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

[Buffalo Ballin]

Agreed with OP.

 

Sometimes I thought, "WTF is Daboll doing? Did he want us to lose the game?"

 

And Leslie Frazier's defense, "OMG. That was bad."

 

Imagine when we're clicking.

[Scott7975]

9 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 agree.  Was saying the same thing all gameday thread.  Dabolls playcalling was absolute crap today.

[HappyDays]

I think Daboll is the main reason this game was so stressful. We had multiple chances to run away with it but he kept calling stupid drive killing plays that let the Colts hang around. The way you beat a strong running team is not with slow methodical drives that drain the clock with 2 yard runs. That's playing into what the Colts wanted. We should have been aggressive passing the ball and building a lead so big that running wasn't an option for them.

 

I just don't understand why he went away from our identity in this one. It's like he accidentally grabbed the 2019 playbook on the way to the game. Allen played great and we had our full complement of receivers for the first time in forever, yet we somehow ended up punting the ball more than any game since the bye. That's 100% on Daboll. I won't be unhappy to see him hired away this year.

Edited January 10, 2021 by HappyDays

[Nihilarian]

3 hours ago, Process said:

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. 

         Daboll is going to get a HCing gig.

 

I wonder if he will look anywhere near as good without Josh Allen (74.3 completion percentage 324 passing yards, 2 passing TDs, 1 rushing TD) carrying the offense. 

[HappyDays]

9 hours ago, Billznut said:

Our biggest obstacle today was our god awful defense. Not sure which game you watched. 

 

Eh defense has been bad all year. It hasn't been terrible like it was the first few weeks, but it's still been pretty mediocre over the last couple months. I knew the Colts would score at least 21 points in this one, I just expected our offense to do what it's been doing and put up at least 30 while sustaining drives. And really, looking at the stats, we should have been able to do that if the game plan hadn't been stupid.

 

Our passing efficiency today was unbelievable. 74% completion percentage, 9.3 YPA, 121.6 passer rating, 2 TDs 0 INT. When Allen scrambled on designed pass plays we were also very effective. There was a stretch in the 2nd half where every time we passed the ball we picked up big chunks of yards and every time we ran we got stuffed, yet Daboll kept throwing in running plays. To keep Indy honest I guess? I just hate that mindset. I don't care if the defense is expecting a pass. Pass it anyways and dare them to stop us. We did that against the Seahawks and the Patriots (2nd game) for example and had some of our best offensive production of the year.

 

So yes the defense was not good but it really hasn't been good all year. This is an offense-led team. Daboll should know by now what we do well. No matter what the defense does there's no excuse for us to fall short of 30 points when we're passing the ball that well, and we're lucky Bass was perfect in this game. 3 TDS doesn't cut it.

Edited January 10, 2021 by HappyDays

[billsherd]

Well it is sort of start of another season.

[newcam2012]

1 hour ago, Buffalo Ballin said:

Agreed with OP.

 

Sometimes I thought, "WTF is Daboll doing? Did he want us to lose the game?"

 

And Leslie Frazier's defense, "OMG. That was bad."

 

Imagine when we're clicking.

Good teams find a way to win. 

[HappyDays]

5 hours ago, Virgil said:

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.

 

For most offenses, yes. But Daboll needs to call plays for this offense. We don't run the ball well in any situation. The only consistently good runs that we have are Allen scrambling on busted pass plays. I don't really care if defenses are selling out to stop the pass, we should still be passing in those situations anyways. We have a dominant passing offense and a terrible rushing offense. So forget what the defense is dictating, we should play to our strengths.

Edited January 10, 2021 by HappyDays

[GunnerBill]

6 hours ago, Freddie's Dead said:

 

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.

 

Andre did make bad decisions but I feel like there were a couple where having already been in bad field position Farwell should have said to him - whatever happens just take the touchback. At that stage our 25 seemed like a certain amount of safety.

