 2018 by Bill Murray 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4_kidd_4 Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 TL;DR- Same old Bills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elite Poster Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 The offense did good enough to win is where I stopped reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangarang Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 1 hour ago, IgotBILLStopay said: Overall, I felt the offense did well enough to win the game wat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 Nice write-up. Thanks for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolishPrince Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 1 hour ago, IgotBILLStopay said: About Allen, he does miss badly on some throws - there was one where Zay Jones was wide open - but Allen's pass was so wide, it did not even give Zay a chance to drop it. I watched the game and I assume this is the last throw Allen made that you were talking about. He was obviously in pain and as soon as he released the ball the bent over clutching his elbow 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cba fan Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, IgotBILLStopay said: My first and last Bills B&M game of the season. Please note this is just a raw first account not clouded by replays or reading any writeups - so there may be errors to the naked eye...……... About Allen, he does miss badly on some throws - there was one where Zay Jones was wide open - but Allen's pass was so wide, it did not even give Zay a chance to drop it. He also has a tendency to throw low - the only saving grace (particularly relevant for us) is that he did not appear in danger of ever throwing a pick. There was so much zing to the passes that even targeted receivers had trouble holding on - so CBs really would not have much of a chance. Also, it appeared the Texans only had a couple of sacks - it could have been more but Allen does a great job of eluding the rushers. It appeared that the Bills best Offense always came when Allen was scrambling. Also, the entire team seems to gravitate towards Allen - even when he was injured and sitting on the sideline, the Bills Offensive and Defensive players were constantly checking on him...…………………………. And last but not the least, the defense did beautifully to hold the Texans to a FG on a 1st and Goal from the one yard line! What more can you ask of them. They did not show the replay of the pass interference penalty that led to the first and goal on the giant scoreboard, but to my naked eye, it appeared to be a phantom call. The only small blemish from the defense was that last drive when Fuller and De'Andre reeled in passes and then we had two infractions including the pass interference before the 1st and goal. Even then they held them to three! If you cant win a game where the Defense allows 3 points, SMH man! Nice blog type review. We appreciate that. Thanks. jm2cents: Throw to Jones on first drive on 3rd down Jones was blown up early and he never got to the ball. Last throw by Allen to wide open Jones was off as Allen had the injured elbow play before. There may have been two more errant throws as he was targeted 8x and caught 3. The PI that caused the loss was a good call as Gaines ran into him before ball got there but they may have misssed holding on Bills DE coming in on Watson and couldashudda been offsetting. Edited October 15, 2018 by cba fan fix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlimShady'sSpaceForce Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 1 hour ago, IgotBILLStopay said: About Allen, he does miss badly on some throws - there was one where Zay Jones was wide open - but Allen's pass was so wide, it did not even give Zay a chance to drop it. LOL!!! brilliant I tell you brilliant 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IgotBILLStopay Posted October 15, 2018 Author Share Posted October 15, 2018 The 1 hour ago, Elite Poster said: The offense did good enough to win is where I stopped reading. 1 hour ago, Bangarang said: wat I am not calling it the greatest show on turf. With the way our defense played, the offense did not have to do much. Clearly we could have won if they had done more. Where I am coming from are - a. my expectations on offense were so low, they exceeded it. so I am not discouraged. clean up some bonehead penalties - and we can hang in there. b. we could have won with that offensive output but for the special teams miscues. FWIW, compared to Texans, the Bills looked like having the better offense out there and that is saying something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CowgirlsFan Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 Excellent report! I attended the game too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Tuesday Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 I believe the pass to Zay you’re referring to was the play after Allen got injured. First, I was shocked Daboll (who is a bona fide idiot) called a pass play when it was clear Allen had hurt his arm. Second, Zay was not only open, he would’ve probably scored if Allen wasn’t too banged up to get him the ball. It’s a shame how these things work - if Allen hadn’t gotten banged up the previous play, he probably completes that pass FOR THE WIN. Instead... well, you all know what happened. Waiting for the All-22 to confirm what I saw on that play. Would’ve been epic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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