Poll: Do you prefer full throttle offense or clock management when ahead in games?

[Lost]

Not sure if anyone caught these interesting soundbytes from Ken Dorsey's press conference on 10/31 but media pundits were pressing him about his decision to keep attacking on offense when they were up 17 against the Packers which led to Allen throwing 2 picks vs.  playing more conservative by running the ball and winding the clock out the rest of the game.  His response was "Our job is to go out there and score points and we're going to do that the best way possible with the tools we have until we're told differently."  He also went on to say "When you're playing an offense led by Aaron Rodgers, when you start to get into trouble is when you stop being yourself by playing to keep Aaron Rodgers off the field instead of going out there and scoring points yourself."   

 

I couldn't help but smile when Dorsey said this because I for one love the aggressiveness of the offense regardless of score but I feel like it probably eats away at the soul of Sean McD a little bit when we're out there passing the ball in the 4th quarter while up by 17 points especially when it leads to 2 interceptions.  I feel like it bothered McD even more so in this game because we were running the ball pretty effectively ourselves in the first half. 

 

 

So just curious what everyone elses thoughts are on the issue.   

[Rc2catch]

I support whatever is working for the offense. 
My real beef usually comes from the defense going too conservative when buffalo has a decent lead. 

[Lost]

2 minutes ago, Rc2catch said:

I support whatever is working for the offense. 
My real beef usually comes from the defense going too conservative when buffalo has a decent lead. 

 

This bothers me as well.  I have haunting memories of the Bills bend but dont break defense of the 90s every time they start getting too conservative.  

[st pete gogolak]

There's a time and place for everything.  For example, after the Cook catch and then the Cook run, we had a second and goal from the three yard line with a little over ten minutes left in the game and a 27 - 10 lead.  I'm sorry but the call there should have been to run on second down.  If you don't get in, run on third down and if you still aren't in, either kick the field goal or go for it on fourth down. You are either up 34 - 10, 30 - 10 or 27 - 10 and GB has the ball around the one yard line with about 8 minutes left.  I'd really like to see if this team is capable of bull rushing the ball into the end zone from inside the five.

[rusty shackleford]

2 minutes ago, st pete gogolak said:

There's a time and place for everything.  For example, after the Cook catch and then the Cook run, we had a second and goal from the three yard line with a little over ten minutes left in the game and a 27 - 10 lead.  I'm sorry but the call there should have been to run on second down.  If you don't get in, run on third down and if you still aren't in, either kick the field goal or go for it on fourth down. You are either up 34 - 10, 30 - 10 or 27 - 10 and GB has the ball around the one yard line with about 8 minutes left.  I'd really like to see if this team is capable of bull rushing the ball into the end zone from inside the five.

If there ever was a time and a place to go conservative, it doesn’t get any better than that scenario.

[HomeskillitMoorman]

I had no issues with keeping things rolling, #17 just made a couple bad decisions that have become uncharacteristic for him but we were still moving the ball down the field.

[Buffalo Boy]

    Having watched our beloved Bills get their arses handed to them by Tommy/Hoodie so many times I looked forward to our time and now it’s here.

    I remember a NE game where they just arbitrarily ran the ball down our throats for a whole drive preceded and followed by the old Tommy/ Edelman pitch and catch show.

    I want to see this team and JA get so comfortable  and capable in multiple sets that we can do what we want when we want 

[Warcodered]

Just whatever is working, you can't burn clock if you don't have the ball, unless Green Bay does it for you for some reason.

[mabden]

25 minutes ago, Lost said:

"When you're playing an offense led by Aaron Rodgers, when you start to get into trouble is when you stop being yourself by playing to keep Aaron Rodgers off the field instead of going out there and scoring points yourself."   

 

Truth!  Add Mahomes to that list.

[Your Brown Eye]

Go for the kill

[HOUSE]

I support running up the score near 60 with long beautiful Josh Allen passes.

After 60 points.....be respectful and run

[Success]

The Falcons really put out the blueprint for how to blow a lead in a big game. I get what they were trying to do - "don't play not to lose."  But Ryan was rushing up to the line when they had that big lead, and they were getting a lot of plays off with over 10 seconds still on the clock.

 

It's case by case, but the clock CAN be your friend when you have a 2+ score lead.  The best teams can usually switch to the run game & break hearts as they grind out one 1st down after another....

