The Intentional Grounding Penalty that Wasn't

[Not at the table Karlos]

36 minutes ago, Motorin' said:

 

There's no world where the refs don't blow the play dead if he actually completes that pass. But even more important to the reason why the rule is put in place, it's to protect a QB from injury. Two men have him wrapped up and pushed back 8 feet. A third player launches himself at him and knocks him back another 4 feet. Allen is falling and vertical to the ground with 3 men wrapping him up before he even gets a pass off, after being driven backwards 4 yards by three men. 

 

The point of in the grasp is for the refs to blow the whistle to protect a QB from being injured after he's clearly wrapped up and his forward progress is stopped. 

 

 

 

Watson was in the grasp and his forward progress stopped a few games ago and he broke free but the refs whistled the play dead and got a lot of stuff for it. Since then they’ve been letting plays go with mobile qbs. Allen is a big mobile qb that breaks tackles. The refs were 100% right to let the play continue.

[dbfla10]

5 minutes ago, RoyBatty is alive said:

 

That was during the loudest part of the game, i wouldn't be surprised if they had miscommunication as to blocking.

 

And even if what you say is correct, it is hard for me not to fault Dawkins, he has to be more aware of what is going on around him.  Watt isnt even close to him, for Dawkins not to sense or be aware of the huge gap and the defender blowing by him, even it wasnt his assignment, still is troubling to say the least.

I get what your saying, But he's expecting help there. He may see the LB but hes not aware that Lee is nt there... When it comes to pass protection Oline must follow their rules. One guy messes up the result is what you see. If all 6 did their job Singletary is able to block the DB and allen can get the pass off. 

Edited January 10, 2020 by dbfla10

[RoyBatty is alive]

1 minute ago, dbfla10 said:

I get what your saying, But he's expecting help there. He may see the LB but hes not aware that Lee is there... When it comes to pass protection Oline must follow their rules. One guy messes up the result is what you see. If all 6 did their job Singletary is able to block the DB and allen can get the pass off. 

 

Yeah I understand, do your job, the Patriot way.  Works out fine if the other guys all do their job and when they dont, you have a car wreck like this play.  

 

This is so bad it is almost comical 7 guys cant block three, cant really block any of the three.

[row_33]

29 minutes ago, Utah John said:

The rules apparently AREN'T the rules.  The second half kickoff was, by rule, fumbled in the end zone and recovered for a TD.  The correct call was made on the field, and it was overturned for no real reason at all.

 

you are aware that like nobody outside Bills and Texans fans saw this happen or have a clue what you are talking about

 

[suorangefan4]

1 hour ago, Motorin' said:

 

How can you blame Singletary and not Dawkins? This is what our LT was doing on the play when the LB blitzed his gap:

 

 

 

The offensive line deserves blame but Singletary does as well. He was really bad on a lot of pass blocking assignments.

 

I pointed out on Saturday how his missed block on Mercilus was a big reason why Josh Allen fumbled. The offensive line did bad on that play too but Singletary had a chance to help out and he completely ole'd on Mercilus. Singletary gave a really poor effort on a lot of blocking attempts.

[dbfla10]

1 minute ago, RoyBatty is alive said:

 

Yeah I understand, do your job, the Patriot way.  Works out fine if the other guys all do their job and when they dont, you have a car wreck like this play.  

 

This is so bad it is almost comical 7 guys cant block three, cant really block any of the three.

The domino effect of 1 guy not doing is job. Hence why with a 3 man rush the Texans run a stunt, enough to blow the whole play up based on the blocking scheme. 

1 minute ago, suorangefan4 said:

 

The offensive line deserves blame but Singletary does as well. He was really bad on a lot of pass blocking assignments.

 

I pointed out on Saturday how his missed block on Mercilus was a big reason why Josh Allen fumbled. The offensive line did bad on that play too but Singletary had a chance to help out and he completely ole'd on Mercilus. Singletary gave a really poor effort on a lot of blocking attempts.

read my post above its neithers fault 100% of the blame is on Lee

[Motorin']

33 minutes ago, Utah John said:

The rules apparently AREN'T the rules.  The second half kickoff was, by rule, fumbled in the end zone and recovered for a TD.  The correct call was made on the field, and it was overturned for no real reason at all.

