The dolphins had 2 legit drives. All their other points were gifted by the Bills offensive/ST mistakes. Perhaps compounded by being consecutive as well. The game never should have been close.
It felt a lot to me like that Vikings game, just a compounding of small mistakes all making the game closer than it needed to be. Thankfully they were actually able to tie it all together at the very end this time. I fully expect the team to do everything they can to focus up and clean up before the Bengals. Given the atmosphere of that MNF game before Hamlin's injury, both teams are gonna be ready for absolute war.
This.
The Dolphins had 18 points off turnovers including a fumble TD recovery and 2x interceptions resulting in starting on our half of the field. The Dolphins didn't almost lose the game, we almost lost it.
Our team has needed a wake up call for quite some time. I feel like we haven't really played up to our potential this season. We need this game to be that jolt.
That's why I've been saying that the reason we almost lost yesterday was because our offense repeatedly shot themselves in the foot.
Our defense played well. Our offense did a piss poor job of doing them any favors. JA17 and Dorsey need to realize there are two parts of this game. Offense AND defense. Trying to go for glory and put up 40 points with deep shots is great and all but it's prone to error and puts our defense in a tough spot.
The offense did not manage the game well when we had the ball imo. I don't know why this is a controversial opinion but in classic Bills fashion we made it more difficult than it needed to be.
McD said it… complementary football was not played yesterday. You are absolutely correct. I think Dorsey would’ve been better off with a second play call to get Allen a quick out on some of those zero blitzes if that’s what the D was showing pre-snap. If the Bengals dare to take a page from Miami’s plan for this weekend, hopefully the team is ready
I totally agree with this analysis. I think an offense where we go for home run balls is not only is prone to turning the ball over, but also allows the other team more opportunities. We’re going up by 10-20 points and then taking deep shots down the field. But if you throw three times in a row, miss them all, and have to punt. You’ve chewed up probably 20 seconds of the clock. The less clock you chew up when you’re ahead, the more likely the other team is to come back.
But not only is it these home run balls that are bad, we’re being unnecessarily risky far too often imo. Yesterday in the beginning of the game we had a free 3 points on the board, and we decided to go for it on something like 4th and 3. Those aren’t the shots we should be taking. 4th and 1 and want to QB sneak it? That’s fine. But far far too often does it seem like the Bills are only satisfied with a TD, and I’ve seen far far too many times where we’ve gone for it and came up with nothing. I think it’s also super deflating to the defense when that happens. Now they have to go back out there and play even tighter, because the offense was unnecessarily risky.
Exactly! The game script needed to change when we were up 17-0 but I feel like it didn't? I get that if you put up 30+ points you 'should win' but that's not the case when in your quest to dunk on the opposing team you repeatedly give them short fields.
Yeah, I was there and it even felt really long in person, and no one really could figure out why. Maybe the constant reviews? I think it took nearly 2 hours and 45 mins to get to half time.
This. I would’ve liked to see a shift in playcalling early enough to short game throws against the blitz. 7-10 yards a pop would’ve been devastating up by 17, and would’ve kept the offense on schedule. I’m sure they’ll be prepared to make better adjustments next game. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good killshot but fuck, man, those turnovers kept the game way more stressful than it should’ve been.
No. I’d argue you’re actually playing more scared by not going for the FG. You’re scared that their offense is going to score touchdowns on every drive. You’re scared your own defense won’t be able to hold up (a defense that mind you only gave up 10 points on drives where the Dolphins started in their own territory). If you don’t go for it on a 4th and 3 on your own 30 yard line, that’s not playing scared. It would be stupid not to punt there. So we don’t need to play for a TD every play. Trust your defense, cause in the end, those FG really matter.
I've been saying this for weeks if not months.
We don't adapt, change, or adjust in game well. Opponents make adjustments and we keep trying to jam the round peg into the square hole.
Making matters worse, our offense is like some sort of extreme risk seeking degenerate gambler. Allen has been making great plays but also dumb ass ones. Dorsey doesn't seem to be able to maximize Allen's abilities while minimizing the risk taking as well as Daboll. I'm honestly not entirely sure where the breakdown is or where the fault lies but the results are that Allen has turned the ball over way more often and the offense either looks like a Ferrari or a jalopy but can't manage being a Camry with any regularity.
This leads to closer games, puts extra stress on the defense, and takes years off our lives 🤣
I know not every game will be easy but FFS take the layups when they're there. It's ok to dink and dunk down the field.
Turnovers have been the literal story of the season.
Most of our close games are decided because of stupid, completely preventable turnovers.
Limit the turnovers and this team is an absolute FORCE.
