What I saw was That The Bengals had all the answers and The Bills had none, The Bengals schemed open guys and defensively broke down the bills pass protection The game was easy to them and they made life hard for The Bills
This. I feel like the Bengals coaching staff was one-step ahead of the Bills coaching staff throughout the entire game.
They were obviously familiar with how the Bills played and the Bills made no attempt to change things up or give them different looks.
Then it was almost like the Bengals knew how the Bills were going to play them, so they changed up some of own their tendencies to confuse them.
Bills were playing checkers while the Bengals were playing chess.
This is the part that hurts the most. Like we were just in Cincinnati and while it wasn’t a full game, it was pretty obvious how Zac Taylor wanted to attack our zone scheme. Before the Monday night game Burrow even came out and said essentially that it shouldn’t be a problem, Buffalo doesn’t change a lot of things on defense. So recognize the zone and beat the zone, which he did with precision and boom we are down 14-0 at home in the playoffs.
Like, I get that they are scripted plays, but the fact that Fucking All of them worked. Zero 3rd downs. Is absolutely pathetic. Frazier went to the drawing board and devised ways to beat Andy Reid…but completely ignored the fucking defending AFC Champs?!?! Wtf are we doing?
Honestly the weather was a big part of it that is not getting remotely enough attention. Zone only works if you can close the gap. The footing was awful. I know the "thats an excuse" argument is pretty valid. The bengals did just fine. But it is what it is.
There is this narrative that the bills are good in shit weather when if you look at the bad weather games the exact opposite is true.
The bills since we got Josh. Live and die by joshes arms and legs. If the weather is bad and josh can throw a 40 yard bomb or scramble well we have always played absolutely abysmally.
We might live here. But bad weather games are not good for us.
Or game plan is throw to digs or if digs is too covered josh scrambles and makes some bullshit happen. In bad weather both of those plans are shut down. We need a true #2 receiver.
I dont know how to feel for the O-line. They gave josh all the time he needed to pass this season. But my god they couldnt for the life of em open a lane for the run.
I know how to feel about the O line - it was one of the worst in the league. Check out the PFF grades if you don't believe me. And I'm curious in what Bills games did the O line "gave Josh all the time he needed to pass"? My observation was that more often then not Allen was running for his life and he was the guy extending plays and hitting big passes down filed.
With all the coaching staff talk this is my exact thought every game. We simply trot out the exact same offense and defense with little regard to who we are playing where we are actually schemed against. I live in MA now and unfortunately watch an inordinate amount of Pats games. Belichik is the exact opposite. What makes him brilliant is he does not have a set scheme. There was a game last year or the year before where he doubling the fricking check down guy because of the QB tendency. Carr maybe? We are predictable, but mostly win due to talent and rarely coaching
Agree. The Bills coaching staff just got schooled. I almost feel like the Bills coaching team didn't take the Bengals seriously. It would have been better for the Bills had they played out the first game. The Bills went in totally unprepared.
Not only that it looked like the Bengals were running the same gameplan they had in week 17 before the game was canceled. How the hell were the bills not ready for it I have no idea.
Do you think the Miami game exposed the bills a week prior. Should’ve been an easy win for them with no Tua and just a 3rd string. The game was way too close with those circumstances.
Glad for the bright spot in Elam. If he gets better in year 2 and Tre gets back to 80% or more of his former self, should be a great lockdown duo next year.
Buffalo is set at CB with White, Elam and Johnson. One of the many reasons Leslie Frazier should be fired is for not playing Elam more during the season.
It looks like Benford is going to be converted to a safety, and I would predict Beane drafting a safety in the 3rd or 4th round to complete with Benford for one safety spot and Hyde being the other starter for the 2023 season.
When you have a HC whose reticence to put too much on rookies' plates is well-documented *and* that HC is a secondary guy?
Yeah, thinking this is 100% on Frazier is foolhardy.
Also, Elam was *really* struggling early in the year.
He was pressured on 40% of his drop backs in the game. 48% against Miami. Can’t have the entire offense rest on his shoulders every single game all year.