[GunnerBill]

4 hours ago, HappyDays said:

I think Daboll is the main reason this game was so stressful. We had multiple chances to run away with it but he kept calling stupid drive killing plays that let the Colts hang around. The way you beat a strong running team is not with slow methodical drives that drain the clock with 2 yard runs. That's playing into what the Colts wanted. We should have been aggressive passing the ball and building a lead so big that running wasn't an option for them.

 

I just don't understand why he went away from our identity in this one. It's like he accidentally grabbed the 2019 playbook on the way to the game. Allen played great and we had our full complement of receivers for the first time in forever, yet we somehow ended up punting the ball more than any game since the bye. That's 100% on Daboll. I won't be unhappy to see him hired away this year.

 

While I don't think Daboll was good yesterday.... none of the coordinators were.... nor should we overreact. He has had an outstanding season and has called some great games. He had a bad day at the office yesterday, but every play caller does. I saw Sean McVay utterly stink the joint up against the Seahawks two weeks ago to the point where I actually pondered whether it was time for him to give up play calling and hire a proper OC. He called a much better game against them last night despite having a QB who could barely grip the ball let alone throw. I'd still rather Daboll was here again in 2021. I think it would be the best thing for the continuity of our offense. Not that we are going to fall off a cliff without him. Not while we have Allen, but one bad game does not a bad coordinator make.

[Man with No Name]

i said this all game. they went away from what got them here. the run, run, run stuff is inexcusable for this offense.

 

I'll be honest. I want him here. I think he's really good. But he has seemed almost infallible the past 6 weeks. Not the case today. Makes me feel better about the possibility of playing without him going forward. 

3 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

For most offenses, yes. But Daboll needs to call plays for this offense. We don't run the ball well in any situation. The only consistently good runs that we have are Allen scrambling on busted pass plays. I don't really care if defenses are selling out to stop the pass, we should still be passing in those situations anyways. We have a dominant passing offense and a terrible rushing offense. So forget what the defense is dictating, we should play to our strengths.

yup. our version of a run game should be short little swing passes into the flats. 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Man with No Name

[Wayne Cubed]

10 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

While I don't think Daboll was good yesterday.... none of the coordinators were.... nor should we overreact. He has had an outstanding season and has called some great games. He had a bad day at the office yesterday, but every play caller does. I saw Sean McVay utterly stink the joint up against the Seahawks two weeks ago to the point where I actually pondered whether it was time for him to give up play calling and hire a proper OC. He called a much better game against them last night despite having a QB who could barely grip the ball let alone throw. I'd still rather Daboll was here again in 2021. I think it would be the best thing for the continuity of our offense. Not that we are going to fall off a cliff without him. Not while we have Allen, but one bad game does not a bad coordinator make.

 

Yea, I think he has enough credit to deserve a mulligan. The Colts were playing that very, very deep zone and were daring the Bills to run or move to the short passing game. Daboll thought going to the running game was the move to make and when the RBs weren't getting anywhere went to the QB draws hoping to soften that zone and bring the safeties in. It's not what I thought they should have done, I'd have liked them to go to the short passing game as that would have also helped with the pass rush.

 

We go again!

[GunnerBill]

1 minute ago, Wayne Cubed said:

 

Yea, I think he has enough credit to deserve a mulligan. The Colts were playing that very, very deep zone and were daring the Bills to run or move to the short passing game. Daboll thought going to the running game was the move to make and when the RBs weren't getting anywhere went to the QB draws hoping to soften that zone and bring the safeties in. It's not what I thought they should have done, I'd have liked them to go to the short passing game as that would have also helped with the pass rush.

 

We go again!

 

We also don't know how they really felt about the health of Beasley and Diggs and that might play in. They obviously felt McKenzie was not right as he was barely on the field. We saw Beas walk off after one play like John Wayne he is clearly playing through the pain barrier. That is their three major short game weapons. I think there might have been some element of managing a beaten up receiving corps through the game.

