Why You Shouldn’t Feel Completely Dejected Over Josh Allen’s Poor Performance

[RyanC883]

My issue with the performance yesterday is that Josh has not had a "good game" against any top D this year.  Given, we have not played many good D's.  The Steelers game will be a great test.  We need to neutralize the Steelers blitzing/pass rush ability.  Knox will have to catch the ball close to the line, (get him gloves!); and we can't be throwing high-school 2 yard passes and thinking we will beat top CB's.  Need some more quick hitters to Beasley and Singletary and Knox that open up the run game and mitigate blitzes.  

 

The Cards moved the ball against the Steelers, before turning the ball over every time they got in the redzone.  Lets see if this offense can solve some of its redzone woes.  

 

Big game for the offense.    

[HOUSE]

[thebandit27]

Just now, K-9 said:

Agree entirely. Nice to have CBs that allow you to take risks. While Allen and his receivers need to do a better job reading those looks pre and post snap, it would also help immensely if Daboll could get his head out of his ass as well. Some of his play calls yesterday, or lack thereof, were terrible. Particularly his run calls. 

 

The whole game plan was amiss for what they needed to accomplish.

 

Allen clearly functions better when he starts with quick-hit rhythm throws, and thusly doth the run game follow.

 

There's no excusing Josh's poor play yesterday. It is, however, quite obvious that the OC either doesn't know how to layer his route concepts to beat the blitz, or doesn't believe that he has the players that can win matchups within those concepts.

[Fan in San Diego]

I don't feel like JA played a bad game. There were dropped balls that should have been completions.  The OL let him get slammed a bunch of times. A few deep balls  got caught by the wind. JA played a good game  in my opinion.

 

[thebandit27]

2 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

My issue with the performance yesterday is that Josh has not had a "good game" against any top D this year.  Given, we have not played many good D's.  The Steelers game will be a great test.  We need to neutralize the Steelers blitzing/pass rush ability.  Knox will have to catch the ball close to the line, (get him gloves!); and we can't be throwing high-school 2 yard passes and thinking we will beat top CB's.  Need some more quick hitters to Beasley and Singletary and Knox that open up the run game and mitigate blitzes.  

 

The Cards moved the ball against the Steelers, before turning the ball over every time they got in the redzone.  Lets see if this offense can solve some of its redzone woes.  

 

Big game for the offense.    

 

He didn't have a good game against Denver?

1 minute ago, Fan in San Diego said:

I don't feel like JA played a bad game. There were dropped balls that should have been completions.  The OL let him get slammed a bunch of times. A few deep balls  got caught by the wind. JA played a good game  in my opinion.

 

 

I'm an Allen guy...he had a BAD game.

[yungmack]

The biggest reasons for JA's less-than-stellar performance was a combination of weather, his ongoing inability to accurately hit the long ball, terrible play by the Oline (particularly the left side), overly predictable play calling (especially on runs) and an untimely case of "the drops" by the receivers.

[Phil The Thrill]

21 minutes ago, Gray Beard said:

17/39 was the lowest percentage. 

146 was the fewest yards. 

Who cares?  You’re splitting hairs here.  Is 146 yards passing much worse than Watson’s 165?

 

 

[RoyBatty is alive]

3 minutes ago, BillsFan692 said:

Ignoring the phantom hold thar negated a plus 20 yard run and tacked on 10 penalty yards immediately following the 2 personal foul calls?

 

Refs were bad both ways they didnt "help" buffalo that dog dont hunt

Speaking of bad calls, there was a long pass on 3rd down late in the game  toward Beasley? was clearly interfered with, i never saw the replay so i might be wrong but I was stunned McDermott didn't challenge it for PI. Yes I know most are overturned but it was a huge play and we then punted with time running dangerously low, i thought it was a terrible no challenge on hos part.  Am i missing something?

[BillsFan692]

No. These allen haters are PATHETIC 

 

ALL QBS HAVE BAD GAMES.

