Rewatching the game: Our Coaches deserve more credit

[IgotBILLStopay]

We did not play our best game and still live. I think coaching won us this game. There are no doubt a few lessons for our players going forward.

 

We were up against it yesterday folks. In years past, we would have lost that game folks.

 

A. Colts were the worst matchup possible.

 

1. They have the best OL in football and we have a middling DL.

2. They have a potent run game with Taylor and Hines and we have a porous run defense with questionable lane integrity and tentative tackling. Advanced stats indicate Edmunds and Milano are among the league leaders in missed tackles.

3. Indy is not lacking in talent - All those picks from the Jets from the Darnold trade have made the team arguably as talented, if not more than the Bills. Combine that with a very decent QB in Rivers - I know people on this board felt Rivers would have issues playing in Buffalo weather but I think he did not get that memo. He was great. Not JA level great - but still more great than merely good. We were facing a team primed to make noise in January.

 

B. Situationally, we were put at a disadvantage so we could not take play to our strengths

 

1.  We do have an explosive offense - but it is only good if it can get on the field. The Colts’ ability to chew up the clock kept us off the field. 

2. Even when JA and co. got on the field, they were backed up and could not really take advantage of our elite WRs against the Colts iffy secondary. Strangely enough, Colts offensive woes in converting long drives into points hurt our offensive field position.

3. Reich too actually called a perfect game for Indy. Have to say I was so impressed by Reich in all three facets of the game. He took away our strength and put his team in a position to win on the road. Barely any mistakes except the missed FG.

 

 

Now to our coaching -

 

On Offense:

 

I loved the JA keepers - that is what makes JA unique and Daboll’s adjustments mid-game to feature them more helped a lot. I too was puzzled by McKenzie’s quiet outing till I realized the Colts have likely prepared for that and Daboll likely did not have anything new on the jet sweep front given the short week. Also we can’t try those fancy plays when we are backed up inside our own 10 on every drive.

 

On Defense:

 

Ever since the Rams / Cardinals game - it has been clear that we have two weaknesses:

 

1. We can’t handle those outside zone runs on talent alone. Our D Linemen and LBs are going to leak some yards. The coaches know this - they have constantly shown an ability to tighten it up with layered protection. Layering is harder on open fields - but in the red zone with the short field, the layered protection stops leaked yards from turning into TDs. I think given our personnel limitations (and our LBs did our coaches no favors yesterday) - the bend but not break defense is our best bet and the coaching scheme allowed that yesterday. The goal line stand and general red zone defense were highlights.

 

2. We have a great secondary - but do have one weakness - we are vulnerable to overhead balls since our DBs and safeties jump a lot less than opposing WRs. That why we gave up two Hail Marys. Even yesterday, Tre gave up an easy long reception on a perfectly thrown high ball. Clearly this has been a coaching emphasis since the Cards game. I forget who, but an offensive player said yesterday that the defense practices against Hail Marys and high balls every day. That is good coaching guys. We saw the effect of that on that last play when Hyde took a running start and got enough height to knock it down.

 

3. On Special Teams - there were no trick plays, no long returns (had been spoilt by that the past few weeks) but I think our bad staring field position had more to do with our defense bending (and not breaking) than bad ST play.

 

Overall:

 

1. McD was masterful in his use of timeouts. Calling the TO just before the 8 yard Rivers pass was critical in stopping the Colts momentum. His other TO (which wasn’t a TO) actually won us the game by forcing the review but N.Y. replay messed up and we had to endure 28 more seconds of agony.

 

2. Very clean game - Early in the season we had a bunch of penalties - now we are barely penalized.

Edited January 10, 2021 by IgotBILLStopay

[loveorhatembillsfan4life]

Great Post, I initially wanted the Colt's first round. I was very wrong.  

 

I think some teams just match up better than others . The Colts matched up really well against us. 

 

It was a great hurdle to come out with the W. I hope it can propel us even further. 

[Frat-Train]

Weird...   I was told all is doomed and Milano is a walking can of Genny cream ale...

 

 

Nice post, OP!!

[Solomon Grundy]

McDermott definitely had a GREAT command of the game. As far as I’m concerned, we can put the “McClappy” crap to rest

[Sweats]

When Rivers is on, hes the best around....when his game is off, hes always good for a pick or two

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Colts were built for the playoffs. That was a solid win. 

 

I didn't like how small they played but I don't know if they had much else to do. They played their best players. Colts just were a tough matchup. 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Buffalo_Stampede

[CincyBillsFan]

14 minutes ago, loveorhatembillsfan4life said:

Great Post, I initially wanted the Colt's first round. I was very wrong.  

