Who is the imposter in Brian Daboll's Body?

[Lieutenant Aldo Raine]

I don't recognize this Brian Daboll offense this postseason as compared to the regular season.  The offense in my opinion looked relatively different as compared to the regular season.  The imagination appeared very vanilla, the jet sweeps were missing (except today when it was too late), and the red zone play calling left a lot to be desired.  I understand players have to execute, but I feel these playoff games were not Daboll at his best.  

[Aussie Joe]

Something went off the rails with the O this post season and I’m not sure what it was 

 

I think it’s a little simplistic to blame Daboll although this may be a factor...

 

The OL struggled today  ...  do we blame Dabs for that? 
 

 

Edited January 25, 2021 by Aussie Joe

[Lieutenant Aldo Raine]

Just now, Aussie Joe said:

Something went off the rails with the O this post season and I’m not sure what it was 

 

I think it’s a little simplistic to blame Daboll although this may be a factor...

 

The OL struggled today ( although played good last week )...  do we blame Dabs for that? 

 

It's probably a little simplistic sure, but the play calling looked different to me this postseason as compared to the regular season.  For example, during the Colts game, we purposely ran Josh directly into the gauntlet which yielded very little expect putting him at risk.

[ALLEN1QB]

It was payback for not letting him talk to Philly

[Ethan in Cleveland]

They played better teams.  The Bills were playing patsies down the stretch.  

 

[Sweats]

Any wonder why he never got a HC gig

[Billsfan1972]

The O line disappeared along with the play calling.  Redzone yesterday was just awful.

 

The Chiefs D is not the Steel Curtain, but yesterday you could have fooled me.

[Mango]

I’ve been super surprised at the Daboll love this year. This place was ripping that guy a new butthole every week in 2018/19. 
 

That said Romo was pretty critical of the coaching staff on both sides of the ball as the game went on. 

[Nihilarian]

I dunno what happened to Daboll as the offense was no where near as creative as it was for the last regular season games. 

 

Week 15, Denver 48-19

Week 16, New England 38-9

Week 17, Miami 56-26

 

For the playoffs, against the Colts they barely won 27-24. Against the Ravens the Bills offense only scored 10 points. 

 

My take is the Bills offense was exposed as a one dimensional team...a total passing offense with little or no run game...save the QB runs.

 

The Bills rushed in this game 18 times and 7 by the QB which means the Bills RB's got only 11 carries. 

 

Meanwhile, with the Chiefs going man defense with their DBs shadowing the Bills receivers Josh Allen had nobody open most of the night. What did Tony Romo call it? Sticky defense?

 

QB Josh Allen is only in his third season starting and is still learning. Andy Reid and the Chiefs have been in the playoffs since 2013. Seven seasons to fine tune his schemes. 

 

Another factor might have been lingering injuries to John Brown, Stefon Diggs.

 

 

[Heavy Kevi]

Yeah-

Seems like Daboll "outsmarted himself" this post-season. Offense was just so, well... "Let's just line up and play"

 

Crazy since the "exotic" stuff worked so well all year.

 

This game, more than any other should have featured all the smoke and mirrors. And where the heck were the hot routes yesterday when kc was just blitzing all night?

[colin]

i was anti dabol for the longest.  

 

he really turned a corner this season, but had regression this post season.  didn't pass enough early vs indy, scheme was unbalanced and ineffective vs baltimore (im willing to say weather and the baltimore d was the bigger part of that tho), and vs KC i do think he was hamstrung by injuries to our best RB (out) and our 2 and 3 and 4 WRs being dinged up or basically to hurt to play (beez was in and out, davis was basically a no show w his injuries, and brown was somewhere inbetween).

 

if the bills coaches had billicheck in game adjustment ability, the would have let josh make one or two reads and just run the ball, he could have run for like 150 if he kept it more, and on d they would have done something to disrupt kelsey getting free releases.  still woulda lost the game tho.

 

we got out coached, and badly, but with who we had healthy and who we have overall, we just weren't going to beat KC where KC was playing hard and dirty.

[JerseyBills]

Beasley,  Smoke and Davis were all banged up.  Add in no run game and this is what you get 

[maryland-bills-fan]

Folks.  Take a deep breath into a paper bag a few times.(and none of the funny smoke in there!).

