Big Turk Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 (edited) Once again we fail to break the 20 point barrier in a league where its set up for offenses to score points. For all I love about Allen and the strides he has taken this year the fact is he simply leaves too many points off the board. Way too many drives this season where we reach "almost FG range" only to have to punt or have a turnover, perhaps the most in the NFL. "Almost FG range" defined as inside the opponent 45 yard line but outside of FG range. I would be interested in seeing how many of these the Bills had compared to the rest of the NFL both in terms of percentage of drives into opponent's territory and number of drives. If they aren't #1 they have to be top 5. Just happened way way too many times this year. Just seemed the Bills had a very bad penchant for making the "bad play at the worst time" in these situations. Many times those were penalties that pushed us back but we also had quite a few negative plays or just poor execution that stopped us too. This is a HUGE area of opportunity for us and Daboll/Allen particularly and something he needs to work on for next year to try and figure out why it is we are stalling in this area of the field so much. Is it play calls? Execution? Mental Lapses? All of the above? We will not improve offensively until we figure this out so I hope they spend some serious time looking at it. Perhaps just as importantly were our penchant for negative plays once inside FG range that either pushed us out of FG range or forced a FG when it looked like we were marching towards a TD. Perhaps no better example than yesterday when we reach the Texan 25 only to have a disastrous 4 play sequence that ended up not only pushing us out of FG range and forcing a 4th and 27 play but in most situations would have cost us the game if not for the Bills D stuffing a QB sneak of 4th and 1. In the early part of the year Allen was taking a lot of really bad 3rd down sacks that were pushing us out of FG range. It had been cleaned up somewhat but on that series it raised its ugly head again. You just can't have that happen as many times as it has this season. You are costing your team points. Between the Bills getting into "almost FG range" and then having to punt and getting into FG range but then through terrible plays pushing yourself out of FG range and having to punt, these are the two biggest issues this Bills offense needs to work on. UPDATE: Just looked through Pro Football Reference Drive Stats and found the Bills were 4th in total number of drives inside the opponent 45 that resulted in no points overall. This did not include missed FG because that meant the team was in FG range. They had 29 such drives. Carolina had 31, another team had 31(can't remember who) and Atlanta had 30. However, the Bills had the most drives that ended either on punts or downs in these situations, a total of 24(16 punts and 8 on downs), which I believe were tops in the NFL in both cases. Surprisingly the Patriots were second in this at 21 times. Will now look at times they reached the opponent side of the field but didn't make it to the 35 yard line and compare it. Bills led the league in drives that entered opponent territory but stalled at or outside the opponent 35 that didn't result in at least an attempted FG with 26. 6 of these included drives that STARTED in opponent territory. Pittsburgh was second with 25. The stats bear out what the eye test showed throughout the year. The team got into opponent territory a lot and then stalled out before getting far enough to attempt to score points. This needs to be fixed if they want to fix the offense. Edited January 5, 2020 by matter2003 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd1 Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 For all intents and purposes, there were 12 points left on the board yesterday. Two dropped TD passes, one missed FG, and one missed PA. The girl scouts played defense the second half. This loss is NOT on Josh Allen! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BananaB Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 (edited) Brown had a third down catch on the 5 yard line where he stepped out of bounds. Duke had a pass in his hands in the end zone that he ended up dropping it. Bills coaches keep putting Gore on the field in the red zone believing he is a pounder when he gets way more negative plays then positive..... These all helped this team settle for FGs, can’t put that all on Allen. Allen’s needs to do better but so do the others. Coaches included. This was a positive season with a huge heartbreaking loss.... It’s time to improve Edited January 5, 2020 by BananaB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurman#1 Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 9 minutes ago, matter2003 said: Once again we fail to break the 20 point barrier in a league where its set up for offenses to score points. For all I love about Allen and the strides he has taken this year the fact is he simply leaves too many points off the board. Way too many drives this season where we reach "almost FG range" only to have to punt or have a turnover, perhaps the most in the NFL. "Almost FG range" defined as inside the opponent 45 yard line but outside of FG range. Nah. It isn't him that leaves too many points off the board. It's the offense. Does he deserve a share of the blame? Sure. But he's a second-year guy. If he's still looking the same as he does now in another couple of years, it'll be time to wonder if he's not going to be the guy. This early, though, it's par for the course. A few QBs have really quick starts, and deserve all the kudos they get. Most take time to develop. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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