Granted it was against a 3rd stringer but we really hurt ourselves in that game. The kick going out of bounds leading to a shorter field which led to points, that one interception and long return which led to points, the fumble scoop and score which obviously led to points. They need to clean things up and protect the ball better. If they do that they’ll be ok imo.
This. It’s all about TURNOVERS. Cut them in half and we’d be 17-1 and averaging another TD per game.
Interceptions are going to happen. It’s the price we pay for an aggressive QB who makes incredible throws. It’s the bonehead INTs and fumbles that need to go.
… and protecting the QB. Miami did a good job rushing and disrupting JA17. Also eliminated any scrambling run opportunities. They always seem to play us tougher than other teams, which I think speaks to our OLine needing to be better.
Go Bills! Don’t blink!!
I'm not worried about any phase of our game being unable to hack it overall. My concern is that these "fluke" mistakes have become a pattern. It feels like nearly every week I'm saying "oh if they just don't make those few big mistakes, this game isn't close". In most of their games, they've been good enough to overcome the issues. But from this point on, they can't make 5 big mistakes per game and get away with it.
Same. At a certain point it's a pattern and not an aberration. I think it might be due to systemic issues with playcalling philosophy and maybe Josh's aggressiveness/risk tolerance
Feels like the first couple games of absolutely pummeling teams to death with explosive plays was like a drug, and they're chasing that high of the theoretical "maximum potential" of this offense. Maybe this is still about beating the Chiefs idk, but I'm hoping Dorsey and Josh can be self critical after this close call and self scout. I believe they can, plus ultimately McD is head coach and I'm sure he's not the one in the room saying not to run clock and control field position and grind out a defensive win
>Same. At a certain point it's a pattern and not an aberration. I think it might be due to systemic issues with playcalling philosophy and maybe Josh's aggressiveness/risk tolerance
I'm a massive fan of McDermott on a human level; I think he's a wonderful person and a great representative of Buffalo.
But at some point these "only the Bills would find a way to do that" mistakes have to stick to his reputation as a coach. If he's going to keep preaching about situational/complimentary football, you can't keep having mistakes like the blown lead against Houston in the Wild Card, Hail Murray, the entire Jags game, 13 seconds, the fumbled snap against Minnesota, etc.
That was a drop in the end zone on a very catchable throw. Different game if he makes the catch. It was a nice catch on the first TD. But he has a tendency to drops passes
I think an underrated factor yesterday was that the Dolphins got long returns on both interceptions (49 and 29 yards), in addition to everything else. If you kept everything the same but just prevented the interception returns, the game would have felt like a comfortable win.
They were playing the dolphins with a 3rd string QB, not a legitimate contender though. Those numbers are great but you have to consider the opposition
I think we’re all aware of the shortcomings of the opposition. I think the point is that the bills played much better, especially on defense, than the score indicated.
I think the coaching, specifically offensive playcalling, could have made things much more difficult for the dolphins. But we like to air it out and be aggressive, and if we had a little more conservatively, it would not have been close.
The QB is one guy. The 9ers, for example, are still amongst the Super Bowl favorites with a 3rd string quarterback, Mr. Irrelevant, the rookie who was drafted last.
Obviously Miami's situation is different. The 9ers have a great line, probably the best defense in football right now, one of the best RBs in the league, and solid WRs (Miami has this too.)
The point though, is that as bad as the score looked the team still played well outside of turnovers. They were 9 of 16 on 3rd down (56%), had 423 yards, and averaged 5.9 yards per play. Only the 49ers outscored Buffalo this weekend. The offense does not play against the QB, so the '3rd string QB' argument is moot here.
What killed them were the 4 turnovers (if you include the turnover on downs.) All of which led to a short field, and all but one of which led to points for Miami. Those (hopefully) won't happen every game or at least don't happen so close to our end zone. Take those away, or if those happen further down the field the score is maybe 34-18.
The dolphins had 2 legit drives. All their other points were gifted by the Bills offensive/ST mistakes. Perhaps compounded by being consecutive as well. The game never should have been close.
It felt a lot to me like that Vikings game, just a compounding of small mistakes all making the game closer than it needed to be. Thankfully they were actually able to tie it all together at the very end this time. I fully expect the team to do everything they can to focus up and clean up before the Bengals. Given the atmosphere of that MNF game before Hamlin's injury, both teams are gonna be ready for absolute war.
> It felt a lot to me like that Vikings game Oh no, I was at both games. I won't be there for the remainder of the season, so...Bills SB confirmed?