 

I think some teams just match up better than others . The Colts matched up really well against us. 

 

It was a great hurdle to come out with the W. I hope it can propel us even further. 

 

Me to.  But that was because I was very ignorant about the Colts.  The only team I know pretty well is Buffalo.  After that my football IQ drops through the floor.  Today I'm not rooting for anybody to gain certain match ups.  Let the chips fall where they do.

 

 

[1ManRaid]

I guess that's what people meant by if we could beat the Colts, then we'll win the Super Bowl.  Overcame our weaknesses against the team seemingly built to exploit them.

[buffaloboyinATL]

I noticed during the game that we were in the right Defense, and in position to make plays, but either missed tackles or just missed perfectly thrown passes that were in a spot that only the receiver could reach. 

[Brennan Huff]

The Colts coaching staff deserves credit too. Thank you Frank for going for it on 4th down when it made way more sense to just kick the field goal

[DrDawkinstein]

2 minutes ago, Brennan Huff said:

The Colts coaching staff deserves credit too. Thank you Frank for going for it on 4th down when it made way more sense to just kick the field goal

 

And the 2 pt conversion.

 

2 bad decisions cost them 4 points, and they lost by 3.

[Starr Almighty]

1 minute ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

And the 2 pt conversion.

 

2 bad decisions cost them 4 points, and they lost by 3.

They got the point back. They left 3 points on the field. It would of been tied

[Turbo44]

Love Frank Reich but he absolutley DID NOT coach a great game.
 

i don’t blame him for going for the td on 4th and 4. It failed and 96 josh yards later the whole momentum changed. The bills never trailed after that. I get it, you don’t beat Buffalo with fgs but his chance failed

 

he punted from the Bills 42 on 4th and 5 after trying to draw buffalo off. That was a wussy thing to do

 

going for 2 in the 4th made no analytical sense.

 

in the last drive of the game Indy had 2:30 left from their own 15. They wasted a lot of time running the ball and even huddling which caused them to not even have a fg chance. Very poor time managment

 

he wasted a challenge and a timeout in the 3rd on a play that obviously was called correctly and wouldn’t be overturned. Thinking he may have been able to use that timeout in the last part of the game.

 

his overall scheme of keeping the bills offense off the field and win the time of possession battle was sound but he made a ton of in game mistakes that cost Indy badly.

 

l

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Turbo44

[somnus00]

The Colts came out hungry and played with a lot of intensity. They have a great o-line, and a really good front 7 on D. This was always going to be a tough game. The AFC playoffs are pretty stacked with talented teams.

 

Still, I feel like Daboll made a lot questionable calls. I'd like to see more camera angles to see if the Colts were doing something to stop our passing attack. But the designed runs with Josh Allen running parallel to the LOS just didn't make sense. This is a passing team, but we had a 3 and out early where we ran the ball on all 3 downs. Our running game has been questionable all season. And the Colts have a dominating front 7. Did Daboll screw up the game plan this week, or did the Colts take it away?

[Reader]

26 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

McDermott definitely had a GREAT command of the game. As far as I’m concerned, we can put the “McClappy” crap to rest

 

Very well said, McD has been doing really well for a while now, sadly some of us have fairly short memories.

[njbuff]

If the Bills made tackles at or near the LOS, this game isn't a one-score game and a true nail biter.

 

That first playoff is supposed to be difficult, I guess.

Just now, njbuff said:

If the Bills made tackles at or near the LOS, this game isn't a one-score game and a true nail biter.

 

That first playoff win is supposed to be difficult, I guess.

 

[Heavy Kevi]

I was nearvous about the Colts game, and that concern turned out to be founded.

 

I think the situation and pressure of winning that first playoff game took as much of a toll as Indy itself. This team is carrying the weight of all those garbage drought teams, and the pressure mounted yesterday imo.

 

That said Indy is not a great matchup for us, neither is TEN. I'd rather play KC than TEN. Hoping Ravens win today as I would rather play against a limited passer in Jackson than a Tennessee team that can throw, run, and defend.

[IgotBILLStopay]

On 1/10/2021 at 10:26 AM, IgotBILLStopay said:

We did not play our best game and still live. I think coaching won us this game. There are no doubt a few lessons for our players going forward.

 

We were up against it yesterday folks. In years past, we would have lost that game folks.

 

A. Colts were the worst matchup possible.

 

1. They have the best OL in football and we have a middling DL.

2. They have a potent run game with Taylor and Hines and we have a porous run defense with questionable lane integrity and tentative tackling. Advanced stats indicate Edmunds and Milano are among the league leaders in missed tackles.

