Just gonna say it: Daboll’s worst game since the first half of the season

[mannc]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I agree. The oline is built to pass block not to run block. But that isn't helped by two backs who really do not accelerate to the hole. When you combine an oline that struggles to hold its run blocks with two backs that don't hit the hole quickly you get an anaemic run game.

That’s exactly why I would like to see Williams get some snaps.  

[US Egg]

Daboll's worst game in two months yet he won.

 

.....guess the op didn't notice.

[Meatloaf63]

2 hours ago, Jerry Jabber said:

Running it three times in a row was terrible! Reminded me of last season! The Bills aren’t built to run the ball. 

I thought they were going to call Gores number at one point...

[BADOLBILZ]

3 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

I think it was one of the worst coached games of the McDermott era. And not necessarily Sean himself. I thought the plans by all 3 coordinators were mystifying. 

 

Why did we keep running Allen?

Why did we keep blitzing Rivers on 3rd down?

Why did we insist on the short kickoffs and the bringing out their kicks offs when struggling for Field Position?

 

None of it made much sense. Now ultimately that is on Sean and he will take accountability I am sure, but the Bills had some strange plans.

 

 

Said this many times the past 3 seasons.......when Daboll is bad he is over-guessing what the D will be and trying to pick the perfect play instead of doing what the team does best and/or playing with tempo.

 

When they finally got untracked and were playing hurry up the Colts quickly had an injury(real or otherwise) which allowed Daboll some time to go back to over-thinking it.

 

He's done a good job but as a play caller he CAN be upgraded.........it's not like it's all downhill from here if he leaves.

 

 

 

 

[GunnerBill]

3 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Said this many times the past 3 seasons.......when Daboll is bad he is over-guessing what the D will be and trying to pick the perfect play instead of doing what the team does best and/or playing with tempo.

 

When they finally got untracked and were playing hurry up the Colts quickly had an injury(real or otherwise) which allowed Daboll some time to go back to over-thinking it.

 

He's done a good job but as a play caller he CAN be upgraded.........it's not like it's all downhill from here if he leaves.

 

Don't disagree with the general point but he did the same with the Patriots two weeks ago and it was one of the best games he has called. He anticipated what Bill was doing that day and set him up from the very first drive. 

 

He was hurt today by awful field position first half and some less than stellar line play but Indy came with something unique in their plan compared to their standard D and Daboll didn't seem to adjust and attack the edges. 

 

Hopefully just put it down to a bad day at the office and come up with a better plan next week.

[GaryPinC]

I agree with most that coaching was the problem today.  On defense I didn't notice much stunting and Rivers had far too much time.  Probably dialed it back to maintain gap integrity against the run but it really hurt us.  Certainly in the second half they could have gotten more creative with their rush when we opened up our lead.

 

On offense we were very vanilla and non aggressive in terms of setting up future plays.  I do believe Daboll overthought things.  Lack of screens, play-action etc.  

 

Try and do what we do best first.  Then go from there.

 

We got over the hump and got the win.  Reminds me of the first Patriots game.  Let's hope they loosen up and get back to normal.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Just gonna say it: this forcibly puts me in mind of the Frank Reich and Phillip Rivers pressers I just listened to.

 

Now give them credit, they repeatedly said that the Bills are a good team.  But to hear them, their defense played lights-out, our defense couldn't stop them, they only lost the game due to self inflicted wounds.  OK, what's the other side?  Our defense obviously did stop them since they punted twice, had two FG attempts instead of TDs (1 miss) and two TOD.  And their defense obviously didn't perfectly stop us since we had 3 TDs and 2 FGs and, like, scored more points.

 

My point is, the OP (whom I enjoy reading) is looking very one-dimensionally at this game to finger Daboll.

 

Bease in his post-game said straight out "this is the best defense we've faced all season" and also pointed out that when you're pinned deep, it limits the playbook as you absolutely can't risk turning the ball over or it's immediate points for the other side.

 

In the first half, our AVERAGE field position start was the 8 yd line!!!! We started from the 3, 15, 11, 6, and 4 yd lines.  That's pretty awful, and it limits what the offense can do.  It makes 3-and-outs more likely.  The best field position (15 yds) was our first TD.  3 of the others were 3 and outs.  But it's not all on the offense.  "Complimentary football" is at play.

 

 

[pigpen65]

Complete vanilla Jauron ball both offensively and defensively.

[All I Need is Hope]

We played a really good qb today, and a talented team in all three phases.

 

This wasn’t Tua or Cam or old Ben or Drew Lock.

 

Good, disciplined, well coached team; and we played good enough to win 

[PromoTheRobot]

4 hours ago, Chaos said:

The bills did not seem to have any game plan at all today, on either side of the ball. Colts seemed much better prepared. We did not touch rivers once in the game, & needed a series of miraculous toe dancing catches by the rookie davis to win this game. 

