Chris Simms Unbuttoned review of Steelers-Bills

[Hapless Bills Fan]

 

He makes IMO a number of great points.

 

Points out how we could have started in a big hole instead of 7-0 if a couple different bounces at the start of the game had gone the Steelers way, which I don't like to hear but he's right.

[Warcodered]

5 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

He makes IMO a number of great points.

 

Points out how we could have started in a big hole instead of 7-0 if a couple different bounces at the start of the game had gone the Steelers way, which I don't like to hear but he's right.

Yep if the Defense hadn't stepped up big in this game we could of been Diggsing out of a big whole from the first half.

[Slippery Rubber Mats]

I think the BIlls would have won that game regardless of what the score was coming in the 2nd half.

[Motorin']

I want to know why we didn't start off the game with short underneath passing to get the ball out quick?

[Buffalo Boy]

Just now, Motorin' said:

I want to know why we didn't start off the game with short underneath passing to get the ball out quick?

    My hope is, in the future, the “ adjustment”doesn’t take till halftime. Sometimes, the other team is just playing better. Clearly the Steelers front 7 was getting a good rush to start the game and Josh was having a hard time with it. 
     Was it Daboll or was it Josh being stubborn? 

[NewEra]

5 minutes ago, Motorin' said:

I want to know why we didn't start off the game with short underneath passing to get the ball out quick?

My guess is that we had confidence in our OL holding up. The unit has been great all season in pass protection. 
 

The only thing that really matters is that Daboll pivoted, made the proper adjustments and we dominated 

[DrDawkinstein]

8 minutes ago, Motorin' said:

I want to know why we didn't start off the game with short underneath passing to get the ball out quick?

 

Simms talks about that. Looked like the Bills have established an identity (at least in their own eyes) and wanted to come out and "do what they do". Which is let Josh spread it around, throwing intermediate/long passes on long developing crossing routes.

 

Can't blame the team for wanting to establish their identity and impose their will on the opposition.

 

I guess our fan-patience wore out before Daboll's did on abandoning that plan. They figured it out in plenty of time.

[Stank_Nasty]

28 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

He makes IMO a number of great points.

 

Points out how we could have started in a big hole instead of 7-0 if a couple different bounces at the start of the game had gone the Steelers way, which I don't like to hear but he's right.

i agree with him but its not as if the stillers didnt get their breaks. knox gift wrapped a fumble and then 2 plays later poyer punches it out and they recover it.

 

goes both ways IMO.

[Ta111]

5 minutes ago, Stank_Nasty said:

i agree with him but its not as if the stillers didnt get their breaks. knox gift wrapped a fumble and then 2 plays later poyer punches it out and they recover it.

 

goes both ways IMO.

Don’t forget the fumble by Rothlesberger when he was sacked. The refs blew the whistle early on that one.

[Warcodered]

 

[JohnNord]

5 minutes ago, Ta111 said:

Don’t forget the fumble by Rothlesberger when he was sacked. The refs blew the whistle early on that one.

That would’ve been a TD for Hughes too.  His point is valid...but you can play the “what if game all day” when reviewing NFL games

[Pokebball]

30 minutes ago, Buffalo Boy said:

    My hope is, in the future, the “ adjustment”doesn’t take till halftime. Sometimes, the other team is just playing better. Clearly the Steelers front 7 was getting a good rush to start the game and Josh was having a hard time with it. 
     Was it Daboll or was it Josh being stubborn? 

I think it's fair criticism of the coaching staff, asking why they weren't prepared for short and underneath passing at the opening kick off.  They were playing a good defense that blitzes more than any other team.

[Hebert19]

41 minutes ago, Buffalo Boy said:

    My hope is, in the future, the “ adjustment”doesn’t take till halftime. Sometimes, the other team is just playing better. Clearly the Steelers front 7 was getting a good rush to start the game and Josh was having a hard time with it. 
     Was it Daboll or was it Josh being stubborn? 

It was a great gameplan though.  It wasn't really just the front 7 which was what made it difficult to adjust.  They were in dime half the time and bringing DBs on the blitz and unfortunately we couldn't run thru it as they were plugging holes. 

 

Was a great plan. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

56 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

Simms talks about that. Looked like the Bills have established an identity (at least in their own eyes) and wanted to come out and "do what they do". Which is let Josh spread it around, throwing intermediate/long passes on long developing crossing routes.

 

This, I think.  They handled TJ Watt and Cam Hayward pretty decently last year.  They knew the LB corps were depleted and Joe Haden was out.  They thought they could handle the Steelers DL and keep Josh clean.  As someone else said, the Stillers were playing a lot of dime and blitzing DBs which I don't think we expected, and Cam Heyward was just unblockable in the 1st half.

