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1st half play calling


Steptide

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This bothered me more than anything today. The bills looked rusty today, but the play calling had me scratching my head. 

 

I thought without a doubt today, the bills would come out firing with Miami's secondary being injured and just not that good. There was way more running and qb runs. I don't for the life of me understand what they were trying to do. It definitely got better in the 2nd half, but why wait until the 3rd quarter? 

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The short yardage slant or square pass play in the middle of the field is the favorite play in the NFL these days.  It can be a wideout or a tight end. Fitz was killing the Bills with those.  Brady and Welker/Edelman have won super bowls with that as their favorite play. Why don’t the Bills run that type of play very often?

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The dropped pass by Knox was a big play early on. I think we score a TD soon after that catch. There were some execution issues no doubt, and that was one. I'm not sure his game plan was great, but they didn't help him out either. Penalties too.

Edited by D. L. Hot-Flamethrower
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7 minutes ago, JR in Pittsburgh said:

I don’t know. The knuckleheads in the Gameday threads were complaining about the play calling. But the Bills were moving the ball. Just stalled out in the red zone today and had to settle for FGs.
 

I feel like it was more some execution issues than play calling. 

Review the play calls on the third down plays that stalled the drives.  Once you understand how bad those calls were, you will understand the OP's point. 

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10 minutes ago, D. L. Hot-Flamethrower said:

The dropped pass by Know was a big play early on. I think we score a TD soon after that catch. There were some execution issues no doubt, and that was one. I'm not sure his game plan was great, but they didn't help him out either. Penalties too.

I don't know Know.

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2 minutes ago, Gray Beard said:

The short yardage slant or square pass play in the middle of the field is the favorite play in the NFL these days.  It can be a wideout or a tight end. Fitz was killing the Bills with those.  Brady and Welker/Edelman have won super bowls with that as their favorite play. Why don’t the Bills run that type of play very often?

 

They did finally run that come-back route with Brown - speed to drive off the defender and get him to turn then come back. Josh with that ability to get the ball there in a hurry. 

 

It worked. Those deep outs will too.

 

I honestly think that the conservative underneath play calling is a very deliberate thing by Daboll to force Allen to read defenses and develop his anticipation and touch. Allen is making progress, still needs to throw more away, and had a unnecessary laser he threw at Beasley with a flick of his wrist, but a work in progress. The good news is when they take the shackles off later in games when they need a spark or have fallen behind Allen seems to play his best.

 

We can also see that touch developing on that great pass to Duke, and that touch pass to Beasley, and that perfect pass to Knox that he dropped. It is getting there folks, but developing players seems to be a thing of the past. Some of us older folks remember a different league where there was no free agency and teams could stash players for years as they developed. It is truly a thing of the past, but in the case of Allen being patient may well be worth it.

 

I think it will come together with patience. We basically drafted a high school QB with some incredible raw skills, that is about where I felt his game was at in regards to situational awareness, reading defenses, and throwing guys open. Allen was not that guy groomed since grade school to play QB at a college or pro level. He has off-the-chart physical talent, but he has been drinking from the fire hose trying to marry that talent up with being capable of playing the game at a pro level.  

 

I will take the progress I see as moving in the right direction.

 

 

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20 minutes ago, Steptide said:

This bothered me more than anything today. The bills looked rusty today, but the play calling had me scratching my head. 

 

I thought without a doubt today, the bills would come out firing with Miami's secondary being injured and just not that good. There was way more running and qb runs. I don't for the life of me understand what they were trying to do. It definitely got better in the 2nd half, but why wait until the 3rd quarter? 

Interesting...I wanted to see more running. The Bills obviously have issues with that “ NE” style blitzing where guys are standing around the line. The OL tends to hold and Allen almost never beats the blitz. While the secondary was beat up, I wanted to see a pounding running game with play action off that. I generally don’t like criticizing playcalling because it’s usually execution that’s to blame. I do recall an incompletion on deep throw on a 3rd and five that was a head scratcher . 

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1 minute ago, Boatdrinks said:

Interesting...I wanted to see more running. The Bills obviously have issues with that “ NE” style blitzing where guys are standing around the line. The OL tends to hold and Allen almost never beats the blitz. While the secondary was beat up, I wanted to see a pounding running game with play action off that. I generally don’t like criticizing playcalling because it’s usually execution that’s to blame. I do recall an incompletion on deep throw on a 3rd and five that was a head scratcher . 

 

I keep wondering how many times we will give up the corner blitz, on Dawkins side. Seems like every game.

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12 minutes ago, PlayoffsPlease said:

Review the play calls on the third down plays that stalled the drives.  Once you understand how bad those calls were, you will understand the OP's point. 


All three of those were 3rd and longs (3rd and 10, 11, and 7). You can’t quibble over play calls on 3rd and longs. And on one of them, Josh missed a wide open John brown. I would still argue it was more a matter of execution, less play calling. 

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11 minutes ago, D. L. Hot-Flamethrower said:

The dropped pass by Knox was a big play early on. I think we score a TD soon after that catch. There were some execution issues no doubt, and that was one. I'm not sure his game plan was great, but they didn't help him out either. Penalties too.