 

They might as well get used to Allen in Buffalo, this kid is going to be here for YEARS.

 

 

Edited December 9, 2019 by BillsFan692

[RyanC883]

4 minutes ago, thebandit27 said:

 

He didn't have a good game against Denver?

 

I'm an Allen guy...he had a BAD game.

 

He had a B+ game against Denver, so I'd say good. The offense overall was also better.  It's not all Allen, the whole offense from playcalling, to execution, to Allen missing open guys, to guys dropping balls.  It was all around bad.  They need to correct this.  PIT is MUCH better than Denver on defense.  They looked unprepared for the multiple blitz looks that Balt brings, and PIT brings them as well.  Guys will appear in the backfield from anywhere (safety, DL, LB, etc).   Quick hitters and running well will solve this to some extent.  Also, JA does not throw INT's.  Needs to keep this up w/o being afraid to trust his WR's route running.  Lots on the offense plate for PIT.    

Edited December 9, 2019 by RyanC883

[Phil The Thrill]

2 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

 

He had a B+ game against Denver, so I'd say good. The offense overall was also better.  It's not all Allen, the whole offense from playcalling, to execution, to Allen missing open guys, to guys dropping balls.  It was all around bad.  They need to correct this.  PIT is MUCH better than Denver.  

Defensively they are both close.  Pittsburgh is worse on offense 

3 minutes ago, BillsFan692 said:

No. These allen haters are PATHETIC 

 

ALL QBS HAVE BAD GAMES.

 

They might as well get used to Allen in Buffalo, this kid is going to be here for YEARS.

 

 

He’ll get another season that’s for sure.  After that.... who knows?  By then Beane and McDermott will likely get their second contracts, so you might see them change course if he doesn’t improve.

 

I understand why people are frustrated with Allen but he has had these games before and he had shown good resiliency 

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

2 hours ago, Dablitzkrieg said:

I'm sorry.  17/39 is putrid.  Needs to be better.  Yes, some drops, but also at least 5 poorly thrown balls that would have led to at least 14 points

 

There were a lot of drops: 

 

mckenzie, Cole, Knox, Singletary, Brown each dropped at least one pass that hit their hands. 

 

Thats bad too. The Whole offense got their tails kicked. They had no answer for the blitz and disguise. 

 

Not a guy on on the team seems to make contested catches 

 

 

 

[Scott7975]

1 hour ago, RichRiderBills said:

 

I disagree. Two plays by QB won this game; Lamar's razzle dazzle jump pass, and his dime deep ball while getting hit for the 60 yd TD. Lamar made the big plays,  albeit, those two, and Josh never really did.

 

I hated this. Not only were the crafty and timely designed runs scooped out, but Josh had some hesitation pulling down and running where he could have helped us.

 

Improv aside, this was a huge reason why we lost the game and frankly on daboll.

there was no dime ball 60 yard deep TD pass. Where are people coming up with this?  It was blown coverage 10-15 yard pass right in front of Lamar. Anyone can make that play. The TE ran like 50 yards of it. How are people turning that into a dime ball deep pass?

 

the play started at the Ravens 40 and the pass was caught at the Bills 45

 

 

Edited December 9, 2019 by Scott7975

[GoBills808]

12 minutes ago, zow2 said:

 

Yeah, I thought Lamar outplayed him. not by a ton, but he did.  Jackson dropped one right in the bucket to his TE in stride while a Bills players was diving at him. That's a long TD.   He also executed two nearly unstoppable plays by the goal line for passing TD's.  I can't just dismiss those plays.  

He also missed some of his guys downfield and made some truly terrible decisions with the football, as well as displaying the kind of accuracy on the INT that other QBs get routinely killed for.

[RyanC883]

4 minutes ago, Phil The Thrill said:

Defensively they are both close.  Pittsburgh is worse on offense 

 

PIT is much worse on offense. PIT has a much better D.  

