SCBills Posted September 17, 2021 Share Posted September 17, 2021 12 hours ago, billybrew1 said: That Pittsburgh front four sure surprised me. They destroyed us helping Josh to be off and allowing Pittsburgh to cover with seven. If you can't hold out four with your five it is generally going to be a long day. It sounds like Miami kind of lucked out vs. NE? Would the author say this? I really hope the Bills thump 'em - squishing the Fish in the process. Thats what I need to see. To me, our D looks improved. I really liked Ed's and Tremaine's game last week. Disappointed the front four petered out with our big lead in TOP. So, I'm looking for four quarters Sunday. Maybe give the second string, Efe Obada more snaps to keep the front fast. On offense,I want our OL to be a wall, particularly vs. a four man rush. C'mon guys, bounce back. Even though the OL let Josh down, and even though the Stealers got to cover with seven, I thought Josh clearly did not play up to 2020 form when he was a superstar. No, no superstar looks from Allen last week. Let's face facts, Wallers, if Josh doesn't play like a stud QB, like clearly one of better players from both teams, we haven't a chance of winning the big one. We need Josh to be a MVP, it is as simple as that. I think Beane did his job and surrounded JA with enough talent, let's hope last week was an outlier and Josh, Daboll and his whole O really respond this week and put Buffalo back on top of the AFC East again. This was well-written and we appreciate it, keep them coming and.... Go Bills! Agreed on Oliver and Edmunds. I thought they stood out, especially in the first half. VERY much agree on your concern over the second half, and the DL seeming to tire… A) Aren’t we hyper focused on having DL depth? B) These dudes weren’t even on the field that much. I get that it’s the first game, but game 2 is in the Miami humidity so let’s hope they find some endurance 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dont Stop Billeiving Posted September 17, 2021 Author Share Posted September 17, 2021 Wanted to share one of the observations that Joe Marino made on the Locked On Bills podcast this week... He made the point that it was easy to watch Josh Allen's play against Pittsburgh in Week 1 and feel disappointed and start to panic. However, if you go back and look at the box score of our 2020 matchup with the Steelers, that game and Josh's performance were nearly identical. The difference was that we got the defensive/ST TD in that game with the Taron Johnson pick six rather than the other way around this time (blocked punt TD). The 2020 game was just one game in the middle of an otherwise near MVP season whereas the opening game of a new season after the big contract and the MVP hype just hit us all different. I'd also argue that our line figured out how to deal with Heyward and Watt in the second half of that 2020 contest which didn't happen on Sunday, but that's another story. Marino's point was that Josh is the same player and we shouldn't change our expectations or worry too much about Josh's game this past week...fully expecting him to go out and squish the fish like he always does! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lothar Posted September 17, 2021 Share Posted September 17, 2021 My two biggest concerns this week are turnovers and temperature. If we stay even on mistakes against a ball hawking team and Devin and Josh take care of the football, I like our chances. I feel pretty good that coach will get the guys mostly ready to play in the heat and humidity but that's where our depth better hold up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeGOATski Posted September 17, 2021 Share Posted September 17, 2021 6 hours ago, Dont Stop Billeiving said: Yeah the Miami YPC stat from Week 1 is pretty wild if we can take away anything from just one game. On one hand, it shows how elusive their weapons are and how much speed Miami has added over the past few years. On the other, it means Tua completed less than 100 passing yards in the air before the catch which is really underwhelming especially since Miami didn't lean on the run game vs the Pats. I agree with you that our CBs generally do well at attacking the catch point and limiting YAC, but I am slightly cautious given that we struggled to match Devante Parker and Preston Williams' physicality in some previous match ups and we haven't seen Waddle yet who brings Tyreek Hill level speed. And to answer your offense rankings question, I typically use the Football Outsiders DVOA rankings as I think they are the most comprehensive and accurate method for grading how well a team is playing. I always copy the link near the top of my OP if you want to have a look at the whole league. According to their site, this is how they calculate their DVOA rankings: "Our proprietary Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA) system breaks down every single NFL play and compares a team's performance to a league baseline based on situation in order to determine value over average. Only the regular season is included. OFFENSE and DEFENSE DVOA are adjusted based on strength of opponent as well as to consider all fumbles, kept or lost, as equal value. SPECIAL TEAMS DVOA is adjusted for type of stadium (warm, cold, dome, Denver) and week of season." Yep, I totally forgot to read the beginning! 🤦🏻♂️ Great write-up! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dont Stop Billeiving Posted September 17, 2021 Author Share Posted September 17, 2021 Just announced that Will Fuller is out for Sunday's game due to a personal issue. Big break for the Bills, one less speed guy to worry about. Hopefully means we can give more attention to Waddle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain_Quint Posted September 17, 2021 Share Posted September 17, 2021 23 minutes ago, Dont Stop Billeiving said: Just announced that Will Fuller is out for Sunday's game due to a personal issue. Big break for the Bills, one less speed guy to worry about. Hopefully means we can give more attention to Waddle. That's a big deal, I think. Now you put Tre on Parker and Levi on Waddel. Tre struggles more against the bigger WRs than smaller ones, but I feel like Parker is the bigger threat than Waddel in his 2nd NFL game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave mcbride Posted September 17, 2021 Share Posted September 17, 2021 19 minutes ago, Captain_Quint said: That's a big deal, I think. Now you put Tre on Parker and Levi on Waddel. Tre struggles more against the bigger WRs than smaller ones, but I feel like Parker is the bigger threat than Waddel in his 2nd NFL game. Waddle is scary. Most video-game-ish player I've seen since Tyreek Hill. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyDays Posted September 17, 2021 Share Posted September 17, 2021 I think Rousseau will get his first sack this week. He'll be rushing from Tua's blind side (since Tua is left handed), he has a favorable matchup, and it's his homecoming game in heat that he is accustomed to. