1st Half Punts

[stlbills13]

Again, we won so I don't want to sound negative but two punts from the Patriots side of the field even though they were 4th and medium. One of them turned into an 85+ yard TD drive.

 

These punts may have been more disappointing to me than the no challenge

[Process]

Yea Sean had a really rough first half 

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

1 minute ago, stlbills13 said:

Again, we won so I don't want to sound negative but two punts from the Patriots side of the field even though they were 4th and medium. One of them turned into an 85+ yard TD drive.

 

These punts may have been more disappointing to me than the no challenge

agree. I was stunned by both. On the second one, I assumed we were going for it because they ran that quick pass on 3rd down just to make it manageable on 4th.

 

those punts really contributed to that big pats lead. The bills offense was doing okay. I think we probably could have gotten points on one or both of those drives.

[TH3]

Ok eeyor

[Rew]

There is a fine line between aggressive and reckless.  We (fans) seem to want to watch aggressive to the point of reckless on every call.

 

These are game strategy decisions (not solely determined by coaching philosophy). It is just as much about how likely the other team is to score than it is about your likelihood of picking it up.  Against the Bengals, where we were expecting a shootout, we went for pretty much everything.  Against the Pats, we were expecting to be able to stop them more, so we played field position in close odds situations.

 

In the first half it looked hard to understand these calls.  However, in deeper look most of the Pats yards were driven by a fairly small number of execution mistakes.  By game strategy and expectations of coaching, field position was a suitable call.  The 2nd half really showed that we had the right plan to stop the Pats and play field position, instead of giving them a short field.

[Low Positive]

7 minutes ago, Rew said:

There is a fine line between aggressive and reckless.  We (fans) seem to want to watch aggressive to the point of reckless on every call.

 

These are game strategy decisions (not solely determined by coaching philosophy). It is just as much about how likely the other team is to score than it is about your likelihood of picking it up.  Against the Bengals, where we were expecting a shootout, we went for pretty much everything.  Against the Pats, we were expecting to be able to stop them more, so we played field position in close odds situations.

 

In the first half it looked hard to understand these calls.  However, in deeper look most of the Pats yards were driven by a fairly small number of execution mistakes.  By game strategy and expectations of coaching, field position was a suitable call.  The 2nd half really showed that we had the right plan to stop the Pats and play field position, instead of giving them a short field.

Fans want to be aggressive right up to the point when it doesn't work and the other team gets a very short field. My point is, it's easy to criticize those decisions when you don't have to make them.

[SCBills]

No idea how analyze this coaching staff. 
 

I don’t think I’ve ever been more disgusted with McDermott, Brady and Babich than I was in that first half.  
 

Defense. Again.   With the first half nonsense. 
 

Offense a mess, but Cooks also drops a potential TD and he’s trying to call a game for an Offense with WR room that lacks talent, and what talent it does have just showed up via free agency or off injury.  But then again, he has the best player in football at QB, a top 5 OL, top 5 RB and top 5 TE room. 
 

The missed challenge, exacerbated by the fact NY buzzed in our play but regardless, Vrabel had already thrown the flag.  Then two cowardly punts.. one Mike Tomlin level cowardly.  
 

….. Then they come out of half like a buzz saw on both sides of the ball and win.  
 

I’m out on Beane, but McDermott is a far more difficult conversation.  He needs to take a hard look in the mirror at persistent issues his defenses have in first halves and stopping the run though.  

[Captain_Quint]

22 minutes ago, Process said:

Yea Sean had a really rough first half 

He did. Vrabel had a rough 2nd half. Neither have a great track record when it comes to gametime decisions. Both really good leaders, but both also seem to share that same affliction.  

[Billzgobowlin]

35 minutes ago, Rew said:

There is a fine line between aggressive and reckless.  We (fans) seem to want to watch aggressive to the point of reckless on every call.

 

These are game strategy decisions (not solely determined by coaching philosophy). It is just as much about how likely the other team is to score than it is about your likelihood of picking it up.  Against the Bengals, where we were expecting a shootout, we went for pretty much everything.  Against the Pats, we were expecting to be able to stop them more, so we played field position in close odds situations.

 

In the first half it looked hard to understand these calls.  However, in deeper look most of the Pats yards were driven by a fairly small number of execution mistakes.  By game strategy and expectations of coaching, field position was a suitable call.  The 2nd half really showed that we had the right plan to stop the Pats and play field position, instead of giving them a short field.

Then blame Brady if the play doesn't work lol

[Rew]

Just now, Billzgobowlin said:

Then blame Brady if the play doesn't work lol

Ah, so that's the trick

[stlbills13]

McDermott coached his butt off in the 2nd half. I think he objectively had a bad first half. We won so it doesn't matter but I really did not like the punts. Especially 4th and 5 

[Luka]

McDermott is insanely conservative. It's a poor gameplan. His defense is built to play up two scores, he needs to start thinking about getting those two scores as quickly as possible. It's like, we play McDermott's brand of football until we're down 2+ scores at half, then the cuffs come off of Allen and he has to will this team to victory. I'd like to go back to being up 3 scores heading into the 4th. Maybe Turbisky some snaps towards the end of the game. 

[dorquemada]

After the first one, which was what, like 4th and 4 from mid-fieldish?  I said this early I dont really want to see them take big risks, but also that NE looked like they were going to have an explosive day offensively so might have been better to take the chance?  Who knows, glad we won tho

[BuffaloRebound]

McDermott knows his defense is bad and needs to be protected.  Yet new england still went 85 yards.  Maddening that we have the best player in the League as our QB, and we have to put training wheels on the offense to protect the defense.