Our last 3 drives...

[Hebert19]

8 plays 46 yards - FG

11 plays 49 yards - missed FG

11 plays 62 yards - downs

 

In that weather in that environment against that team...it's impressive.  

 

Execution in red zone continues to be our Achilles.  That comes down to not being able to run the ball...

 

Why we didn't run Josh more I have no idea.  But in general the team put together drives when needed.  Just couldn't finish it. 

[LabattBlue]

Just now, Hebert19 said:

8 plays 46 yards - FG

11 plays 49 yards - missed FG

11 plays 62 yards - downs

 

In that weather in that environment against that team...it's impressive.  

 

Execution in red zone continues to be our Achilles.  That comes down to not being able to run the ball...

 

Why we didn't run Josh more I have no idea.  But in general the team put together drives when needed.  Just couldn't finish it. 

I agree.  Every other game Daboll is calling designed runs for Allen over and over again. Last night…not so much. 

[RobbRiddicksTDLeap]

It’s been said, many times many ways…

 

Build a screen game. 

[colin]

every game we lost, with the exception of the indy blow out, could have been won with a conversion of one of our multiple fruitless redzone trips.  exact same story (pittz, jax, tenn, and ne).  w josh allen and who we have on O, to me an OC who can't get 1 td a game out of these trips (ignore tenn, just the other 3 listed) is just not good.

[Nextmanup]

I was saying all day and all game to THROW THE BALL and RUN JOSH.

 

Those are the 2 things that we do well and what have given us all our success.

Yes, we threw the ball 30 times on a bad night, but look at all those sacrificial run plays that went nowhere, all night long.

We should have thrown 50 times, scored a couple TDs, and forced New England to come out of their shell and catch up.

 

That's when Mac would have thrown an Int and it would have started to go off the rails for New England.

ALAS, our coaching staff isn't smart enough to gain the initiative and keep it against a guy like Belichick.

 

 

[LeGOATski]

I liked it, but it was too little too late. 

 

The Bills should've gone into that game saying "we're gonna play OUR game, feed the ball to OUR best players, and impose OUR will."

 

Instead, they tried playing the Pats' game and fed the ball to their worst players (RBs), and were imposed upon.

 

I was saying in the shout box before halftime that they need to open it up and it took them until the end of the 3rd ***** quarter. 

 

McD has a certain "identity" in mind for the team, but they are not personifying it. It starts from the top.

[Hebert19]

Agree.   We played their game not ours.   Oline held up pretty well in pass protection...

[sullim4]

I'm sorry, but this sounds exactly like Dick Jauron.

 

It wasn't good enough to win.  This team had numerous opportunities in this game to secure the win, and they failed to do so.

 

For a team that was expected to compete for a super bowl, this is not impressive.  It's mediocre, and the kind of performance we'd celebrate during the drought.  Times have changed and so have expectations.

[Bob in STL]

18 minutes ago, RobbRiddicksTDLeap said:

It’s been said, many times many ways…

 

Build a screen game. 

You need athletic blockers, you need RBs that catch and have vision to get YAC.    We have neither. 

[LeGOATski]

4 minutes ago, Hebert19 said:

Agree.   We played their game not ours.   Oline held up pretty well in pass protection...

It was windy, but even the Monday Night Countdown crew was smart enough to realize that you could still throw slant passes. The Bills have the personnel to dink and dunk the Pats to death just like they've done to the Bills for the past 20 years. Diggs, Beasley, Sanders... come on!

[BuffaloMatt]

I hate football

[Buffalo Bills Fan]

4 minutes ago, Bob in STL said:

You need athletic blockers, you need RBs that catch and have vision to get YAC.    We have neither. 

 

Brieda was on the bench while Moss playing. Slow and no vision by Moss. To me he's a inactive third string RB. Hell, practice squad if there was better RB on team. 

[BuffaloBillies]

Just absolutely wasting plays in the red zone.

You just have to know these would be 0-1 yard plays.

Why waste the down??? Then we get to 4th down and wish we had another down left.

Maddening.

