Why the Pats stopped the Bills' offense - Allen got antsy and undisciplined (The Athletic)

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

9 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

It was close because the defense held the Patriots to 6 points in the first half. Yes, the defense was bad in the 2nd half but the offense wasn't good enough to put up more points than the Pats in the 2nd half. Kudos to them but I don't see us turning the ball over 3 times or getting as many penalties as we saw on a regular basis to think we aren't the top team in this division if not conference as the Colts are a great story but can't see Danny dimes keeping up his current pace all season. 

I’d say held them to 3 tbh…the other 3 points was the pats taking over in fg range after a fumble 

[Jauronimo]

42 minutes ago, Buffalo Ballin said:

The offense can't be blamed most of the time, especially in this one, Josh Allen didn't even play that badly. Again, it was just 2 Turnovers. Game was still close.

It was 3 turnovers.

[TheBrownBear]

3 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

It was 3 turnovers.

I think he's referring to Josh specifically.

 

But yes, I'd lay the majority of the loss at the feet of the offense.  Just way too many penalties and a couple of bad turnovers.  If we play disciplined and protect the ball the way we usually do, that game ends up looking a lot like the previous three weeks I think.

Edited 4 hours ago by TheBrownBear

[Mark Vader]

1 hour ago, Brand J said:

Yeah, Marino said going into the game the Patriots struggled mightily against multiple TE and RB sets where the QB passed and we did it a grand total of 2 times for 43 yards. That’s just piss poor scouting by Joe Brady and the offensive staff. You’re supposed to attack a team’s weakness, what they don’t do well and force them into adjustments which would then open up other opportunities. We didn’t force the Pats into anything. I almost never feel like the offensive or defensive staff schemes specifically for opponent and is ahead of the opposing coordinators. 

I agree with all of this.

 

Yes, Josh Allen did not have a great game, but The Athletic making the case that the Bills lost because of Josh Allen is very misleading. Let's not forget that despite the issues, the Bills lost by 3 points.

 

James Cook never got into a rhythm, that was a big problem. Defense did a good job in the first half. Remember the fumble by Coleman deep in our territory? The Bills defense stepped up and only gave up a chip shot field goal. 

Second half the defense gave up crucial yards and scoring drives.

 

Joe Brady needs to play to the offensive players strengths more, somehow. Trust Josh Allen, get James Cook into more of a rhythm, and use Dalton Kincaid more. There also has to be a way to get at least one of our receivers the right amount of looks as well.

[HappyDays]

58 minutes ago, MJS said:

I got chastised here for saying that Allen played a poor game, but as the week goes on, more and more people seem to be agreeing.

 

That was your takeaway from this article? That's not correct. The takeaway is that when defenses force us to throw the ball downfield we can't do it.

 

Quote

The Pats also challenged Buffalo’s receivers to beat them one-on-one, playing man coverage nearly 40 percent of the time. That’s always a risk against a quarterback who can run the way Allen can, but New England was able to leverage the Bills’ biggest weakness against them.  

 

“We’ve talked about this for years with the Buffalo Bills,” Klassen says. “They don’t have many we-can-just-beat-you-one-on-one receivers. Challenge them. If you feel (Patriots defensive back) Christian Gonzalez is going to blank this guy 80 percent of the time, OK, then you take the one in five losses that you take. Same with Carlton Davis and all those guys.”

 

Joe Buscalglia in his all-22 review each week grades all the players. This week he had Allen as his top graded player with a B+. PFF gave him a 77.5 grade which is kind of their version of a B+. That is not a "poor game."

 

And I think that's a fair grade. Allen and Cook both played their B+ game and the offense looked totally dysfunctional at times. That's a big problem. Your best players can't be A+ every week. The rest of the team and the coaching staff need to be able to pick them up from time to time and they couldn't do it against an inferior opponent.