[Wayne Cubed]

1 minute ago, GunnerBill said:

 

We also don't know how they really felt about the health of Beasley and Diggs and that might play in. They obviously felt McKenzie was not right as he was barely on the field. We saw Beas walk off after one play like John Wayne he is clearly playing through the pain barrier. That is their three major short game weapons. I think there might have been some element of managing a beaten up receiving corps through the game.

 

I think it certainly played into, they just didn't really have Beasley or McKenzie to go to that short passing game. And to Dabolls credit, those QB draws lead to the Diggs touchdown, when the Colts switched to single high safety. 

[GunnerBill]

2 minutes ago, Wayne Cubed said:

 

I think it certainly played into, they just didn't really have Beasley or McKenzie to go to that short passing game. And to Dabolls credit, those QB draws lead to the Diggs touchdown, when the Colts switched to single high safety. 

 

I don't mind the draws. It is the QB sweep that I hate. It just never seems to work either.

[Wayne Cubed]

Just now, GunnerBill said:

 

I don't mind the draws. It is the QB sweep that I hate. It just never seems to work either.

 

The sweeps are awful. The blocking on them was awful too. And on the 3rd down sweep Josh did audible to the sweep so not entirely on Daboll.

[Magox]

6 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

We also don't know how they really felt about the health of Beasley and Diggs and that might play in. They obviously felt McKenzie was not right as he was barely on the field. We saw Beas walk off after one play like John Wayne he is clearly playing through the pain barrier. That is their three major short game weapons. I think there might have been some element of managing a beaten up receiving corps through the game.

Yeah, I also have been very high on Daboll for the past couple years and especially so this year.  I was surprised that they ran the ball as much as they did and personally I don’t think they went for the jugular as much as they should have with the lead.  I was telling my brother that it appeared they were trying to win it the old fashioned way of eating the clock to win with the run.  
 

That played into the Colts strength.  I suspect he will review things and try to open it up more so next game.  
 

With that said it was the defense that performed worse than the offense.  The Colts shredded the Bills with those two TD drives way too easily.  That should have never have happened.  The offense kept giving the defense extended two score leads and the defense just kept allowing them to score to make it a 1 score game.

[Billsatlastin2018]

Daboll morphed in reverse to the Dumball of 2018!

[Back2Buff]

3:53 left in game, Buf on Indy 34 yard line, SIngletary just had nice run, Indy 1 TO left, Bass already made 54 yarder. 

 

Daboll goes 4 WR and 1 RB.  No extra protection.  This is inexcusable and has happened way too much this year.

 

Get this guy out of here.  Zero concept of game management.

[frogger]

Not sure if this was brought up, honestly 10+ pages on Daboll in a win where we are not saying good things in truly the privilege of a very good team.

 

that said, all week we heard how this team wants him and he’s interviewing with this other team.  He may have been distracted. I expect a better game plan next week against Balt/Pitts.  The colts are a tough team.

[DrPJax]

14 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Our running backs are not very good. They are both decent number 2s but neither is a guy I want to depend on when I gotta have a play.

I agree. Our biggest mistake and my big regret is taking epenesa over JJ DOBBINS in the second round. Just compare their playing time and production this year. We had a chance to get a 1 st round graded back who inexplicably fell. He has power , speed , can catch and is good at pass blocking. We needed to score more this year as our stated first priority by Beane. So we take a slower DE who dropped because of that fact with Our pick after we devoted several free agent acquisitions to bolster the d line and tied up huge cap space there. Results were average at best and our d line still could not even get a single sack against the most immobile QB we have seen. Couple that with an anemic run game all year, and I think we missed badly with our pick. 
 

Epenesa’s lack of impact and Beanes one draft questionable pick continues to be an issue as we go along. . We could be getting the same production from Murphy who languishes on on the inactive roster while accounting for a big cap hit. We settled for a true 3 rd round talent in Moss who made his yardage against college inferior talent. He flashes at times, does have good hands but is not consistently productive. Williams, an undrafted FA looked better in his one appearance hitting holes with more decisiveness, while showing good hands as well. Dobbins has 7 rushing tds which is probably more than our backs combined all while being  a second or third option in the Ravens run oriented offense. 
 