 

No Gain

1 & 6 - BUF 6

(9:04 - 4th) Z.Moss right guard to NE 6 for no gain (D.Godchaux).

 

1 & 10 - BUF 14

(2:30 - 4th) D.Singletary right guard to NE 13 for 1 yard (D.Godchaux - D.Hightower).

 

[Steptide]

I think daboll has a rule - as soon as the bills offense gets to the red zone, they literally shut the play book and just have Allen chuck passes to the end zone. That what it seems the bills do. No screens, or mis direction, just chuck it to the endzone. 

[Freddie's Dead]

30 minutes ago, RobbRiddicksTDLeap said:

It’s been said, many times many ways…

 

Build a screen game. 

 

.....to you....

[Alphadawg7]

31 minutes ago, RobbRiddicksTDLeap said:

It’s been said, many times many ways…

 

Build a screen game. 

 

We had multiple screens blown up last night for losses or no to short gains.

[CountDorkula]

8 minutes ago, BuffaloBillies said:

Just absolutely wasting plays in the red zone.

You just have to know these would be 0-1 yard plays.

Why waste the down??? Then we get to 4th down and wish we had another down left.

Maddening.

 

No Gain

1 & 6 - BUF 6

(9:04 - 4th) Z.Moss right guard to NE 6 for no gain (D.Godchaux).

 

1 & 10 - BUF 14

(2:30 - 4th) D.Singletary right guard to NE 13 for 1 yard (D.Godchaux - D.Hightower).

 

Go watch that play again, if Moss just continues to get to the edge he has a walk in touchdown.

 

he inexcusably tries to plow ahead into a line full of bodies.

 

He's a less talented Trent Richardson. 

 

[jlgarsh]

Josh has maybe the strongest arm ever, and yet the coaches didn't let him play his game until the last 7 minutes or so. Stop forcing 1 yard runs over and over. When McDermott said after halftime that they didn't want to rely on Josh's arm with the wind, I lost it.

[Realist]

Really can't stand how we pass the ball so effectively with the short passing game and then we get to the redzone and watch any of our RB's run straight into the pile for a loss or minimal gain. We automatically lose a down by doing that and then Daboll will call another one right after and it's 3rd and 8.

[foreboding]

35 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

I was saying all day and all game to THROW THE BALL and RUN JOSH.

 

Those are the 2 things that we do well and what have given us all our success.

Yes, we threw the ball 30 times on a bad night, but look at all those sacrificial run plays that went nowhere, all night long.

We should have thrown 50 times, scored a couple TDs, and forced New England to come out of their shell and catch up.

 

That's when Mac would have thrown an Int and it would have started to go off the rails for New England.

ALAS, our coaching staff isn't smart enough to gain the initiative and keep it against a guy like Belichick.

 

 

I don't think "run Josh" is as easy as everyone here seems to think it is. Unless you want him shoving into the tackles or getting cut down, his runs have to be in open lanes. Also, if that is our answer to a running game, we might as well push until next year, cause Josh is not Lamar and we don't want him getting destroyed by rushing 15 times a game.

[First Round Bust]

yeah that missed FG was huge - caused us to go for the TD for the win rather than another FG at crunch time - another gut-wrenching shoulda-coulda-woulda loss to the evil empire...

[Einstein]

Moss could have won the game if he just bounced it outside.

 

He didn't.

 

We have zero competent RB's on this team and that concerns me because Beane said last offseason that he didn't think RB's were the problem.

 

Look at the massive open field Moss has to the endzone if he bounces it outside:

 

 

[zow2]

14 minutes ago, BuffaloBillies said:

Just absolutely wasting plays in the red zone.

You just have to know these would be 0-1 yard plays.

Why waste the down??? Then we get to 4th down and wish we had another down left.

Maddening.

 

No Gain

1 & 6 - BUF 6

(9:04 - 4th) Z.Moss right guard to NE 6 for no gain (D.Godchaux).

 

1 & 10 - BUF 14

(2:30 - 4th) D.Singletary right guard to NE 13 for 1 yard (D.Godchaux - D.Hightower).