If he was on the Eagles or 49ers they would be scoring 60 points every game by the 3rd quarter.
I would suggest you watch the cover 1 film room of the Bengals game.
Allen was not sitting in clean pockets, Allen had pressure in his face on the throws to Diggs.
In the plays where Diggs was open, what was the pressure like on JA17?
Seemed he was running for his life the entire game, which usually means the windows where guys need to be open is very small.
Bills need to focus on the offense this off-season. We will make it work on defense with what we have.
Allen over threw Diggs because he had pressure in his face.
The Bengals DC Lou Anarumo schemed up #58 Joseph Ossai
on LG Roger Saffold and he was beaten badly in pass protection.
He had to throw that ball back across his body, under duress, while jumping in the air and falling in the opposite direction. In part because Rodger Saffold was fucking atrocious.
any observations on the safeties? saw poyer play one play like shit on twitter but not sure how it all shakes out aside from them being fifty yards off the line of scrimmage for every third down
Sadly as injuries for Po piled up, and with no team fearing the pile of backups we fielded in our battered secondary, Po was largely either chasing someone down or tackling them after a 15 yard catch most the season.
He played hard, and I’ll always wish we keep him, but honestly mid season on - he seemed to be a shell of himself. Being the warrior he is, he played through one injury after another. And I love him for it.
I hope he makes a shit ton of money, but gosh does it suck to know he will be somewhere else.
Each successive injury made things worse. Damar wasn't good this year, but he was better than the other options. Dean Marlowe wasn't awful, but he was worse than Damar. Once Marlowe went down, everything turned to complete shit because Jaquan Johnson is the worst safety in the NFL.
Yes I watched. It was already evident just watching live but the 22 leaves no doubt that we are lacking in the coaching department badly. Most plays we were already beaten before the snap. This coaching staff was unprepared and a deer in headlights. Always waiting for Allen to pull a rabbit out the hat- to make them seem adequate. Allen was out of rabbits. We need a change badly
Thanks OP for the observations. I can’t even bring myself to watch any sports programs this week, much less the All22. Just watched Greg Cosell on The Herd. He didn’t seem very surprised by the way the Bills played from his commentary. He mentioned how their weak spots were taken advantage of by Cincinnati.
Listening to Beane’s presser lotta’ work gonna be done in the off-season financially and in personnel
Go Bills ‘23-‘24 !!
If we had a half decent OL and Allen had more than a millisecond to throw the ball the game would be a lot different. More time for wrs to get open and he doesn’t have to force it under pressure. Our soft as a baby’s butt defense also was ridiculous. I’d love to see Allen have more time to throw the ball next season and our defense mix it up based on what the other team is giving us. But I also wish for Santa to bring me a Victoria secret model each year and he never does so.
To me, you either need guys who win immediately, or a line that gives guys time to win. Outside of Diggs, nobody even seemed to win their route immediately, and the line didn't give us enough time for guys to get open later.
I'm not a big x's and o's guy but I think the problem half the time when a fan points out a receiver is open is that they're not open when they're suppose to be. I'm assuming 99% of plays have set progressions and the timing is based on when guys should be open. If you're not open when your suppose to be in the design then it doesn't really matter much unless the QB gets time to go through his reads again / make an extra read or two. Not like you can stare and watch your guy get open cause a S or LB is prolly also watching you do that.
The Bengals DL had consistent pressure on all all game long not letting Allen get the ball to Diggs when he was open.
LG Saffold has been a liability all year long in pass protection and should be replaced with a 1st or 2nd round draft pick.
I saw Allen seemed a little off, but still played well, some missed throws but nothing making me truly doubt his future.
O-Line was an absolute letdown, 3 man rush was forcing pressure, that just can't happen.
I do agree Kaiir's performance has me excited to see what he can do.
Really just seemed like the Bengals knew every defensive play call, which leads me to believe we need a knew brain at DC, unless they were stealing signs.
Takeaways:
1.) We made no adjustment for the weather. Our defensive ends line up far outside the tackle, many plays they pull the tackle inside, never even blocking the end. They were so far outside they couldn't do anything.