 Our backs lack of productivity also puts Allen more at risk for injury as he is our lone consistent runner. I hope we don’t play the Ravens and face Dobbins being a part of a game plan that might eliminate us as our D struggles with running game plans. We can stop one rb we focus on but then give up huge yardage to a second rb like happened today. I just think we passed on a guy who would be paying dividends in our offense while taking a project DE at a position we already were deep at. We only had motor and Yeldon on our roster as rbs at the pick and motor had shown he was unlikely to be a workhorse type back. Love Beane but wish we had that pick to do over. 

[DCOrange]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

We also don't know how they really felt about the health of Beasley and Diggs and that might play in. They obviously felt McKenzie was not right as he was barely on the field. We saw Beas walk off after one play like John Wayne he is clearly playing through the pain barrier. That is their three major short game weapons. I think there might have been some element of managing a beaten up receiving corps through the game.

 

Yeah, they obviously won't say anything about their health because they don't want to tip their hand, but you could pretty easily tell that Beasley was hurting out there. McKenzie obviously wasn't right like you said. Hard to say with Diggs, but this felt like a game where we were simply hoping to survive and advance and hopefully give the WRs another week to heal.

 

And as Wayne Cubed mentioned, it wasn't lost on me that we just kept chipping away with the QB draws and dump offs until they finally brought a safety up and then immediately burned them deep.

 

It was a frustrating gameplan but just further evidence that this offense is capable of adapting to what defenses take away. I wish we were better on the handoffs and it might come back to bite us at some point in this postseason, but I thought it was pretty promising that we were able to still put up points against a top notch defense that wasn't willing to let anyone get behind them, while having poor starting position, our most important non-QB guys hobbled, and a poor run game with the RBs.

 

The Colts also just thoroughly controlled the game with their offense for most of the day as the defense couldn't get a stop without the Colts making simple mistakes on their own.

[DCofNC]

18 hours ago, BillsEnthusiast said:

We need to give credit to Indy's defense. They're outstanding and stacked with talent. 

 

With that said, on one drive Daboll called three running plays that were exactly the same - halfback slam over the left side. That was confusing. 

This.  You were up against the 30th ranked pass D and you tried to force the run against a strong run D.  So basically you went your weakness vs their strength and did it repeatedly.  The minute they went to the pass, success.  It was damn near like he was trying to show his offense could run for his interviews and make it look as though he was the genius and Allen was the result of him, not the other way around.  
 

He better get his crap together for next week.

[Scott7975]

10 hours ago, HappyDays said:

I think Daboll is the main reason this game was so stressful. We had multiple chances to run away with it but he kept calling stupid drive killing plays that let the Colts hang around. The way you beat a strong running team is not with slow methodical drives that drain the clock with 2 yard runs. That's playing into what the Colts wanted. We should have been aggressive passing the ball and building a lead so big that running wasn't an option for them.

 

I just don't understand why he went away from our identity in this one. It's like he accidentally grabbed the 2019 playbook on the way to the game. Allen played great and we had our full complement of receivers for the first time in forever, yet we somehow ended up punting the ball more than any game since the bye. That's 100% on Daboll. I won't be unhappy to see him hired away this year.

 

I picked on Daboll all game.  My most hated play ever from him... the Colts best corner goes out for a play with an injury.  Instead of trying to take advantage of that, Daboll dials up a 3 yard run.  I just don't understand Daboll's madness sometimes. 

 

Also, I don't mind sprinkling in Josh runs here and there but they do it way too often.  Earlier in the season he did the same thing with the same bad results.  Thought he wouldn't go back to doing that.  Especially not in a playoff game.  It's like they went back to the same plan as the wildcard game last season after playing like KC the last month.  Stick with what got you here.  It got you here for a reason.  I only hope they go back to their identity for the rest of these game(s)

and to further that thought... He called 3 run plays in a row right at the strength of their defensive line.  WTF does that?

[HappyDays]

6 hours ago, Man with No Name said:

yup. our version of a run game should be short little swing passes into the flats. 