 

 

 

These types of runs in the red zone seem to happen so often for Buffalo.  It's maddening.  Always puts us in 2nd and long or 3rd and long and just turns the Bills into a one-dimensional, easy team to stop.

[Bob in STL]

18 minutes ago, Buffalo Bills Fan said:

 

Brieda was on the bench while Moss playing. Slow and no vision by Moss. To me he's a inactive third string RB. Hell, practice squad if there was better RB on team. 

Yes, Moss is slow and lacks vision.  He should have went wide on his red zone carry and blew up the CB that was the only guy there.  Instead he went inside, right into the DL.  
 

Brieda is better but fumbled and McD is going crazy about fumbles. 

Singletary is not much either but he is the only one I trust will improve with better blocking. 
 

 

[RobbRiddicksTDLeap]

30 minutes ago, Bob in STL said:

You need athletic blockers, you need RBs that catch and have vision to get YAC.    We have neither. 

I’ll give you the athletic guards. But there are more than capable receivers, and even Knox has been reliable in those few TE screens that sometimes have worked in the past. Boettger and Morse are athletic enough to pull one gap to spring to the next level. And if that’s the main issue; then coach these fellas up. They’re young men in their athletic prime. There’s no excuse for it at this level, with these goals in mind. 

[djp14150]

1 hour ago, colin said:

every game we lost, with the exception of the indy blow out, could have been won with a conversion of one of our multiple fruitless redzone trips.  exact same story (pittz, jax, tenn, and ne).  w josh allen and who we have on O, to me an OC who can't get 1 td a game out of these trips (ignore tenn, just the other 3 listed) is just not good.

 

loses came down to a few plays.

 

Pittsburgh it was the blocked puntTD

 

in Tennessee there was the KO return penalty, a TD killed by penalty, a turnover giving Titans pts

 

in jacksonville it was bad penalties and play calls killing drives or taking them out. OfFGs

 

with IND it was the McKenzie fumble TD. They drive down and score it’s 17-10 buffalo and they get 2nd half kickoff

 

agai st NE it was a few missed plays, get FG instead ofTD, missed FG.  Either one occurs changes end of game to needing only a FG.

[colin]

1 minute ago, djp14150 said:

 

loses came down to a few plays.

 

Pittsburgh it was the blocked puntTD

 

in Tennessee there was the KO return penalty, a TD killed by penalty, a turnover giving Titans pts

 

in jacksonville it was bad penalties and play calls killing drives or taking them out. OfFGs

 

with IND it was the McKenzie fumble TD. They drive down and score it’s 17-10 buffalo and they get 2nd half kickoff

 

agai st NE it was a few missed plays, get FG instead ofTD, missed FG.  Either one occurs changes end of game to needing only a FG.

 

 

yes, that is a random assortment of plays that if they went better for us we are in a much better position to win.  but you'll get those anywhere, and in any different way.  

 

the thing about the redzone issue is

 

1) it is consistent.  it is a repeating thing, and it goes back to some of our games last season too

2) it is not a random occurrence, or a random situation or play, it's a basic element of football

3) we got to the red zone calling and executing plays to beat the opponents on D.  it's not a fluke, its not unexpected, and you don't pull a card out of a deck and just line up in the redzone.  you have to make plays to get there, and in that area, you have more pressure cuz a play results in a TD with much more likely hood than in another part of the field, and it is a compressed space so you need to run your O a little differently.

 

the point of our red zone woes is that even with your list of broken and bad plays above, if we had scored one, or maybe two, tds in those games with multiple redzone trips that all came up short, we win the freaking game.

 

it's just inexcusable for us to be this bad in the redzone.  yes we have a bad oline, and they've been injuried, yes our running backs are dirty cheeks.  i get that.  but as far as i am concerned, if you have the weapons we have, the qb we have, and most of all, a qb who can run and get it done all on his own (which he has, consistently throughout his career) then a good OC will scheme up some kind of way to make scores in the redzone happen.  not on every drive, but not 0 for 3, 0 for 4, and so on.