 

Well, it wasn't a fumble. He intentionally threw the ball forward, which is by rule an illegal forward pass. There's never a play in the NFL where someone can recover a forward pass that hits the ground. By the letter of the rules, it should have been a safety. 

[BarleyNY]

16 minutes ago, Not at the table Karlos said:

Watson was in the grasp and his forward progress stopped a few games ago and he broke free but the refs whistled the play dead and got a lot of stuff for it. Since then they’ve been letting plays go with mobile qbs. Allen is a big mobile qb that breaks tackles. The refs were 100% right to let the play continue.

Honestly I think the refs did a good job overall and specifically by letting that play continue.  They were letting a lot of stuff go all game.  I’m not sure why one found his whistle on the Ford block, but that was the only big exception to how the game was being officiated.

[jrober38]

The pass protection was clearly called incorrectly. 

 

Every linemen is looking to their right. 

 

There's no way this is by chance. They think the rush is coming from the right, and the complete opposite happens.

 

I don't know who sets the protections (it's either Allen or Morse), but one of them completely screwed it up. 

[Buffalo Junction]

1 hour ago, Motorin' said:

16 feet. That's how far he was driven back while in the grasp of 3 defenders. 

 

And sure, he needs to make better decisions, which might be easier if his LT actually attempted to block the edge rusher on all plays. 

Allen is responsible for setting up the protections at the line. In this case it seems that he misread the pressure and Morse couldn’t or didn’t adjust to the error. That’s why all the linemen are looking to their right and moving to their right. @Shaw66 is correct about protecting inside to outside, but there’s a caveat.... That generalization is null with certain protection calls. They slide the pocket and when that occurs the RB and TE are generally responsible for rushers on the opposite side. Dawkins could have made that block, but if he did and there was delayed pressure in the middle that protection fails. Singletary didn’t make the block, he failed to do his 1/11 on that play. However, Allen and Morse also screwed the pooch with the protection call which set Singletary up for failure.
 

We saw this against the Pats and Ravens too. BB’s 0 blitz scheme is set up to cause this exact issue. Particularly with all the players that draw a block immediately dropping back into coverage. Young QBs are going to get schooled sometimes with protections and coverages. This was a good play call by the Texans and horrible execution by the Bills. They will learn from it. Particularly Allen and Singletary. 

[dbfla10]

4 minutes ago, jrober38 said:

The pass protection was clearly called incorrectly. 

 

Every linemen is looking to their right. 

 

There's no way this is by chance. They think the rush is coming from the right, and the complete opposite happe

Again read my post above. Pass protection is fine. If all 6 do their job their is no issue. 

[jrober38]

3 minutes ago, Buffalo Junction said:

Allen is responsible for setting up the protections at the line. In this case it seems that he misread the pressure and Morse couldn’t or didn’t adjust to the error. That’s why all the linemen are looking to their right and moving to their right. @Shaw66 is correct about protecting inside to outside, but there’s a caveat.... That generalization is null with certain protection calls. They slide the pocket and when that occurs the RB and TE are generally responsible for rushers on the opposite side. Dawkins could have made that block, but if he did and there was delayed pressure in the middle that protection fails. Singletary didn’t make the block, he failed to do his 1/11 on that play. However, Allen and Morse also screwed the pooch with the protection call which set Singletary up for failure.
 

We saw this against the Pats and Ravens too. BB’s 0 blitz scheme is set up to cause this exact issue. Particularly with all the players that draw a block immediately dropping back into coverage. Young QBs are going to get schooled sometimes with protections and coverages. This was a good play call by the Texans and horrible execution by the Bills. They will learn from it. Particularly Allen and Singletary. 

 

This is a very good post.

 

My issue is that this was a problem for the Bills literally all season.

 

There must have been at least 6 times this year that the Bills were somewhere around the 30-35 yard line opposition territory, only to get completely caught off guard by a blitz that resulted in a massive sack or intentional grounding call. In pretty much all of those situations we walked away with no points. 

 

Whoever sets the protections struggled with this constantly throughout the season. 

1 minute ago, dbfla10 said:

Again read my post above. Pass protection is fine. If all 6 do their job their is no issue. 

 

Dawkins clearly isn't responsible for Mercilus. 

