Week 7 Bills @ Patriots - on to Foxborough!

[Big Turk]

7 hours ago, Beck Water said:

 

 

And one more.  Evidently Quintin Morris has a high ankle 😥 sprain:

 

Apparently he caught the TD pass on it.

 

 

McD did not mention anything about this in his Monday injury updates, at least not from what I heard.

10 hours ago, newcam2012 said:

The Bills running game is in inconsistent. Dorsey often abandons the run too. 

 

Your premise isn't correct either. Teams don't have to send a safety in the box to stop the run. Often that's a tactic but not a given or an absolute as your state. 

 

You make a lot of assumptions that just aren't facts. Teams can absolutely double Diggs. We've seen it almost every playoff game. Why you think Diggs disappears in the playoffs? Hint, it's not because he sucks. 

 

Who would you make you beat you if you were a D coordinator. The Bills run game or Diggs? 

 

The Bills typically don't run well when they don't use the right TYPE of runs...they can gash teams with under center runs often times but Dorsey seems hesitant to use them far too often and instead goes with shotgun runs which have limited success rates. 

 

And if they want to run from the shotgun, Dorsey should go back to the Kelly era Bills and study the counter trey out of the shotgun since that was a staple they ran and it was highly effective...not this hand the ball off up the middle crap that goes nowhere most times.

 

 

[finn]

9 hours ago, WideNine said:

 

Some of the play calls have  been head scratchers but we had that with Dabs too. 

 

Most OCs have WTF moments. More concerning to me is how ready the offense is going into the games.

 

How crisp they are executing the plays? How many unforced penalties? How many missed blocks? How many drops or errant throws?

 

When I  see those miscues, I think they are not ready to play and that comes down to how dialed in they are in practice, and how well they understand the game plan, their roles, their protection schemes.

 

Last few weeks I would say it has been hard to point at one thing. A missed block here, a dropped pass there, a bad route, an errant throw, a fumble, a penalty...

 

When those things pile up, the offense looks disjointed and has no rhythm, and sputters to multiple 3 and outs.

 

IMO we need to clean that up, and then we can get into whatever the game plan on offense was supposed to be.

 

 

I always wonder whether team-wide poor performances like this--the mistakes here and there adding up--are due to preparation, team apathy, distraction, etc., or they're the result of a cascade effect. Gabe Davis doesn't trip, for example, and Allen hits him for a 30-yard gain that excites the crowd, leading Brown to focus just a bit more on his blocking and Knox on his catching. Really hard to know for sure. As an amateur athlete, I have off days that I just can't explain, and sometimes they seem to cause my teammates to lose focus, too. Works the other way, too. A single great play can change everything. 

 

In other words, the difference between a very bad and very good game might be very slim indeed. If true, some or most of the media pronouncements about the quality of a team or player could be just plain wrong. 

[2003Contenders]

Knowing BB, I imagine the Pats game plan will be something like the following:

 

On offense, they will do their best to hide/protect Mac Jones by having him drop back to pass a minimal number of times. Maybe not to the extreme of the blizzard game from 2 years ago -- but I expect them to focus on the run and probably use a base with 6 offensive linemen hoping to get past our defensive line, which is missing our best interior run stuffer, and engulf our undersized LBs. If they have success doing this, it will allow them to control the game-flow and limit the number of possessions that our offense has. It also opens up their play-action passing game.

 

On defense, BB's goal has always been to try to eliminate the opponent's best player. That would be Diggs. And he has indeed done a pretty good job of limiting Diggs in the last few contests. This is a game where we need to see the other complimentary parts of the offense step up. Ironically, it was McK who stepped up against the Pats to make up for this in the last few contests we played against them. Could this be a breakout game for Hardy possibly?

 

The Bills are the better team and should be able to take care of business if the offense gets out of the funk they've had for the last couple of weeks and the defense can get off the field on 3rd down (or better, yet force turnovers). If we can jump on them early and get ahead by multiple scores, it could get ugly for them. But if we don't come out sharp, this has he makings of a real dogfight.

[John from Riverside]

We definitely should be calling more running place while Josh is under center in James Cook really benefits from these

[Gregg]

3 minutes ago, 2003Contenders said:

Knowing BB, I imagine the Pats game plan will be something like the following:

 

On offense, they will do their best to hide/protect Mac Jones by having him drop back to pass a minimal number of times. Maybe not to the extreme of the blizzard game from 2 years ago -- but I expect them to focus on the run and probably use a base with 6 offensive linemen hoping to get past our defensive line, which is missing our best interior run stuffer, and engulf our undersized LBs. If they have success doing this, it will allow them to control the game-flow and limit the number of possessions that our offense has. It also opens up their play-action passing game.

 

On defense, BB's goal has always been to try to eliminate the opponent's best player. That would be Diggs. And he has indeed done a pretty good job of limiting Diggs in the last few contests. This is a game where we need to see the other complimentary parts of the offense step up. Ironically, it was McK who stepped up against the Pats to make up for this in the last few contests we played against them. Could this be a breakout game for Hardy possibly?