 

Edited 4 hours ago by HappyDays

[Buffalo03]

3 turnovers didn't help. 2 of those drives we were driving downfield and that makes all the difference. The Knox fumble on the first drive and the Allen interception were crucial and honestly, we probably score on both of those drives without the TOs. The Bills beat themselves 99% of the time. Other teams don't necessarily "beat" them. Teams need the Bills to make mistakes which they don't do often. But when they do, they capitalize and it kills us

[Jukester]

If running game isn’t working for Cook, need more passing plays for him out of the backfield where he’s already moving, like CMC. He is such a dynamic playmaker once in space. Get him the ball whatever it takes. This will help take the pressure off Josh.
Everybody eats does work for the most part but there will be games that your playmakers need the ball in their hands…that’s Josh and Jimbo

Edited 4 hours ago by Jukester

[Psautcsk]

2 hours ago, Brand J said:

I’ve noticed the same: both games where Diggs was on the opposing sideline, there’s been a bit of an uncharacteristic performance from Allen. There were plays to be made that he’s made against other teams, but he presses.

Both games ended 23-20 on last second 50+ yard field goals in week 5. Hmmmm.

[DapperCam]

I basically disagree with saying Allen had a bad game. I think he had a “good” not “great” game.

 

He had 300 yards, was the team’s leading rusher, had 2 TDs and 1 turnover (I know technically 2, but a failed handoff is on the runner IMO).

 

The running game wasn’t working at all. The all-22 has revealed the play calling and play design was weak and didn’t exploit the Pat’s weaknesses on defense. Also, Allen was doing a good job buying time in the pocket and still nobody was open downfield (not to mention the weird reffing in the first half).

 

Do people really think a different QB put in the same position would have performed better? I highly doubt it.

 

Just do a thought experiment and swap Maye for Allen. So now Maye doesn’t have Diggs having a career day, and is throwing against a good secondary instead of the Bills weak secondary. He would likely do much worse (IMO).

[ColoradoBills]

21 minutes ago, Jukester said:

If running game isn’t working for Cook, need more passing plays for him out of the backfield where he’s already moving, like CMC. He is such a dynamic playmaker once in space. Get him the ball whatever it takes. This will help take the pressure off Josh.
Everybody eats does work for the most part but there will be games that your playmakers need the ball in their hands…that’s Josh and Jimbo

 

I can back your statement 100%.  Some of those type plays NEED to come when Josh is under center.

You can't have Josh hand off the vast majority of the time when he is lined up that way.

 

I like Brady, BUT he needs to mix this up.  Self-scouting seems to be the key to identifying this.

I sure hope that during the bye week some changes are made to hide/mix up playcalling on both sides of the ball.

[thenorthremembers]

2 hours ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Both of our young coordinators got schooled - and not just on Sunday night, but on the days leading up to it.

Brady was pretty good in the second half.  Josh refused to take the easy stuff. 

[Jerome007]

The WRs looked very bad against the Cheats. At times, the OLine gave Josh TONS of time, yet he couldn't find anyone open. It was almost strange. No wonder JA tried more long passes, he had the time to let these routes develop. 

 

The pass blocking was really good. The run blocking though was off.

[Goin Breakdown]

1 hour ago, extrahammer said:

 

Diggs was probably trying to be alpha dog #1 when he was here and that probably rubbed Josh the wrong way. Everything with them seemed great until the Cincy Divisional Playoff game, super awkward between them mostly after that. 

 

 

Joshua's shown Diggs that he is MVP except on the games he actually plays against Diggs. I'm sure there has to be other but it's pretty glaring during Diggs games so far. 

[ColoradoBills]

4 minutes ago, Jerome007 said:

The WRs looked very bad against the Cheats. At times, the OLine gave Josh TONS of time, yet he couldn't find anyone open. It was almost strange. No wonder JA tried more long passes, he had the time to let these routes develop. 

 

The pass blocking was really good. The run blocking though was off.

 

Patriots have a top 5 run defense.  That has to be part of the game planning knowing that.