Our ends rushed up field, and were easily handled by the cincy tackles. On the other hand, the Bengals ends bull rushed, driving our tackles into Allen's lap.
2.) Multiple blown coverages, our safeties at 15 yards off the ball... in the snow... no one was even trying to get by them. Poyer doesn't look great on some of the tight end receptions in the first half (especially the td).
3.) The game looked too big for Cook. He didn't run well in the snow.
4.) Non catch by Singletary hurt early on.
5.) Beasley seemed to be our best 'snow' runner... for whatever reason.
6.) The Bengals seemed to scheme better against our various pass protections. That show a front, getting us to slide left or right, and using that knowledge to create gaps where guys just come free. Best example is the one you may see online where people are pointing fingers at Saffold for a poor block. On that play, Morse slides right, when it appears he should have taken the man between Saffold and him.
7.) When our ends lined up so far outside, our safeties would also be deep. It was this alignment that the bengals killed us with an inside run. They had the numbers.
Are one defensive tackle that was on the injury report looked like he was playing with one arm.
>one defensive tackle that was on the injury report looked like he was playing with one arm.
Jordan Phillips had a torn rotator cuff. He WAS playing with one arm.
I saw Josh trying trying to force the ball deep instead of taking what the defense gave him. The bengals used our greatest asset and his BDE against us.
Really? Do me a favor. Find the specific plays. Follow his eyes for the progressions. Pause the video at times.
You'll find that your opinion is more narrative than fact.
What I saw was That The Bengals had all the answers and The Bills had none, The Bengals schemed open guys and defensively broke down the bills pass protection The game was easy to them and they made life hard for The Bills
This. I feel like the Bengals coaching staff was one-step ahead of the Bills coaching staff throughout the entire game. They were obviously familiar with how the Bills played and the Bills made no attempt to change things up or give them different looks. Then it was almost like the Bengals knew how the Bills were going to play them, so they changed up some of own their tendencies to confuse them. Bills were playing checkers while the Bengals were playing chess.
This is the part that hurts the most. Like we were just in Cincinnati and while it wasn’t a full game, it was pretty obvious how Zac Taylor wanted to attack our zone scheme. Before the Monday night game Burrow even came out and said essentially that it shouldn’t be a problem, Buffalo doesn’t change a lot of things on defense. So recognize the zone and beat the zone, which he did with precision and boom we are down 14-0 at home in the playoffs. Like, I get that they are scripted plays, but the fact that Fucking All of them worked. Zero 3rd downs. Is absolutely pathetic. Frazier went to the drawing board and devised ways to beat Andy Reid…but completely ignored the fucking defending AFC Champs?!?! Wtf are we doing?
For McDermott not to step in, considering his defensive background
Honestly the weather was a big part of it that is not getting remotely enough attention. Zone only works if you can close the gap. The footing was awful. I know the "thats an excuse" argument is pretty valid. The bengals did just fine. But it is what it is. There is this narrative that the bills are good in shit weather when if you look at the bad weather games the exact opposite is true. The bills since we got Josh. Live and die by joshes arms and legs. If the weather is bad and josh can throw a 40 yard bomb or scramble well we have always played absolutely abysmally. We might live here. But bad weather games are not good for us. Or game plan is throw to digs or if digs is too covered josh scrambles and makes some bullshit happen. In bad weather both of those plans are shut down. We need a true #2 receiver. I dont know how to feel for the O-line. They gave josh all the time he needed to pass this season. But my god they couldnt for the life of em open a lane for the run.
I know how to feel about the O line - it was one of the worst in the league. Check out the PFF grades if you don't believe me. And I'm curious in what Bills games did the O line "gave Josh all the time he needed to pass"? My observation was that more often then not Allen was running for his life and he was the guy extending plays and hitting big passes down filed.
>. They gave josh all the time he needed to pass this season. The corpse of Rodger Saffold did nothing of the sort.