 

[Freddie's Dead]

I'm for using brains.  Two games in a row, the Bills have 2nd and goal from the 3 yard line, and come away with 0 points after refusing to run the football.  

[TheCockSportif]

Honestly, just win the games.  Yeah, JA17 is best in business and will prolly be here for a long time.  I am glad that the days of debating EJM are long gone.  But, my god.  Situational football.  Still not great in that regard, but then again there are two teams in the AFC to beat, and likely the same number in the NFC.  So I like the odds, and I say this as someone who does not gamble whatsoever.

[Goin Breakdown]

I chose to do whatever is working because typically that also means throttling the other team (I'm some fashion) 

[RobbRiddick]

There is something wonderful about being up by a large margin late in the 3rd and then just running at will on a tired defense who has one eye on the bus back to the airport.

 

 

[The Dean]

There's no 100% right answer. Depends on the team you are playing, to some extent. Depends on how your team is playing. Any big injuries during the game? Defense tiring? What's the score/score differential/time of game/etc.

 

So my answer is: IT DEPENDS.

 

Do you trust the HC to make these decisions?  In this case, yes I do.

[KDIGGZ]

1 hour ago, Rc2catch said:

I support whatever is working for the offense. 
My real beef usually comes from the defense going too conservative when buffalo has a decent lead. 

This is the correct answer. I absolutely loathe prevent defense and this team executes it horribly (13 seconds). They even use it on 3rd and long plays. How many 3rd and 20's is this team going to give up before they realize they don't need to go 30 yards back and then have the team throw it short and we miss 5 tackles? I don't see any reason to ever change up your offense or defense. Just play football

[msw2112]

In the circumstance of the 2nd interception, I think you run the ball there.  Up 17, run it twice.  Bleed about 90 seconds off the clock and go up by 20 with the easy FG.  Alternatively, you might even punch it in and go up by 24.  With either result, you take wind out of the other teams' sails.

 

Throwing the ball on the earlier one was a little bit more palatable because they were not in easy FG range, so they needed to get closer anyway.  I think that Josh could have run for the 1st down/TD in either situation, but I think they are telling him not to run and take unnecessary hits when he doesn't have to.  If the game is on the line, he should run there.  Up 17 at home with not a lot of time left, better to not run.  Of course, run and slide would have been OK.

[Charles Romes]

2 hours ago, st pete gogolak said:

There's a time and place for everything.  For example, after the Cook catch and then the Cook run, we had a second and goal from the three yard line with a little over ten minutes left in the game and a 27 - 10 lead.  I'm sorry but the call there should have been to run on second down.  If you don't get in, run on third down and if you still aren't in, either kick the field goal or go for it on fourth down. You are either up 34 - 10, 30 - 10 or 27 - 10 and GB has the ball around the one yard line with about 8 minutes left.  I'd really like to see if this team is capable of bull rushing the ball into the end zone from inside the five.

Mahomes would certainly try the short touchdown throw in that situation to pad his stats. I sensed Josh was trying to keep pace. 

[ALLEN1QB]

Pedal to the metal baby

[MJS]

I like smart football. Don't be careless. Don't take unnecessary risks. Try not to turn over the ball.

 

Other than that, full throttle ahead. You can be smart and still aggressive. But also, be willing to change things up if things aren't working.

[transient]

I prefer foot down until mid 3rd Q then turning the reigns over to Keenum for some light work to finish it out. 

[Punching Bag]

It depends on offense and defense Bills are facing.

 

If the offense is a high scoring one you need to weigh whether giving that offense more chances is good idea.

If the defense is one which is good at takeaways (no takeaways are not luck) then you need to question taking chances.

 

It also has to be weighed about injuries to Bills team and opponent as well as how long each part of team has been on the field.

Bills K-gun used to exhaust opposing defenses but also exhausted Bills defenses because offense was on field for short periods of time.

 

There is no absolute on this.

 

[John from Riverside]

6 hours ago, Lost said:

 

This bothers me as well.  I have haunting memories of the Bills bend but dont break defense of the 90s every time they start getting too conservative.  

