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Joe B's 7 thoughts & some YPP thoughts - can't argue with them at all IMO


Reed83HOF

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1) Allen’s in-game regression doomed the Bills

...once the Texans converted for a touchdown midway through the third quarter, Allen and the offense reverted to a form we hadn’t seen since the early part of the season.

As the pressure mounted, Allen became reckless, inaccurate and much more like the rookie quarterback both he and the Bills thought they left behind.

 

However, he needs to learn that allowing the game to take him prisoner is unacceptable moving forward.

 

Allen made significant strides in protecting the ball since his Week 4, three-interception meltdown, but “Wyoming Josh” came roaring back with the game on the line.

He held on to the ball too long and took sacks when the Bills couldn’t afford it, the accuracy of his passes dipped and he made several horrible decisions that nearly resulted in turnovers. It was the roller coaster ride that Allen and the Bills had worked so hard to put out of service. Of all his poor choices, his deep throw to his double-covered fullback and the mind-melting decision to lateral the ball to tight end Dawson Knox were the ones that will stand the test of time. Those two, in particular, elicited the reactions of “What is he doing?!”

 

While he capitalized on some passes with some intermediate rocket throws that not many quarterbacks can make, Allen couldn’t help himself but to try and do too much. It’s a trait he picked up at Wyoming, carried with him in his rookie season and what, unfortunately for the Bills, followed him to Houston. Allen never seemed in control in the second half, and for an ordinarily unflappable player in late-game situations, the moment looked like it was too big for Allen.

 

Me - This is a great point, granted you can only see what the broadcast showed, but from what we were able to in between the game and JJ Watt ball sucking, I didn't see any communication from the coaching staff trying to calm him down and get his focus back. I am sure the All -22 will show a bunch of plays Allen missed as well. Overall, as the pressure mounted, he became jittery and 'bad Josh' was playing the game for us. I would have liked to see the coaches or his teammates trying to refocus him and calm him down. Josh has to grow tremendously during the offseason in this area.

 

2) The infuriating Frank Gore infatuation

...

The problem area with Gore’s involvement was when it occurred late in the fourth quarter. Needing a field goal to tie, the Bills — mostly thanks to Singletary — brought the ball down into Texans’ territory. Through the first four plays, Singletary gained 47 yards on only three touches, and it set the Bills up at the Houston 25. From there, rather than keeping Singletary in the game, offensive coordinator Brian Daboll decided it was a great time to go with heavy personnel. Gore came in along with the fullback Patrick DiMarco and blocking tight end Lee Smith, which allowed the Texans to attack. Allen voluntarily threw away the first down pass, but on second down, the Bills kept at it with the same group.

 

This time, Daboll called a designed run to the left side for Gore, only for Houston to shoot the gaps and bring him down for a three-yard loss. That led to Allen’s combustion with an intentional grounding penalty and a 19-yard sack on fourth-and-27, but Gore’s inclusion made the offense hopelessly predictable. It was a decision by Daboll that seemed awful right away, and got even worse when they want through a run. That decision destroyed all the positive things Singletary did for the Bills on that drive, and instead, the Bills wound up with nothing to show for the offensive series.

 

Gore’s inclusion in that big of a spot not only changed how the defense lined up, but it also impacted the Texans’ play-calling approach in a huge spot. It felt like it was over before it started, and it created a negative third-and-13 situation. As we know, the rest of the drive went haywire and almost cost the Bills the game right then and there. Daboll has hit the wrong notes in critical times with some of his personnel groupings — and the Gore, DiMarco, Smith trio is the shining example of the offensive coordinator overthinking things a bit.

 

Me - No one disagrees with any of this, moving on...

 

3) Third-and-18

These are the defensive situations the Bills dream of, where they encourage an underneath throw while swarming to the ball carrier before they get to the first down marker. It was all set up for the Bills to get the ball back in overtime with another chance to win the game.