 

That happens against good defenses. Give credit where it's due.

[LABILLBACKER]

4 hours ago, Chaos said:

The bills did not seem to have any game plan at all today, on either side of the ball. Colts seemed much better prepared. We did not touch rivers once in the game, & needed a series of miraculous toe dancing catches by the rookie davis to win this game. 

We had 0 sacks. 0 hits and 0 hurries. Our pass rush was probably the worst I've seen all year. As others have said both lines struggled today. And so did Daboll. He's going to get Josh killed if he doesn't dial back some of these runs.

[Chaos]

1 minute ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

That happens against good defenses. Give credit where it's due.

Colts are not a notably good defense. They were much better prepared than the Bills today. 

 

[Jerry Jabber]

1 hour ago, Meatloaf63 said:

I thought they were going to call Gores number at one point...

Hahaha...it definitely reminded of last year when Daboll called three run plays with Gore starting first and goal from the ten yard line.

[BlazinBill]

I get this wasn't the easiest game to watch- I wasn't happy at all most of the game with alot of what they did on offense and defense. It led to me being on the edge of my seat in doubt alot.

But let's take a step back and breathe here - this was a play off game  and a win - ugly or not 

This team isn't some garbage team - it's a an 11-5 well rounded team- could we have played better absolutely- but we advanced

 

[Virgil]

5 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

I don’t know what Daboll was thinking today.  He went back to the early in the season mindset and making head scratching calls, trying to force the run when it wasn’t there, too conservative at times, and went with too many called QB runs.  
 

We are a passing team, and when he turned it loose we moved the ball with ease.  
 

I really hope Daboll goes back to what we have scene all during the second half of the season.  

 

I respectfully disagree.  Our field position and inability to execute on short yardage rushing plays against a weak box really hurt the Bills today.  My only issue was with a few of the Allen outside keepers, but that's all.  I think the players would tell you the same thing.  5 on the 5 in the box should lead to a 3-5 rushing yards easily every single time.

[Freddie's Dead]

56 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

"Complimentary football" is at play.

 

"Nice throw, Josh".  "Nice catch, Stef".

[Freddie's Dead]

5 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

Why did we insist on the short kickoffs and the bringing out their kicks offs when struggling for Field Position?

 

Andre did this twice when the ball was kicked to the extreme right of the EZ.  I think his average FP was 17.5 yard line on these two kicks.  On a third kick in the middle of the field, he got to the 25 and was one man away from breaking it.  His missed FC punt also put us in a deep hole.  Andre made at a minimum three bad decisions that ruined our normally stellar return game.  That's not Frank outcoaching us, that's us screwing up.  Hopefully Andre gets his rectocephaly cured before the divisional round next week.

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

It seemed bad but

 

 

 

those are some good stats. 
3 total TD’s 

 

the goal for Indy was to keep the ball out of Josh’s hands.  
 

they pretty much succeeded. They just didn’t put up more points. 
 

its the playoffs and the competition is supposed to cause issues.  

[JohnNord]

5 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

I don’t know what Daboll was thinking today.  He went back to the early in the season mindset and making head scratching calls, trying to force the run when it wasn’t there, too conservative at times, and went with too many called QB runs.  
 

We are a passing team, and when he turned it loose we moved the ball with ease.  
 

I really hope Daboll goes back to what we have scene all during the second half of the season.  

I thought we should’ve scrapped the running game.  I heard the ratio was 60/40.  Probably a bit too high given the fact that Indy has the second ranked defense.

 

We don’t know for sure whether the runs by Josh were the play call or if it was improvised.  
 

The only series I didn’t like were three straight runs deep in Bills territory and then the called run by Josh.

[Process]

1 minute ago, SlimShady'sSpaceForce said:

It seemed bad but

 

 

 

those are some good stats. 
3 total TD’s 

 

the goal for Indy was to keep the ball out of Josh’s hands.  
 

they pretty much succeeded. They just didn’t put up more points. 
 

its the playoffs and the competition is supposed to cause issues.  

Except they didn't cause issues? Allen was beating them through the air, hence the stats you showed. But Daboll refused to stick with and let Allen get in a rhythm. He forced bs qb sneaks and run plays against one of the best run D's and worst secondaries in the NFL. When he did the opposite all year long. Made absolutely no sense. It's like he was trying to keep the colts in the game.

 

The fact that allen was able to out up those numbers shows how good he is. It was despite Daboll not because of him. 

[The Firebaugh Kid]

Agree. Hated the qb runs. Wayyyyyy too many. And no McKenzie. Strange. 