3. Indy is not lacking in talent - All those picks from the Jets from the Darnold trade have made the team arguably as talented, if not more than the Bills. Combine that with a very decent QB in Rivers - I know people on this board felt Rivers would have issues playing in Buffalo weather but I think he did not get that memo. He was great. Not JA level great - but still more great than merely good. We were facing a team primed to make noise in January.

 

B. Situationally, we were put at a disadvantage so we could not take play to our strengths

 

1.  We do have an explosive offense - but it is only good if it can get on the field. The Colts’ ability to chew up the clock kept us off the field. 

2. Even when JA and co. got on the field, they were backed up and could not really take advantage of our elite WRs against the Colts iffy secondary. Strangely enough, Colts offensive woes in converting long drives into points hurt our offensive field position.

3. Reich too actually called a perfect game for Indy. Have to say I was so impressed by Reich in all three facets of the game. He took away our strength and put his team in a position to win on the road. Barely any mistakes except the missed FG.

 

 

Now to our coaching -

 

On Offense:

 

I loved the JA keepers - that is what makes JA unique and Daboll’s adjustments mid-game to feature them more helped a lot. I too was puzzled by McKenzie’s quiet outing till I realized the Colts have likely prepared for that and Daboll likely did not have anything new on the jet sweep front given the short week. Also we can’t try those fancy plays when we are backed up inside our own 10 on every drive.

 

On Defense:

 

Ever since the Rams / Cardinals game - it has been clear that we have two weaknesses:

 

1. We can’t handle those outside zone runs on talent alone. Our D Linemen and LBs are going to leak some yards. The coaches know this - they have constantly shown an ability to tighten it up with layered protection. Layering is harder on open fields - but in the red zone with the short field, the layered protection stops leaked yards from turning into TDs. I think given our personnel limitations (and our LBs did our coaches no favors yesterday) - the bend but not break defense is our best bet and the coaching scheme allowed that yesterday. The goal line stand and general red zone defense were highlights.

 

2. We have a great secondary - but do have one weakness - we are vulnerable to overhead balls since our DBs and safeties jump a lot less than opposing WRs. That why we gave up two Hail Marys. Even yesterday, Tre gave up an easy long reception on a perfectly thrown high ball. Clearly this has been a coaching emphasis since the Cards game. I forget who, but an offensive player said yesterday that the defense practices against Hail Marys and high balls every day. That is good coaching guys. We saw the effect of that on that last play when Hyde took a running start and got enough height to knock it down.

 

3. On Special Teams - there were no trick plays, no long returns (had been spoilt by that the past few weeks) but I think our bad staring field position had more to do with our defense bending (and not breaking) than bad ST play.

 

Overall:

 

1. McD was masterful in his use of timeouts. Calling the TO just before the 8 yard Rivers pass was critical in stopping the Colts momentum. His other TO (which wasn’t a TO) actually won us the game by forcing the review but N.Y. replay messed up and we had to endure 28 more seconds of agony.

 

2. Very clean game - Early in the season we had a bunch of penalties - now we are barely penalized.

Cover1 basically agrees!!

 

 

[SoCal Deek]

I haven't checked but I'd have to think the Colts fans are not all that pleased with Reich after the decisions he made. I know of course that every decisions leads to the next one and therefore the variables will all change, but Frank made some really bad blunders. 

[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.

 

Terrible game management, something we have seen a lot with Daboll this year.

[TroutDog]

6 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

I haven't checked but I'd have to think the Colts fans are not all that pleased with Reich after the decisions he made. I know of course that every decisions leads to the next one and therefore the variables will all change, but Frank made some really bad blunders. 

Multiple, I agree, and, in my opinion, they (and Josh carrying the Bills) directly lead to the win. 

[Chuck Schick]

The coaches really did a nice job. 

Maybe it's because Beasley wasn't 100%, but it seemed as though they couldn't find that 1 go-to play that they needed for a 5-7 yard gain.  Lots of scrambling and creativity, which is fine but not ideal when you are in the lead and trying to just grind 1st downs and clock.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

On 1/10/2021 at 12:40 PM, Sweats said:

When Rivers is on, hes the best around....when his game is off, hes always good for a pick or two

His brain is always on so he always gets his team into a good matchup presnap...sometimes his arm completely fails him though lol unfortunately it did not happen against us and he was pretty much perfect 

[DCbillsfan]

On 1/10/2021 at 12:54 PM, DrDawkinstein said:

 

And the 2 pt conversion.

 

2 bad decisions cost them 4 points, and they lost by 3.

