The Three Plays that Cost us the Game

[Nklaiste1]

We could also blame the defense. 

They played like crap most of the game and made it way too easy on the Chiefs. 

[BIGFOOTspaceman]

Who cares…Allen is going to be traveling, playing golf and banging his hot actress girlfriend for the next 7 months while we analyze plays that lost the game. 
 

Bills lose, life goes on. Rinse and repeat. 
 

 

[PaoloBillsFanFromItaly]

We simply missed too many tackles and gap assignment in defense.

Silly to point out some specific play (they happen all the time...)

[chongli]

This cost us the game:

 

 

[Governor]

Just this weekend alone:

 

Detroit marches down the field late and scores. They weren’t purposely killing any clock. Bucs get the ball back with 1:30 and the Detroit defense stuffs them and gets an int. Game over.

 

49ers march down the field and score late. They also weren’t killing all of the clock. Packers get the ball back and SF defense stuffs them and gets an int. Game over.

 

Both teams playing at home in the playoffs.

 

Why can’t McD(defensive guru) do what every other playoff team can do?

Edited January 22 by Governor

[Alphadawg7]

5 hours ago, Your Brown Eye said:

That crossing route hurt, Diggs was wide open. 

Shakir was wide open too in the end zone

[Gunsgoodtime]

Year 16 of the McDermott experience....Bills fought hard, had a chance.  One of the Best qbs in the league.  At the end of the day McDermott ***** the bed.  Welcome to Bills Mafia

[thewookie1]

3 hours ago, chongli said:

 

 

 

This view tells me three things

 

1. Diggs wasn't the 1st option as he could of gunned it to him as he came through the 1st hole.

2. He was hit and impeded on is throw just enough to make it fall short on Shakir who had come open like Allen had read

3. While Diggs, later on, was still open, that throw would of required him to put the ball over Dawkins + the DE while also not hitting the LG and the DT which would of been in his direct path. All this while not exactly being able to step up to throw and seeing 2 Chiefs in and around Diggs. (Essentially his throw would of had to been a floater which means the LB or Nickel 7 yards up field would have Diggs dead to rights potentially)

[Ralonzo]

8 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

How hard is this? If he hadn't been hit, it's a TD.  He also hit Diggs in the hands on a deep ball that Diggs dropped.

 

 

Yeah but this is the irony, the first Bills playoff exit against the Chiefs was because they were one-dimensional. They couldn't run the ball, KC stayed in shell defense. They weren't a ton better running in the 13-seconds game but Allen was a damn juggernaut and they hit deep shots (and they had open receivers!!!)

 

The Bills lost this game because they were one-dimensional. Except this time, it was the running game that was their one dimension. The jumbo set was unstoppable all game until KC stacked the box, making themself vulnerable to getting beat over the top - the Bills were looking for that. The 3 shots they did take were all there, they were executed on all levels by everyone but the receiver. Maybe with Davis (or a legit #2) they hit one. Maybe hitting one, they win the game.

7 hours ago, chongli said:

 

 

Still woulda concussed your quarterback, Alex Soros

[stlbills13]

I didn't love the James Cook run on 1st down that led to the 2 minute warning. The chiefs had stopped that play a few times. And at that point the ball stays in Josh's hands for the rest of the game for me. 

 

I also think we didn't use Kincaid enough 

[peterpan]

8 hours ago, Your Brown Eye said:

That crossing route hurt, Diggs was wide open. 

Honestly what are people looking at here? Diggs came open late, Allen would have to throw across his body toward the left sideline to a WR running away from him.  I couldn’t tell if there was a defender over there )off screen) who could have disrupted the play. 
 

meanwhile Shakir was wide freaking open in the end zone. 
 

I get the idea of not wanting to score so fast but come on guys, this play is not worth discussing from last night.

[BillsfaninCT]

the 3 plays that killed us were only 2

throwing into the endzone with 150 left in the game which is inexplicable given the context of the rest of the entire game and the execution.

 

the bills literally threw the game into the turf.  i guess he could've gone full adam sandler and threw the picks but that couldn't have been scripted much worse.  diggs wide open and ja17 looked RIGHT AT HIM, then he had 2 guys on 3rd down and threw that into the crumb rubber.

 

WWE.

[All_Pro_Bills]

12 minutes ago, BillsfaninCT said:

the 3 plays that killed us were only 2

throwing into the endzone with 150 left in the game which is inexplicable given the context of the rest of the entire game and the execution.

 

the bills literally threw the game into the turf.  i guess he could've gone full adam sandler and threw the picks but that couldn't have been scripted much worse.  diggs wide open and ja17 looked RIGHT AT HIM, then he had 2 guys on 3rd down and threw that into the crumb rubber.

 

WWE.

