ROCKPILE REVIEW - Unique

[stuvian]

still feels like a dream and yes Lamar Jackson has regressed as a passer and the Ravens play calling shows it. Now we face the Chiefs who may be short their MVP. I really thought the Browns could have pulled the upset. 

[DabillsDaBillsDaBills]

11 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

 

No lines to get into the stadium.  Even the stadium name is different, Bills Stadium.  Everything about it said that this is a new era.

 

 

 

Loved the entire write up, and this part had me laughing like crazy 

[billspro]

11 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

You get into habits when you go to a lot of Bills games.  How you dress and eat, where you park, where you sit, how you interact with fans, where you get information during the game, information like down and distance, stats, roster numbers.  The games are different, but there’s a routine.

 

Saturday night the Bills beat the Ravens 17-3 to advance to the AFC Championship game.  For me, all the habits were out the window.  I hadn’t been to a football game for a year, and I had fallen out of my routine.  Everything about the experience was unique. 

 

There was COVID-19, of course.  We had to be in Buffalo by Thursday morning to swabbed.  Lot 4, 10 a.m., drive through.  The streets were empty.  There were just a few dozen people, directing traffic through the empty lot to stations where nurses did their thing and we were gone.

 

Then there were two days in a hotel room, waiting for Doordash to arrive from one restaurant or another, and a lot of TV watching.

 

Everything about game day was different.  First, we had to wait all day, because it wasn’t the usual 1 p.m. start, or even 4.  I checked my phone about four times.  Is it charged?  Are the tickets on it?  Are my COVID test results on it? 

 

What should we wear?  We bought club seats for the game, in part because they’re covered and there’s radiant heat.  Do we need all those layers?   I don’t know. 

 

We never parked in Lot 6 before. 

 

Some things don’t change.  The fans in the lots were fired up.  They hadn’t forgotten what it’s like to be at a Bills game.  They were happy, loud, energized. 

 

No lines to get into the stadium.  Even the stadium name is different, Bills Stadium.  Everything about it said that this is a new era.

 

The temperature was in the mid-30s, the wind was blowing.  The flags atop the stadium were flapping and waving and sometimes standing straight out, whipped mercilessly by the wind.  Sometimes during the game, the officials’ pant legs flapped violently.  The streamers at the top of the goal posts were blown in all different directions.  Then there was the characteristic sign of a bad wind day – the goal posts were moving, swaying here and there. 

 

Those radiant heaters in the club seats are nice.  I took off my parka.  By late in the first quarter, as the wind blew through the club seat area, I put it back on.  Radiant heat is no match for Buffalo wind chill.  It was cold, damn it.

 

The fans were ready.  There was a lot of excitement.  We weren’t side by side, but we knew we were in a crowd.  They were excited.  Some of us had learned during the week that the empty benches and the empty seat backs beside you make a lot of noise if you pound on them hard enough.  If you struck the seat back with force on a scale of 1 to 5, it made noise on a scale of 1 to 20 – if you really whacked it, it was like pounding a drum.  On some plays, with thousands pounding, it sounded like a nonstop thunderstorm. 

 

And then there was the game.  One of the strangest games I’ve seen.  Nothing happened.  It was all anxiety.  Can we stop Jackson?  Can we stop Jackson?  Come on, stop Jackson.  The Bills stopped Jackson, but it always felt like he was about to explode.  The great Justin Tucker, Mr. Automatic, couldn’t make a field goal.

 

Can the Bills move the ball?  Can they score?   No, they can’t run the ball at all.  In fact, they didn’t even try.  Can Allen throw it?   Well, not like Josh Allen, he can’t.  If there is skill involved in throwing in the Buffalo wind, and I believe there is, it’s a skill Josh hasn’t developed yet.  Still, when he was throwing in rhythm and relatively short, there were completions to be had.  Stefon Diggs catches everything he touches.  Gabriel Davis, for some reason, was hobbled, and he couldn’t catch the tough balls – was it the wind?  The cold?  His injury?  Four targets, no catches.