They wasted 2 timeouts in the 2nd half - one to avoid delay of game and a bad challenge on the play where Moss was hurt.

 

Plus Indy punted on 4th and 5 from Bills 42.  Should have gone for it imo

[ganesh]

On 1/10/2021 at 10:58 PM, loveorhatembillsfan4life said:

Great Post, I initially wanted the Colt's first round. I was very wrong.  

 

I think some teams just match up better than others . The Colts matched up really well against us. 

 

It was a great hurdle to come out with the W. I hope it can propel us even further. 

It is the playoffs,   When the seventh seed in the AFC is 11-5 in regular season,  every team is going to be tough and they will play even.  It is going to be which team makes mores plays on the given day....The Bills did last Saturday and I hope they can repeat this Saturday too

[The Firebaugh Kid]

Need to get back to our game and improve 3rd down efficiency. The qb runs were about 2/3 too many. 

[Drew21PA]

On 1/10/2021 at 11:26 AM, IgotBILLStopay said:

We did not play our best game and still live. I think coaching won us this game. There are no doubt a few lessons for our players going forward.

 

We were up against it yesterday folks. In years past, we would have lost that game folks.

 

A. Colts were the worst matchup possible.

 

1. They have the best OL in football and we have a middling DL.

2. They have a potent run game with Taylor and Hines and we have a porous run defense with questionable lane integrity and tentative tackling. Advanced stats indicate Edmunds and Milano are among the league leaders in missed tackles.

3. Indy is not lacking in talent - All those picks from the Jets from the Darnold trade have made the team arguably as talented, if not more than the Bills. Combine that with a very decent QB in Rivers - I know people on this board felt Rivers would have issues playing in Buffalo weather but I think he did not get that memo. He was great. Not JA level great - but still more great than merely good. We were facing a team primed to make noise in January.

 

B. Situationally, we were put at a disadvantage so we could not take play to our strengths

 

1.  We do have an explosive offense - but it is only good if it can get on the field. The Colts’ ability to chew up the clock kept us off the field. 

2. Even when JA and co. got on the field, they were backed up and could not really take advantage of our elite WRs against the Colts iffy secondary. Strangely enough, Colts offensive woes in converting long drives into points hurt our offensive field position.

3. Reich too actually called a perfect game for Indy. Have to say I was so impressed by Reich in all three facets of the game. He took away our strength and put his team in a position to win on the road. Barely any mistakes except the missed FG.

 

 

Now to our coaching -

 

On Offense:

 

I loved the JA keepers - that is what makes JA unique and Daboll’s adjustments mid-game to feature them more helped a lot. I too was puzzled by McKenzie’s quiet outing till I realized the Colts have likely prepared for that and Daboll likely did not have anything new on the jet sweep front given the short week. Also we can’t try those fancy plays when we are backed up inside our own 10 on every drive.

 

On Defense:

 

Ever since the Rams / Cardinals game - it has been clear that we have two weaknesses:

 

1. We can’t handle those outside zone runs on talent alone. Our D Linemen and LBs are going to leak some yards. The coaches know this - they have constantly shown an ability to tighten it up with layered protection. Layering is harder on open fields - but in the red zone with the short field, the layered protection stops leaked yards from turning into TDs. I think given our personnel limitations (and our LBs did our coaches no favors yesterday) - the bend but not break defense is our best bet and the coaching scheme allowed that yesterday. The goal line stand and general red zone defense were highlights.

 

2. We have a great secondary - but do have one weakness - we are vulnerable to overhead balls since our DBs and safeties jump a lot less than opposing WRs. That why we gave up two Hail Marys. Even yesterday, Tre gave up an easy long reception on a perfectly thrown high ball. Clearly this has been a coaching emphasis since the Cards game. I forget who, but an offensive player said yesterday that the defense practices against Hail Marys and high balls every day. That is good coaching guys. We saw the effect of that on that last play when Hyde took a running start and got enough height to knock it down.

 

3. On Special Teams - there were no trick plays, no long returns (had been spoilt by that the past few weeks) but I think our bad staring field position had more to do with our defense bending (and not breaking) than bad ST play.

 

Overall:

 

1. McD was masterful in his use of timeouts. Calling the TO just before the 8 yard Rivers pass was critical in stopping the Colts momentum. His other TO (which wasn’t a TO) actually won us the game by forcing the review but N.Y. replay messed up and we had to endure 28 more seconds of agony.

