Kudos to Defense - The Offense is What Failed

[Wo-Bah]

7 minutes ago, mjt328 said:

I'm not blaming anybody.  I've never seen an NFL team as ravaged by injuries as I witnessed yesterday.

There was a point we had about 20 guys down, and it was absolutely shocking that we kept the game that close.

 

Losing Mitch Morse prompted multiple bad snaps, costing us at least 3 points.  It also forced us into shotgun later in the game, which limited us in the Red Zone.  Then we lost Spencer Brown to heat stroke.  Then our backup center Greg Van Roten.  Then Ryan Bates.  One more injury and we would have been playing a Tight End or Fullback at one of the Guard/Tackle spots.  And that's just the O-Line.

 

It was clear Gabriel Davis wasn't anywhere near ready to play, and probably should have sat.  On the first drive, we lost his backup Jake Kumerow to an ankle injury.  That pretty much destroyed our ability to stretch the field.  Then Dawson Knox got hurt.  As the game wore on, Stefon Diggs and Isaiah McKenzie were constantly going down.  On much of the final drive, Josh had nobody to throw to but Quinton Morris and the running backs.

 

To the bold: Assuming Bass makes the FG, there's the difference in the game.

[Billz4ever]

3 minutes ago, RoyBatty is alive said:

Stats like that are so incredibly misleading/useless....along the same vein when team A runs for over 180 yards they win 90% of the time.  There is a cause and effect statistically, not every instance but statistically.  Correlation versus causation.

Outside of the scoreboard, the Bills dominated this game.  Miami barely broke 200 yards of offense, had 15 first downs to our 31, and had the ball all of 18 minutes.  We couldn't close the deal when we had the ball.  Too many wasted opportunities.

Edited September 26, 2022 by Billz4ever

[BADOLBILZ]

 

The offense killed their home field advantage hopes last year as well.    They have limitations on offense that were not addressed in the slightest last offseason.

 

The defense has been overloaded with 1st round picks and big dollar contracts...........they played "well" yesterday........the big pass to Waddle goes on Frazier........but they didn't make the game changing play or turn the ball over.     If Milano catches that gimme pick six they win the game.     There are going to be days where the defense has to do more than they did yesterday because that side of the ball has been favored lopsidedly with regard to personnel.   We know about the injuries but the defense is practically two deep EVERYWHERE.    The offense is threadbare on the OL and at WR and TE after the starters.

[LABILLBACKER]

Milano dropping an easy pic6 and that 3rd & 22 fail might disagree. But yes the defense out played the offense. The only winner yesterday was the heat.

Edited September 26, 2022 by LABILLBACKER

[Billz4ever]

5 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

The offense killed their home field advantage hopes last year as well.    They have limitations on offense that were not addressed in the slightest last offseason.

 

The defense has been overloaded with 1st round picks and big dollar contracts...........they played "well" yesterday........the big pass to Waddle goes on Frazier........but they didn't make the game changing play or turn the ball over.     If Milano catches that gimme pick six they win the game.     There are going to be days where the defense has to do more than they did yesterday because that side of the ball has been favored lopsidedly with regard to personnel.   We know about the injuries but the defense is practically two deep EVERYWHERE.    The offense is threadbare on the OL and at WR and TE after the starters.

Very true and given the injuries we already had on the offensive side, I can't understand how they didn't know heat could be a major factor here for the remaining starters. The D was only on the field 18 minutes and gave up 21 points.  Their D should've been the ones gassed, but because we were running a lot of short yardage gain plays, our own offensive game plan bit us in the backside.

Edited September 26, 2022 by Billz4ever

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

17 minutes ago, JohnBonhamRocks said:

Not with that mindset!

haha— true.

 

I will say that if you want to fault the red zone efficiency, blame the defense. They gave up 3 for 3 inside the red zone. Johnson was late on the slant; Johnson penalty gave the dolphins new set of downs inside the 5; and the other one the run D didn’t hold up.

[Sestak4ever]

We left way too many points on the field yesterday. I estimate a possible 20 points. 

[BuffaloBill]

OP seems to forget that the Bills D benefitted from ball control offense.  O-line was also depleted.  This was a team loss not an o loss.

[SCBills]

40 minutes TOP doomed the Bills. 
 

Credit to the Dolphins for relentlessly blitzing and keeping the big plays locked down. 
 

Bills had no gas when they got to the red zone on these 7-8 minute drives.  
 

4th Quarter, half the starters were out due to their bodies giving out on them.  
 

I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. 

[Matt_In_NH]

It was a weird game, I agree to a point, scoring 17 points is just not enough.  The defense got some stops but the offense also limited the possessions Miami had by having long drives which greatly benefited the defense.   Unfortunately they did not close(score) enough.  The long drive in the third quarter where Davis almost scored took a lot of the offense.   The heat played a role in not scoring in the third and fourth quarters, at least you wont convince me otherwise.  

[LABILLBACKER]

10 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

The offense killed their home field advantage hopes last year as well.    They have limitations on offense that were not addressed in the slightest last offseason.