 

As we now know, that third-and-18 misfire will haunt them for some time. The linebackers in coverage got a bit too over-zealous and dropped beyond the first down marker, which created all the space Duke Johnson needed to get precisely 18 yards for the first down. Third downs became a problem for the Bills after halftime, allowing the Texans to keep their drives alive on four of seven attempts. While many will look at the Watson pass to Jones, or the J.J. Watt sack to force a Bills field goal as the marquee plays that defined the game, the third-and-18 will be especially haunting for a defense that played so well this season in those exact situations.

 

Me - again, aside from only seeing what is shown on the broadcast, the coaching staff has the responsibility to remind players of such things, such as positioning and keys - not one person on the defense was aware of the first down marker - that is something that should have been told to Edmunds to relay to the D - Poyer, Hyde and LorAx should all have been keenly aware of this as well. This was the ball game...

 

4) A curious personnel decision that sparked Houston’s first TD drive

he Texans took over and they ran all over the Bills defense to set up their first touchdown drive of the game. Though it was partially their own doing based on the personnel they put on the field to begin the Texans’ offensive series. The Bills featured a defensive tackle pairing of three-technique defensive tackle Jordan Phillips and one-technique defensive tackle Corey Liuget — who were their two worst run-defending players at the position.

 

Predictably, the Texans ran the ball on four of the five plays the Phillips-Liuget combination was on the field and gained 29 yards on four carries to help the Texans get to the Bills’ 32-yard line.

Putting the Phillips and Liuget combination on the field at the same time was a questionable decision at best by defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier and head coach Sean McDermott. Once Ed Oliver and Star Lotulelei replaced them on the sixth play of the drive, they promptly got back-to-back one-yard stops on Houston. At that point in the game, the Bills’ willingness to feature a full four-person rotation was too much of a luxury and likely cost the Bills a lot of yards leading up to Houston’s first touchdown.

 

Me - 100% on the coaching and couldn't agree more. McD's job is overall game management and interacting with his coordinators. In a playoff game, you can't get too cute and in critical situations, your best players need to be on the field.

 

5) The conservative end-of-first-half decision

I’m not exactly sure what McDermott was thinking near the end of the first half. Well, I’m sure that it made logical sense in his mind — even if he might have cost his team a real opportunity for a touchdown. With 30 seconds remaining in the first half, the Bills called a timeout immediately after picking up a third-down attempt, while only 23 yards out of the end zone. At that time of the game, the Bills were only up by 10 points and wanted to assure themselves something on the scoreboard.

 

However, while doing so, the Bills were far too conservative and appeared like they were content with only a field goal. Out of a timeout, the Bills ran the ball up the middle with Gore. They then raced up to the line of scrimmage and spiked the ball to stop the clock, and followed it up with an end zone target to wide receiver Duke Williams. The Bills were setting themselves up for failure with conservative logic that flies in the face of their usual aggressive nature. The thinking was probably to get the ball centered on first down for the field goal attempt, stop the clock on second down and then take one shot at the end zone without having to worry about time running out and coming away with zero points.

 

The Bills defense had been playing really well to that point, but the team still had one timeout remaining in their pocket. They effectively wasted two downs to set up a field goal, and then to go after only one low-percentage touchdown attempt from 22 yards out. Especially with another timeout in their pocket that they never wound up using, the Bills should have played that far differently and allowed themselves one throw over the middle to try and get in the end zone. Instead, a conservative call reigned supreme — a disappointment considering their advancements in 2019 in their aggressiveness in those situations.

 

It was another opportunity for a touchdown to put away the game, and like so many other instances, the Bills couldn’t get out of their way to do so.