[Rock-A-Bye Beasley]

5 hours ago, DQW87 said:

Yeah but 1st half field position played a huge part in that.  Don't have a lot of options backed up to the endzone all half.

while the field position did play a huge part in that, it was by choice. 
 

you have plenty of options other than runs straight up the gut repeatedly as evidenced by the end of half drive. 
 

I understand the runs if the QB is standing in his own end zone on pass plays. Otherwise let Allen use that big arm on 2nd and 1. 

[billsfanmiamioh]

Yep, didn’t particularly like the plan of attack & play calling today. Oh well, survive and advance.

[Straight Hucklebuck]

5 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

I think it was one of the worst coached games of the McDermott era. And not necessarily Sean himself. I thought the plans by all 3 coordinators were mystifying. 

 

Why did we keep running Allen?

Why did we keep blitzing Rivers on 3rd down?

Why did we insist on the short kickoffs and the bringing out their kicks offs when struggling for Field Position?

 

None of it made much sense. Now ultimately that is on Sean and he will take accountability I am sure, but the Bills had some strange plans.

It’s fine if you looked at the Colts film and concluded you could run on them.

 

So hand it off instead of sweeps by Allen on 3rd downs. His penchant for fumbling is not gone.

 

And once again, our 3rd Down and < 2 yard runs were atrocious. Our line got no push whatsoever.

 

We looked confident in 4-Wide sets throwing the ball, but be more confident in hand-offs to the running backs if it’s something you want to do.

 

 

[AKC]

1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

In the first half, our AVERAGE field position start was the 8 yd line!!!! We started from the 3, 15, 11, 6, and 4 yd lines.  That's pretty awful, and it limits what the offense can do.  It makes 3-and-outs more likely.  The best field position (15 yds) was our first TD. 

 

 

The first half story was how badly we got worked on ST yet walked the tunnel for orange sections with the lead. I’m inclined to believe the QB runs today were at least as much to force the next defense(s) we see to be ready so perhaps BD got a little ahead of himself, but the only thing that matters is the advance to next week. 

[CaptnCoke11]

27 minutes ago, The Firebaugh Kid said:

Agree. Hated the qb runs. Wayyyyyy too many. And no McKenzie. Strange. 

There have been plenty of games with no McKenzie.  The QB runs i agree with.  Went to the well too many times.  

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

6 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

I think it was one of the worst coached games of the McDermott era. And not necessarily Sean himself. I thought the plans by all 3 coordinators were mystifying. 

 

Why did we keep running Allen?

Why did we keep blitzing Rivers on 3rd down?

Why did we insist on the short kickoffs and the bringing out their kicks offs when struggling for Field Position?

 

None of it made much sense. Now ultimately that is on Sean and he will take accountability I am sure, but the Bills had some strange plans.

this is spot on. Also, to your point,  very weird how McDermott had one of his best coaching days today in terms of game tactics (going for it, challenges, timeouts, etc.), but the coordinators’ gameplans were wonky. 

[Green Lightning]

Defense. Good lord dreadful. Giving up a TD in the 4th quarter in under 3 mins followed by giving up a other in under 2 mins was horrendous. The inability to get them off the field on 3rd and 4th downs was unbelievable. Zero pass rush and no ability to cover any of their TEs. This is not a SB D and our only hope is Josh outscoring everyone. If the D would have made them work for a 5 or 6 min TD it wouldn't have been the nailbiter it was.

[Dablitzkrieg]

While I agree the play calling was suspect, this stat is interesting from Sal C...

 

"With how the game looked and felt I definitely didn't expect this stat to read this way:
Total yards per play: Bills 6.8, Colts 6.2
That's the 4th-highest yards per play the Bills have had this season.  They were efficient on offense.  Just didn't have the ball very long."

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 hours ago, Chaos said:

Colts are not a notably good defense. They were much better prepared than the Bills today. 

 

‘where do you get this notion that they are not a good defense?  Even just go look up their stats, then the # of first team all pros they have

1 hour ago, JohnNord said:

I thought we should’ve scrapped the running game.  I heard the ratio was 60/40.  Probably a bit too high given the fact that Indy has the second ranked defense.

 

We don’t know for sure whether the runs by Josh were the play call or if it was improvised.  
 

The only series I didn’t like were three straight runs deep in Bills territory and then the called run by Josh.

otoh where did you get Indy has #2 defense, they dont

 

[JohnNord]

1 minute ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

‘where do you get this notion that they are not a good defense?  Even just go look up their stats, then the # of first team all pros they have

otoh where did you get Indy has #2 defense, they dont

 

Sorry 2nd ranked rush defense

[NickelCity]

Bizarre playcalling. 

 

I really hope we clean things up. Let Josh throw for chrissake. 