 

Exactly. On 7 targets to Singletary and Moss they had 7 catches for 49 yards. So 7 YPA and 100% completion. That's our run offense.

[LabattBlue]

I see that Daboll interviewed with the Jets today.  It makes you wonder how much of a distraction preparing for an interview would be with play calling in a playoff game the previous day?

[Nihilarian]

At this point Daboll might already have his bags packed and be thinking about his new team.

 

If I'm McD, I gotta wonder if it would be wise to let Allen view the field change the play if needed should Dumball show his face again this week.

[GunnerBill]

2 minutes ago, Nihilarian said:

At this point Daboll might already have his bags packed and be thinking about his new team.

 

If I'm McD, I gotta wonder if it would be wise to let Allen view the field change the play if needed should Dumball show his face again this week.

 

Allen changed plays this week.

[Man with No Name]

ZOOM or in person, playoff coaches should absolutely not be involved in interviews while their team is still alive. terrible rule change this year. 

Edited January 11, 2021 by Man with No Name

[LABILLBACKER]

16 hours ago, frogger said:

Not sure if this was brought up, honestly 10+ pages on Daboll in a win where we are not saying good things in truly the privilege of a very good team.

 

that said, all week we heard how this team wants him and he’s interviewing with this other team.  He may have been distracted. I expect a better game plan next week against Balt/Pitts.  The colts are a tough team.

He may have one foot out the door but he better finish what he started.

[Kenosha2Buffalo]

16 hours ago, Back2Buff said:

3:53 left in game, Buf on Indy 34 yard line, SIngletary just had nice run, Indy 1 TO left, Bass already made 54 yarder. 

 

Daboll goes 4 WR and 1 RB.  No extra protection.  This is inexcusable and has happened way too much this year.

 

Get this guy out of here.  Zero concept of game management.

 

Go crawl in a hole somewhere and root for someone else ... Our strength is our receivers and josh allen not the running backs.. we have 14 wins and one of them being a playoff victory ... THANKS to Daboll and the team... Troll

Edited January 11, 2021 by Kenosha2Buffalo

[WideNine]

On 1/9/2021 at 1:55 PM, GunnerBill said:

 

That is true and I give Daboll a bit of a pass for that. But the bizarre playcalling continued into the 2nd half.

 

There were some head-scratchers out there where we went away from things that were working at odd times in the game.

 

Also, I am ok with Allen on the QB-draws when they are focused on hemming him in on the edges and there is no one in front of him. I am fine with Allen running RPO plays or scrambling when nothing is there, but when I saw the Allen designed stretch play rear its head again after so many disasters running that last year I damn near choked.

 

I think some of it may have been Beasley being not at 100%, but I cannot fathom why McKenzie was not more involved then sharing snaps...

 

Want to see some film break down of what Indy was doing - they definitely kept a LB roaming the shallow middle of the field as a spy on Allen and to follow his eyes to take away the shorter stuff... Whenever Allen broke contain that guy closed in on him in a hurry.

 

 

 

[GunnerBill]

3 hours ago, WideNine said:

 

There were some head-scratchers out there where we went away from things that were working at odd times in the game.

 

Also, I am ok with Allen on the QB-draws when they are focused on hemming him in on the edges and there is no one in front of him. I am fine with Allen running RPO plays or scrambling when nothing is there, but when I saw the Allen designed stretch play rear its head again after so many disasters running that last year I damn near choked.

 

I think some of it may have been Beasley being not at 100%, but I cannot fathom why McKenzie was not more involved then sharing snaps...

 

Want to see some film break down of what Indy was doing - they definitely kept a LB roaming the shallow middle of the field as a spy on Allen and to follow his eyes to take away the shorter stuff... Whenever Allen broke contain that guy closed in on him in a hurry.

 

 

 

 

Agree on the QB runs..... on McKenzie he was hurt too on the injury report all week and barely practiced. Not an excuse but I do think some of the odd calls may have been trying to manage a beaten up receiving corps.