 

He never even looks at hims which seems completely insane is that's the guy he's supposed to be blocking.

 

The pass protection is a disastrous call. 3 guys are blocking Watt, Dawkins is blocking no one, and Singletary is responsible for picking up a very good NFL edge rusher who comes untouched. 

 

It's a train wreck. The play is blown up by the protection call before the ball is even snapped. 

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

2 hours ago, KD in CA said:

I didn’t realize previous just how badly Singletary missed the block on that play.

lee Smith was worse he couldn’t pick which of the two to block, so blocked none. 

2 hours ago, Motorin' said:

This play has stuck in my head as one of another BS calls. To be fair, the worst part of the play is the atrocious play of Dawkins completely missing, like not even seeing the LB blitzing right past his left shoulder. How is Singletary the one to get called out for his blocking on this when Lee Smith and Dawkins let both of their men run right past them? Like, wtf is Dawkins doing? 

 

 

 

In any event, when the two edge rushers wrap Josh up, the ball is at the 39 yard line. He's clearing in the grasp and his forward progress is stop. The NFL rule book states "The Referee must blow the play dead as soon as the passer is clearly in the grasp and control of any tackler behind the line, and the passer's safety is in jeopardy.”

 

But Josh gets pushed back 4 yards in the grasp of 3 players, is falling to the ground vertically before the ball comes out. There's no world in which the interpretation of the NFL rules allows there defenders to grasp a QB, drive him backwards 12 feet, and that still be a live ball.

 

Josh in the grasp of 2 defenders at the 39 & 1/2:

 

Josh in the grasp of 3 defenders at the 43:

 

 

 

the positive here on this play is 4 guys blocked Watt. They really took him out of the play 

[Motorin']

1 minute ago, jrober38 said:

 

This is a very good post.

 

My issue is that this was a problem for the Bills literally all season.

 

There must have been at least 6 times this year that the Bills were somewhere around the 30-35 yard line opposition territory, only to get completely caught off guard by a blitz that resulted in a massive sack or intentional grounding call. In pretty much all of those situations we walked away with no points. 

 

Whoever sets the protections struggled with this constantly throughout the season. 

Yes, I think worse than settling for field goals this year was getting knocked out of fg range on big sacks for loss. We easily lost 3 pts per game, and the difference between 17 and 20 is huge with this defense. 

[Scott7975]

First...  The blocking was completely pathetic this play.

Second... I agree the play should have been blown dead. They probably give a little latitude for running QBs like Josh that have broken free on that but this obviously wasn't going to be one of those times so it should have blown dead.

Third... I can believe no one has commented on the fact Josh got hit in the helmet twice on this play.  The first one being a spear.

[dbfla10]

5 minutes ago, jrober38 said:

 

This is a very good post.

 

My issue is that this was a problem for the Bills literally all season.

 

There must have been at least 6 times this year that the Bills were somewhere around the 30-35 yard line opposition territory, only to get completely caught off guard by a blitz that resulted in a massive sack or intentional grounding call. In pretty much all of those situations we walked away with no points. 

 

Whoever sets the protections struggled with this constantly throughout the season. 

 

Dawkins clearly isn't responsible for Mercilus. 

 

He never even looks at hims which seems completely insane is that's the guy he's supposed to be blocking.

 

The pass protection is a disastrous call. 3 guys are blocking Watt, Dawkins is blocking no one, and Singletary is responsible for picking up a very good NFL edge rusher who comes untouched. 

 

It's a train wreck. The play is blown up by the protection call before the ball is even snapped. 

no you're wrong. Lee is responsible for mercilus, and singltary #33. All 6 lineman are to step down to there right (slide) protection. Lee would get enough of Mercilus and singletary enough of 33 for allen to get a pass off. Singletary tried to block Mercilus because Lee went and got 33 and didn't step down. 

[Scott7975]

1 hour ago, ScotSHO said:

1) They are telegraphing the silent snap cadence.  Not sure why the G has to tell the C to snap it with a tap on the leg.

2) The Texans (and probably the Pats) had a fairly elaborate stunt on.  Run a draw play there...

 

Because the line cant hear through the crowd noise.  All teams do this in loud stadiums.