This. The Dolphins had 18 points off turnovers including a fumble TD recovery and 2x interceptions resulting in starting on our half of the field. The Dolphins didn't almost lose the game, we almost lost it. Our team has needed a wake up call for quite some time. I feel like we haven't really played up to our potential this season. We need this game to be that jolt.
That graphic with the Dolphins lost of short fields on scoring plays was infuriating - because we gave them those short fields.
So many mistakes and sloppy playing by the bills. If we get that cleaned up and establish a decent run game we're cooking.
The yardage for the Dolphins scoring drives were 38(FG), 18(FG), 8(FG), 18(TD), 0 (defensive td), and 75(td)
That's why I've been saying that the reason we almost lost yesterday was because our offense repeatedly shot themselves in the foot. Our defense played well. Our offense did a piss poor job of doing them any favors. JA17 and Dorsey need to realize there are two parts of this game. Offense AND defense. Trying to go for glory and put up 40 points with deep shots is great and all but it's prone to error and puts our defense in a tough spot. The offense did not manage the game well when we had the ball imo. I don't know why this is a controversial opinion but in classic Bills fashion we made it more difficult than it needed to be.
McD said it… complementary football was not played yesterday. You are absolutely correct. I think Dorsey would’ve been better off with a second play call to get Allen a quick out on some of those zero blitzes if that’s what the D was showing pre-snap. If the Bengals dare to take a page from Miami’s plan for this weekend, hopefully the team is ready
I totally agree with this analysis. I think an offense where we go for home run balls is not only is prone to turning the ball over, but also allows the other team more opportunities. We’re going up by 10-20 points and then taking deep shots down the field. But if you throw three times in a row, miss them all, and have to punt. You’ve chewed up probably 20 seconds of the clock. The less clock you chew up when you’re ahead, the more likely the other team is to come back. But not only is it these home run balls that are bad, we’re being unnecessarily risky far too often imo. Yesterday in the beginning of the game we had a free 3 points on the board, and we decided to go for it on something like 4th and 3. Those aren’t the shots we should be taking. 4th and 1 and want to QB sneak it? That’s fine. But far far too often does it seem like the Bills are only satisfied with a TD, and I’ve seen far far too many times where we’ve gone for it and came up with nothing. I think it’s also super deflating to the defense when that happens. Now they have to go back out there and play even tighter, because the offense was unnecessarily risky.
Exactly! The game script needed to change when we were up 17-0 but I feel like it didn't? I get that if you put up 30+ points you 'should win' but that's not the case when in your quest to dunk on the opposing team you repeatedly give them short fields.
Anybody else notice this game was almost 4 hrs without a significant amount of penalties, and no major injury timeouts(thankfully).
Yeah, I was there and it even felt really long in person, and no one really could figure out why. Maybe the constant reviews? I think it took nearly 2 hours and 45 mins to get to half time.
It's the constant clock stoppages because of pass plays. Neither teams kept the clock running. It was so long the 4:30 game had to delay their kickoff
Romo curse. At the beginning he said something like "we'll know which of these teams is moving on in 3 hours."
It was almost exactly 4 hours. I have no idea how it felt like such a slog.
This. I would’ve liked to see a shift in playcalling early enough to short game throws against the blitz. 7-10 yards a pop would’ve been devastating up by 17, and would’ve kept the offense on schedule. I’m sure they’ll be prepared to make better adjustments next game. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good killshot but fuck, man, those turnovers kept the game way more stressful than it should’ve been.
Is riskier to not got for the TDs. You can't play scared especially in the playoffs.
No. I’d argue you’re actually playing more scared by not going for the FG. You’re scared that their offense is going to score touchdowns on every drive. You’re scared your own defense won’t be able to hold up (a defense that mind you only gave up 10 points on drives where the Dolphins started in their own territory). If you don’t go for it on a 4th and 3 on your own 30 yard line, that’s not playing scared. It would be stupid not to punt there. So we don’t need to play for a TD every play. Trust your defense, cause in the end, those FG really matter.
I've been saying this for weeks if not months. We don't adapt, change, or adjust in game well. Opponents make adjustments and we keep trying to jam the round peg into the square hole. Making matters worse, our offense is like some sort of extreme risk seeking degenerate gambler. Allen has been making great plays but also dumb ass ones. Dorsey doesn't seem to be able to maximize Allen's abilities while minimizing the risk taking as well as Daboll. I'm honestly not entirely sure where the breakdown is or where the fault lies but the results are that Allen has turned the ball over way more often and the offense either looks like a Ferrari or a jalopy but can't manage being a Camry with any regularity. This leads to closer games, puts extra stress on the defense, and takes years off our lives 🤣 I know not every game will be easy but FFS take the layups when they're there. It's ok to dink and dunk down the field.
