Do The Bills Have A Passing Game Problem?

[harryS]

Yes, we're trying to win a Super Bowl with less receiving talent than other major contenders like the Eagles, Ravens, etc.

 

But that is old news.  We knew this already.

 

Josh is still going to power us to 30 pts/gm and hopefully for the first time, we'll get the 1-seed and bye this year, and that can push us over the top.

[balln]

8 hours ago, Brand J said:

When it bogs down that much, I do have to think Josh is leaving some plays out there. The All-22 will tell the truth. 

Which leads to the other point of this discussion. By running the offense like this.  They’re sort of neutering / transforming Josh Allen into a scared game manager. 
 

I don’t care about deep shots. We can’t run 8-15 yard pass plays to wr with traditional routes ! THATS the problem

Edited September 19 by balln

[Coffeesforclosers]

52 minutes ago, Billsfan1972 said:

McD apologists refuse to admit it, but he wants an offense to keep his D off the field.  Yes I'm worried what will happen in tighter games against great offenses.

 

The Bills were at home on a Thursday and again appeared sluggish at times.  70 yards total from Shakir and Coleman is not good.

 

With Allen 250 yards/gm should be a floor.

 

"McD Apologists refuse to admit it..." 

 

Tell me you spend waaaay too much time trying to be right on the internet?  Maybe you should try to go OWN someone with FACTS and LOGIC?

Edited September 19 by Coffeesforclosers

[balln]

8 hours ago, CincyBillsFan said:

As an aside Allen was masterful tonight.  22 of 28 for 213 yards and 3 TDs and a QB rating of 134.  There is no problem with the passing attack or the offense in general.  They are remarkably balanced and it will be tough for any D to hold them to less then 30 points.  The problem remains what it was last season - the inability of the defense to get off the field at critical moments of the game and the continual giving up 1st downs on 3rd and long.

 

 

Fair

[mjt328]

Hard to complain when your team is undefeated and scoring 30+ in every game (so far).  But the passing game is definitely something to keep an eye on. 

 

In the NFL, it's really easy to ignore the small problems when your playing against inferior teams and still finding ways to win games.  It's not until you play a better opponent and suddenly those small problems become a major issue.  It almost seems like they came out of nowhere.  But in reality, there were warning signs all along the way.

 

The Bills offense has looked extremely timid and conservative in the first three games.  Everything is dink/dunk and running game.  The question is whether that's been mostly by design?  Or because our WRs are really struggling to get open downfield?  Or maybe a mix?  I never thought I would see Josh Allen throwing short of the marker on 3rd Down.  But he's already done it more than once already this season, leading to drive stalls and punts.  We've also had a couple handoffs on 3rd and medium.  I don't think we've tried taking even one downfield shot yet.  

 

We looked past it against the Ravens, because the offense opened up way more in the second-half and they made the big come-back.  We looked past it against the Jets, because it was a blow-out and they didn't need to do anything else.  But then last night, our offense was continually unable to put the nail in the coffin.  And if not for the roughing penalty, they were in the process of punting the ball back to the Dolphins... tied in the middle of the 4th Quarter.  

 

[Jalan81]

8 hours ago, MikePJ76 said:

the obsession with wr's continues.

 

Its been almost two years of scoring 30 pts a game and winning like nearly every game and people still do not get it.

 

 

Except when stressed under pressure to score against a good defense in the playoffs we can’t even get a yard because they don’t respect our passing game.

[T.E.]

7 hours ago, folz said:

 

Worked for Tom Brady and the Patriots for what, about 20 years.

Those NE teams had awesome defenses.

2 hours ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Tom Brady would disagree. And his teams won at a pretty high rate. You don't force the pass game just because you have a great QB.

Again, Brady routinely had top 5 defenses. We have a defense that is ass. Score points.

7 hours ago, Boatdrinks said:

The season is a marathon, not a sprint. They’re managing Josh’s exposure somewhat too. Didn’t need to take unnecessary risks vs this opponent. 

This opponent was on the verge of winning with fewer than three minutes left.

[oldmanfan]

32 minutes ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

 

 

😁

Truth hurts, right?  We’re doing fine.

[balln]

7 hours ago, CincyBillsFan said:

We are watching a deliberate offensive strategy play out. It is similar to last season where it was successful and after 3 games this season we're 3 - 0 averaging 34 PPG.  I live in Cincinnati and saw a much more explosive offense not make the playoffs the last 2 seasons.  I'll take Brady ball any day of the week.

 

 

Well. On the flip side: this offense you enjoy doesn’t get it done against the chiefs in crunch time. While the eagles and Cincys of years past beats the chiefs. I care more about crunch time. They need to use these regular season games to not turtle to the easy safe plan 100% of the time. 11 of 12 quarters this year. 

[oldmanfan]

3 minutes ago, T.E. said:

Those NE teams had awesome defenses.

Again, Brady routinely had top 5 defenses. We have a defense that is ass. Score points.

This opponent was on the verge of winning with fewer than three minutes left.

Score points?  41, then 30, then 31.  Or do we have to score points only in a specifically acceptable way?

[CincyBillsFan]

7 hours ago, Scott7975 said:

 

An elite QB with a cannon arm playing game manager ugh. I mean its working so I can't complain too much but at some point it won't and they better be able to play large ball.

Allen is way more then a "game manager" in this offense.  Case in point on one of the TD drives Dawkins held putting the Bills in a 1st & 20.  If Allen were just a game manager the drive would have been over and a couple of plays later the Bills punt.  Instead, on 1st down Allen runs for 19 yards creating a 2nd & 1 from a 1st & 20.

 

The threat of Allen, downfield & with his legs, makes D's play this offense differently.  A game manager doesn't present that level of threat and is more easily controlled by defenses.    