[RoyBatty is alive]

5 minutes ago, Motorin' said:

Yes, I think worse than settling for field goals this year was getting knocked out of fg range on big sacks for loss. We easily lost 3 pts per game, and the difference between 17 and 20 is huge with this defense. 

 

With Josh's style of play, when he gets sacked he can easily lose 15 yards plus.

[Motorin']

1 minute ago, RoyBatty is alive said:

 

With Josh's style of play, when he gets sacked he can easily lose 15 yards plus.

Recognizing when he absolutely can not take a sack has to be a top priority of his this off season. 

Edited January 10, 2020 by Motorin'

[ILBillsfan]

2 hours ago, row_33 said:

 

loss of 36 yards on two downs? 

exactly the rush was on him before he could even do anything was maddening

[Shaw66]

15 minutes ago, Buffalo Junction said:

Allen is responsible for setting up the protections at the line. In this case it seems that he misread the pressure and Morse couldn’t or didn’t adjust to the error. That’s why all the linemen are looking to their right and moving to their right. @Shaw66 is correct about protecting inside to outside, but there’s a caveat.... That generalization is null with certain protection calls. They slide the pocket and when that occurs the RB and TE are generally responsible for rushers on the opposite side. Dawkins could have made that block, but if he did and there was delayed pressure in the middle that protection fails. Singletary didn’t make the block, he failed to do his 1/11 on that play. However, Allen and Morse also screwed the pooch with the protection call which set Singletary up for failure.
 

We saw this against the Pats and Ravens too. BB’s 0 blitz scheme is set up to cause this exact issue. Particularly with all the players that draw a block immediately dropping back into coverage. Young QBs are going to get schooled sometimes with protections and coverages. This was a good play call by the Texans and horrible execution by the Bills. They will learn from it. Particularly Allen and Singletary. 

This is great.  Thanks.  I said "almost always" inside out because I knew that sometimes it isn't, and I don't know enough about how this works to know when it isn't inside out.   Your posts explains why the entire left side of the offensive line was doing the wrong thing - not because they missed their assignments but because Allen or Morse gave them the wrong assignments.   I'd guess it was Allen, as I doubt Morse is adjusting blocking schemes for the linebackers - he can't see the linebackers the way the QB can. 

 

Anyway, thanks for the clarification.   I had said in The Rockpile Review that it was hard to blame Allen for the sack/int grounding because the rush was on him so fast, but it turns out he is the one who has to shoulder the blame, for a different reason.

 

It's another example of why QBs need multiple years of experience to get good in the league.  

[fan_in_tx]

2 hours ago, KD in CA said:

I didn’t realize previous just how badly Singletary missed the block on that play.

My guess by his setup is he thought he had the outside guy and Dawkins would block down inside which makes more sense.   He saw Dawkins pull to the outside and realized he was not positioned for the inside blitz. 

[jrober38]

7 minutes ago, dbfla10 said:

no you're wrong. Lee is responsible for mercilus, and singltary #33. All 6 lineman are to step down to there right (slide) protection. Lee would get enough of Mercilus and singletary enough of 33 for allen to get a pass off. Singletary tried to block Mercilus because Lee went and got 33 and didn't step down. 

 

When did I say Lee wasn't responsible for Mercilus?

 

[All_Pro_Bills]

The line blocking call and execution on this play is more painful to watch than getting a root canal without anesthetic.  I thought I was ready to move on from this game on Monday morning after cooling off for a couple days but I'm seeing and reading more and more about specific plays where the ref's either didn't call it consistently or just blew the call. 

 

Yesterday I watch the OBD show with Murphy and Tasker and Ross Tucker was on and he was also of the opinion the call on Ford was complete BS.  I think that's the consensus of the entire world except the officiating crew here.  Then they showed the 2 pt conversion play Watson ran and you see the Texans RB coming back and towards his own end zone to cut off Edmunds right before he get a hand on the QB.  No call but they make the call in OT in the playoffs.  Two plays before the Ford call on the Allen sweep to the right where 3 Bills missed blocks the defender launches himself into the air and hits the QB helmet to helmet but no call.  Would have been Bills ball 1st and 10 on the 27.