 

Me - We did a great job bleeding the clock down to the half and weren't able to punch it on for a TD. It has been a recurring theme all season (much like our inability to run a screen play or beat a Cover 0), not being able to overcome these types of issues falls on the coaching staff for not being able to correct them. I get that poor execution is to blame as well as player limitations, but a top tier coaching staff will find ways with the abilities you do have to overcome some of these issues. Frank Gore out there as time was running down was a poor personnel choice & if it was called by Daboll, McD should have again pushed the issue to have the best players on the field at this juncture of the game, simply saying it was his turn is not an option. McD also seems to get involved at the end of half/game decisions, we should not have been so conservative, but that seems to be who he is at times (but yet very aggressive on 4th and 27)...

 

6) The first half effort deserved better

 

With the Texans trying to run out the clock, the job the Bills did to force a turnover on downs without any timeouts remaining was a next-level stop. They deserve a lot of credit for making those plays against the odds. It was the breakdowns in the mid-third and fourth quarters that were the problem areas for Buffalo. You also have to give credit to Daboll for his opening drive. The offensive coordinator was on fire, using several new personnel packages the Bills hadn’t used before, along with calling a gadget play with Allen as his receiver.

 

From a game-planning perspective, Daboll has always been solid at understanding the weakness of the opponent — it’s just the occasional poor personnel choices and the execution that has been lacking. It got away from Daboll as the game continued, though those first three-plus minutes for the offense put on a show for all the fans watching. Past those two items, it’s hard to overlook all of the failings of the second half.

 

Me - McD has to be better at reigning in Daboll when these instances occur, which has been just too frequent this season. Going with a heavy set with Lee Smith & our FB in the 4th, along with Gore's usage in critical situations handcuffs the offense and creates predictable tendencies for the D to play off of - they know what is coming and are able to stop it. McD needs to to a better job of coaching his coaches. Daboll needs to improve as well and I'm not sure he is going to be able to. He seems like one of those type of OCs or DCs who can't get out of their own ways at times. I think he has been good for Josh, but at times it feels like the offense doesn't fit our QB and I feel like it's due to the reason Joe stated above.

 

 

7) Why did the Bills abandon Cole Beasley?

File this under another peculiar personnel switch for the Bills when they got to their first “win or go home” situation. Over the final two months of the season, the Bills started to turn to slot receiver Cole Beasley quite a bit. He became a safety blanket for Allen and started to find his way into the offense. However, the Bills astonishingly changed courses with their wide receiver usage against the Texans.

 

Beasley went from being an almost every snap player to being outsnapped by Duke Williams.

 

He was good enough, but you always have to wonder what Beasley could have done if he had a bigger opportunity. “I did what I could with what I was given today,” Beasley said. “As a competitor, you always want more opportunities. It is what it is.”

 

Beasley has a right to be frustrated. He only had one reception in the entire second half and overtime, on only two targets. All of Beasley’s contributions and connection through the season with Allen deserved a bigger role in the playoffs.

 

Me - This is the playoffs, you put your best players on the field (especially in critical junctures in the game), play to score TDs, tackle solidly and keep the offense in front of you. While I wished we used Duke more all season, he shouldn't have been in the game in place of Cole. During the preparation for the game and the coaching staff reviewing the game plan this should have been stressed by McD. If Daboll strayed too much, McDs job is to reign him back in.

 

Final thoughts - all of this and we were still right in it and could have easily put the game away:

 

1.) JB toe tap or slightly earlier toss by Allen, we were right there for a TD

2.) Run the ball more with Devin

3.) Bad calls - the 3rd qtr kick off, the blind side block, Kroft penalty

4.) It's a long list and I won't bore you any longer...There is plenty of blame to go around.

A few thoughts from YPP

 

 

 

 

Missed blindside black call by the refs?
 

 

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Josh Allen responded to coaching and criticism in the summer of 2018, fixed some flaws, and became the starter after week 1.

He then responded to coaching and criticism after his injury in Houston, and came back improved and finished out the season a better quarterback.

He then responded to coaching and criticism over the offseason, and started this season as a much better quarterback, until his injury against New England.

He then responded to coaching and criticism of his "hero ball" style of play, and became a much better player until the playoffs.

