Josh Allen doing Josh Allen things, and why we need it

[Ray Stonada]

Last night the real Josh came out from all the low-positive, gloomy vibes of this season. The game became about him slinging it and creating and guess what: we scored 44 points. Yeah, he had two picks that turned into 3 points for TB. So what?

 

Few points:

 

1) The offense we tried to play for most of the season, featuring Brady's play designs for 5 yard patterns, was boring and awful. Turning Josh into a glorified game manager is moronic and frankly depressing. Today we let Josh and to a lesser extent Cook get going, instead focusing on how to unlock Coleman by force-feeding him. Today Brady also got in a rhythm finally and made some great timely play calls.

 

2) No one on this offense needs the ball unless they get open... even Kincaid should not be featured. It just distracts Brady trying to serve each player their own special plays. Feature JOSH ALLEN with a hefty side of James Cook, our best most explosive players by far. Mix in downfield passes and don't forget Shake-n-bake Shakir down there. Forget the low upside plays, like WR screens--it doesn't give us numbers when the WR who would be blocking for the RB is getting the ball. Run out of the 11 formation more, so we threaten the pass, instead of letting teams know we are running with Hawes and Gilliam on the field.

 

4) More than the score, the game and the team felt better emotionally than it has for weeks. We left it on the field and won a game-of-the-week shootout. Our defense is not capable of holding teams, but we can get some timely turnovers and win this way much easier than playing ball control as if we had a run defense. The biggest thing is we need to clamp down on D on third-and-long--it's about making big plays and getting our O back the ball. 

 

5) McDermott better get some beta blockers, cause this is who we need to be. This is what gives us our swagger, what makes us unique. We have the NFL's equivalent of Paul Bunyan, and a damn good running back. Let them rip.

 

GO BILLS!

[Ray Stonada]

Ps "Sunday marked Allen’s second career game with 3-plus passing TDs and three rush scores. The only other player to do so was Otto Graham in the 1954 NFL Championship Game."

 

One guy in the history of the NFL did it, and now Josh did it twice. Think about that. 
 

The crazy thing is, Josh is such a nice guy that he accepts it when the coaches try to turn him into a practice squad QB handing off and feeding Keon Coleman and Curtis Samuel. He just says, “okay, coach” and tries his best. We love that Josh is a cool and good, but the coaches gotta recognize they have a Marvel character playing QB, not Clark Kent. 

[Buffalo Ballin]

OP's post is nice. Our defense better get stops on 3rd downs somehow to make Josh Allen's genius miracle worker stuff mean anything.

[GunnerBill]

Some thoughts:

 

On #1 - nobody wants Josh to be a glorified game manager. But the reality is this time runs it better than it passes it for the most part. That is because our weapons in the pass game struggle getting open. That is a bad Buccs secondary we played today and so unlike other games when Brady dialled up the deep shots, particularly on play action Josh went deep rather than checking down which he has been doing. I think he checked down once to Cook over the middle. Every other shot play he threw deep. He hasn't been doing that because guys haven't been open and I think Josh has been a bit safe in challenging tight windows.

 

On #2 agree nobody here is a featured peice. I think running out of 11 occasionally to keep teams honest isn't the worst call but the Bills run it best in big personnel. They need to get out of the pitch obsession and get back to the trap and off tackle runs. When they ran some traps in the 4th Quarter Cook was back to churning out 5 plus most carries.

 

On #3.... it's missing

 

On #4 agree the D can't hold people. The 3rd down defense was a step back yesterday but partly because they lost too many 1st and 2nd downs. Generally since McD took over playcalling it has been much improved on 3rd down. Let's hope they get back to that next week.

 

On #5 I don't understand but sure 😂. On a serious note - I have always thought Josh is better when the ball is in his hand, he is high volume passing and can get intona rhythm. That said last year he won MVP in a more balanced offense. I do think the last few weeks other than when laser focussed vs the Chiefs he has looked a bit lazy in his fundamentals as a lower volume passer. So there is something finding an appropriate balance.

Edited 8 hours ago by GunnerBill

[Ray Stonada]

 

45 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

On #3.... it's missing

 

On #5 I don't understand but sure 😂. On a serious note - I have always thought Josh is better when the ball is in his hand, he is high volume passing and can get intona rhythm. That said last year he won MVP in a more balanced offense. I do think the last few weeks other than when laser focussed vs the Chiefs he has looked a bit lazy in his fundamentals as a lower volume passer. So there is something finding an appropriate balance.

 

Thanks Gunner, always appreciate your thoughts. And, ha! I skipped number 3! Whoops. 

 

I totally agree with your point above... balanced offense is great in theory, but Josh needs to get into a rhythm and then he's unstoppable. I see no problem with Cook getting 20 carries a game and Josh passing/running 35 times. But up the urgency and tempo and let him go to work.

 

PS I was in London for the Chiefs game and went to the Fitzrovia Belle (top end of Tottenham Ct Road), awesome place to watch a game... lots of Buffalonians and met lots of fun Bills fans from the UK too.

 

 

[ProcessTruster]

yes.  as always the only way this team gets to the SB is to f ing outscore everyone else. 

 

its crazy and maddening at times but it has pretty much always been this way since Josh showed up.   go bills. 