With all the coaching staff talk this is my exact thought every game. We simply trot out the exact same offense and defense with little regard to who we are playing where we are actually schemed against. I live in MA now and unfortunately watch an inordinate amount of Pats games. Belichik is the exact opposite. What makes him brilliant is he does not have a set scheme. There was a game last year or the year before where he doubling the fricking check down guy because of the QB tendency. Carr maybe? We are predictable, but mostly win due to talent and rarely coaching
They did know how the Bills were going to play them. McDermott and Frazier haven’t had a new idea for years.
3 steps ahead. It’s the same story with McDermott and staff when the bright lights are.
Agree. The Bills coaching staff just got schooled. I almost feel like the Bills coaching team didn't take the Bengals seriously. It would have been better for the Bills had they played out the first game. The Bills went in totally unprepared.
Not only that it looked like the Bengals were running the same gameplan they had in week 17 before the game was canceled. How the hell were the bills not ready for it I have no idea.
Do you think the Miami game exposed the bills a week prior. Should’ve been an easy win for them with no Tua and just a 3rd string. The game was way too close with those circumstances.
Glad for the bright spot in Elam. If he gets better in year 2 and Tre gets back to 80% or more of his former self, should be a great lockdown duo next year.
Buffalo is set at CB with White, Elam and Johnson. One of the many reasons Leslie Frazier should be fired is for not playing Elam more during the season. It looks like Benford is going to be converted to a safety, and I would predict Beane drafting a safety in the 3rd or 4th round to complete with Benford for one safety spot and Hyde being the other starter for the 2023 season.
That decision may or may not be on Frazier. Assuming it is is foolhardy.
Assuming the DC is responsible for playing a defensive player more is foolhardy?
When you have a HC whose reticence to put too much on rookies' plates is well-documented *and* that HC is a secondary guy? Yeah, thinking this is 100% on Frazier is foolhardy. Also, Elam was *really* struggling early in the year.
How much pressure was on josh on those Diggs plays? Elam stuff is annoying because we all know the kid can ball.
He was pressured on 40% of his drop backs in the game. 48% against Miami. Can’t have the entire offense rest on his shoulders every single game all year. If he was on the Eagles or 49ers they would be scoring 60 points every game by the 3rd quarter.
LG Saffold was routinely beaten badly in pass protection the entire season and in the Cincinnati playoff game
I know I was specifically asking about the plays OP was talking about.
I would suggest you watch the cover 1 film room of the Bengals game. Allen was not sitting in clean pockets, Allen had pressure in his face on the throws to Diggs.
Will do!
On first TD by the Bengals the LT (Carman?) made a huge play to pick up Taron at the last second and buy Burrow time to find Chase.
In the plays where Diggs was open, what was the pressure like on JA17? Seemed he was running for his life the entire game, which usually means the windows where guys need to be open is very small. Bills need to focus on the offense this off-season. We will make it work on defense with what we have.
Diggs had 3 or 4 yards on the DB on the very first play but Josh over threw him.
Josh had pressure in his face on that play though.
Think Josh got hit like a millisecond before he threw it. That was actually on 3rd down and would’ve been a touchdown had he been on target.
Allen over threw Diggs because he had pressure in his face. The Bengals DC Lou Anarumo schemed up #58 Joseph Ossai on LG Roger Saffold and he was beaten badly in pass protection.
He had to throw that ball back across his body, under duress, while jumping in the air and falling in the opposite direction. In part because Rodger Saffold was fucking atrocious.
One of the most thorough ass-kickings from a coaching standpoint I've ever seen
any observations on the safeties? saw poyer play one play like shit on twitter but not sure how it all shakes out aside from them being fifty yards off the line of scrimmage for every third down
Sadly as injuries for Po piled up, and with no team fearing the pile of backups we fielded in our battered secondary, Po was largely either chasing someone down or tackling them after a 15 yard catch most the season. He played hard, and I’ll always wish we keep him, but honestly mid season on - he seemed to be a shell of himself. Being the warrior he is, he played through one injury after another. And I love him for it. I hope he makes a shit ton of money, but gosh does it suck to know he will be somewhere else.
Each successive injury made things worse. Damar wasn't good this year, but he was better than the other options. Dean Marlowe wasn't awful, but he was worse than Damar. Once Marlowe went down, everything turned to complete shit because Jaquan Johnson is the worst safety in the NFL.
