The Athletic All-22 Review - Bills/WFT

[HappyDays]

 

As usual Joe Buscaglia kills it with his all-22 analysis. I won't paste the whole thing but here are some snippets:

 

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1. Josh Allen working defenders and the whole field

To begin the game, Allen mainly kept everything short and was on fire. Ten of his first 14 passes were no longer than 10 yards, and he completed 90 percent of those throws for 67 yards. Washington defenders began to creep forward, which opened up opportunities for Allen to push the ball deep. He did so three times by the end of the first quarter, one of which was a touchdown to Emmanuel Sanders. He also made an on-target throw to Stefon Diggs on a deep post in the end zone that easily could have been a touchdown had it not been for a good defensive play.

However, Allen was most impressive in the moments often taken for granted. He was terrific at evading the Washington pass rush — and there were plenty of opportunities. Washington pressured the Bills on 40.4 percent of the 47 passing snaps, the sixth-highest single-game pressure percentage this season. The Bills are the only team to have allowed a pressure rate of over 37 percent and still won the game. That was the Allen difference. The way he was composed, side-stepped pressure and climbed the pocket, keeping his feet underneath him even while Washington was winning up front, is the single biggest factor in the Bills turning a potentially close game into a blowout. When Allen is playing like that, very few teams can hang with the Bills.

Lastly, Allen turned around a tendency from his first two weeks. We noted that against the Steelers and Dolphins, Allen rarely targeted his right side on throws past 10 yards. Against Washington, Allen attempted eight passes to the right of the hashmark past 10 yards. He completed six of those attempts for 110 yards and two touchdowns.

 

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2. Pedestrian pass rush

It was usually a straight-up approach for Washington, assigning five offensive linemen to block four pass rushers — three of those defenders having a one-on-one chance. And it wasn’t for lack of opportunities, either. Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke held on to the ball for 3.2 seconds on average. Only Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson (3.7) and New Orleans’ Jameis Winston (3.4) held the ball longer in Week 3. Almost across the board, the Bills were slow to get into the pocket, failed to win their one-on-one matchups and allowed Heinicke all day to throw. All four defensive ends had a day to forget as pass rushers.

A.J. Epenesa looked overpowered and a step too slow. Jerry Hughes lacked his typical explosiveness off the edge. Rookie Greg Rousseau wasn’t disengaging from his blocks nearly in time, and veteran Mario Addison didn’t give the Bills’ pass rush anything despite having a one-on-one chance almost every time. At defensive tackle, Ed Oliver was a pass-rushing nonfactor for the second straight week, despite getting plenty of opportunities against only one blocker.

 

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3. Tremaine Edmunds excellent in coverage

One of the best coverage assets the Bills had all game against Washington was middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, whose size, instincts and reading of the play forced Heinicke into several precarious moments. Edmunds dissuaded Heinicke several times from his first target because of how much ground the linebacker could make up. Edmunds nearly created one interception with a tipped pass that was called back on a penalty, but he subtly created the Bills’ first interception of the game without anyone knowing.

 

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4. Cody Ford was a significant weak link

After a good start to his season, third-year right guard Cody Ford struggled with his pass-blocking duties against Washington. He was primarily up against defensive tackle Daron Payne, with Payne often getting the better of the matchup. How often? Ford allowed 11 total pressures on 46 pass-blocking snaps. It was the most pressures allowed by one offensive lineman in a single game this season.

Ford was a quarter-tick too slow to respond to the initial pass-rushing move and too content to put his head down and try and ride the defender past the pocket. It often forced Allen to move off his spot in the pocket, which made the quarterback’s day quite impressive.

 

Top 5 grades:

1) Josh Allen

2) Micah Hyde

3) Emmanuel Sanders

4) Cole Beasley

5) Tre'Davious White

 

Bottom 5 grades (worst to 5th worst):

1) Cody Ford

2) Mario Addison

3) Jerry Hughes

4) AJ Epenesa

5) Ed Oliver

Edited September 29, 2021 by HappyDays

[ColoradoBills]

The comments and ranking all look pretty accurate.  At least that is how I saw it during the game.

[nedboy7]

Tremaine Edmunds excellent in coverage.

That's gotta hurt. 

 

However on PFF...

Meanwhile, Tremaine Edmunds was picked on in coverage, allowing six receptions for 120 yards and a touchdown.

 

Do we like PFF?

Edited September 29, 2021 by nedboy7

[uninja]

11 minutes ago, nedboy7 said:

Tremaine Edmunds excellent in coverage.

That's gotta hurt. 

 

However on PFF...

Meanwhile, Tremaine Edmunds was picked on in coverage, allowing six receptions for 120 yards and a touchdown.

 

Do we like PFF?

 

I mean I don't know what voodoo magic PFF uses to grade linebackers in coverage but I know what my eyes see. He's quite good to great sideline to sideline and reacting to passing plays, he naturally dissuades QBs from throwing to his area because his frame and speed means he covers a larger area of the zone he's protecting.

 

His issues, as I see them, are with biting too hard on play fakes and he's below average in run support. He's a bad downhill run stuffer, is easily fooled on running plays into vacating his gap, doesn't shed blocks well and takes too aggressive a lane downhill towards runners or receivers out of the backfield because it almost seems like he thinks he's faster and can cover more ground than he actually does, or he underestimates the ball carrier's speed.