He then... <-we are here

 

So far, so good.

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I’m going to keep saying this in every thread it’s posted.  The Frank Gore run was on Josh Allen. With 30 seconds left In the half  he “killed” the play and went to the secondary play. 
 

He will learn that regardless of the look, that has to be a pass and let’s get to the next play 

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4 minutes ago, wvbillsfan said:

I’m going to keep saying this in every thread it’s posted.  The Frank Gore run was on Josh Allen. With 30 seconds left In the half  he “killed” the play and went to the secondary play. 
 

He will learn that regardless of the look, that has to be a pass and let’s get to the next play 

 

You can say it all you want.  Even if he "killed" the play you don't know what that play was.  It could have been merely a run to the other side for all you know. The personnel grouping on the field is the wrong damn grouping.  The Bills were in the red zone and Dumboll actually took their best players OFF the field.  He has done this same thing in every damn game this season.  It's both inexcusable and predictable.

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It was not Williams going in for Beasley it was McKenzie constantly on the field instead of Beasley.  Williams is on the outside and Beasley is in the slot.  Two of the ten targets where those silly no chance at happening passes before they kicked the fg to tie.   Had no issue with the targets to Williams.  Had an issue with putting McKenzie in the slot while Beasley was sitting on the sideline on critical down and distances and during the end of the game/ot

 

Surprised he did not touch on the OT possession as again personnel on the field was head scratching.

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Thanks, the “Frank Gore Infatuation” has been infuriating. The good news is we won’t have to worry about that next season. The most interesting observation is the offense not fitting Allen, the offense has to be built around him, I hope they are smart enough to recognize that.


That being said the Bills are about where I expected them to be, probably even better. Yes they should have put the Texans away, that’s been a problem all year, I’m blaming it on coaches. The Bills never quit, the fourth down stop and the drive to tie was exciting. It took a spectacular play that should have been a sack to beat them.

 

I enjoyed this season, this team and discussing it with all of you.

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1 hour ago, Scott7975 said:

 

You can say it all you want.  Even if he "killed" the play you don't know what that play was.  It could have been merely a run to the other side for all you know. The personnel grouping on the field is the wrong damn grouping.  The Bills were in the red zone and Dumboll actually took their best players OFF the field.  He has done this same thing in every damn game this season.  It's both inexcusable and predictable.

I’m not arguing that point at all. I absolutely agree with what you’re saying the personnel groupings Daboll used are awful. 
But the formation and and grouping lead me to believe that we were going heavy play action that Allen called off with the “kill”. 
Nothing about what we do leads me to believe we are doing dummy audibles and I firmly believe that was an audible. 
So on that particular play I put it on Allen. 

Edited by wvbillsfan
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Possibly my biggest beef of the game was the swing pass to Singletary. They threw it on the first drive and it was a great gain. I have been begging for it all year. 
Then they faked it multiple times after and Allen ran with it with varied success. But why never throw it again, they could not cover Devin in the flat. The actually executed a couple screens. 
And there was a lot of mind boggling calls and decisions but the one that killed me most was the bomb to DiMarco when smoke was wide open 20 yards in the middle. 
I’m ok with the loss, I was hopeful but not confident they had the talent to beat some of the powerhouses, but after what they did all season long that was the worst possible way to lose a game. Which makes it sting much more. 

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1 minute ago, Rc2catch said:

Possibly my biggest beef of the game was the swing pass to Singletary. They threw it on the first drive and it was a great gain. I have been begging for it all year. 
Then they faked it multiple times after and Allen ran with it with varied success. But why never throw it again, they could not cover Devin in the flat. The actually executed a couple screens. 
And there was a lot of mind boggling calls and decisions but the one that killed me most was the bomb to DiMarco when smoke was wide open 20 yards in the middle. 
I’m ok with the loss, I was hopeful but not confident they had the talent to beat some of the powerhouses, but after what they did all season long that was the worst possible way to lose a game. Which makes it sting much more. 