 

This was two tough, tough teams screaming “NO!!!  YOU CANNOT!!!” all night long.  There were no gimmicks, no trick plays, no jet sweeps.  Both teams knew that this was a head-to-head slugfest where gimmicks could be disastrous.

 

There had been 11 possessions by the two teams in the first half, back and forth, trading punts, missed field goals.  Nothing much happened.  Then, in the third quarter the Bills had the ball only once, and the Ravens had the ball only once.

 

The Bills put together a solid drive to open the third quarter and got to the red zone.  Fortunately, Brian Daboll had a play for the goal line.   On second and goal from the three, Allen threw quickly to Diggs on the left sideline, and Diggs found his way into the end zone through two blockers and what looked like four tacklers.  10-3, Bills.

 

The Ravens responded with a drive of their own.  Slow, methodical, relentless.  They were on their way to tie the game again, to continue the grim battle of wills.

 

And then it was over.  One play, and it was over.  On third and goal from the nine, Lamar Jackson stood in the pocket and threw into the heart of the Bills’ zone defense, looking for his tight end. 

 

There is one immutable truth about quarterbacking in the NFL, and that is if you want to be great, you have to be a great passer from the pocket.  You can be the best running quarterback, you can scramble beautifully, but if you want to be great, you have to be able to run the game from the pocket.  Lamar Jackson’s coaches have designed an offense to take advantage of his extraordinary ability to run with the football, and as a result, he hasn’t been forced to learn excellence in the pocket.

 

And so it was that, standing in the pocket, looking over the field, Jackson failed to see Taron Johnson in his shallow zone a yard deep in the end zone, watching Jackson and waiting.  Jackson threw, Johnson took a step to his left, directly in front of Jackson’s intended receiver, and intercepted the pass. 

 

Relieved that the scoring threat had ended, I wanted Johnson to take a touchback and not risk being tackled at the two or the five.  From his place in the end zone, Johnson saw a lot of running room to the right, so after regaining his balance, he took off, evading one tackler and cutting to his right.  Suddenly, to the absolute astonishment of the 6,700 Bills fans who had been feeling the way Bills fans feel when the game could be slipping away, Johnson was free and heading upfield.  There was no one there, no one except Tre’Davious White, who had broken upfield as soon as he saw Johnson catch the ball.  Johnson had one man to beat, Lamar Jackson, the fastest man on the field and probably the only man who might catch him.  Johnson veered toward the sideline, and now White was in position to provide the screen that Johnson needed.  101 yards for the touchdown.  The entire Bills defense mashed Johnson against the stadium wall in celebration. 

 

A joyous riot broke out in the stands.  We couldn’t stop yelling, laughing, high-fiving (well, COVID air-high-fives), smiling at each other behind our masks, hugging.  I wasn’t at the Comeback Game, but this must have been how it felt.  This couldn’t possibly have happened, and yet it did. 

 

It was 17-3, and the game was over.  The Ravens made a couple of big mistakes in the fourth quarter (a snap over Jackson’s head that resulted in a concussion that ended his night, and a running into the kicker penalty that left the Bills’ offense in victory formation).  The Ravens turned the ball over on downs deep in their own territory; the Bills offense couldn’t move the ball and Bass missed the field goal.  It didn’t matter.  The Bills defense was not going to allow the Ravens to score 14 points in less than a quarter. 

 

After the game, for the first time, it occurred to me that the Bills would be playing in the AFC Championship game.  For more than a decade, the AFC Championship game has been an unimaginable dream.  Through three quarters of intense football on Saturday night there had been no time to contemplate such a prospect.  And then the game ended, and the reality sank in. 

 

The Bills are going to the AFC Championship game, one win away from the Super Bowl.

 

Everything about Saturday was unique.

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

 

 

Man I got chills reading this. I’m so happy for all of us. It’s been such a long road to get to this point. It’s amazing what 6700 Bills fans can do. The noise was a factor for sure. That’s awesome you got to go to the game. The Taron Johnson play it the top play of my Bills fandom so far. Hopefully we have a few more of those immortal plays left in our quest for the Super Bowl this year.

 

Go Bills!!

[Big Turk]

11 hours ago, Logic said:

Good stuff.