 

What impressed me is the number of times that Allen had to throw the ball away or try to squeze it into a small, difficult to catch window.  The announcers were saying multiple times, and showed the replays,  "Everybody is covered with sticky coverage".   Guess what.  The Chiefs are good and often had 3 WR blanketed.  Against most teams, Allen is good enough to find the 1 of 3 that is sort of open and get a completion.  Not against this very good team.  We have to build the team not only to get into the playoffs, but also to beat KC. .. ...  We do NOT have a weapon at running back.  That hurts the passing game too much. It is pretty simple.

 

We got into the playoffs and had a great season.  The job now is to maintain that position AND rebuild the roster on the success so that it can also take on and beat the Chiefs

 

This is a hell of a lot more fun than trying to stay out of the basement !!!

 

Edited January 25, 2021 by maryland-bills-fan

[Da webster guy]

14 minutes ago, Heavy Kevi said:

Yeah-

Seems like Daboll "outsmarted himself" this post-season. Offense was just so, well... "Let's just line up and play"

 

Crazy since the "exotic" stuff worked so well all year.

 

This game, more than any other should have featured all the smoke and mirrors. And where the heck were the hot routes yesterday when kc was just blitzing all night?

That was my frustration too, zero hot route outlets.  It was like we had no plan for their blitz.

How is that possible?

 

In an NFL blitz scenario, the qb AND receivers need to react immediately and the ball needs to come out at the 2 second mark.  We looked like we had never practiced beating a blitz package.   Ugly.

[Steptide]

I'm a firm believer that one big play can change the momentum of a game. Daboll didn't call anything that was creative or threw the kc defense off. I kept yelling at my TV to throw screens. I don't know what daboll has against them. Yeldon woulda been perfect for them and could eat up yards with them. I mean this was the championship game, you have to pull out all the gadgets, especially when kc is just killing you most of the game 

[TBBills]

I guess there is a bigger reason Daboll didn't get a HC job this year.

[Back2Buff]

From one of the most creative offensives to running the same play over and over again in the playoffs.  Presnap movement just went away.  Mckenzie went away.  Running schemes went away.  They tried nothing new, and didn't even run creative plays that worked this year.

 

Daboll had a lot of questionable times during the season that was overlooked, but the guy was just plain awful in the playoffs.

[Billsfan1972]

KC is not a good defense.  No idea what happened with play calling, but it was disastrous. 

[HeHateMe]

5 minutes ago, Billsfan1972 said:

KC is not a good defense.  No idea what happened with play calling, but it was disastrous. 

 

Their D is pretty solid.  They get pressure with 4, their corners are solid, and they have a stud safety...  

[Brennan Huff]

WR couldn’t get open. Diggs was double covered a lot. It didn’t help that literally every receiver on the team was banged up

[SoCal Deek]

If the defense is going to play ‘sticky’ then you counter that by leaking a late receiver out in the flat. He’ll be uncovered because the DBs are glued to their men. Either we didn’t do that or Josh didn’t see the outlet soon enough. I believe it was actually quite a bit more of the former last night. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

7 hours ago, Lieutenant Aldo Raine said:

I don't recognize this Brian Daboll offense this postseason as compared to the regular season.  The offense in my opinion looked relatively different as compared to the regular season.  The imagination appeared very vanilla, the jet sweeps were missing (except today when it was too late), and the red zone play calling left a lot to be desired.  I understand players have to execute, but I feel these playoff games were not Daboll at his best.  

 

There is plenty of blame to go around IMO. 

There's more to being vanilla or not than jet sweeps. 

 

I'm going to wait until I see the all-22 to put it so much on Daboll.  I thought his offensive play design in the Ravens game was actually very creative and effective.

 

There are still times when Josh doesn't make the right call or passes up a simple throw that would move the chains instead of taking what the defense gives him.

There are times when another player makes a mistake

Either our protection calls were screwed or we were just getting our asses whupped on the line

 

A factor that I don't know how to adjust for is officials allowing DBs to mug the WR in playoff games.  This was a factor in the TB/GB game as well.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Bills aren't built for the playoffs. Josh Allen isn't Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes. Bills remind me of the Peyton Manning Colts early in his career. 