I expected after the 2 minute warning they were going to play for a game winning TD while burning down the clock as close to zero as possible.  Sure you can't expect to script things out perfectly in a game like this but that was the winning move.  With all the injuries and big chunk plays the defense was giving up I didn't want to see them on the field again last night.  But as is typical, things went off the rails on 2nd and 3rd down passes and Bass missed the FG on 4th down.  Given all the last minute heartbreaks is there anyone here that didn't think Bass was going to miss?  I sure did.  But for me it didn't make any difference.  Giving the Chiefs the ball with about 1:45 left and a couple time outs was more than enough to get them into FG range and their kicker is usually money.  If the Bills didn't lose 27-24 they would have lost 30-27.    

 

Edited January 22 by All_Pro_Bills

[Dan]

25 minutes ago, Ralonzo said:

 

Yeah but this is the irony, the first Bills playoff exit against the Chiefs was because they were one-dimensional. They couldn't run the ball, KC stayed in shell defense. They weren't a ton better running in the 13-seconds game but Allen was a damn juggernaut and they hit deep shots (and they had open receivers!!!)

 

The Bills lost this game because they were one-dimensional. Except this time, it was the running game that was their one dimension. The jumbo set was unstoppable all game until KC stacked the box, making themself vulnerable to getting beat over the top - the Bills were looking for that. The 3 shots they did take were all there, they were executed on all levels by everyone but the receiver. Maybe with Davis (or a legit #2) they hit one. Maybe hitting one, they win the game.

 

Still woulda concussed your quarterback, Alex Soros

And that’s it…. Every team in the league has WRs that can catch those passes, the Bills do not.  Heck even that MVS dude with KC made an awesome over the shoulder catch downfield while being blanketed by Taron… and all I’ve heard about that dude is how bad he sucks.   
 

[LewPort71]

10 hours ago, DrBob806 said:

I still can't believe this. Consider the 4th Q alone:

• KC fumbles thru the end zone, turnover
• KC drops a pick 6
• KC fails to jump on an Allen fumble
• Diggs, the diva, drops a bomb
• Allen misses a wide open Shakir
• FG no good

We all wanted KC at home. Yikes, KC simply has the Bills' number, it's a shame. 

 

I don't know if you guys watched the post game- Boomer Esiason spewed out some insane stats. KC only ran 47 plays the whole game, 4 were kneel downs, and they scored 27 points. Crazy.

Bills offense  7.2 yards per pass   4.7 yards per rush

Chiefs   offense  12.6 yards per pass  7.2 yards per rush.

 

 

[Eastport bills]

9 hours ago, VaMilBill said:

I think my comment is pretty fair. The Shakir pass was obviously not a sure thing and Josh did get pushed from behind. I think the motion with Diggs made it obvious he should have been the go-to guy cause he was wide open from the snap. Take the sure play. 

Oh so because he didn’t go to Diggs, who’s been invisible and underachieving, Josh can never get us over the hump. That’s the imbecilic statement made.

[dave mcbride]

10 hours ago, Your Brown Eye said:

That crossing route hurt, Diggs was wide open. 

Shakir was wide open too.

[Royale with Cheese]

Diggs was open but so was Shakir.  Allen made the right choice by throwing to either one of them.

[DrBob806]

16 minutes ago, LewPort71 said:

Bills offense  7.2 yards per pass   4.7 yards per rush

Chiefs   offense  12.6 yards per pass  7.2 yards per rush.

 

 

Bills did a good job playing "keep away," had the ball for 37 minutes. Sounds like a real good formula, turns out wrong again.

 

Hate to say it, KC simply is better & more clutch.

[dave mcbride]

27 minutes ago, LewPort71 said:

Bills offense  7.2 yards per pass   4.7 yards per rush

Chiefs   offense  12.6 yards per pass  7.2 yards per rush.

 

 

9.3 yards per pass -- 215 yards on 23 attempts.

[Herb]

12 hours ago, Freak-O said:

Cook dropped a TD as well. Crucial. The non pass to Diggs at the end was the worst one. Get a new set of downs, milk the clock and an excellent opportunity to score. I don’t get why Josh went for a TD there. Too much time left on the clock.

I'm certain it was McDermott who decided to run to the preferred hash mark on first down and likely told Josh to basically throw it away if nothing was there immediately to preserve the field goal try. Coaching not to lose gets in the players' heads.

[2003Contenders]

11 hours ago, BananaB said:

It’s definitely a possibility. Shakir catches just about everything 

 

I will have to see greater detail on the All-22, but the crossing route to Diggs also may not have been as open as it first appeared. There was a corner lurking right behind Diggs, possibly bating Josh into that throw. Remember, just a few minutes before there was a near-pick 6 jump route on an attempted pass to Diggs.

[NewEra]

17 hours ago, BillsFan130 said:

Can't blame for Josh on that play.