 

PIT leads the NFL in sacks with 48.  Balt is in the middle with 33.  And they got to JA easily (good job OL). 

 

PIT has more INT's than Balt.  18-11.  Not a huge concern as JA throws safe passes, but combine the pass rush with ball-hawking CB Hayden and Safety Fitzpatrick and it is a concern. 

 

PIT has more fumble recoveries than Balt 15-9.  JA needs to hold onto the ball when he's hit/running.  

 

 

Edited December 9, 2019 by RyanC883

[thebandit27]

3 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

 

He had a B+ game against Denver, so I'd say good. The offense overall was also better.  It's not all Allen, the whole offense from playcalling, to execution, to Allen missing open guys, to guys dropping balls.  It was all around bad.  They need to correct this.  PIT is MUCH better than Denver.  

 

Denver has the #6 pass defense in football, allowing 6.9 YPA and 216 YPG. They have allow an average passer rating of 87.9.

 

Pittsburgh has the #5 pass defense in football, allowing 6.9 YPA and 210 YPG. They allow an average passer rating of 81.2.

 

I wouldn't call them MUCH better.

 

 

[D. L. Hot-Flamethrower]

6 minutes ago, thebandit27 said:

 

He didn't have a good game against Denver?

 

I'm an Allen guy...he had a BAD game.

I'm an Allen guy too and gave him a D+ for his performance yesterday. Now that most of us have established he was poor yesterday, let's look at the elephant in the room. All the things supporting the QB, not excuses, but things that need to be better. My big thing is the game plan sucked. Last week, before the game I went back and researched all the plays against the Ravens defense leading up to it. It was clear and obvious that running up the middle was a losing proposition and throwing deep passes was tough. I just looked at the log for yesterday's game, first 2 series, 2 runs up the middle-nothing, 3 longish passes results in  a sack and 2 incompletions, 1 run over the right tackle (successful) for 5 yards. This continues for most of the half, then late in the half we start to see changes, more short stuff and edge runs. Daboll switched for the most part in the second half. Of course the die was cast at that point, behind and started getting drops more. I'm baffled that we came out and did the exact opposite of what we should have and has worked for Josh. Daboll outhought himself this time.

[RyanC883]

1 minute ago, thebandit27 said:

 

Denver has the #6 pass defense in football, allowing 6.9 YPA and 216 YPG. They have allow an average passer rating of 87.9.

 

Pittsburgh has the #5 pass defense in football, allowing 6.9 YPA and 210 YPG. They allow an average passer rating of 81.2.

 

I wouldn't call them MUCH better.

 

 

 

I would.  

 

Sacks: PIT: 48, Denver: 31.   (PIT leads NFL) 

 

INT: PIT 18, Den 9. (PIT 2nd) 

 

Fumble recoveries: PIT 15, Den 8. (PIT 2nd). 

 

Not only is PIT ranked 1 higher on "overall pass D", which takes into consideration who you are playing, the game time (garbage time factors into that), PIT's D is on the field a ton due to its offense.   

 

Just now, D. L. Hot-Flamethrower said:

I'm an Allen guy too and gave him a D+ for his performance yesterday. Now that most of us have established he was poor yesterday, let's look at the elephant in the room. All the things supporting the QB, not excuses, but things that need to be better. My big thing is the game plan sucked. Last week, before the game I went back and researched all the plays against the Ravens defense leading up to it. It was clear and obvious that running up the middle was a losing proposition and throwing deep passes was tough. I just looked at the log for yesterday's game, first 2 series, 2 runs up the middle-nothing, 3 longish passes results in  a sack and 2 incompletions, 1 run over the right tackle (successful) for 5 yards. This continues for most of the half, then late in the half we start to see changes, more short stuff and edge runs. Daboll switched for the most part in the second half. Of course the die was cast at that point, behind and started getting drops more. I'm baffled that we came out and did the exact opposite of what we should have and has worked for Josh. Daboll outhought himself this time.