[Logic]

Personally, I disagree.

The only thing I had a problem with was the lack of the jet sweep and pre-snap motions with McKenzie. McKenzie, though, may well have not been healthy, since he was barely seen in this game.

One or more Bills players said they felt like this was the toughest defense they played against all season. The Colts defense routinely controlled the line of scrimmage. They have 1st team All-Pros at DT and LB. They're well coached and disciplined and fast.

Furthermore, a lot of the runs today seemed to be "check with me's" that Josh audibled into. On other occasions, the execution was poor. On still OTHER occasions, the Bills were repeatedly starting drives from their own 10 yard line or worse.

With all of that said, the Bills still scored 27 points.

Was it Daboll's best game? Absolutely not. I thought it lacked a little of the creativity and diversity we've come to expect from him. But to say it was his WORST game since whenever? I don't know. I didn't see it.

[Stanley Lombardi]

Daboll was on a mission to out-think himself all day.  Fortunately, so was Frank Reich.

[Rick 'r Mortis]

Next week will be completely different. I'm thinking not one designed QB run.

[White Linen]

I agree that the game plans in all 3 phases were incorrect for this game.   I felt we got out coached today but in the end had the better QB.  

[Hapless Bills Fan]

36 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Sorry 2nd ranked rush defense

 

Ah!  Yes, This is True. 

 

Colts have a very good run D, a kind of mid-pack pass D on yards, and very opportunistic on turnovers.  Overall very solid D, 10 on points 8 on yards.  I kind of feel they're a bit like the Bills in that they had a "wake up call" against the Titans where they just had a horrible, no good very bad game where Henry ran all over them, after which they pulled themselves together and leveled-up for the last 5 games.

 

For this game, they had that "underdog" vibe going on and they were loose and ballin'.

[Doc Brown]

57 minutes ago, Dablitzkrieg said:

While I agree the play calling was suspect, this stat is interesting from Sal C...

 

"With how the game looked and felt I definitely didn't expect this stat to read this way:
Total yards per play: Bills 6.8, Colts 6.2
That's the 4th-highest yards per play the Bills have had this season.  They were efficient on offense.  Just didn't have the ball very long."

Yeah, but we had more three and outs than usual leaving our defense more vulnerable to fatigue as the game wore on.  We were 2 for 9 on 3rd downs which is uncharacteristic for us.  I give a lot of credit to the Colts defense but Allen found a way.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

31 minutes ago, Logic said:

Personally, I disagree.

The only thing I had a problem with was the lack of the jet sweep and pre-snap motions with McKenzie. McKenzie, though, may well have not been healthy, since he was barely seen in this game.

One or more Bills players said they felt like this was the toughest defense they played against all season. The Colts defense routinely controlled the line of scrimmage. They have 1st team All-Pros at DT and LB. They're well coached and disciplined and fast.

Furthermore, a lot of the runs today seemed to be "check with me's" that Josh audibled into. On other occasions, the execution was poor. On still OTHER occasions, the Bills were repeatedly starting drives from their own 10 yard line or worse.

With all of that said, the Bills still scored 27 points.

Was it Daboll's best game? Absolutely not. I thought it lacked a little of the creativity and diversity we've come to expect from him. But to say it was his WORST game since whenever? I don't know. I didn't see it.

 

Yes.

 

This was really a tale of two halves as far as TOP.  In the first half, as I pointed out elsewhere, the Bills average starting position was the 8 yd line.  They started drives from the 3, 15, 11, 6, and 4 yd lines.  One of the same players (Beasley) who stated flat out "this was the best defense we've faced all season" also pointed out that starting a drive from very close to the endzone limits what you can do offensively, and that you pretty much need to get away from the endzone and then you can execute your gameplan.  We got a TD on the 2nd drive (starting from the 15 yd line) and the last drive (starting from the 4 yd line).  The others, we went 3 and out.

 

As a result, there was a huge disparity in TOP in the first half.  But in the 2nd half, the TOP was about equal.

 

It's not a coincidence that in the 2nd half, the Bills were starting drives from the 28, 23, 25 and 24 yd lines and could go right to work.

 

I'll be interested to check the snap counts, but I do wonder if McKenzie was hampered with the ankle injury.  Lost in the concern about Beasley is the fact that he was listed as limited for 2 of the 3 practices this week.

 

Pre-snap motions, I think we had a bunch.  But jet sweeps and screens and stuff, we had no chance with those.  The Colts were freakin' living in our backfield.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Just re-watched a chunk of the game. The Bills O-line had an up and down game.  Feliciano was poor in pass protection at times.  Morse was so so.  Boettger was poor in run blocking.  Dawkins and Williams were solid most of the game.