 

That's an easy TD pass if he doesn't get hit

But you can blame him for not taking the easy pass to Diggs which would’ve chewed up clock or a KC TO.  Even if we scored on the pass to shakir, KC would’ve had plenty of time to score 

Edited January 22 by NewEra

[PayDaBill$]

Couple of drops, couple of miss reads / decisions , Bass is washed, one legged punter, MASH unit D.  It was amazing that it was 3 pt tight game.

 

Unfortunately a couple things go wrong or you fail to execute you’re basically F’ed in a game like this, we had very little margin for error given the defense.

 

 

 

Edited January 22 by PayDaBill$

[SCBills]

12 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

If Allen isn't hit, it's a clear TD to Shakir.  None of this **** Show is on Allen.

 

I agree and disagree.

 

Allen clearly saw that Shakir would clear the defenders and be open pre-snap.  He locked in on the killshot.

 

.....except it wasn't a killshot.  Even if Dawkins doesn't get dog-walked by Jones to hit Allen, Mahomes gets the ball back, down 4, with a couple minutes and two timeouts against our joke of a defense. 

 

As much as I know it's difficult to blame Josh for making a bad decision on what would normally be the right read in any other cirucmstance... this wasn't that circumstance.

 

If he foregoes the TD shot and hits Diggs for a first down, like was the entire vibe of that drive... kill the clock and score with little to no time left, we'd be set up to potentially score with KC getting the ball back with under a minute and no timeouts, down 4 needing a TD.  If we played it perfectly, we could've gone up with less than 15 seconds.  

 

It's really hard to criticize him for this decision, but given the gameflow.. I hate to say.. I think it's warranted.

 

It wasn't a bad decision.  It just wasn't the right decision. 

[BillsFanSD]

12 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

If Allen isn't hit, it's a clear TD to Shakir.  None of this **** Show is on Allen.

Way too many people are taking Tony Romo's off-the-cuff analysis as the undisputed truth.  The decision to go to Shakir was fine.  He was available, and we've seen Allen make that throw too many times to count.  Unfortunately he got hit and it didn't work out.

[pocoboy]

12 hours ago, AlCowlingsTaxiService said:

Taking multiple deep shots and bypassing chain moving completions is on Josh 

 

I think we're OK taking a 4 point lead with just under 2 minutes. The bar is a lot higher for KC to get the TD, and it's really risking it to try to score that TD as time expires. So you may end up with a chance to get that FG to tie after all.

 

Maybe your Pro Bowl LT needed to figure that s*** out.

[buffalostu2]

Could Josh even see Diggs with 600lbs of a DT and an OT on roller skates pushing into his left side?      

[Wraith]

19 minutes ago, NewEra said:

But you can blame him for not taking the easy 1st down to Diggs which would’ve chewed up the clock and given us a 1st down.  Even if we scored on the pass to shakir, KC would’ve had plenty of time to score 

Passing up the wide open Shakir for Diggs on a 2-yard drag route on 2nd and 9 would've been moronic. The mirror image of that route was almost intercepted earlier. This time, Diggs had two defenders squared up on him. 23 was shadowing him the entire route and 32 passes off Kincaid to 22 to pick up Diggs as he goes to the flat. At the time of the pass they're both tracking Diggs. We've seen how Diggs runs with the ball. There is no way Diggs is making it for a first down, if he even catches the ball.

 

Add in that Shakir is catching everything lately and Diggs is most certainly not and it was an easy decision. This is football, quarterbacks can't control every variable, good decisions don't always work out. The images below show the moment of the throw (left) and a moment later (right). The anticipation Allen showed on that throw was incredible. Chris Jones just beat Dion Dawkins.

 

[BillsFan130]

27 minutes ago, NewEra said:

But you can blame him for not taking the easy 1st down to Diggs which would’ve chewed up the clock and given us a 1st down.  Even if we scored on the pass to shakir, KC would’ve had plenty of time to score 

Ya but there is no guarantee we get a TD if we just got a first down there. Or bass to make the kick if we don't get a TD.. (clearly lol)

 

Wide open TD pass, I think you have to take it

[BillsfaninCT]

6 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

Diggs was open but so was Shakir.  Allen made the right choice by throwing to either one of them.

I disagree with this, throwing to Shakir isn't the high percentage game winner, it in fact gives the ball back to the chiefs with 1:50 left in the game who most likely get the ball last, what a stupid decision to throw there.  the higher percentage play is diggs.  so if we're blaming somebody for the loss it's whoever decided to throw to Shakir and I'm not saying that was Josh, we have no idea who said what to do but that is major sus given the previous 6 games and 58 minutes, makes zero sense in that context... then to double down and throw it into the crumb rubber on 3rd downs is indefensible but we will never know who said to do what and why.