 

This is a great take.  The game plan was awful.  I thought I was watching a HS offense.  McD stated the offense did not get into a rythym.  Well, gee, no shi*.  Your OC was awful. 

 

The slow starts by Daboll need to stop.  It was a problem against bad teams, and now is a major issue (costing games) against balanced teams like Balt.  

 

[thebandit27]

Just now, D. L. Hot-Flamethrower said:

I'm an Allen guy too and gave him a D+ for his performance yesterday. Now that most of us have established he was poor yesterday, let's look at the elephant in the room. All the things supporting the QB, not excuses, but things that need to be better. My big thing is the game plan sucked. Last week, before the game I went back and researched all the plays against the Ravens defense leading up to it. It was clear and obvious that running up the middle was a losing proposition and throwing deep passes was tough. I just looked at the log for yesterday's game, first 2 series, 2 runs up the middle-nothing, 3 longish passes results in  a sack and 2 incompletions, 1 run over the right tackle (successful) for 5 yards. This continues for most of the half, then late in the half we start to see changes, more short stuff and edge runs. Daboll switched for the most part in the second half. Of course the die was cast at that point, behind and started getting drops more. I'm baffled that we came out and did the exact opposite of what we should have and has worked for Josh. Daboll outhought himself this time.

 

Great post.

 

Same story as the NE game. It was obvious that the game plan needed to be centered on short passes to backs and TEs; zero targets to backs and TEs until the 3rd quarter. And then, magically, they put together a TD drive throwing to backs and TEs.

 

It's like he feels the need to outsmart himself.

[CommonCents]

He did have a bad game but Daboll is partly to blame. Josh hasn’t been good at deep stuff all year, why open with that? Get him going, limit the hits he is going to take.

 

Josh likes to deal out hits of his own when running the ball, yesterday it looked like he was rattled after taking so many hit inside the pocket.  Can’t blame him. That’s on the OC. 

 

Run some draws, screens and slow down that rush. This week will be much more of the same and the Steelers can bring the pain.

 

Let’s go Daboll, skip that third breakfast plate and script 10-15 plays that will keep Allen upright. 

[VW82]

One of the main issues I continue to have with Josh is his poor starts. On the year in the 1st quarter he's thrown for 613 yards, 6.1 Y/A, 71 QB rating. It's just so rough when your QB comes out not executing. There were many people to blame throughout the game but Josh set the tone early with all those poor passes and the fumble.  

 

I don't think dejected is the right word as he's obviously not ready for games like this (see NE) and so expectations were lower but it's hard not to be disappointed when the defense plays so well and you lose. 

 

To those putting up the 146 yards number, don't forget to include his rushes and sacks (some of which were his fault). It was 114 total net yards on 2.78 yards per drop back. That isn't just the result of some drops and play calling.  

Edited December 9, 2019 by VW82

[ngbills]

One game is never something to be completely dejected over. And what we saw in this game was not unusual. This was the bad Josh sneaking out again. He has some bad habits as young QB's do that he cannot seem to shake. 

 

The open receivers he missed were huge. He hits one of those early in the game and it changes things a lot. Balt may have to rethink playing cover 0which they essentially did all game. To me that is the biggest concern still with him and he has to figure that out. We saw Jackson hit the open guy and JA miss the open guy. That was basically the difference in the game. 

 

He also needs to get better at throwing the ball away. Most of his sacks he did have a chance to throw the ball away. Cant take those 10 yards losses. 

 

Wind was actually not bad so not an excuse.

 

No moral victories. Just because he only played a bit worse than everyone else should not be a positive. He played much worse than Garopollo, who was playing on the road. Muchg worse than Brady who was also on the road. And similar numbers to guys like FInley and Rudolph. Lets not be proud of the that. Higher bar. 

 

Took the one one ones when he got them. They played one on one almost every play...