 

The Bills are the better team and should be able to take care of business if the offense gets out of the funk they've had for the last couple of weeks and the defense can get off the field on 3rd down (or better, yet force turnovers). If we can jump on them early and get ahead by multiple scores, it could get ugly for them. But if we don't come out sharp, this has he makings of a real dogfight.

 

It would be nice to have this game won by the 3rd quarter so we can pull the starters. Bills have a short week coming up with Tampa on Thursday. 

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

Two straight games of just aggravation from start to finish…it’s been a rough few weeks for us. Obviously you expect to win this game but I bet it’s another close one. That team is too physical and knows us too well to just get destroyed. I’d love it if we just had a comfortable win for a change but I’m certainly not expecting one.

[newcam2012]

1 hour ago, Big Turk said:

 

McD did not mention anything about this in his Monday injury updates, at least not from what I heard.

 

The Bills typically don't run well when they don't use the right TYPE of runs...they can gash teams with under center runs often times but Dorsey seems hesitant to use them far too often and instead goes with shotgun runs which have limited success rates. 

 

And if they want to run from the shotgun, Dorsey should go back to the Kelly era Bills and study the counter trey out of the shotgun since that was a staple they ran and it was highly effective...not this hand the ball off up the middle crap that goes nowhere most times.

 

 

Nice post. I really think it's scheme related. I mean look at the success of Moss in Indy. Most fans couldn't wait for Moss to go. You usually don't see such an uptick like that. 

[uninja]

15 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

Nice post. I really think it's scheme related. I mean look at the success of Moss in Indy. Most fans couldn't wait for Moss to go. You usually don't see such an uptick like that. 

 

That's honestly purely volume, look at his carries/attempts in Buffalo vs the amount of carries he's getting in Indy. He had maybe 90-110 carries a year with the Bills. This year in Indy he's played 5 games and has 96 carries already. His stats are not THAT much better in Indy than they were here but his attempts per game is almost DOUBLE in Indy what it was in Buffalo.

[Royale with Cheese]

Ed Oliver not practicing today.  Toe injury.

[Big Turk]

Anyone else have issues trying to listen to the Bills live twitter feed of McD's press conferences?  Audio constantly cutting in and out for long stretches...usually you hear a question being asked and then it goes silent.  WTF is this?  Why even broadacast hime if you are going to mute his response??

 

 

 

No mention of Bernard or Williams so that is a positive.

Edited October 18, 2023 by Big Turk

[PaattMaann]

1 hour ago, 2003Contenders said:

Knowing BB, I imagine the Pats game plan will be something like the following:

 

On offense, they will do their best to hide/protect Mac Jones by having him drop back to pass a minimal number of times. Maybe not to the extreme of the blizzard game from 2 years ago -- but I expect them to focus on the run and probably use a base with 6 offensive linemen hoping to get past our defensive line, which is missing our best interior run stuffer, and engulf our undersized LBs. If they have success doing this, it will allow them to control the game-flow and limit the number of possessions that our offense has. It also opens up their play-action passing game.

 

On defense, BB's goal has always been to try to eliminate the opponent's best player. That would be Diggs. And he has indeed done a pretty good job of limiting Diggs in the last few contests. This is a game where we need to see the other complimentary parts of the offense step up. Ironically, it was McK who stepped up against the Pats to make up for this in the last few contests we played against them. Could this be a breakout game for Hardy possibly?

 

The Bills are the better team and should be able to take care of business if the offense gets out of the funk they've had for the last couple of weeks and the defense can get off the field on 3rd down (or better, yet force turnovers). If we can jump on them early and get ahead by multiple scores, it could get ugly for them. But if we don't come out sharp, this has he makings of a real dogfight.

 

huh??

 

Last year Diggs had 7/92/1 TD and 7/104/1 TD in their games against the Pats

 

Two years ago he had 7/85/1 TD and in the wind game he had 4/51 and 3/60 (not needed much in the perfect offensive game I guess)

 

Three years ago he had 9/145/3 TD's and 6/92

 

Where exactly has BB been successful limiting Diggs?

 

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by PaattMaann

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

21 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

Ed Oliver not practicing today.  Toe injury.

 

Sure, why not

 

[dave mcbride]

1 hour ago, 2003Contenders said:

Knowing BB, I imagine the Pats game plan will be something like the following:

...

 

On defense, BB's goal has always been to try to eliminate the opponent's best player. That would be Diggs. And he has indeed done a pretty good job of limiting Diggs in the last few contests.

Diggs' last four games vs. NE, with the most recent first:

 

7 catches for 104 yards and a TD

7 catches for 92 yards and a TD

3 catches for 60 yards (in the playoff game blowout)

7 catches for 85 yards and a TD

Edited October 18, 2023 by dave mcbride

[K-9]

9 minutes ago, PaattMaann said:

 

huh??

 

Last year Diggs had 7/92/1 TD and 7/104/1 TD in their games against the Pats

 

Two years ago he had 7/85/1 TD and in the wind game he had 4/51 and 3/60 (not needed much in the perfect offensive game I guess)

 

Three years ago he had 9/145/3 TD's and 6/92

 

Where exactly has BB been successful limiting Diggs?