Edited January 25, 2021 by Buffalo_Stampede

[JMF2006]

To many interviews and he got distracted  

[Billsfan1972]

15 minutes ago, HeHateMe said:

 

Their D is pretty solid.  They get pressure with 4, their corners are solid, and they have a stud safety...  

No they are not.  They are an okay D, but the worst red zone defense in the NFL, who shut the Bills down 4X's there (and the Bills are one of the best red zone offenses).

 

https://www.lineups.com/nfl/team-stats/defense

Edited January 25, 2021 by Billsfan1972

[CircleTheWagons99]

3 hours ago, Mango said:

I’ve been super surprised at the Daboll love this year. This place was ripping that guy a new butthole every week in 2018/19. 
 

That said Romo was pretty critical of the coaching staff on both sides of the ball as the game went on. 

I’ve been saying it all year, I don’t like his game plans, and when they work it because of the players not the scheme. 

[Bermuda Triangle]

5 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

They played better teams.  The Bills were playing patsies down the stretch.  

 

The Chiefs red zone defense is horrible.

 

Cleveland attacked the KC defense better than we did.

[Lieutenant Aldo Raine]

11 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

There is plenty of blame to go around IMO. 

There's more to being vanilla or not than jet sweeps. 

 

I'm going to wait until I see the all-22 to put it so much on Daboll.  I thought his offensive play design in the Ravens game was actually very creative and effective.

 

There are still times when Josh doesn't make the right call or passes up a simple throw that would move the chains instead of taking what the defense gives him.

There are times when another player makes a mistake

Either our protection calls were screwed or we were just getting our asses whupped on the line

 

A factor that I don't know how to adjust for is officials allowing DBs to mug the WR in playoff games.  This was a factor in the TB/GB game as well.

 

I'm not really trying to pin blame on Daboll, it's a collective effort.  My point being in my opinion, is that the offensive playcalling and design approach looked different than what we had seen all season.   The jet sweeps was just an example of something we used all season to detect defenses but provided another running option.  

[Hapless Bills Fan]

4 minutes ago, Lieutenant Aldo Raine said:

 

I'm not really trying to pin blame on Daboll, it's a collective effort.  My point being in my opinion, is that the offensive playcalling and design approach looked different than what we had seen all season.   The jet sweeps was just an example of something we used all season to detect defenses but provided another running option.  

 

I think we had a "tell" for them and other teams were stuffing them, was why they disappeared.

 

And sorry, but when you start a thread titled "who is the imposter in Brian Daboll's body" re: the playoff playcalling it does give the appearance of pinning blame on Daboll.

[Lieutenant Aldo Raine]

5 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

I think we had a "tell" for them and other teams were stuffing them, was why they disappeared.

 

And sorry, but when you start a thread titled "who is the imposter in Brian Daboll's body" re: the playoff playcalling it does give the appearance of pinning blame on Daboll.

I think the thread title speaks for itself, re: the offensive game plan just looked different than what we were used to seeing from Daboll.

[maryland-bills-fan]

I think that they didn't have an answer when the Chiefs smothered out set of slightly banged up receivers. They were smart enough to figure out that they could pass rush every play because we had no running backs that had enough speed to hurt them around the corners or get a big chunk if they got through the LOS.   In prior games we used the steady passing attack to make yardage AND open up various  deception plays.  We never got off the dime on the passing. 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

8 hours ago, Lieutenant Aldo Raine said:

I don't recognize this Brian Daboll offense this postseason as compared to the regular season.  The offense in my opinion looked relatively different as compared to the regular season.  The imagination appeared very vanilla, the jet sweeps were missing (except today when it was too late), and the red zone play calling left a lot to be desired.  I understand players have to execute, but I feel these playoff games were not Daboll at his best.  

 

Agree kind of felt the same too.  Was there some secret injury to Allen that we'll hear about in a couple weeks, or was it just that once you get into the playoffs the defenses all are much better.  Hard to believe that's it as played some good defensive teams in regular season too unless they all save their good stuff for the playoffs..

[US Egg]

This is how Daboll sees himself:

[Rigotz]

It’s no mystery. Daboll didn’t magically forget how to coach.

 

By playoff time it became evident to EVERY team that we couldn’t run the ball AT ALL.