 

 

[Big Blitz]

That's the best secondary since Legion of Boom and after seeing that up close yesterday:

 

1.  Allen is a franchise QB.  He's going to be a top 10 QB in the league and elite once he gets consistent with that deep ball.  If you only evaluated him yesterday based on the #s and not consider the competition and exactly what the OP posted then you are WGR level dumb.  

 

2. Baltimore is going to the Super Bowl bc of that D.

 

3. I watched that game and it felt like we were missing a starting WR (meaning we need a #1).  I think the deep balls are a mess bc that really isnt what Brown does best and then that leaves Foster......who is clearly not scaring anyone you just need to protect the deep ball on him.  He doesn't scare you over the middle and he isnt a great route runner.

 

 

 

We're on to Pittsburgh. 

[RichRiderBills]

5 minutes ago, RyanC883 said:

 

I would.  

 

Sacks: PIT: 48, Denver: 31.   (PIT leads NFL) 

 

INT: PIT 18, Den 9. (PIT 2nd) 

 

Fumble recoveries: PIT 15, Den 8. (PIT 2nd). 

 

Not only is PIT ranked 1 higher on "overall pass D", which takes into consideration who you are playing, the game time (garbage time factors into that), PIT's D is on the field a ton due to its offense.   

 

 

This is a great take.  The game plan was awful.  I thought I was watching a HS offense.  McD stated the offense did not get into a rythym.  Well, gee, no shi*.  Your OC was awful. 

 

The slow starts by Daboll need to stop.  It was a problem against bad teams, and now is a major issue (costing games) against balanced teams like Balt.  

 

 

Whats ridiculous is that Daboll seems clueless HOW to get Josh in a rythem. When we mix in the flare pass/ screens , the misdirection stuff, amd shorter passess, even the soft gains, Josh seemed to ge in a flow.

 

We spent far too much on straight ahead runs then a deep huck. 

[ngbills]

1 minute ago, Big Blitz said:

That's the best secondary since Legion of Boom and after seeing that up close yesterday:

 

1.  Allen is a franchise QB.  He's going to be a top 10 QB in the league and elite once he gets consistent with that deep ball.  If you only evaluated him yesterday based on the #s and not consider the competition and exactly what the OP posted then you are WGR level dumb.  

 

2. Baltimore is going to the Super Bowl bc of that D.

 

3. I watched that game and it felt like we were missing a starting WR (meaning we need a #1).  I think the deep balls are a mess bc that really isnt what Brown does best and then that leaves Foster......who is clearly not scaring anyone you just need to protect the deep ball on him.  He doesn't scare you over the middle and he isnt a great route runner.

 

 

 

We're on to Pittsburgh. 

Whose D is better - ours or BALT?

[LSHMEAB]

22 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

I've only gotten through about 2/3 of the 1st half of the game so far.

 

But I wish people, including yourself, would roll up that "need to see more on those deep passes" and drop it in the recycling.  Does Allen need to hit those eventually?  Of course.  But taking a couple shots and missing is no harm no foul.

 

Gotta disagree here. I think when you take the number of deep shot yards left on the field by poorly thrown balls in totality, there is harm. Sure, you move on to the next down. But you don't get that many chances in the course of a game to hit those. It's like an AB in baseball; when the pitcher hangs a breaking ball and the batter gets out in front of it and smashes it down the line foul, there's harm. It's not strike 3, but you missed a golden opportunity.

 

Not quite sure what the answer is, but JA needs to start hitting some home runs if he's going to take that next step.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

24 minutes ago, thebandit27 said:

He didn't have a good game against Denver?

I'm an Allen guy...he had a BAD game [against Ravens]

 

The question will be, now that it's on film, will he rebound against Pittsburgh and NE?

[ngbills]

1 minute ago, RichRiderBills said:

 

Whats ridiculous is that Daboll seems clueless HOW to get Josh in a rythem. When we mix in the flare pass/ screens , the misdirection stuff, amd shorter passess, even the soft gains, Josh seemed to ge in a flow.