 

also, diggs didn't need to get the 1st down, it was 2nd down so the entire philosophy that throwing to diggs for the 1st down is dumb cause he doesn't get that completely misses the point of using all 3 downs to try and get a 1st down and at worse get 9yds closer for the fg.

 

the argument to throw to shakir is dumb founding

Edited January 22 by BillsfaninCT

[GoBills808]

Diggs drop and Sherfield dropx2

 

Not complicated 

[Royale with Cheese]

21 minutes ago, BillsfaninCT said:

I disagree with this, throwing to Shakir isn't the high percentage game winner, it in fact gives the ball back to the chiefs with 1:50 left in the game who most likely get the ball last, what a stupid decision to throw there.  the higher percentage play is diggs.  so if we're blaming somebody for the loss it's whoever decided to throw to Shakir and I'm not saying that was Josh, we have no idea who said what to do but that is major sus given the previous 6 games and 58 minutes, makes zero sense in that context... then to double down and throw it into the crumb rubber on 3rd downs is indefensible but we will never know who said to do what and why.

 

also, diggs didn't need to get the 1st down, it was 2nd down so the entire philosophy that throwing to diggs for the 1st down is dumb cause he doesn't get that completely misses the point of using all 3 downs to try and get a 1st down and at worse get 9yds closer for the fg.

 

the argument to throw to shakir is dumb founding

 

Skakir was open.  If the ball was accurate, it would have been a TD but Allen got pressured.  

You don't always have to go to the higher percentage when another player was open.

[Brandon]

1 minute ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

Skakir was open.  If the ball was accurate, it would have been a TD but Allen got pressured.  

You don't always have to go to the higher percentage when another player was open.

 

Agreed,  and if you pass up a fairly high percentage chance at the TD and a 4 point lead,  there are no guarantees that you will get another opportunity.   You don't have the luxury of passing that up late in a game playing from behind. 

 

I have zero issue with Allen's decision.  

[DrDawkinstein]

Crazy not a single Defensive play was mentioned by OP.

 

Such as the absolutely BLOWN coverage on Kelce's TD where Poyer for some reason decided to jump the underneath route and let Kelce run right by him since the Chiefs never throw to Kelce anyways.

[HOUSE]

Life sucks, than you die

[dorquemada]

18 hours ago, DrBob806 said:

We all wanted KC at home. Yikes, KC simply has the Bills' number, it's a shame. 

 

I don't know if you guys watched the post game- Boomer Esiason spewed out some insane stats. KC only ran 47 plays the whole game, 4 were kneel downs, and they scored 27 points. Crazy.

 

yeah watching the KC O against us was like watching a SB champ doing it's tuneup run in the 1st Q of a preseason game

[Watkins90]

17 hours ago, VaMilBill said:

Agree on Shakir. Kinda reminding me of victor Cruz in his prime but better. 
 

It sucks Diggs has such a big dead cap hit next year because i think at this point he is done. I would love to cut him or trade him but obviously the financial ramifications don’t allow for it.  His hands just aren’t trustworthy and he isn’t elite anymore. He’s a middling number 1 WR. 

What do we think happened? Why such a drastic drop-off in the middle of a season?

5 hours ago, Wraith said:

Passing up the wide open Shakir for Diggs on a 2-yard drag route on 2nd and 9 would've been moronic. The mirror image of that route was almost intercepted earlier. This time, Diggs had two defenders squared up on him. 23 was shadowing him the entire route and 32 passes off Kincaid to 22 to pick up Diggs as he goes to the flat. At the time of the pass they're both tracking Diggs. We've seen how Diggs runs with the ball. There is no way Diggs is making it for a first down, if he even catches the ball.

 

Add in that Shakir is catching everything lately and Diggs is most certainly not and it was an easy decision. This is football, quarterbacks can't control every variable, good decisions don't always work out. The images below show the moment of the throw (left) and a moment later (right). The anticipation Allen showed on that throw was incredible. Chris Jones just beat Dion Dawkins.

 

I disagree. I think if he dumps its off to Diggs he is getting a 1st down, at worst, he is at least getting 5 or 6 yards and making it a manageable 3rd down. That changes the play call on 3rd down and allows us to maybe go for it on fourth down. 

[Hebert19]

18 hours ago, Freak-O said:

Cook dropped a TD as well. Crucial. The non pass to Diggs at the end was the worst one. Get a new set of downs, milk the clock and an excellent opportunity to score. I don’t get why Josh went for a TD there. Too much time left on the clock.

We scored that drive. 

[harmonkillebrew]

18 hours ago, Xwnyer said:

Maybe he doesn’t trust Diggs over Shakir

Josh goes for the wide open TD every time.  I'll always support that. 

Dawkins should have held his block.