 

 

[Jalan81]

8 hours ago, NoSaint said:

but at some point you have to be able to make chunk plays or count on a guy to win a matchup. 
 

Fingers crossed someone progresses as I don’t think we have a guy where we can reliably call his number and expect him to win more often than not. A little bit of pass rush and playing from behind will be a real challenge for this offense if we can’t count on a first read and don’t have consistent time for sand lot. Josh will cover that up a lot but come January it might be our heel 

Can you name 3 or 4 plays we can count on to get us 3-5 yards consistently? Is there any play we do so well we can confidently pull it out in the playoffs against a good team when most needed? I don’t see any creativity on Brady’s part to achieve this. Our qb sneak has fizzled, it’s not a tush push as nobody pushes Allen like the Eagles push Hurts and we no longer replicate their results. Josh covers for the inept passing concepts that Brady has employed. 

[BeastMaster]

Meh

 

I would hold off on any real criticism until this team stops scoring points and dominating TOP

 

I believe alot of this is to control the game and keep some things under wraps until later in the season...at least I hope so.

 

I don't like the give up plays short of the sticks on 3rd downs as much as anyone, but this team's philosophy is play mistake free and make the other team beat you instead of you beating yourself, and it's been very successful.

 

Hopefully, they use the conservative style to their advantage later in the season when teams start expecting it

[BillsFan130]

7 hours ago, MJS said:

You're too spoiled by dominant performances. This was a good, normal win. There are ebbs and flows in every game.

Yes to a certain extent that's true. But it's all relative. If it's 2019 and the bills are trying to make the playoffs, then ya this is not a concern.

But expectations have changed. The conversation isn't "do the bills have a passing game problem compared to a mediocre/average team". It's relative to the best teams in the league at this point 

[T.E.]

5 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

Score points?  41, then 30, then 31.  Or do we have to score points only in a specifically acceptable way?

Two of those teams we played against are going to win fewer than 5 games this year. I hope they can drop 41 a few times in the playoffs.

[nuiwek]

7 hours ago, BillytheKid said:

Yeah I think they have a passing game problem and it is on Joe Brady. Not because he isn’t creative enough or they can’t do it, but because Joe likes to run the ball too much.

 

I think if they would throw the ball more they would score more points than they do. It’s annoying to an extent because it makes Allen look like he isn’t capable of getting more yards. 
 

Can’t complain because the Bills win and are scoring 30 points every game but because of Brady , Allen’s passing numbers are going to look ***** again this year like last year. Throwing for only 3,800 yards doesn’t look good. 

Makes him look like he is a middle of the pack QB which sucks but it is what it is. As long as they win I guess. 

 

Josh doesn't care if he looks like a middle of the road quarterback. Why do you?

[CincyBillsFan]

2 minutes ago, balln said:

Well. On the flip side: this offense you enjoy doesn’t get it done against the chiefs in crunch time. While the eagles and Cincys of years past beats the chiefs. I care more about crunch time. They need to use these regular season games to not turtle to the easy safe plan 100% of the time. 11 of 12 quarters this year. 

First, against the Chiefs the offense has "gotten it done" whether it was a circus with Allen throwing deep ball haymakers like 2021 or grinding it out like the last 2 seasons.  In ALL 3 games the D cost us the win.  

 

Second, I don't "enjoy" this offense.  I find it frustrating because as a fan I live in the moment with the game I'm watching. Last night I was yelling at the TV that Brady was to conservative after they ran the ball on 2nd & 8 at the Dolphins 14 yard line before missing the FG.  I thought the Bills should have attacked the new DB's right from the get go.

 

But after the in-game emotions calm down I can see how this offense works and what they're trying to do.  And for the record this offense has so far been very successful by every metric you can measure - points, yards, no TO's, productive at key moments in the game and TOP to name just 5.  

 

 

[MikePJ76]

3 hours ago, Trogdor said:

Let's see how that looks against playoff defense. It's cool to average high in the regular season, but they need the ability to have open guys in the playoffs. 

They just beat the ravens..?

 

also they beat Denver and Baltimore in the playoffs last year.  Are you aware of the level of defense Baltimore and Denver played last year?

 

this boogie man that this fanbase is obsessed with that can only be solved by wide receivers is exhausting.

 

stop playing fantasy football.

[oldmanfan]

21 minutes ago, T.E. said:

Two of those teams we played against are going to win fewer than 5 games this year. I hope they can drop 41 a few times in the playoffs.

So make sure I have this right.  The Bills should only count victories against teams you deem worthy of providing competition.  And when they do play a team that you deem worthy, they must only beat those teams using offensive strategies that you agree with.  If a team is susceptible to the run and we win that way, we should not claim that win because it was not done in the correct manner.

 

One of the QBs Josh is often compared to is Elway.  Elway did not win a Lombardi until he had a strong complementary running game.  
 

As to your last point I don’t care how many points we score in a playoff game nor how we score them, so long as it is one more point than the opponent.

[MJS]

7 hours ago, NoSaint said:

I think many of us think Miami is a very bad team though. Not the playoff fins we have at times battled but a true talent lacking squad that has active internal conflict on top of it. 
 

in a special season there will be a few of those that aren’t pretty but you take the win….  But that the gap on the field matched the forecasted gap on paper is what stands out. 
 

josh airmails a couple passes and nobody blinks about the long term because sometimes you just don’t hit everything. Josh stands patting the ball because he can’t find anyone open and that gives pause about the bigger story.

Miami has plenty of talent. Their defensive line is really good. They have explosive stars on offense. Their issues are not talent issues. They lack leadership and toughness. And their secondary is not great.