 

And on the 2nd half kickoff two back up officials in black jackets come sprinting out on the field?  That seemed odd.  Yeah that would have been a cheap 7 in that the returner has no intent to return the kick but since when does intent come into play?  The rule to give yourself up in the end zone is to take a knee or go to the ground.  The distinction is process.  Defenders intercepting the ball in the end zone do this too.  They don't end the play by tossing the ball to the official.  No guessing required. 

 

Maybe on the grounding call Allen should have told the officials his intent was to escape the defenders and throw the ball to a wide open receiver down the field.  "Well sure Josh, we understand, you didn't do it with intent so no intentional grounding here then".  That crew just makes me sick.  I hope the Pegula's quietly push for these clowns to never, ever, officiate another NFL game.   And for good measure I hope the Chiefs beat them tomorrow 63-3    

 

 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2020 by All_Pro_Bills

[dbfla10]

1 minute ago, jrober38 said:

 

When did I say Lee wasn't responsible for Mercilus?

 

I thought by saying singletary was responsible for a very good edge rusher you implied Lee picked up the right guy. my bad. 

[jrober38]

13 minutes ago, Motorin' said:

Yes, I think worse than settling for field goals this year was getting knocked out of fg range on big sacks for loss. We easily lost 3 pts per game, and the difference between 17 and 20 is huge with this defense. 

 

100%.

 

It happened all throughout the season.

 

The Bills set up on the cusp of field goal range, Allen not recognizing a blitz, and immediately getting dumped for a sack because he thought he'd have more time to throw than he actually got. 

 

Allen's biggest weakness in my eyes is his lack of situational awareness. It, along with the fumbling, needs to get a LOT better next year. 

Just now, dbfla10 said:

I thought by saying singletary was responsible for a very good edge rusher you implied Lee picked up the right guy. my bad. 

 

I should have clarified. Singletary had him because Smith seemed to mess up.

 

I was more pointing out that Dawkins isn't to blame here, as many were accusing on the first page of the thread. 

 

Smith is as useless a player as I've ever seen. Can't run or catch, took numerous penalties and whiffed on a bunch of blocks.

 

We need to make it a priority to get rid of him. 

[RoyBatty is alive]

21 minutes ago, Buffalo Junction said:

Allen is responsible for setting up the protections at the line. In this case it seems that he misread the pressure and Morse couldn’t or didn’t adjust to the error. That’s why all the linemen are looking to their right and moving to their right. @Shaw66 is correct about protecting inside to outside, but there’s a caveat.... That generalization is null with certain protection calls. They slide the pocket and when that occurs the RB and TE are generally responsible for rushers on the opposite side. Dawkins could have made that block, but if he did and there was delayed pressure in the middle that protection fails. Singletary didn’t make the block, he failed to do his 1/11 on that play. However, Allen and Morse also screwed the pooch with the protection call which set Singletary up for failure.
 

We saw this against the Pats and Ravens too. BB’s 0 blitz scheme is set up to cause this exact issue. Particularly with all the players that draw a block immediately dropping back into coverage. Young QBs are going to get schooled sometimes with protections and coverages. This was a good play call by the Texans and horrible execution by the Bills. They will learn from it. Particularly Allen and Singletary. 

 

In defense of Allen and Morse, verbal communication had to be next to impossible, this was as loud as i have ever beard it in that stadium and i have probably been to 10 games there.  

[Motorin']

4 minutes ago, jrober38 said:

 

100%.

 

It happened all throughout the season.

 

The Bills set up on the cusp of field goal range, Allen not recognizing a blitz, and immediately getting dumped for a sack because he thought he'd have more time to throw than he actually got. 

 

Allen's biggest weakness in my eyes is his lack of situational awareness. It, along with the fumbling, needs to get a LOT better next year. 

 

I should have clarified. Singletary had him because Smith seemed to mess up.

 

I was more pointing out that Dawkins isn't to blame here, as many were accusing on the first page of the thread. 

 

Smith is as useless a player as I've ever seen. Can't run or catch, took numerous penalties and whiffed on a bunch of blocks.

 

We need to make it a priority to get rid of him. 

I guess i dont understand a blocking scheme where your TE is responsible for OLB blitzing and your RB setup to the right of the QB is responsible for the Left most edge rusher. 

[Florida Bills Fanatic]

This play had the look of a blown pre-snap line call which could cause the late reactions and missed blocks.  This occasionally happens, even with some really good o-lines.  I think this happened a couple of times during the game and there is no excuse for it.