 

frankly, if we look back to the houston playoff game, where we had way less talent (that 37 year old RT, and ford at RG were holding down our line, and we had gore and motor at RB, and no knox, and no diggs, we had just trash), it was the same story.  i think this is simply a fundamental flaw of our O, and that's on the coaches. 

[Bob in STL]

1 hour ago, RobbRiddicksTDLeap said:

I’ll give you the athletic guards. But there are more than capable receivers, and even Knox has been reliable in those few TE screens that sometimes have worked in the past. Boettger and Morse are athletic enough to pull one gap to spring to the next level. And if that’s the main issue; then coach these fellas up. They’re young men in their athletic prime. There’s no excuse for it at this level, with these goals in mind. 

Coaching up is just not happening.   Morse is past his prime and has a history of injuries/concussions.  
 

Boetgger and Ford need to be replaced with better guards. They stink.  

[Hebert19]

32 minutes ago, colin said:

it's just inexcusable for us to be this bad in the redzone.  yes we have a bad oline, and they've been injuried, yes our running backs are dirty cheeks.  i get that.  but as far as i am concerned, if you have the weapons we have, the qb we have, and most of all, a qb who can run and get it done all on his own (which he has, consistently throughout his career) then a good OC will scheme up some kind of way to make scores in the redzone happen.  not on every drive, but not 0 for 3, 0 for 4, and so on.

I still say we have always been pretty bad in redzone other than Allen's threat to run. He's scored 25 RZ touchdowns for us and countless others because he left the pocket...yet we seem to have forgotten that. 

[BananaB]

We move the ball almost every game, we have been settling for too many fgs because we struggle to get in the end zone. It’s been happening all year but no one worried when we were beating crappy teams. 

[Hebert19]

8 minutes ago, BananaB said:

We move the ball almost every game, we have been settling for too many fgs because we struggle to get in the end zone. It’s been happening all year but no one worried when we were beating crappy teams. 

Yup. And it's same thing.  No run game.  

 

As an aside we have scored at least 3 or 4 touchdowns on jet sweeps in redzone over last few years yet we make our jet sweep guy inactive for a game we need to run in. 

[colin]

6 minutes ago, Hebert19 said:

Yup. And it's same thing.  No run game.  

 

As an aside we have scored at least 3 or 4 touchdowns on jet sweeps in redzone over last few years yet we make our jet sweep guy inactive for a game we need to run in. 

 

 

exactly.  im not sure of the mix of play calling, motivation, or simply just practicing and designing the necessary stuff to win these situations, but whatever the coaching staff have spent the entire season doing, it doesn't work at all.  most dangerous run/pass qb in the nfl and i can tell you from my couch what play we are about to run in the redzone 8/10 times, and you know nfl d's figured it out.

 

urban meyer made a disparaging comment about what we do on O, and he was 100% right.  we are a lame spread O.  he d'ed us up like one, and we folded like a cheap suit.  and jax absolutely sucks.

[Straight Hucklebuck]

Well the Bills can't hit a slant or an out route to save the lives. 

 

So there is no 6-7 yard staple. 

 

Everything is toe tapping on the boundary, Josh running around. 

 

There are no slants, crosses, out routes. 

 

If its a throw in the middle, it has to be a needle throw between two players. 

 

And some of that has to do with no motion in this offense, not moving Diggs around, not using multiple players out of the backfield. 

 

The only thing positive out of that game was Gabe Davis finally starting to get on the field more. Like finally, the light has gone on inside the Offensive Film Room to put Davis on the field more. The next light that needs to go on is bench Zack Moss permanently. The next light that needs to go on is activate McKenzie and have him take some of Beasley's reps. The next light that needs to go on is never have Tommy Sweeney on the field again. 

 

 

[reddogblitz]

2 hours ago, BuffaloBillies said:

1 & 10 - BUF 14

(2:30 - 4th) D.Singletary right guard to NE 13 for 1 yard (D.Godchaux - D.Hightower).

 

I think this one was to take time off the clock so as not to score too soon.  It worked 🙂