 

I would have liked to see a bit quicker adjustment, but with the pick and the fumbles they didn't have a lot of offensive plays. 

 

We complain sometimes if we "let the defense dictate our offense" instead of "playing our game", so I think we have to accept that "playing our game" sometimes means give it a try before we scrap it and try something else.

 

I also think we felt Beas would be open underneath. I haven't watched the film yet but I think we'll find they were mugging him, playing very physical, and bracketing him.  We could back them off with throws to the TE, well we threw to Knox and you know how that went (not to pillory Dawson, Cris Collinsworth said with sympathy "I had a pick on a catch like that myself").  So we had to change the play script to put Diggs underneath as well then we had openings.

 

To the point that's been made, this is where it's big to miss Brown, because the Steelers weren't too afraid of Knox and Davis.  They can double up Beasley and Diggs.

 

 

32 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

That would’ve been a TD for Hughes too.  His point is valid...but you can play the “what if game all day” when reviewing NFL games

 

Yes, that's why I don't care about it when people are like "we were one play away from a loss if that team only....."

 

It usually cuts both ways, and if a play is earlier than the last play, it becomes a different ballgame from that play forward.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

29 minutes ago, Warcodered said:

 

 

🤣🤣🤣 1:30 in.  Diggs gives Cam Sutton a push (within 5 yds LOS) and sends him sliding on his stomach 12 yds downfield while he makes the catch.

 

Our boy Stefon, he strong!

[wjag]

The slow start was frustrating, but I suspect Pitt was running on adrenaline.  Once that was burned off, the Bills took over,  It was rope-a-dope.  Their defensive subtractions were more glaring and their offensive line was in complete shambles by the end of that game.  

[WideNine]

Chris seemed a bit reluctant to give Williams his due against Watt.

 

Certainly Watt demanded attention, but I do think Williams did enough to keep him in check. If anything Heyward was the biggest headache earlier where for some reason we were not doubling him regularly. When the Bills put more bodies on Heyward, the pocket was not collapsing into Allen's lap and he had just enough space to operate that short passing game.

 

That, and I think that Allen was adjusting to their blitz-heavy scheme and started to get a feel for where the holes were. Credit to Pittsburgh as I thought we could catch them with some screens, but they were well-coached and diagnosed those quickly and either blew those up, or on one Allen had to dirt it in the direction of our RB. We may have still been able to catch them with some draw plays, but not complaining just thinking out loud on the best ways to negate teams that rush that many defenders each snap.

 

Having your TE just slip behind the line seemed to be pretty effective as well and Allen made that work a few times. Allen is getting better at searching and leveraging his outlet options on those hot reads of guys blitzing off the edges.

 

 

 

[BearNorth]

Thing that is most telling to me is Bills 75 snaps, Steelers 57.  Know the last drive padded that, but thought they could have scored on that - but didn't need to.

 

[Jobot]

Slightly disagree that the Bills were the lucky ones in the first half.. I think it was closer to 50/50, that Knox fumble was a gift for the Steelers to get the ball and have an opportunity to score some points.

 

Also, there was no clear recovery of the football on that push-pass from Allen... several whistles were blown before anyone recovered the ball.

 

Overall good analysis.

[Chuck Schick]

22 minutes ago, Jobot said:

 

 

Also, there was no clear recovery of the football on that push-pass from Allen... several whistles were blown before anyone recovered the ball.

 

Overall good analysis.

It is just a matter of time before there's a huge controversy with a play like this.  The "clear recovery" rule mixed in with whistles blowing and guys either stopping or piling on...recipe for disaster.

[Buffalo Boy]

3 hours ago, Hebert19 said:

It was a great gameplan though.  It wasn't really just the front 7 which was what made it difficult to adjust.  They were in dime half the time and bringing DBs on the blitz and unfortunately we couldn't run thru it as they were plugging holes. 

 

Was a great plan. 

Was a good plan.... till it wasn’t 😜

[Saint Doug]

5 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

He makes IMO a number of great points.

 

Points out how we could have started in a big hole instead of 7-0 if a couple different bounces at the start of the game had gone the Steelers way, which I don't like to hear but he's right.

I don’t buy (and never do really) the “couple of different bounces” argument. The same could’ve be said for us. What if Diggs caught that ball in the end zone  or Knox didn’t have that freak turnover. The point is, good teams are good because of they manage to generate (and take advantage of) such bounces and bad teams make their own bad bounces. I don’t even believe the Hail Mary was a “bounce”. It was the best receiver in the NFL taking advantage of an ill-prepared defense. We earned that loss. 