You painted a nice picture for those of us who desperately wish we could have been there (which, frankly, is probably ALL of us).

I can't imagine the jubilation after Johnson's pick-six. It must have been "Fandemonium".

I just keep coming back to this: the Bills defense held Lamar Jackson to 34 yards rushing, sacked him four times, and picked off an end zone pass and returned it for six points. On national TV. In the playoffs. I still can't believe it.

 

Why not? They have been great in prime time games all year long. This one was no different.

[Shaw66]

20 hours ago, Figster said:

One of our more football savvy posters ( think it was @Rochesterfan ) Had commented earlier in the season when everyone was questioning the Bills overall level of talent on D. Not in these exact words. Buffalo has the talent and it had more to do with the proper scheming to match player personnel then lack of talent. (Prophetic words of wisdom IMO) 

It was interesting ro see that Hughes credited McKenzie for playing QB on the scout team as the Bill's practiced last week. McKenzie is the only guy the Bill's have with speed and quickness like Lamar. 

 

Smart coaching.  

Edited January 18, 2021 by Shaw66

[Ayjent]

That was an incredible coaching job and performance by the Defense.   You got the impression the Bills were okay giving up yards to the backs but not Lamar and if they could get them off schedule it would be much easier to stop the Ravens by hemming Lamar in the pocket.  Easier said than done but the Bills were built to stop that with great cover LBs. 

 

Greg Roman went away from what was working once the Bills had moderate success stopping their run game.  I was a little baffled but happy about it. 

 

On the other side, the Bills' best offensive drive was the 1st drive of the 3rd quarter, which had them mixing run and pass. I get that they didn't feel that the running game was going to be there given the Titans performance against the Ravens, but the Bills pass game provides more room to run and they were asking the Bills to at times.  Had they ran a bit more I think they could've handled the Ravens easier and put more points up.  However, hard to fault a playoff win like that.  I got the sense they could run if they just tried by the 2nd quarter when the Bills had them playing pass and it was clear that the wind was wreaking havoc on the ball. 

 

This is the weakness that the Bills have yet to demonstrate they have the ability to do consistently - the run game.  I think that they can run and could do so if they wanted with success. You could see the linemen getting jacked up after Singletary's runs. Thats a good thing. 

[Figster]

2 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

It was interesting ro see that Hughes credited McKenzie for playing QB on the scout team as the Bill's practiced last week. McKenzie is the only guy the Bill's have with speed and quickness like Lamar. 

 

Smart coaching.  

The Bills coaching staff like everything else continues to find ways to get better in the never ending process.

 

Smart coaching, smart players that listen. Intelligence is such a good thing to have when you are building a dynasty team IMO. Talents great. When you combine talent and intelligence theres nothing that can't be accomplished. Josh Allen is a perfect example.

 

Skys the limits...

 

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by Figster

[Shaw66]

1 hour ago, Ayjent said:

That was an incredible coaching job and performance by the Defense.   You got the impression the Bills were okay giving up yards to the backs but not Lamar and if they could get them off schedule it would be much easier to stop the Ravens by hemming Lamar in the pocket.  Easier said than done but the Bills were built to stop that with great cover LBs. 

 

Greg Roman went away from what was working once the Bills had moderate success stopping their run game.  I was a little baffled but happy about it. 

 

On the other side, the Bills' best offensive drive was the 1st drive of the 3rd quarter, which had them mixing run and pass. I get that they didn't feel that the running game was going to be there given the Titans performance against the Ravens, but the Bills pass game provides more room to run and they were asking the Bills to at times.  Had they ran a bit more I think they could've handled the Ravens easier and put more points up.  However, hard to fault a playoff win like that.  I got the sense they could run if they just tried by the 2nd quarter when the Bills had them playing pass and it was clear that the wind was wreaking havoc on the ball. 

 

This is the weakness that the Bills have yet to demonstrate they have the ability to do consistently - the run game.  I think that they can run and could do so if they wanted with success. You could see the linemen getting jacked up after Singletary's runs. Thats a good thing. 

