No Preseason For Starters and Slow Start

[saundena]

As you all know, we didn't play most of our starters in pre season.  Other than the opening drive which was scripted and the the defensive stop holding them to a FG on the Ravens opening drive- we stunk for the majority of the first half.  The drive before halftime was ok, and although we let the Ravens answer our scores in the 3rd quarter, we seemed to play a bit sharper as the game wore on.

 

Now, we all know that the Bills under McBean are a bit Jekyll and Hyde in week one, do any of you think that if we would have played our starters more in preseason, the game wouldn't have gotten this out of hand?  The Ravens rested most of theirs and they looked good most of the game- but obviously a different coach and a different team.

 

This is what I was telling myself when we were down late in the third and to start the fourth.  Pure cope on my behalf I think.  Just wondering what you all think. 

[DrDawkinstein]

Interesting topic, but I dont think it had much of anything to do with it.

 

Ravens are a very good team and probably the worst match-up for the Bills. I dont see it going any differently even if the starters played in the preseason.

[billsfan89]

This is common across the league since 2020. Week 1 has had a lot of funky upsets that by the end of the season we look back on and it makes no sense. Since the Shortened preseason and the lowering of offseason activities teams simply don’t have a lot of reps together by the time week 1 starts.

 

Teams are also very conservative with injuries in camp and preseason (as they should be) so anyone with anything more than a minor injury who misses a week or two in late July or August is missing a high percentage of reps.

 

So you just have a bunch of guys on both teams who are rusty and lacking chemistry. It’s why I don’t put too much stock in week 1 and slightly less stock in week 2 (week 2 some rust still remains).

 

Once you get to week 3 then it’s full tilt.

3 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

Interesting topic, but I dont think it had much of anything to do with it.

 

Ravens are a very good team and probably the worst match-up for the Bills. I dont see it going any differently even if the starters played in the preseason.

It was also a revenge game for the Ravens they lost here in the playoffs in a game they probably feel like they should have won. The Ravens have an elite offense and they were motivated and were gonna put up at least 28-32 points

[BRH]

They actually started just fine in all three phases.  Great return to start the game, crisp short TD drive, aggressive defense.

 

It was after that that they ran into problems.

 

It didn't have anything to do with preseason game reps IMO.  That's just a good team over there.

[Mister Defense]

Yeah, I do think the starters should play a little together in the pre season.

 

You cannot readily duplicate a game in practice.

 

For example, at least one full half together and one full quarter.

[Paup 1995MVP]

Our play calling on the second and third drives were terrible.  On the second drive, Cook gets almost 8 yards on 1st down, and then 2 straight runs for no gain.  The third drive 3 quick out passes that got a total of 6 yards.  And on defense, we may have had the worst safety combination starting in the NFL last night.  They can't tackle, they take terrible angles when they try and tackle, and they are out of position a lot.  And neither is particularly fast.  But Ed Oliver certainly came to play.  And Strong at CB showed some potential, so that's good.

 

Lets just hope that Joe Brady and his conservative play calling is put on the shelf for the rest of the season.  You see what Josh Allen can do when given the keys to the sports car instead of an old station wagon.  The boy can put up 350 plus yards every game.  

[Livinginthepast]

In game preseason experience is really important, even for veterans but the problem is that the NFL is now a league of super fast, strong physical giants. It would be terrible for us to lose a starter in a nothing game. This is far more likely to happen than even 10 years ago. 

 

What really concerns me is that a slow unprepared start has reared its head several times in the McD era. He has been Jekyll and Hyde with this since he started here. Some games the Bills look like they have studied film and have done a great job prepping for the game, others they look hungover or like they ate a bowl of Crisco for a pregame meal.

[Simon]

John Harbaugh is one of the very best in the business at using the entire preseason to have his guys specifically ready for the Week 1 matchup.

I thought they clearly did a better job than the Bills staff in this aspect and it showed in how frequently confused and hesitant teh Bills were on both sides of the ball throughout most of the game.

I don't think snaps were a legitimate factor in the Ravens being better prepared.

[fasteddie]

It was a vanilla game plan for an opening night game. I thought I would puke if they threw another bubble screen. The left side of the o-line had problems last night. Hopefully it gets better.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

1 minute ago, fasteddie said:

It was a vanilla game plan for an opening night game. I thought I would puke if they threw another bubble screen. The left side of the o-line had problems last night. Hopefully it gets better.

Rewatching now and a lot more underneath/behind the LOS stuff worked than I remember from watching it live 😂. and of the ones that didn’t some of them were pretty well set up the ravens just tackled their asses off 

 

I think without that ridiculous check into a quick run on third down which I’m almost entirely sure was Josh’s decision it would’ve changed the early vibes a bit. The ravens short yardage run defense has always been excellent which seems to really strain our offense