 

The defense has been overloaded with 1st round picks and big dollar contracts...........they played "well" yesterday........the big pass to Waddle goes on Frazier........but they didn't make the game changing play or turn the ball over.     If Milano catches that gimme pick six they win the game.     There are going to be days where the defense has to do more than they did yesterday because that side of the ball has been favored lopsidedly with regard to personnel.   We know about the injuries but the defense is practically two deep EVERYWHERE.    The offense is threadbare on the OL and at WR and TE after the starters.

The organization has invested more on the defensive side over the years so it's perfectly justifiable to expect more from them. The offense last season had 3 great fails in the regular season to Pittsburgh,  Jacksonville and NE.  But once we enter the playoffs,  it's been the defense that has bounced us out against Houston and KC twice. 

[Billz4ever]

1 minute ago, Matt_In_NH said:

It was a weird game, I agree to a point, scoring 17 points is just not enough.  The defense got some stops but the offense also limited the possessions Miami had by having long drives which greatly benefited the defense.   Unfortunately they did not close(score) enough.  The long drive in the third quarter where Davis almost scored took a lot of the offense.   The heat played a role in not scoring in the third and fourth quarters, at least you wont convince me otherwise.  

Along with dumb play calling, IMO.  2nd and Goal from inside the one and Josh is in the shotgun?  If you can't run a QB sneak a couple times for half a yard, we have much bigger problems.

[whorlnut]

2 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

The organization has invested more on the defensive side over the years so it's perfectly justifiable to expect more from them. The offense last season had 3 great fails in the regular season to Pittsburgh,  Jacksonville and NE.  But once we enter the playoffs,  it's been the defense that has bounced us out against Houston and KC twice. 

Good points

1 minute ago, Billz4ever said:

Along with dumb play calling, IMO.  2nd and Goal from inside the one and Josh is in the shotgun?  If you can't run a QB sneak a couple times for half a yard, we have much bigger problems.

It’s called bad oline depth. 

[Matt_In_NH]

4 minutes ago, Billz4ever said:

Along with dumb play calling, IMO.  2nd and Goal from inside the one and Josh is in the shotgun?  If you can't run a QB sneak a couple times for half a yard, we have much bigger problems.

Agree. The read option was dumb right there 

[Billz4ever]

6 minutes ago, whorlnut said:

Good points

It’s called bad oline depth. 

Which is strange considering Miami was able to run the ball and score on us in short yardage goal-to-go and it's our D that is supposed to be the better unit.

 

Josh is bigger than most linebackers.  He can't fall forward for less than a yard with 3 cracks at it?

 

It's not that they can't do it, it's more of the coaching staff not having faith in the line and trying to get cute with play calling instead of lining up under center and running it right down their throat and getting a yard.

Edited September 26, 2022 by Billz4ever

[gobills404]

The Bills had 4 consecutive drives that ended at the Dolphins 25 yard line, 11 yard line, 20 yard line, and 2 yard line. They got 3 points on those 4 drives. 

[LABILLBACKER]

10 minutes ago, Sestak4ever said:

We left way too many points on the field yesterday. I estimate a possible 20 points. 

You could argue 30 pts.

Milano, Gabe, Isaiah=21

Missed fg, 2 spikes =9

And that doesn't include the gifted td on Devin/Dion wiffing their block resulting in the fumble. 

 

 

[Billz4ever]

1 minute ago, gobills404 said:

The Bills had 4 consecutive drives that ended at the Dolphins 25 yard line, 11 yard line, 20 yard line, and 2 yard line. They got 3 points on those 4 drives. 

Great stat.  Bout sums up why we lost when just about every other stat line makes it look like we should've won by a comfortable margin.

[TheyCallMeAndy]

1 hour ago, buffalobillswin said:

This was one of the first times I can recall where having possession for that long was actually a bad thing. I seriously feared someone on the o-line was going to collapse and die on the field. 

I agree, the gameplan to keep Waddle and Hill on the sideline was very good, but the TOP killed Buffalo in the long run. At the end of the day, Bills missed 2 TDs and a FG and lost by two. 

[Magox]

It was just one of those fluky sort of games where we got the L.   So many injuries going into the game, lots of injuries during the game, players dehydrated and gassed who didn't have anything left in the tank at the end.   Not to mention all the missed opportunities by players and the perplexing elimination from the playbook of the QB sneak.  That 2nd and 1 from the goal line and not just having Allen QB sneak with having Gilliam and Zack Moss there to push him in was for me the most frustrating part of the game.

 

That 3rd and 22 that they converted I don't put on Frazier or McD, Waddle made a very nice cut to the middle he sold the post and that is where the Safety bit and turned him around. Even though that was a hugely impactful play, I chalk that up to being a great play call and execution.  The defense played really well, despite not being able to get consistent pressure.

 

The Bills are clearly the better team, but with all these mishaps, weather and injuries it proved to be too much to overcome.

 

Next time the Bills will blow them out.