[Kelly the Dog]

6 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

He makes IMO a number of great points.

 

Points out how we could have started in a big hole instead of 7-0 if a couple different bounces at the start of the game had gone the Steelers way, which I don't like to hear but he's right.

While I love Chris Simms and agree with almost everything he said, it was the Steelers that got as many of the bounces. The hit arm INT goes right to a Steeler (otherwise IMO that is a long TD to Beasley). The weird bounce. of Knox goes right to a Steeler. The Bills may have lucked out on a strip sack that wasn't challenged but the Steelers lucked out more on a strip sack that was a Bills TD when they apparently blew the ball dead on Big Ben. The bounces were even or benefitted the Steelers more than the Bills. 

[ganesh]

5 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

🤣🤣🤣 1:30 in.  Diggs gives Cam Sutton a push (within 5 yds LOS) and sends him sliding on his stomach 12 yds downfield while he makes the catch.

 

Our boy Stefon, he strong!

yeah loved it....so beautifully captured in the video....and then Diggs slides to that same spot 12 yards downfield 🙂

[HardyBoy]

My guess on the thought process was something along the lines of, let's try and jump on them with big plays early, get a quick two score lead and then go short passing to salt the game away.

 

The steelers aren't going to to up three scores on you quick (without defensive touchdowns), so go for the early haymaker, if you can land it great, if not you're worst within two scores when you transition to what their offense ended up being and you have to feel confident in scoring twice and stopping them twice to get the lead back, especially once you see your scheme against their running game is basically perfect.

[CincyBillsFan]

42 minutes ago, Kelly the Dog said:

While I love Chris Simms and agree with almost everything he said, it was the Steelers that got as many of the bounces. The hit arm INT goes right to a Steeler (otherwise IMO that is a long TD to Beasley). The weird bounce. of Knox goes right to a Steeler. The Bills may have lucked out on a strip sack that wasn't challenged but the Steelers lucked out more on a strip sack that was a Bills TD when they apparently blew the ball dead on Big Ben. The bounces were even or benefitted the Steelers more than the Bills. 

 

Don't forget how after the Knox fumble the Steelers fumbled it right back but even though the ball was surrounded by Bills they didn't get it.  The Steeler's scored a couple of plays later.

 

 

[Doc]

2 hours ago, Buffalo Boy said:

Was a good plan.... till it wasn’t they got punched in the mouth 😜

 

FIFY.

[Dr. K]

6 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

This, I think.  They handled TJ Watt and Cam Hayward pretty decently last year.  They knew the LB corps were depleted and Joe Haden was out.  They thought they could handle the Steelers DL and keep Josh clean.  As someone else said, the Stillers were playing a lot of dime and blitzing DBs which I don't think we expected, and Cam Heyward was just unblockable in the 1st half.

 

I would have liked to see a bit quicker adjustment, but with the pick and the fumbles they didn't have a lot of offensive plays. 

 

We complain sometimes if we "let the defense dictate our offense" instead of "playing our game", so I think we have to accept that "playing our game" sometimes means give it a try before we scrap it and try something else.

 

I also think we felt Beas would be open underneath. I haven't watched the film yet but I think we'll find they were mugging him, playing very physical, and bracketing him.  We could back them off with throws to the TE, well we threw to Knox and you know how that went (not to pillory Dawson, Cris Collinsworth said with sympathy "I had a pick on a catch like that myself").  So we had to change the play script to put Diggs underneath as well then we had openings.

 

To the point that's been made, this is where it's big to miss Brown, because the Steelers weren't too afraid of Knox and Davis.  They can double up Beasley and Diggs.

 

 

 

Yes, that's why I don't care about it when people are like "we were one play away from a loss if that team only....."

 

It usually cuts both ways, and if a play is earlier than the last play, it becomes a different ballgame from that play forward.

I was impressed with the pressure and physicality of the Steelers' defense in the first half. They punched the Bills in the mouth in that first quarter and the Bills struggled to string any plays together. But the Bills were already adjusting by the end of the second quarter with the drive for the field goal.  

 

Then after the half they seemed to have shaken off the Steelers' intensity, adjusted, and were counterpunching. 

The 7:11 drive to end the game was a thing of beauty, especially after they had to overcome a first and 20 at the beginning of the drive. The bootleg Daboll called for Josh to pick up the last first down (though he slid too early) was brilliant, I thought. 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Dr. K

[Warcodered]

 

Diggs for Jefferson straight up....what is Florio smoking?

Edited December 16, 2020 by Warcodered