 

We spent far too much on straight ahead runs then a deep huck. 

Some yes and some no to this. Josh missing the deep balls impact how the game can be called. They literally played one on one with no safety much of the game because they had no concern Josh could hit one of those. That shrinks the field drastically. 

[dave mcbride]

2 hours ago, Dablitzkrieg said:

I'm sorry.  17/39 is putrid.  Needs to be better.  Yes, some drops, but also at least 5 poorly thrown balls that would have led to at least 14 points

I counted three drops - one by Beasley on a deep-ish throw, one by Knox that should have been an easy first down, and one by Singletary at the LOS that probably wouldn't have gone for much. 

[ngbills]

1 minute ago, LSHMEAB said:

Gotta disagree here. I think when you take the number of deep shot yards left on the field by poorly thrown balls in totality, there is harm. Sure, you move on to the next down. But you don't get that many chances in the course of a game to hit those. It's like an AB in baseball; when the pitcher hangs a breaking ball and the batter gets out in front of it and smashes it down the line foul, there's harm. It's not strike 3, but you missed a golden opportunity.

 

Not quite sure what the answer is, but JA needs to start hitting some home runs if he's going to take that next step.

As we saw in the game. What if Jackson misses on their long TD pass. That was the diff in the game. Josh hits on one of his Jackson misses his and Bills maybe win. 

[LSHMEAB]

1 minute ago, ngbills said:

As we saw in the game. What if Jackson misses on their long TD pass. That was the diff in the game. Josh hits on one of his Jackson misses his and Bills maybe win. 

I will say that was a perfectly designed and executed play with far less degree of difficulty on the throw, but the point stands. 

[Dablitzkrieg]

2 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

I counted three drops - one by Beasley on a deep-ish throw, one by Knox that should have been an easy first down, and one by Singletary at the LOS that probably wouldn't have gone for much. 

You missed some then

[mannc]

1 minute ago, dave mcbride said:

I counted three drops - one by Beasley on a deep-ish throw, one by Knox that should have been an easy first down, and one by Singletary at the LOS that probably wouldn't have gone for much. 

There was also a very nice deep ball to Singletary that should have been caught.

[thebandit27]

4 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

The question will be, now that it's on film, will he rebound against Pittsburgh and NE?

 

Indeed

 

2 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

I counted three drops - one by Beasley on a deep-ish throw, one by Knox that should have been an easy first down, and one by Singletary at the LOS that probably wouldn't have gone for much. 

 

I gave McKenzie a drop on the end zone ball that hit him in the hands

Just now, mannc said:

There was also a very nice deep ball to Singletary that should have been caught.

 

I feel like Devin mis-timed his jump; he probably could've had that one

[Mango]

Most had a TD (except Watson, Dalton, Goff) 

Everybody threw a pick, Josh did not, but he dd lose a fumble

Josh threw for the least yards

Josh had the worst Y/A

Josh had the worst completion percentage 

 

I do not understand the comparable. Dude had a very bad game against a good defense. It is OK, as long as it does not become a pattern moving forward. I don't understand the need for everybody to say he did fine. He didn't. 

 

He was bad. Play calling was bad. Offensive line was bad. All of these things can be true, and it does not have to be a pie/mutually exclusive. He has been better the last 3 weeks. Concerning to have this bad of showing against very good defenses. Hopefully this does not become a pattern. We will find out against Pitt and NE, whose DVOA are both better than Baltimore. If JA lays another clunker against Pitt and NE 2.0, there is cause for concern. If he can carve at least one of them up, it is just part of the maturation process. 

[zow2]

6 minutes ago, CommonCents said:

Run some draws, screens and slow down that rush. This week will be much more of the same and the Steelers can bring the pain.

 

Let’s go Daboll, skip that third breakfast plate and script 10-15 plays that will keep Allen upright. 