[oldmanfan]

Got to come into town and see what was most likely my last game at Rich.  Lot of nostalgia for me yesterday!  The big takeaway for me was we finally used the RBs in the passing game.

[Einstein]

I agree.

 

I want the “F it” Josh Allen back.

 

Yesterday was like watching a vintage. Josh Allen performance and I loved it. 

[Pecker]

Josh’s two picks were when he was still being Joe Brady Josh.  Those terrible vomit basketball throws need to stop.

 

yesterday we saw Daboll Josh for 2 1:2 quarters and it was so nice 

[Captain_Quint]

Our gameplan today was to pass once we saw how crowded Bowles had the LOS. He wanted to take Cook and the WR screen out of our playbook and see if Josh still had enough to beat up his poor secondary, which he did. 

 

Josh also looked great running the ball yesterday for the first time in awhile. Decisive and potent, and it broke their defense by the 4th qtr. 

[BuffaloBillyG]

45 minutes ago, ***** said:

Josh’s two picks were when he was still being Joe Brady Josh.  Those terrible vomit basketball throws need to stop.

 

yesterday we saw Daboll Josh for 2 1:2 quarters and it was so nice 

Did you not watch Josh early in his career? His first INT was classic Allen in his first few years. Just pushing too hard to make something outta nothing. Those are the plays they have tried to coach out of him. And rightfully so. No need to take a big risk on your first possession that deep in your own territory. 

[Pecker]

21 minutes ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

Did you not watch Josh early in his career? His first INT was classic Allen in his first few years. Just pushing too hard to make something outta nothing. Those are the plays they have tried to coach out of him. And rightfully so. No need to take a big risk on your first possession that deep in your own territory. 

Yes I agree.  What I meant was, Josh is having to force it when Brady’s unimaginative and bland game plan and play designs fail to produce anything. 

[DrDawkinstein]

1 hour ago, Einstein said:

I agree.

 

I want the “F it” Josh Allen back.

 

Yesterday was like watching a vintage. Josh Allen performance and I loved it. 

 

We're back to the "Josh Allen Experience" where, sure, he may throw a pick or two, but he'll also throw for over 350yds and score 6 TDs.

 

But of course, that exposes our precious Defense for what it truly is.

[BuffaloBillyG]

2 minutes ago, ***** said:

Yes I agree.  What I meant was, Josh is having to force it when Brady’s unimaginative and bland game plan and play designs fail to produce anything. 

I actually think, and I haven't watched the All 22 to confirm yet, but to my eye out WRs were getting decent separation yesterday. 

[DrDawkinstein]

 

 

I'll also add that while it probably isnt 100% correlation/causation, the offense looked freed of the Coleman weight anchoring them down.

 

Good luck, Keon. Here's an application for the Tim Horton's near the stadium.

[Pecker]

Just now, BuffaloBillyG said:

I actually think, and I haven't watched the All 22 to confirm yet, but to my eye out WRs were getting decent separation yesterday. 

I agree, but it seemed like it didn’t start til midway through the 2nd Q.  First quarter was boring/bad Brady ball.  From then on we opened up for Daboll-ball 

[Scott7975]

31 minutes ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

Did you not watch Josh early in his career? His first INT was classic Allen in his first few years. Just pushing too hard to make something outta nothing. Those are the plays they have tried to coach out of him. And rightfully so. No need to take a big risk on your first possession that deep in your own territory. 

That first INT saved a safety though so it helped us. Sounds weird but it’s true. 
 

I mean the D had to make a stop but I’ll take giving up 3 points over a safety. 

[The Jokeman]

1 hour ago, ***** said:

Josh’s two picks were when he was still being Joe Brady Josh.  Those terrible vomit basketball throws need to stop.

 

yesterday we saw Daboll Josh for 2 1:2 quarters and it was so nice 

No coach is going to tell his QB to two hand toss a pass to someone which lead to his first interception. I am sick of fans blaming coaching for players making dumb mistakes. That was Josh trying to do his Mahomes impression to make a play out of nothing which as we saw wasn't wise. 

1 minute ago, Scott7975 said:

That first INT saved a safety though so it helped us. Sounds weird but it’s true. 
 

I mean the D had to make a stop but I’ll take giving up 3 points over a safety. 

So you'd rather give up 2 points vs 3 points? Or are you assuming the defense couldn't defend a short field assuming KC would get one on the free kick after the safety?

[Scott7975]

Just now, The Jokeman said:

No coach is going to tell his QB to two hand toss a pass to someone which lead to his first interception. I am sick of fans blaming coaching for players making dumb mistakes. That was Josh trying to do his Mahomes impression to make a play out of nothing which as we saw wasn't wise. 

 He more often than not does make a play out of nothing though. If he didn’t do that then it was a safety anyways as he was already being grasped. 

[BuffaloBillyG]

2 minutes ago, Scott7975 said:

That first INT saved a safety though so it helped us. Sounds weird but it’s true. 
 

I mean the D had to make a stop but I’ll take giving up 3 points over a safety. 

You would give up a FG (3 points) over a safety (2 points). Weird but ok lol.

 

We were very fortunate to hold them there especially with this defense. I don't have the numbers but I would assume the TD% of a team beginning inside their opponents 10 yard line is astronomically high. In short, we got really fortunate.