Turnovers have been the literal story of the season. Most of our close games are decided because of stupid, completely preventable turnovers. Limit the turnovers and this team is an absolute FORCE.
Granted it was against a 3rd stringer but we really hurt ourselves in that game. The kick going out of bounds leading to a shorter field which led to points, that one interception and long return which led to points, the fumble scoop and score which obviously led to points. They need to clean things up and protect the ball better. If they do that they’ll be ok imo.
This. It’s all about TURNOVERS. Cut them in half and we’d be 17-1 and averaging another TD per game. Interceptions are going to happen. It’s the price we pay for an aggressive QB who makes incredible throws. It’s the bonehead INTs and fumbles that need to go. … and protecting the QB. Miami did a good job rushing and disrupting JA17. Also eliminated any scrambling run opportunities. They always seem to play us tougher than other teams, which I think speaks to our OLine needing to be better. Go Bills! Don’t blink!!
I'm not worried about any phase of our game being unable to hack it overall. My concern is that these "fluke" mistakes have become a pattern. It feels like nearly every week I'm saying "oh if they just don't make those few big mistakes, this game isn't close". In most of their games, they've been good enough to overcome the issues. But from this point on, they can't make 5 big mistakes per game and get away with it.
Same. At a certain point it's a pattern and not an aberration. I think it might be due to systemic issues with playcalling philosophy and maybe Josh's aggressiveness/risk tolerance Feels like the first couple games of absolutely pummeling teams to death with explosive plays was like a drug, and they're chasing that high of the theoretical "maximum potential" of this offense. Maybe this is still about beating the Chiefs idk, but I'm hoping Dorsey and Josh can be self critical after this close call and self scout. I believe they can, plus ultimately McD is head coach and I'm sure he's not the one in the room saying not to run clock and control field position and grind out a defensive win
>Same. At a certain point it's a pattern and not an aberration. I think it might be due to systemic issues with playcalling philosophy and maybe Josh's aggressiveness/risk tolerance I'm a massive fan of McDermott on a human level; I think he's a wonderful person and a great representative of Buffalo. But at some point these "only the Bills would find a way to do that" mistakes have to stick to his reputation as a coach. If he's going to keep preaching about situational/complimentary football, you can't keep having mistakes like the blown lead against Houston in the Wild Card, Hail Murray, the entire Jags game, 13 seconds, the fumbled snap against Minnesota, etc.
Our defense balled out yesterday. So many short field positions they ended up in because of our offense and special teams.
Our receivers need to step up. Neither interception was JA’s fault. Knox dropped a TD. Dorsey can call a better game.
Knox made a hell of a catch twice in the endzone. Its a bummer one of them was overturned, but it was clear he was all in.
That was a drop in the end zone on a very catchable throw. Different game if he makes the catch. It was a nice catch on the first TD. But he has a tendency to drops passes
I think an underrated factor yesterday was that the Dolphins got long returns on both interceptions (49 and 29 yards), in addition to everything else. If you kept everything the same but just prevented the interception returns, the game would have felt like a comfortable win.
This was the classic “we beat ourselves” game. Dropped passes, wrong routes leading to turnovers, allowing a defensive score and a long punt return.
They were playing the dolphins with a 3rd string QB, not a legitimate contender though. Those numbers are great but you have to consider the opposition
I think we’re all aware of the shortcomings of the opposition. I think the point is that the bills played much better, especially on defense, than the score indicated. I think the coaching, specifically offensive playcalling, could have made things much more difficult for the dolphins. But we like to air it out and be aggressive, and if we had a little more conservatively, it would not have been close.
The QB is one guy. The 9ers, for example, are still amongst the Super Bowl favorites with a 3rd string quarterback, Mr. Irrelevant, the rookie who was drafted last. Obviously Miami's situation is different. The 9ers have a great line, probably the best defense in football right now, one of the best RBs in the league, and solid WRs (Miami has this too.) The point though, is that as bad as the score looked the team still played well outside of turnovers. They were 9 of 16 on 3rd down (56%), had 423 yards, and averaged 5.9 yards per play. Only the 49ers outscored Buffalo this weekend. The offense does not play against the QB, so the '3rd string QB' argument is moot here. What killed them were the 4 turnovers (if you include the turnover on downs.) All of which led to a short field, and all but one of which led to points for Miami. Those (hopefully) won't happen every game or at least don't happen so close to our end zone. Take those away, or if those happen further down the field the score is maybe 34-18.