I love what the defense is doing this year they don’t have to blitz because the line is getting so much pressure on its own which allows us to drop more players back in coverage

 

Teams will get first downs they will move the ball between the 20s but eventually the defense figures them out

[NewEra]

5 hours ago, Freddie's Dead said:

I'm for using brains.  Two games in a row, the Bills have 2nd and goal from the 3 yard line, and come away with 0 points after refusing to run the football.  

I hear you….but it’s tough to take the ball out of 17s hands when we’re goal to go.  He’s a human TD

[JoshAllin]

You don't want to be that team that goes from passing attack and up 3-4 scores then puts there foot on the pedal rushing the ball, loses all the momentum and offensive rhythm. That happens to all these teams so I don't mind Allen and the O going full throttle even if he throws 2 picks

[Irv]

Up by three scores with ten seconds left and in possession?  Bomb!

[ArtVandalay]

Stay on the gas and here's why... the ultimate goal is to win the super bowl. To do so we are going to need to beat the Chiefs and/or other high powered teams. To beat those teams you are going to need to keep the peddle to the metal. Flooring it the entire game without turning the back over is not easy to do, and doing so through the regular season is just preparing us for the playoffs, you can't expect to do something well that you haven't prepared and practiced. 

 

It's not about winning a regular season game, it's about preparing the team for the super bowl run. 

[Greg S]

Depends on the situation. If the Bills are up by two scores or more in the 4th quarter, then play the clock and run the ball. If it's still a close game with the Bills ahead by one score, then continue to be aggressive.

[GunnerBill]

I am never one to advocate for getting away from a game where you are winning throwing to suddenly feature the run because you are ahead. The issue on Sunday was the gameplan that got them 17 points up at half time featured a fair dose of the run game. Even excluding the two carries for McKenzie (one of which was a touchdown) and the Josh runs the Bills ran 9 times for 79 yards in the first half. That is 8.7 yards a carry. They were stopped for fewer than 4 yards just twice in those 9 plays. They came out to start the second half still 14 points up when they got the ball for the first time.... from then until the second interception they ran 22 offensive plays. Only 4 were runs. They got away from what was working for some reason. That is tough to defend with "oh well they were being aggressive." I am not advocating them going passive. Just keep playing the game. 

[26TrapDraw]

18 hours ago, Rc2catch said:

I support whatever is working for the offense. 
My real beef usually comes from the defense going too conservative when buffalo has a decent lead. 

Thanks for the shout out.

[Gugny]

It really depends on the game, situation and opponent.  

 

There is no "identity."  The approach needs to be pragmatic.  Offense and defense.

 

I know it pissed a lot of people off, but allowing Green Bay to run the ball was the right play with a two-score lead.  They killed the clock on themselves.  The only reason it was an issue (which it really never turned out to be) for the Bills, was because they weren't making tackles.

 

Anyway ... the answer to the original question will be different week-to-week, in my opinion.

[Augie]

17 hours ago, The Dean said:

There's no 100% right answer. Depends on the team you are playing, to some extent. Depends on how your team is playing. Any big injuries during the game? Defense tiring? What's the score/score differential/time of game/etc.

 

So my answer is: IT DEPENDS.

 

Do you trust the HC to make these decisions?  In this case, yes I do.

 

Some people are acting like we lost when it was a double digit victory against a HOF QB. Alright, it got a bit ugly for a while. It could/should have been much better.  That’s not the end of the world. Win and move on. 

[US Egg]

I like Josh Allen offense and turtles.

[Lost]

3 hours ago, Gugny said:

 

I know it pissed a lot of people off, but allowing Green Bay to run the ball was the right play with a two-score lead.  They killed the clock on themselves.  The only reason it was an issue (which it really never turned out to be) for the Bills, was because they weren't making tackles.

 

 

It was an issue because they blew all my parlays by keeping JA off the field 😄

[DrDawkinstein]

The playcalling was fine Sunday night. It was the player execution that screwed it up. Namely, Josh.

 

He and the WRs got too wrapped up in Alexander's head games, and in both INTs Josh was trying to do too much and force a pass in order to let Diggs embarrass Alexander. And both backfired.

 

Had Josh and the WRs just told Alexander "scoreboard" and stayed in their games, we would have scored 2 more TDs and totally blown them out. And none of us would be questioning the plan to stay on the gas.

 

edit: For transparency I voted "Do whatever works"

Edited November 2, 2022 by DrDawkinstein