I understood very little about the nuances of the running game, but the problems the Bills have running certainly seem to be in the line and not with the backs.  Singletary and Moss are good enough to get yardage the way most decent backs do - with good change of direction to take advantage of creases, seams, holes, whatever.  It just doesn't seem that the opportunities are there.  

 

The offensive line seems talented enough, even though they tend to the finesse side of things rather than the power side.  They rarely get really good push off the line.  That suggests to me that the Bills need better schemes.  We all understand play action - have a good running game, which makes the defensive front seven vulnerable to the run fake, slows down the pass rush and leaves holes in the zone.  Seems to me that there should be a way to scheme the reverse.  That is, if you're a pass-heavy team, the dline and linebackers are going to be thinking pass first.  Traditionally, that means run delays and draws, plays that get the defenders to take a first step intending to rush the passer, giving your finesse linemen better angles to create the seams.   Screen passes, too.  The Bills haven't been a good screen team, and that would seem to be one opportunity (although defenses are more sophisticated playing the screens than they used to be.  

 

It just seems there should be something they can do to get things going. 

 

Will be interesting to see if Freeman is active for the Chiefs.  

[Ayjent]

Hopefully the staff stays intact as teams impatiently fill vacancies. One of the benefits of winning is that it keeps your coordinators off the market. You've got to think Bienemy gets a look as does Daboll - whoever gets knocked out gets first look.  The vacancies are filling up - Eagles and Texans are still open.  You'd think Eagles is less attractive given cap hell they are in with Wentz K.  Texans have their own warts and pending chaos if Watson isn't given some voice in the process.  I dont know that I'd want either if I'm Bienemy or Daboll.

[inthebuff]

On 1/17/2021 at 11:17 AM, Shaw66 said:

Even the stadium name is different, Bills Stadium.  Everything about it said that this is a new era.

 

 

I see what you did there. 

 

Awesome write-up.  Thanks for giving us that birds-eye view look at the game.  We had to watch it from home, where game was announced by the team of Al Michaels and Cris Collingsworth.  They were ridiculously bad the whole game -- others have pointed that out.   The wind was reported by Al Michaels to be 8 MPH.  I saw the flags and the goalposts and I thought where the hell did they measure the wind from?  Inside their cars at the airport?   There was a play in the first quarter where Josh missed Diggs and that could have been 6 and I thought, damn, he has to put some air under it, but the wind was crazy, so I understood why Allen zipped it.  Then in the 4th quarter, Huntley missed a wide open Hollywood Brown.  The wind was more than  brutal I thought.  

10 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

The offensive line seems talented enough, even though they tend to the finesse side of things rather than the power side.  They rarely get really good push off the line. 

Phil Simms said on Showtime that the Ravens' D-Linemen's asses are so big you can show a double feature on them.  

[Ayjent]

4 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I understood very little about the nuances of the running game, but the problems the Bills have running certainly seem to be in the line and not with the backs.  Singletary and Moss are good enough to get yardage the way most decent backs do - with good change of direction to take advantage of creases, seams, holes, whatever.  It just doesn't seem that the opportunities are there.  

 

The offensive line seems talented enough, even though they tend to the finesse side of things rather than the power side.  They rarely get really good push off the line.  That suggests to me that the Bills need better schemes.  We all understand play action - have a good running game, which makes the defensive front seven vulnerable to the run fake, slows down the pass rush and leaves holes in the zone.  Seems to me that there should be a way to scheme the reverse.  That is, if you're a pass-heavy team, the dline and linebackers are going to be thinking pass first.  Traditionally, that means run delays and draws, plays that get the defenders to take a first step intending to rush the passer, giving your finesse linemen better angles to create the seams.   Screen passes, too.  The Bills haven't been a good screen team, and that would seem to be one opportunity (although defenses are more sophisticated playing the screens than they used to be.  

 

It just seems there should be something they can do to get things going. 

 

Will be interesting to see if Freeman is active for the Chiefs.  

The Bills have been adaptive in playing many styles as you pointed out.  You can guess they'll be pass heavy but the type of passing game they use is always presenting a different wrinkle. The times when they've struggled this year is when they try to go deep too much.  And that has been rare. 