 

2. Very clean game - Early in the season we had a bunch of penalties - now we are barely penalized.

Everyone highlights “buffalo has no running game”

 

no kidding daboll kept calling runs for josh because he did his JOB!  Nationally media is ridiculous in this - reich and the colts gave us the ability to run it with josh - we exploited it and it worked 

 

done over 

15 minutes ago, The Firebaugh Kid said:

Need to get back to our game and improve 3rd down efficiency. The qb runs were about 2/3 too many. 

Not really A pay attention and do your research - they gave us the whole middle of the field you take what the defense gives you

 

thats why you had so many an runs and why josh was killing it on the ground 

[The Firebaugh Kid]

6 minutes ago, Drew21PA said:

Everyone highlights “buffalo has no running game”

 

no kidding daboll kept calling runs for josh because he did his JOB!  Nationally media is ridiculous in this - reich and the colts gave us the ability to run it with josh - we exploited it and it worked 

 

done over 

Not really A pay attention and do your research - they gave us the whole middle of the field you take what the defense gives you

 

thats why you had so many an runs and why josh was killing it on the ground 

Student body left and right with your qb for 1 or 2 yards a pop aint a winning formula, sorry. All his designed runs were off tackle, idk why you're talking about the middle of the field being open lol.

[transplantbillsfan]

On 1/10/2021 at 7:28 AM, loveorhatembillsfan4life said:

Great Post, I initially wanted the Colt's first round. I was very wrong.  

 

I think some teams just match up better than others . The Colts matched up really well against us. 

 

It was a great hurdle to come out with the W. I hope it can propel us even further. 

 

I disagree.  I thought the Colts were the best matchup for us in round 1 and it played out that way for us, too.

 

The Titans and Chiefs both have better ground games and mobile QBs.  And we saw what Cleveland did to Pittsburgh in round 1, already knowing they have an incredible ground game with Chubb and Hunt.

 

It's the playoffs and I'm just not expecting a blowout any week.  I would love it every game were one, but it's just not realistic to expect that once we reach the postseason.

 

The Colts are a really good team, but we were clearly better.  I thought this little tidbit in the Buffalonews was interesting:

https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/bad-field-position-bills-win-over-colts-was-one-for-the-millennium/article_5eb94098-541e-11eb-b0f3-03eb4f5b3647.html

 

Add up all of the drives, and the Bills’ average start was 163 yards worse than that of the Colts. Despite that, the Bills won 27-24.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the first time in 18 years a team had that big of a field-position disadvantage and won a post-season game.

 

That was the worst field position game I think I've ever seen us play, yet we were in control for most of the game.  We were up at the half and up by 14 in the 4th quarter.

 

I kept praying Roberts would just take a knee in the EZ on kickoffs.

 

I'm not saying coaching wasn't good, but it had it's flaws.  I think Daboll stuck to the ground game for WAAAAAYYYY too long, for instance.

 

But to me, this was all an insane game of utterly terrible field position for us.  But we overcame that.  Josh overcame that. 

 

I don't think we'll have that atrocious a field position game again.

Edited January 13, 2021 by transplantbillsfan

[JGMcD2]

On 1/10/2021 at 1:02 PM, Turbo44 said:

going for 2 in the 4th made no analytical sens

Actually this is what you’re supposed to do. 
 

They were down 24 - 16 after the touchdown.
 

He was going to kick the XP but after the penalty he decided to go for it. If they convert the 2 pt conversion it makes it a 2 FG game.

 

If they don’t convert, the probability is very high that they convert the two point conversion the next time they score. 
 

In one scenario you don’t have to score a TD to tie it. In the scenario you kick the XP or don’t convert the 2 pt play you have to score a TD. It was absolutely the right call analytically.

 

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2021/01/09/colts-vs-bills-why-frank-reich-made-right-decision-fourth-and-goal-4/6609839002/

Edited January 13, 2021 by JGMcD2

[Big Turk]

14 hours ago, DCbillsfan said:

They wasted 2 timeouts in the 2nd half - one to avoid delay of game and a bad challenge on the play where Moss was hurt.

 

Plus Indy punted on 4th and 5 from Bills 42.  Should have gone for it imo

 

Indy should have gotten at least 2 more Delay of Game penalties....Rivers was literally snapping the ball with 0s on the play clock and it wasn't when the play clock hit 0, it was at 0 for at least a second multiple times.

[warrior9]

The game was a chess match. I see Indy fans giving Reich a ton of crap and I thought he called a great game and I thought that Rivers played out of his mind.

It's a football game in the play-offs and it isn't going to be pretty. 

 

In the beginning you can DEFINITELY tell and feel the nerves of the Bills. As many have said, it was a poor match up for us and I'm glad we came out on the right side.