 

Its the same as the Jet sweeps.  I felt like part of the reason they kept Foster/McKenzie over Duke is because they were really good at them.  If that were the case, I could almost accept Duke being inactive.  However, it wasn't.  They worked great for us a few times a game early season and then boom... the play almost completely disappeared from the book for over a month... other than ghost fakes.  Daboll is a Dumboll.

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3 minutes ago, Rc2catch said:

Possibly my biggest beef of the game was the swing pass to Singletary. They threw it on the first drive and it was a great gain. I have been begging for it all year. 
Then they faked it multiple times after and Allen ran with it with varied success. But why never throw it again, they could not cover Devin in the flat. The actually executed a couple screens. 
And there was a lot of mind boggling calls and decisions but the one that killed me most was the bomb to DiMarco when smoke was wide open 20 yards in the middle. 
I’m ok with the loss, I was hopeful but not confident they had the talent to beat some of the powerhouses, but after what they did all season long that was the worst possible way to lose a game. Which makes it sting much more. 

I keep bringing this up, but why are people harping in the DiMarco play?  He had position, the throw was there and it was DiMarco mistiming the jump.

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I can always argue with Joe B. It’s because he always blames Allen above all, first and foremost. It’s hard to take him seriously in that regard anymore. The rest of his points are pretty good. They contributed hugely to the loss. 

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24 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

I keep bringing this up, but why are people harping in the DiMarco play?  He had position, the throw was there and it was DiMarco mistiming the jump.

 

From my personal perspective, I don't have a problem with the throw.  I have a problem with the play design as a whole.  DiMarco is not that caliber of player.  He shouldn't even be in there running that route. 

 

This is my problem with Daboll.  He consistently plays a system and calls plays that our players aren't good at, takes our best players off the field, and takes out plays that work.  He has done this all season long.  A good coordinator will put their players in position to succeed.  That doesn't just mean "he schemed a guy open."  That also means calling plays that are consistent with what our players are good at.  It means staying in flow of the game.  Singletary tears their defense up... ok lets take him off the field and run Gore in the redzone… something that has been done in every game and I can't recall a time that it has worked.

 

The Texans have one of, if not the worst red zone defense in the league.  We took our best players off the field and called terrible plays in the red zone.  Our only TD was a gimmick call.  That was a great start to the game, but why don't we run a ***** red zone offense?  Why take our players off the field for heavy packages that haven't worked all year? 

 

I mean I could add hundreds of examples but this isn't the thread or the reply for it.

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Reed HOF, first fantastic post, and appreciated both Joe B’s comments liked a lot you’re editorial.  I can’t disagree with not one point you and he made regarding yesterday.  Lastly, I’ll just say Gore is a HOF, but can’t come back.  Just take a page from Lorax, you’ve already cemented the HOF, probably first ballot, and retire.  I will keep repeating myself in we need a hammer like Carson in Seattle, or Henry although I know they are special players.  It must be the worst kept secret we’re going to grab a 1st rd WR, and may even move up to get the best one, and I debated this at the Bills Backers Bar here in Brandon, FL we can purge Smith, and Kroft, keep Sweeney, develop Knox, and get another top flight TE.  Look what Baltimore is doing in 13 personnel (for any casual fans not most of us that means 1 RB and 3 TE sets with the rest as WR so that would be 1 WR, or at least 12 personnel.  I’m in awe of what Harbaugh has done with this offense in Baltimore.  Talk about getting the most out of you’re players, and creating personnel and scheme to revolve around you’re team’s strengths.

 

I think that’s why people get so pissed at Daboll and really McD.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

That second QB sweep was ball game if the Knox and the lineman make that block. That one hurt bad. Looking at the replay I would say decent chance Allen picks up 10 there. Worst case scenario we are looking at 2nd and 2 from the 35 yard line. 

Mitch Morse was the lineman. The Bills highest paid offensive lineman

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