[dbfla10]

8 minutes ago, Motorin' said:

I guess i dont understand a blocking scheme where your TE is responsible for OLB blitzing and your RB setup to the right of the QB is responsible for the Left most edge rusher. 

Its slide protection your responsible for anyone guy. You're responsible for guy is said gap. Texans ran a stunt the screwed up Smith. You don't want to always set your RB to the side you want him going to cause the Defense will just check and run the stunt the other way and the bills would've had no one there to block. A RB responsible for EOL and blocking a DB is was you want. This is 100% a protection that should've worked if Smith didn't screw the pooch. 

[row_33]

35 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

lee Smith was worse he couldn’t pick which of the two to block, so blocked none. 

the positive here on this play is 4 guys blocked Watt. They really took him out of the play 

 

they were watching the pregame hype for Watt, can't blame them for being mesmerized

 

 

[RoyBatty is alive]

5 minutes ago, dbfla10 said:

Its slide protection your responsible for anyone guy. You're responsible for guy is said gap. Texans ran a stunt the screwed up Smith. You don't want to always set your RB to the side you want him going to cause the Defense will just check and run the stunt the other way and the bills would've had no one there to block. A RB responsible for EOL and blocking a DB is was you want. This is 100% a protection that should've worked if Smith didn't screw the pooch. 

 

I have been Smith defender as he had great report with his teammates, Lorax was on the radio yesterday and one guy he highlighted was Smith. I was blown away at his ability to block Geno Atkins one on one.  Anyway between the lack of productivity and missed blocking assignments, the ridiculous number of penalties, i think it is time for the Bills to move on.

[Buffalo Junction]

18 minutes ago, jrober38 said:

 

This is a very good post.

 

My issue is that this was a problem for the Bills literally all season.

 

There must have been at least 6 times this year that the Bills were somewhere around the 30-35 yard line opposition territory, only to get completely caught off guard by a blitz that resulted in a massive sack or intentional grounding call. In pretty much all of those situations we walked away with no points. 

 

Whoever sets the protections struggled with this constantly throughout the season. 

 

Dawkins clearly isn't responsible for Mercilus. 

 

He never even looks at hims which seems completely insane is that's the guy he's supposed to be blocking.

 

The pass protection is a disastrous call. 3 guys are blocking Watt, Dawkins is blocking no one, and Singletary is responsible for picking up a very good NFL edge rusher who comes untouched. 

 

It's a train wreck. The play is blown up by the protection call before the ball is even snapped. 

Thank you. My thoughts early in the season were that Allen and Morse weren’t seeing the same thing due to the concussion. As the season went on I’ve put more of that on Allen and Daboll. The reason I add Daboll to the equation is because it’s his responsibility to scheme up something for these breakdowns. Whether it’s a “fire” call where all the linemen immediately run block and Allen takes off, or something else doesn’t matter.... The offense needs an out for an inexperienced QB with full protection responsibilities. 
 

As for Dawkins and Singletary on the particular play in question... I think that if Singletary had made that block long enough for Dawkins to set his feet the outcome would have been different. Part of that may have to do with Singletary’s lack of experience, and inability to recognize a failed protection call early enough to do something about it. 

I think a fair amount of this will be cleaned up next year. They’ll review and refine protections. Plus, Allen started to figure some of this out down the stretch and connect on some long balls. Burn a few teams and DCs stop gambling. Particularly if they drops rushers in a zone blitz and the QB turns into a FB with an escort of dancing bears. 

 

5 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

This is great.  Thanks.  I said "almost always" inside out because I knew that sometimes it isn't, and I don't know enough about how this works to know when it isn't inside out.   Your posts explains why the entire left side of the offensive line was doing the wrong thing - not because they missed their assignments but because Allen or Morse gave them the wrong assignments.   I'd guess it was Allen, as I doubt Morse is adjusting blocking schemes for the linebackers - he can't see the linebackers the way the QB can. 

 

Anyway, thanks for the clarification.   I had said in The Rockpile Review that it was hard to blame Allen for the sack/int grounding because the rush was on him so fast, but it turns out he is the one who has to shoulder the blame, for a different reason.

 

It's another example of why QBs need multiple years of experience to get good in the league.  