 

If your team becomes one dimensional in the playoffs, you won’t win. See Baltimore.

 

Moss went down, Singletary was somehow below expectations, and the O-line couldn’t run block.

 

It’s the beginning and end of every issue with the offense. If you have 7-8 DBs in on every snap, the WRs will have a much more difficult time getting open and the QB will have a harder time finding them. We need a better run game. Period.

[LABILLBACKER]

59 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

There is plenty of blame to go around IMO. 

There's more to being vanilla or not than jet sweeps. 

 

I'm going to wait until I see the all-22 to put it so much on Daboll.  I thought his offensive play design in the Ravens game was actually very creative and effective.

 

There are still times when Josh doesn't make the right call or passes up a simple throw that would move the chains instead of taking what the defense gives him.

There are times when another player makes a mistake

Either our protection calls were screwed or we were just getting our asses whupped on the line

 

A factor that I don't know how to adjust for is officials allowing DBs to mug the WR in playoff games.  This was a factor in the TB/GB game as well.

They allow them to mug in both games because the NFL so desperately wants that Mahomes/Brady matchup. Yes we played badly last night but both games were steered in a certain direction. 

[DJB]

9 hours ago, Aussie Joe said:

Something went off the rails with the O this post season and I’m not sure what it was 

 

I think it’s a little simplistic to blame Daboll although this may be a factor...

 

The OL struggled today  ...  do we blame Dabs for that? 
 

 

 

Calling a roll out to the right and a screen to the left would have been a nice start. 

 

How Daboll didn't use the KC aggressiveness against them is beyond me. 

 

His post season play calling was atrocious 

[BillsFan130]

1 hour ago, HeHateMe said:

 

Their D is pretty solid.  They get pressure with 4, their corners are solid, and they have a stud safety...  

They are average/above average.

 

I think they ranked 16th in the regular season, but I would probably put them more in the 10-15 range

[dave mcbride]

18 minutes ago, Rigotz said:

It’s no mystery. Daboll didn’t magically forget how to coach.

 

By playoff time it became evident to EVERY team that we couldn’t run the ball AT ALL.

 

If your team becomes one dimensional in the playoffs, you won’t win. See Baltimore.

 

Moss went down, Singletary was somehow below expectations, and the O-line couldn’t run block.

 

It’s the beginning and end of every issue with the offense. If you have 7-8 DBs in on every snap, the WRs will have a much more difficult time getting open and the QB will have a harder time finding them. We need a better run game. Period.

The Chiefs actually blitzed Allen relentlessly (meaning they didn’t have 7-8 DBs), and too often he didn’t have answers. He left a lot of short, productive plays on the field last night. Hero ball was a problem.

[Matt_In_NH]

There was not a lot of creativity in the post season compared to the regular season.  THey had a  couple jet action runs to convert first downs but nothing to result in big plays, they had a nice statue of liberty thing they set up in the regular season, where was that?   All the passes with WR's and whatnot, I expected to see something in the post season.  In game adjustments did not appear to be there either compared to the regular season either.   Some of it is you are getting better efforts by the opposing teams, but I agree, there seemed to be a lack gameplanning to the Bills advantage in the post season.

The OL seems outstanding at pass pro but awful at run blocking.  I know guys have different skill sets but I put this more on mentality and tone setting.

[Livinginthepast]

I'm always of two minds with Daboll. On the one hand , he's a creative genius who has really helped Josh's development and made our offense elite. On the other hand he arrogantly tries to keep with a plan and makes no adjustments even when it isnt working. I get that he was hamstrung by the injuries and the lack of options in the running game but the Chiefs never got punished for blitzing and never had to fear a run option at all, so they could go to town on our receivers with smothering man to man coverage. It was a recipe for disaster. Daboll should have run Yeldon more and had Josh run on designed plays.  The one plus about Yeldon is he is a big body who punishes people trying to tackle him. The KC defense needed to be worn down by the run. Instead they looked just as fresh in the 4th quarter as they did in the first! Overall I was struck by how vanilla everything has been in the playoffs. Why are we scared to run a creative offensive play in an elimination game? We needed some trickery in that game in the worse way. Where was the running back or receiver option throw? why don't we ever do reverses? One jet sweep? The game plan on both sides of the ball was dumb at best, insane at worst!