 

 

Yesterday, I posted Diggs’s stats vs NE since he got here in 2020 and he has averaged 95 yards and a TD vs. the Pats in the six games. He’s done that against a multitude of approaches by BB; from single, to double, to bracketed coverage schemes.  Instead of acknowledging Diggs has had success vs. BB, the the poster for whose benefit I furnished those stats said BB will stop Diggs this year because Josh doesn’t run anymore and BB wont have to use a spy. I could only shake my head. 

[Simon]

40 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

Ed Oliver not practicing today.  Toe injury.

 

They've really got to be careful of leaning on him too much with DQ Jones out.

He was on the field Sunday more than I have ever seen him and if he starts getting nicked up, his play is going to suffer.

[Mango]

13 hours ago, WideNine said:

 

Some of the play calls have  been head scratchers but we had that with Dabs too. 

 

Most OCs have WTF moments. More concerning to me is how ready the offense is going into the games.

 

How crisp they are executing the plays? How many unforced penalties? How many missed blocks? How many drops or errant throws?

 

When I  see those miscues, I think they are not ready to play and that comes down to how dialed in they are in practice, and how well they understand the game plan, their roles, their protection schemes.

 

Last few weeks I would say it has been hard to point at one thing. A missed block here, a dropped pass there, a bad route, an errant throw, a fumble, a penalty...

 

When those things pile up, the offense looks disjointed and has no rhythm, and sputters to multiple 3 and outs.

 

IMO we need to clean that up, and then we can get into whatever the game plan on offense was supposed to be.

 

 

I listened to McD today. He addressed some of this and I agreed. The offense needs to execute. It starts there. You nailed it, just these wild lapses from all of them. And when they lack that focus and execution they can’t get into a rhythm. When they can’t get into a rhythm they fail. 
 

He also talked a bit about identifying what our weapons are good at, and putting them in positions to be successful. 
 

I thought it was a pretty fair inventory of the situation:
 

More focus and better execution. That includes our stars.

 

Better utilization of skill sets. 
 

Improve play calling and have an offensive identity. 

 

 

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by Mango

[PatsFanNH]

2 hours ago, 2003Contenders said:

Knowing BB, I imagine the Pats game plan will be something like the following:

 

On offense, they will do their best to hide/protect Mac Jones by having him drop back to pass a minimal number of times. Maybe not to the extreme of the blizzard game from 2 years ago -- but I expect them to focus on the run and probably use a base with 6 offensive linemen hoping to get past our defensive line, which is missing our best interior run stuffer, and engulf our undersized LBs. If they have success doing this, it will allow them to control the game-flow and limit the number of possessions that our offense has. It also opens up their play-action passing game.

 

On defense, BB's goal has always been to try to eliminate the opponent's best player. That would be Diggs. And he has indeed done a pretty good job of limiting Diggs in the last few contests. This is a game where we need to see the other complimentary parts of the offense step up. Ironically, it was McK who stepped up against the Pats to make up for this in the last few contests we played against them. Could this be a breakout game for Hardy possibly?

 

The Bills are the better team and should be able to take care of business if the offense gets out of the funk they've had for the last couple of weeks and the defense can get off the field on 3rd down (or better, yet force turnovers). If we can jump on them early and get ahead by multiple scores, it could get ugly for them. But if we don't come out sharp, this has he makings of a real dogfight.

You obviously have not seen the Pats play. They made the  Saints look like a Juggernaut.

 

Pats O — is downright a mess. Receivers can’t get open on a regular basis and the O line is so bad I don’t remember a O line this bad and I’ve been a Pats fan since 1986.

 

Pats D — is legit but missing key pieces, and they may have Jack Jones back this week at CB but he will be rusty if he plays. The Pats are hard to run against but Allen should be able to pass all over them since the pass rush is dead.

 

score?

 

Bills 26

Pats 0

[Big Turk]

8 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Yesterday, I posted Diggs’s stats vs NE since he got here in 2020 and he has averaged 95 yards and a TD vs. the Pats in the six games. He’s done that against a multitude of approaches by BB; from single, to double, to bracketed coverage schemes.  Instead of acknowledging Diggs has had success vs. BB, the the poster for whose benefit I furnished those stats said BB will stop Diggs this year because Josh doesn’t run anymore and BB wont have to use a spy. I could only shake my head. 

 

Belichick has literally had no answers for Allen defensively other than 70 mph winds.

[njbuff]

It's not the end of the world if the Pats win just one game all season.

 

They will get their hands on Williams or Maye (who I think is better and one hell of a prospect).

 

Nice prize for having a bad year with a bad team.

 

Question is.... Is it BB with Williams or Maye or is it a new HC/GM?

[Mango]

1 hour ago, newcam2012 said:

Nice post. I really think it's scheme related. I mean look at the success of Moss in Indy. Most fans couldn't wait for Moss to go. You usually don't see such an uptick like that. 

We’re doing more from under center this year than we were any other Daboll/Dorsey offense. He was was also traded 
 

I think Moss would fit in this 2023 offense. But Harris and Murray are nice additions. 
 

Worth nothing he was traded Nov 1. He didn’t spend much time under OC Dorsey.