 

That's a good point.  The scripted, out of the gate stuff has been woeful.  That's when you receive the kickoff, march 8-10 plays downfield, get a FG attempt or even a TD.  At least hold the ball.  No one gives up possessions so easily as the Buffalo Bills.  McDermott even mentioned in his presser, that HAVE to get better early in the game.  Sounds like that's a priority of his going forward. The obvious stuff we talk about here, like inaccuracy downfield or poor field position due to special teams...he sees too.  

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Just now, LSHMEAB said:

Gotta disagree here. I think when you take the number of deep shot yards left on the field by poorly thrown balls in totality, there is harm. Sure, you move on to the next down. But you don't get that many chances in the course of a game to hit those. It's like an AB in baseball; when the pitcher hangs a breaking ball and the batter gets out in front of it and smashes it down the line foul, there's harm. It's not strike 3, but you missed a golden opportunity.

 

Not quite sure what the answer is, but JA needs to start hitting some home runs if he's going to take that next step.

 

Oh, sure it's a harm.  But 1 or 2 shots, in the course of a game, are really NBD.  Yes, I'll agree we missed a golden opportunity. 

But that's not killer.  What is killer is having better opportunities and not taking them.   if you watch the game again, pay attention to the 3rd series we had, with 4:26 left in the 1st.  On 1st and 10, Allen hits Brown at the LOS.  Brown is hit immediately for NG.  Looked like he had Beasley open for at least 2-3. 

On 2nd and 10, Allen had Singletary open on the L at the LOS with a big cushion in front of him, and Brown open in the flats route heading toward the R sideline.  He flushed out of the pocket to the L and hurried his throw to Knox, which was made with one defender charging up behind him and one in his face.

On 3rd and 10, he's under pressure again and goes incomplete to Kroft (I think) who may have been late getting his head turned and being "QB friendly"

 

My point is that the missed deep throws are not the difference in the game.  The difference in the game are the missed opportunities for high-percentage "bunnies".  LJax took those and hit those and moved the chains.

 

 

[RichRiderBills]

I thought the last throw to Brown was a drop. Yes, Smith got a hand in to knock around, but i felt it could have been wrangled in.

[GoBills808]

5 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

I counted three drops - one by Beasley on a deep-ish throw, one by Knox that should have been an easy first down, and one by Singletary at the LOS that probably wouldn't have gone for much. 

I am NOT counting last pass to Brown as a drop, but I think McKenzie endzone throw could be reasonably considered 

1 minute ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Oh, sure it's a harm.  But 1 or 2 shots, in the course of a game, are really NBD.  Yes, I'll agree we missed a golden opportunity. 

But that's not killer.  What is killer is having better opportunities and not taking them.   if you watch the game again, pay attention to the 3rd series we had, with 4:26 left in the 1st.  On 1st and 10, Allen hits Brown at the LOS.  Brown is hit immediately for NG.  Looked like he had Beasley open for at least 2-3. 

On 2nd and 10, Allen had Singletary open on the L at the LOS with a big cushion in front of him, and Brown open in the flats route heading toward the R sideline.  He flushed out of the pocket to the L and hurried his throw to Knox, which was made with one defender charging up behind him and one in his face.

On 3rd and 10, he's under pressure again and goes incomplete to Kroft (I think) who may have been late getting his head turned and being "QB friendly"

 

My point is that the missed deep throws are not the difference in the game.  The difference in the game are the missed opportunities for high-percentage "bunnies".  LJax took those and hit those and moved the chains.

 

 

You know what the real killer was? Thinking it was a good idea to drop Allen 7 steps back on our own 25 to pass and have Dawson Knox 1v1 with Judon.

[mannc]

2 minutes ago, thebandit27 said:

 

Indeed

 

 

I gave McKenzie a drop on the end zone ball that hit him in the hands

 

I feel like Devin mis-timed his jump; he probably could've had that one

I didn’t see a great replay of it, but I think the last pass to Brown was catchable.  The DB was all over Brown, but I don’t think he actually got his hand on the ball.  I could be wrong, though.