 

They can run between the tackles better than outside.  Their screen game isn't great but Singletary is their best receiving back and it may be the way to beat chiefs.  Davis is their best blocking receiver but it's not that units strength.  I think thats why it isn't that effective and why they can't run outside with much consistency.

 

Their best runs seem to be between the tackles where they don't necessarily get verticle push but open the hole side to side and the LBs and secondary either get blocked on the line or miss their gap. 

[Shaw66]

2 minutes ago, Ayjent said:

The Bills have been adaptive in playing many styles as you pointed out.  You can guess they'll be pass heavy but the type of passing game they use is always presenting a different wrinkle. The times when they've struggled this year is when they try to go deep too much.  And that has been rare. 

 

They can run between the tackles better than outside.  Their screen game isn't great but Singletary is their best receiving back and it may be the way to beat chiefs.  Davis is their best blocking receiver but it's not that units strength.  I think thats why it isn't that effective and why they can't run outside with much consistency.

 

Their best runs seem to be between the tackles where they don't necessarily get verticle push but open the hole side to side and the LBs and secondary either get blocked on the line or miss their gap. 

When Edmunds "missed his gap" more often than he does now, I think he was committing to where he thought he should go, and the running back had options.  That is, if the backer fills gap 1, the running back had opportunities at gap 2.  I'm not sure the Bills are creating gap 1, let alone gap 2.  

 

One problem with McDermott's we're-going-to-play-every-style philosophy is that the team doesn't concentrate on one style and has trouble getting really good at.  I know the Bills run zone blocking schemes some of the time - they want to be able to threaten that style, as well as others, but they've never seemed to be as effective at it as teams that are primarily zone blocking.   One of the things that make zone schemes so effective is the cut back behind the zone when the defense over-reacts.  Shady was good at the cutback.  Singletary and Moss aren't as shifty as Shady and have always seemed to have less success on the cutback.  

 

Interesting comment about the blocking abilities of the wideouts.  The extreme is to be committed to the run like the Ravens, and then your style dictates getting some mobile, big tight ends on the field for blocking and the short passing game.  Those guys they play at TE are bruisers.  Bills are at the other extreme - Diggs, Beas and Smoke are not road graders by any stretch of the imagination.  

 

Whatever, the Bills need better answers in the run game than they've shown in recent weeks. 

[Ayjent]

26 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

Whatever, the Bills need better answers in the run game than they've shown in recent weeks. 

Agreed.  I think they can but there is a lot of truth to run blocking being a matter of focus and consistency in scheme and the backs having familiarity with where the holes are most likely to develop. Moss and Singletary are similar backs and I think running Antonio Williams could give them a change of pace power back.  I was holding my breath with Yeldon's ball security issues at the end of the game. 

[Shaw66]

11 minutes ago, Ayjent said:

Agreed.  I think they can but there is a lot of truth to run blocking being a matter of focus and consistency in scheme and the backs having familiarity with where the holes are most likely to develop. Moss and Singletary are similar backs and I think running Antonio Williams could give them a change of pace power back.  I was holding my breath with Yeldon's ball security issues at the end of the game. 

Williams actually looked to me like the best pure running back the Bills have in the one game where he played.   No idea whatsoever whether he's a + or a - as a receiver or as a pass blocker.  I've not paid any attention to who the guy is at all, so I just looked him up.  Never a starter at Ohio State, not really a full-time starter at North Carolina.  Rookie free agent this year, waive FOUR times by the Bills!  Is that any chance at all that the Bills would trust him for significant snaps against the Chiefs?  

[Olliemets]

That review gives me the chills. Makes me feel like I was there. Thanks !!!!

[Shaw66]

5 hours ago, Olliemets said:

That review gives me the chills. Makes me feel like I was there. Thanks !!!!

Thanks for the compliment, and thanks to others who have posted similar sentiments.  

 

As I said, I was kind of at a loss to say meaningful things about the actual game.  It was a weird game for me in that respect.   At the end of the game, there were probably only a half dozen plays I could have told you about.