[GoBills808]

12 minutes ago, thenorthremembers said:

Brady was pretty good in the second half.  Josh refused to take the easy stuff. 

yeah that's just not what happened

[dave mcbride]

56 minutes ago, Mark Vader said:

I agree with all of this.

 

Yes, Josh Allen did not have a great game, but The Athletic making the case that the Bills lost because of Josh Allen is very misleading. Let's not forget that despite the issues, the Bills lost by 3 points.

 

James Cook never got into a rhythm, that was a big problem. Defense did a good job in the first half. Remember the fumble by Coleman deep in our territory? The Bills defense stepped up and only gave up a chip shot field goal. 

Second half the defense gave up crucial yards and scoring drives.

 

Joe Brady needs to play to the offensive players strengths more, somehow. Trust Josh Allen, get James Cook into more of a rhythm, and use Dalton Kincaid more. There also has to be a way to get at least one of our receivers the right amount of looks as well.

The Athletic didn't really say that. It said that even his bad games are good games (and the stats bear that out for the Pats game - he was in fact reasonably good but not great). In any event, scoring only 20 at home is not going to win you a ton of games. The pick in the red zone was, however, pretty egregious. As soon as he threw it, visions of Devin McCourty from a couple years back leapt into my head. It was a terrible decision and looked like a pick the moment it left his hand. He hadn't thrown a terrible pick like that in a long time.

Edited 3 hours ago by dave mcbride

[Governor]

1 hour ago, Dan said:

Gotta say… of all the takes I've read this week… this one seems the most accurate to my eyes. The Bills looked like the Bills.  On defense, they gave up plays, but made enough plays to keep them to 6 points in the first half. The offense was moving the ball around well… until they weren’t. Just too many penalities and the turnovers, obviously.  Granted, I contend a lot of the penalties were extremely ticky tack calls, while they let the Pats get by with much more.  Yes, Palmer may have been more than a yard off the line, but he was maybe 1.25 yards off the line.  It was not blatantly bad, and in most all instances that alignment isn't called.  
 

That all being said, the Pats just had a solidly good game plan.  And they came in fired up and wanting that win more.  Diggs played his best game in like 4? years!  The Bills did what they've been doing… and didn't match the intensity of the game.  My concern after this game is that they, as a team, are becoming too predictable.  Allen likes to roll out to his right when the drive/game is on the line; so they overloaded the right side, and forced him into the teeth of their line.  That, along with sound run defense, made for a tough game and Brady had little plan or ability to counter it.  Even still, if the Bills don't turn the ball  over or get a couple penalties on every drive (or the refs call PI when Shakir gets tackled), they probably win the game. The defense.. well its just always going to be what it is.. bend and pray they don't break.  Which may be fine, but they need to have a Plan B for stopping an offense that only needs a FG with 2 mins or less in a game!  In that situation, bending means you will break when kickers can easily make 50+ yarders now. 

Speaking of WRs getting tackled, is it just me or does Coleman seem to get mugged on almost every catch he makes?  I get it, he's slow.  He doesn't get separation.  But it seems every time I see him going up after a ball a defender is draped all over him. 

DB tugged right on the center of his collar preventing him from going up to get the ball. It was very sneaky and the refs missed it.

[thenorthremembers]

8 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

yeah that's just not what happened

 

Very informative.  Thank you for your response. 

[GoBills808]

@thenorthremembers

i am watching the second half rn

 

it's either short completions or nobody open downfield

 

the bad ball to Shakir for INT and the miscommunication backshoulder throw to Shavers are the only things I can think of

[Einstein]

1 hour ago, Buffalo Ballin said:

The offense can't be blamed most of the time, especially in this one, Josh Allen didn't even play that badly. Again, it was just 2 Turnovers. Game was still close.

 

Josh played great. 70%+ completion, 300+ yards, 2 TD’s.

 

He had the one bad INT and that’s about it.

 

Those complaining about his play have an extra chromosome.