[billybrew1]

43 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

As usual Joe Buscaglia kills it with his all-22 analysis. I won't paste the whole thing but here are some snippets:

 

 

 

 

 

Top 5 grades:

1) Josh Allen

2) Micah Hyde

3) Emmanuel Sanders

4) Cole Beasley

5) Tre'Davious White

 

Bottom 5 grades (worst to 5th worst):

1) Cody Ford

2) Mario Addison

3) Jerry Hughes

4) AJ Epenesa

5) Ed Oliver

I would have picked an OL seeing as how we were up against the wtf DL.... Maybe Dion?

 

As I said earlier, Ford is a concern moving forward after that game....

[First Round Bust]

read it and weep

 

per Joe B...here are the Bills lowest grades after 3 games

 

Josh is at the top of the bottom...and the bottom feeders are mostly OL with Mario, Oliver and then Zimmer the lowest on the D..

example - says Oliver was 1:1 for all of the last game and did not pressure the qb

 

grade and snaps

 

Feliciano and Dawkins have the most snaps on the team

Edited September 29, 2021 by First Round Bust

[maryland-bills-fan]

I guess we lost that game.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Edmunds low number of passes defensed does fit the above narrative that his coverage dissuades throws in his direction.  Simply less opportunities to make a play because the QB chooses to throw it elsewhere. Will continue to look for that during the games.  

 

 

[CorkScrewHill]

1 hour ago, HappyDays said:

3. Tremaine Edmunds excellent in coverage

One of the best coverage assets the Bills had all game against Washington was middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, whose size, instincts and reading of the play forced Heinicke into several precarious moments. Edmunds dissuaded Heinicke several times from his first target because of how much ground the linebacker could make up. Edmunds nearly created one interception with a tipped pass that was called back on a penalty, but he subtly created the Bills’ first interception of the game without anyone knowing.

Saying things like this can get you beaten up in these parts.

[GunnerBill]

This week I do not agree with Joe.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

4 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

This week I do not agree with Joe.

i admire him trying, but in the past, I found his All-22 reviews to be riddled with mistakes and bad takes, often contradicting the majority of other pundits’ same film review. 

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

20 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

Edmunds low number of passes defensed does fit the above narrative that his coverage dissuades throws in his direction.  Simply less opportunities to make a play because the QB chooses to throw it elsewhere. Will continue to look for that during the games.  

 

 

It’s there. They rarely throw behind or over him. Mahommes and KC did because he and Kelce are incredibly good. 

[HappyDays]

8 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

This week I do not agree with Joe.

 

On which section? Just curious.

[GunnerBill]

38 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

On which section? Just curious.

 

The pass rush. They did a good job of pressuring Heinicke. The fact he averaged over 3 seconds to throw was because he held onto the ball and bailed the pocket. My review the D line - especially Addison who I am no fan of - played well.

[eball]

Just now, GunnerBill said:

 

The pass rush. They did a good job of pressuring Heinicke. The fact he averaged over 3 seconds to throw was because he held onto the ball and bailed the pocket. My review the D line - especially Addison who I am no fan of - played well.

 

That was my unprofessional view of the action as well, although there was one play in particular in which Addison was embarrassed.  He started a bull rush, then tried a spin move, and was pancaked.  I said "ouch." 

[Rocky Landing]

10 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

The pass rush. They did a good job of pressuring Heinicke. The fact he averaged over 3 seconds to throw was because he held onto the ball and bailed the pocket. My review the D line - especially Addison who I am no fan of - played well.

Gotta give props to Vernon Butler, as well (who I'm no fan of). He tried to run down Heinicke well beyond the pocket more than once, all the way to the sideline. That's a big fella to be doing all that sprinting! I don't think he ever felt he was going to catch the guy, but recognized that Heinicke on the run could not complete passes the way Josh can.

[loveorhatembillsfan4life]

Interesting to read his take on the Passrush. Mcd in Monday’s Press conference said that while the run defense was where it needed to be, the pass rush could have made a bigger impact and that now he is looking for consistency. 

Edited September 29, 2021 by loveorhatembillsfan4life

[mykidsdad]

THANK YOU! Good post.

[uninja]

1 hour ago, loveorhatembillsfan4life said:

Interesting to read his take on the Passrush. Mcd in Monday’s Press conference said that while the run defense was where it needed to be, the pass rush could have made a bigger impact and that now he is looking for consistency. 

 

I think in that same media session with Frazier, Frazier mentioned that the dline played well and that sacks don't tell the whole story. Personally I never thought this was gonna be a destructive day for the dline with tons of sacks, qb hits etc. For as much as people love to ballwash the WFT dline and their defense they're not giving the WFT oline enough credit. That is a very solid unit and they pass protect well. Heinecke also has really great pocket presence and is excellent at evading pressure, he just sucks at going through his reads and making throws on the run. Our dline played well, they made Heinecke just uncomfortable enough to force bad throws and while that doesn't show up on the stat sheet, it makes a big impact.

 

If we'd gotten 3 sacks in that game I would have been amazed.

[FLFan]

4 hours ago, uninja said:

 

I mean I don't know what voodoo magic PFF uses to grade linebackers in coverage but I know what my eyes see. He's quite good to great sideline to sideline and reacting to passing plays, he naturally dissuades QBs from throwing to his area because his frame and speed means he covers a larger area of the zone he's protecting.

 

His issues, as I see them, are with biting too hard on play fakes and he's below average in run support. He's a bad downhill run stuffer, is easily fooled on running plays into vacating his gap, doesn't shed blocks well and takes too aggressive a lane downhill towards runners or receivers out of the backfield because it almost seems like he thinks he's faster and can cover more ground than he actually does, or he underestimates the ball carrier's speed.

Apparently PFF is putting that busted coverage 75 yd pass play on Edmunds.  Makes everything else suspect.