Knox dropped a lot of balls in camp, preseason and has a handful already this year.  He's made some awesome grabs and missed some simple catches at critical times.

 

   Concerning.

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4 minutes ago, WideNine said:

 

They did finally run that come-back route with Brown - speed to drive off the defender and get him to turn then come back. Josh with that ability to get the ball there in a hurry. 

 

It worked. Those deep outs will too.

 

I honestly think that the conservative underneath play calling is a very deliberate thing by Daboll to force Allen to read defenses and develop his anticipation and touch. Allen is making progress, still needs to throw more away, and had a unnecessary laser he threw at Beasley with a flick of his wrist, but a work in progress. The good news is when they take the shackles off later in games when they need a spark or have fallen behind Allen seems to play his best.

 

We can also see that touch developing on that great pass to Duke, and that touch pass to Beasley, and that perfect pass to Knox that he dropped. It is getting there folks, but developing players seems to be a thing of the past. Some of us older folks remember a different league where there was no free agency and teams could stash players for years as they developed. It is truly a thing of the past, but in the case of Allen being patient may well be worth it.

 

I think it will come together with patience. We basically drafted a high school QB with some incredible raw skills, that is about where I felt his game was at in regards to situational awareness, reading defenses, and throwing guys open. Allen was not that guy groomed since grade school to play QB at a college or pro level. He has off-the-chart physical talent, but he has been drinking from the fire hose trying to marry that talent up with being capable of playing the game at a pro level.  

 

I will take the progress I see as moving in the right direction.

 

 

Speaking of touch, there was a pass late in the game that he lobbed over a defender to McKenzie and it was accurate, soft, and easily caught.  I didn’t think he was capable of a nice throw like that.  

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3 minutes ago, Gray Beard said:

Speaking of touch, there was a pass late in the game that he lobbed over a defender to McKenzie and it was accurate, soft, and easily caught.  I didn’t think he was capable of a nice throw like that.  

 

I don't think he was capable of those passes last year - that is how raw I thought he was at the position.

 

Gonna take some time and some set backs, but the investment may well be worth it if Allen can bring his game in line with his physical talents.

 

 

 

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It was not the playcalling. It was the Quarterbacking. The only call I really did not like was that 3rd and 1 that they got a flag on that backed them up. 

 

Once Allen got into his rhythm suddenly the play calling looked good? Nah. The offense ultimately depends on your players executing. And the Quarterback did not execute well enough in the first half. 

 

He was a completely different player 2nd half. 

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1 minute ago, GunnerBill said:

It was not the playcalling. It was the Quarterbacking. The only call I really did not like was that 3rd and 1 that they got a flag on that backed them up. 

 

Once Allen got into his rhythm suddenly the play calling looked good? Nah. The offense ultimately depends on your players executing. And the Quarterback did not execute well enough in the first half. 

 

He was a completely different player 2nd half. 

 

Agree with some of this Gunner, but didn't Allen drive them down field and then throw a perfect pass to Knox for the go ahead TD that was dropped?

 

Gotta be balanced with these. Not sure it is all rhythm, but as a team they usually hit their stride in the 2nd halves of games.

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1 minute ago, WideNine said:

 

Agree with some of this Gunner, but didn't Allen drive them down field and then throw a perfect pass to Knox for the go ahead TD that was dropped?

 

Gotta be balanced with these. Not sure it is all rhythm, but as a team they usually hit their stride in the 2nd halves of games.

 

The Knox pass wasn't a touchdown pass. It was a first down though inside the 10 and should have been caught. 

 

I am being completely fair with Josh. He was brilliant 2nd half. He was not good first half and he was the biggest reason for the offenses struggling to finish. 

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34 minutes ago, PlayoffsPlease said:

Review the play calls on the third down plays that stalled the drives.  Once you understand how bad those calls were, you will understand the OP's point. 

 My thoughts exactly WTF ea h drive stuff is working get to near 20 and get away from it

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48 minutes ago, PlayoffsPlease said:

Review the play calls on the third down plays that stalled the drives.  Once you understand how bad those calls were, you will understand the OP's point. 

I did and sorry, not buying it!

4 minutes ago, MtlBillsFan said:

No question Brian Daboll was the weakest link in the first half.

Says the OTB NFL experts!

26 minutes ago, Gray Beard said:

Speaking of touch, there was a pass late in the game that he lobbed over a defender to McKenzie and it was accurate, soft, and easily caught.  I didn’t think he was capable of a nice throw like that.  

Come on, your suppose be critical!

Anybody else remember we are 5 - 1; seriously!

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I think the playcalling has been pretty good by Daboll... Especially considering he's working with a raw talent in Allen & has 2 new WR's & 2, 3 new TE's.

The success of our offense hinges on Allen & his ability to execute & on everyone else to catch what he throws.

My only complaint was what someone earlier stated, that we didn't run the ball enough.

But as for the 1st half sluggishness, I'd put that more on Allen than on the playcalling. 2nd half he & the rest of the team got it done for sure though.

 

I would like them to work on the deep ball & correct whatever reasons we have for not being able to execute on those.

You have a QB with one of the top arms in the league & you can't execute any deep balls? Somethings wrong there & needs to be fixed imo.

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