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain_Quint Posted September 17, 2021 Share Posted September 17, 2021 1 hour ago, dave mcbride said: Waddle is scary. Most video-game-ish player I've seen since Tyreek Hill. I agree. He will almost definately emerge as their #1 as the season goes on. And it wouldn't surprise me to see Tre on Waddle Sunday if the coaches think he is the bigger threat (they would know better than me). I just think that in week 2, with Tua throwing the ball, it's safe enough to put Levi on him when we play man coverage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWATeam Posted September 17, 2021 Share Posted September 17, 2021 1 hour ago, dave mcbride said: Waddle is scary. Most video-game-ish player I've seen since Tyreek Hill. And if there's one thing our secondary lacks, it's speed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dont Stop Billeiving Posted September 18, 2021 Author Share Posted September 18, 2021 On 9/17/2021 at 3:06 AM, billybrew1 said: That Pittsburgh front four sure surprised me. They destroyed us helping Josh to be off and allowing Pittsburgh to cover with seven. If you can't hold out four with your five it is generally going to be a long day. It sounds like Miami kind of lucked out vs. NE? Would the author say this? I really hope the Bills thump 'em - squishing the Fish in the process. Thats what I need to see. To me, our D looks improved. I really liked Ed's and Tremaine's game last week. Disappointed the front four petered out with our big lead in TOP. So, I'm looking for four quarters Sunday. Maybe give the second string, Efe Obada more snaps to keep the front fast. On offense,I want our OL to be a wall, particularly vs. a four man rush. C'mon guys, bounce back. Even though the OL let Josh down, and even though the Stealers got to cover with seven, I thought Josh clearly did not play up to 2020 form when he was a superstar. No, no superstar looks from Allen last week. Let's face facts, Wallers, if Josh doesn't play like a stud QB, like clearly one of better players from both teams, we haven't a chance of winning the big one. We need Josh to be a MVP, it is as simple as that. I think Beane did his job and surrounded JA with enough talent, let's hope last week was an outlier and Josh, Daboll and his whole O really respond this week and put Buffalo back on top of the AFC East again. This was well-written and we appreciate it, keep them coming and.... Go Bills! Thanks man! A lot of good points here...I think the expected demise of the Steelers may not happen this year. Their offense (despite having some solid skill players) will likely be average, but that's enough to win them a lot of games if their defense can stay healthy and play at the level we saw. I wouldn't go as far as saying the Dolphins lucked out against the Pats, but I know what you mean...the Pats were the better team for long stretches of the game and the stats back that up, but they were hurt by costly turnovers and inefficient offense in the red zone. The Dolphins just played a solid, risk-averse type of game where they took the easy yards on offense and didn't give up the big play on defense. While they didn't really impress me on tape, they probably did deserve to win. Getting back to the Bills, I completely agree on our defense...thought the first half in particular was reminiscent of the stellar 2019 defense. Of all the players we have on that side of the ball, having Ed Oliver and Tremaine Edmunds take that next step in their development is the most important factor to the defense's improvement and they both played excellent against Pittsburgh. I also agree that we need to see their endurance improve a bit and for the defense to maintain that level for a full sixty minutes. The offensive line was my biggest concern from that game and I'm anxious to see their performance against a solid but not elite Miami defensive line. I am much more confident in Josh playing better and getting back to that near MVP level we saw in 2020. Great discussion points, it's always a bit therapeutic for me to hash these things out with everyone here after a loss. Hopefully we can clean up the mistakes that cost us last week and get the win this weekend! Tomorrow afternoon can't get here soon enough, Go Bills! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted September 18, 2021 Share Posted September 18, 2021 On 9/17/2021 at 10:02 AM, Dont Stop Billeiving said: Wanted to share one of the observations that Joe Marino made on the Locked On Bills podcast this week... He made the point that it was easy to watch Josh Allen's play against Pittsburgh in Week 1 and feel disappointed and start to panic. However, if you go back and look at the box score of our 2020 matchup with the Steelers, that game and Josh's performance were nearly identical. The difference was that we got the defensive/ST TD in that game with the Taron Johnson pick six rather than the other way around this time (blocked punt TD). That's true, but we'd like to feel the team and Allen will take a step. So its still disappointing. On 9/17/2021 at 10:02 AM, Dont Stop Billeiving said: The 2020 game was just one game in the middle of an otherwise near MVP season whereas the opening game of a new season after the big contract and the MVP hype just hit us all different. I'd also argue that our line figured out how to deal with Heyward and Watt in the second half of that 2020 contest which didn't happen on Sunday, but that's another story. Marino's point was that Josh is the same player and we shouldn't change our expectations or worry too much about Josh's game this past week...fully expecting him to go out and squish the fish like he always does! Someone on another thread made the point that we adjusted our routes in the 2020 game and got the ball out faster more than we made adjustments on the line (though I do feel there were adjustments). I think there's some truth to the point that we could have done more to try keeping guys in to block, and if Motor/Brieda weren't getting it done (they didn't from what I saw) perhaps try bringing in an extra OLman or using 2 TE. And if our gameplan for the week didn't have those plays in it, then that's a gap in our gameplan going up against a top OL. I think there's also some truth that in some of these games (and Allen has pretty much said this in his post-game and following-week interviews), Allen isn't doing what's designed into the play to cope with pressure - he's going for the deep play and not taking the short "what the defense gives you" 3 yard stuff. Daboll and McDermott aren't going to throw him under the bus for that, nor are his teammates, but I don't think it's just Allen saying that to take it on himself when he shouldn't. IMHO that's one of the missing pieces for the Bills to take the next step 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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