Love your posts Shaw... glad you’re doing RPR here after the BBMB shut down. 
 

To make a generalization, Allen has the responsibility since he has the vision. Centers go from that initial call. They can usually change responsibilities based on what they see and anticipate which is done with communication with the guards. If the center has a NT stacked on him the guard might decide the calls depending on the team. It’s entirely possible that Spain didn’t relate the information to Dawkins as well. Tackles have to adapt which is why I give a bit of a pass to the backside linemen because they’re stepping into an area where their initial view is obstructed then reacting. I think this is where all of the new faces killed us this season. Combine that with an inexperienced QB, RB and TEs and it’s the perfect recipe for drive killing protection failures. 
 

This offense will improve here next season. I have no doubts about that whatsoever. Allen will make better reads and calls. Most of - maybe all - of the line will return so communication and feel will be better. Knox and Singletary will have better recognition. Bobby Johnson will have an off-season to adjust to all of this. Daboll will have time to craft and scheme up some outs, hot reads, and/ “fire” calls. 

[dbfla10]

1 minute ago, RoyBatty is alive said:

 

I have been Smith defender as he had great report with his teammates, Lorax was on the radio yesterday and one guy he highlighted was Smith. I was blown away at his ability to block Geno Atkins one on one.  Anyway between the lack of productivity and missed blocking assignments, the ridiculous number of penalties, i think it is time for the Bills to move on.

Smith has wore out his welcome. For as little as he played, he made a blunder every game it felt like.

[Buffalo Junction]

34 minutes ago, RoyBatty is alive said:

 

In defense of Allen and Morse, verbal communication had to be next to impossible, this was as loud as i have ever beard it in that stadium and i have probably been to 10 games there.  

I’m sure. It’s why continuity and experience matter so much. It’s also why you see teams keep the same QB and center combinations as long as possible even when they could improve on physical talent at center. Allen and Morse didn’t get a full year practicing together. They’ll improve here. 

Edited January 10, 2020 by Buffalo Junction

[Motorin']

36 minutes ago, dbfla10 said:

Its slide protection your responsible for anyone guy. You're responsible for guy is said gap. Texans ran a stunt the screwed up Smith. You don't want to always set your RB to the side you want him going to cause the Defense will just check and run the stunt the other way and the bills would've had no one there to block. A RB responsible for EOL and blocking a DB is was you want. This is 100% a protection that should've worked if Smith didn't screw the pooch. 

You really think Smith on Mercelous is ever a good idea? A TE on the best edge rusher when your LT has know one to block is exactly what happened with the Juddon strip sack against the Ravens.

 

Football isn't coding. Situational awareness should rule. 

 

[peterpan]

It's an undeniable fact that Tom Brady WOULD NOT have been called for grounding in that situation.  

 

With that ONE CHANGE in the game, the cheating Pats would have likely won in OT.  Bills lost.  

[123719bwiqrb]

1 hour ago, Scott7975 said:

 

Because the line cant hear through the crowd noise.  All teams do this in loud stadiums.

 

Yes but my point is it makes it easier for the DL to tee off and time the snap right.  There is probably a better way that doesn't involve a tip to the defense.

[WideNine]

6 hours ago, GoBills808 said:

Example A of paying too much attention to one armed Watt

 

Analytics junkies claim our line is great because Allen holds the ball too long.

 

I dunno, sometimes he has time to survey the field and is slow to pull the trigger, but many times this year it was a jail break where Allen had to juke and scramble around just to be able to get a pass off.

 

Often it was only 3 and 4 man rushes with just odd alignments, but our line seemed to be stumped regarding who they should pick up.

 

I think our line could use some more talent particularly on the edges where they struggled with speed rushers.

 

It is not like Allen had a clean pocket a lot of times, but when he did and could step into throws more often than not I liked how he moved the team.

 

 

 

[row_33]

3 hours ago, peterpan said:

It's an undeniable fact that Tom Brady WOULD NOT have been called for grounding in that situation.  

 

With that ONE CHANGE in the game, the cheating Pats would have likely won in OT.  Bills lost.  

 

not recalling a jailbreak of 3 men unimpeded on Brady on a key 4th quarter drive

no way that 4 Pats O-linemen would be hypnotized on a single man on the D like that replay....