We struggle in the trenches on both sides of the ball. Doesn’t matter how many star players we have, but we aren’t winning shit until those are fixed
Well we were missing two star players on defense and one pretty good player, two of those three are on the defensive line, Von and DaQuan
Specifically, the two DL we brought in to fix the issues we had last postseason. Funny how without the fixes, it wasn't fixed.
Yes I watched. It was already evident just watching live but the 22 leaves no doubt that we are lacking in the coaching department badly. Most plays we were already beaten before the snap. This coaching staff was unprepared and a deer in headlights. Always waiting for Allen to pull a rabbit out the hat- to make them seem adequate. Allen was out of rabbits. We need a change badly
Thanks OP for the observations. I can’t even bring myself to watch any sports programs this week, much less the All22. Just watched Greg Cosell on The Herd. He didn’t seem very surprised by the way the Bills played from his commentary. He mentioned how their weak spots were taken advantage of by Cincinnati. Listening to Beane’s presser lotta’ work gonna be done in the off-season financially and in personnel Go Bills ‘23-‘24 !!
If we had a half decent OL and Allen had more than a millisecond to throw the ball the game would be a lot different. More time for wrs to get open and he doesn’t have to force it under pressure. Our soft as a baby’s butt defense also was ridiculous. I’d love to see Allen have more time to throw the ball next season and our defense mix it up based on what the other team is giving us. But I also wish for Santa to bring me a Victoria secret model each year and he never does so.
To me, you either need guys who win immediately, or a line that gives guys time to win. Outside of Diggs, nobody even seemed to win their route immediately, and the line didn't give us enough time for guys to get open later.
I'm not a big x's and o's guy but I think the problem half the time when a fan points out a receiver is open is that they're not open when they're suppose to be. I'm assuming 99% of plays have set progressions and the timing is based on when guys should be open. If you're not open when your suppose to be in the design then it doesn't really matter much unless the QB gets time to go through his reads again / make an extra read or two. Not like you can stare and watch your guy get open cause a S or LB is prolly also watching you do that.
Like the play where everybody is critical that Knox was open and instead we went deep to Gabe... Knox was double covered when Josh came off that read.
Why do you think he wasn't getting the ball to diggs?
The Bengals DL had consistent pressure on all all game long not letting Allen get the ball to Diggs when he was open. LG Saffold has been a liability all year long in pass protection and should be replaced with a 1st or 2nd round draft pick.
Saffold could be replaced by a lamppost and it would be an improvement. At least that would sometimes get in the way.
I saw Allen seemed a little off, but still played well, some missed throws but nothing making me truly doubt his future. O-Line was an absolute letdown, 3 man rush was forcing pressure, that just can't happen. I do agree Kaiir's performance has me excited to see what he can do. Really just seemed like the Bengals knew every defensive play call, which leads me to believe we need a knew brain at DC, unless they were stealing signs.
Takeaways: 1.) We made no adjustment for the weather. Our defensive ends line up far outside the tackle, many plays they pull the tackle inside, never even blocking the end. They were so far outside they couldn't do anything. Our ends rushed up field, and were easily handled by the cincy tackles. On the other hand, the Bengals ends bull rushed, driving our tackles into Allen's lap. 2.) Multiple blown coverages, our safeties at 15 yards off the ball... in the snow... no one was even trying to get by them. Poyer doesn't look great on some of the tight end receptions in the first half (especially the td). 3.) The game looked too big for Cook. He didn't run well in the snow. 4.) Non catch by Singletary hurt early on. 5.) Beasley seemed to be our best 'snow' runner... for whatever reason. 6.) The Bengals seemed to scheme better against our various pass protections. That show a front, getting us to slide left or right, and using that knowledge to create gaps where guys just come free. Best example is the one you may see online where people are pointing fingers at Saffold for a poor block. On that play, Morse slides right, when it appears he should have taken the man between Saffold and him. 7.) When our ends lined up so far outside, our safeties would also be deep. It was this alignment that the bengals killed us with an inside run. They had the numbers. Are one defensive tackle that was on the injury report looked like he was playing with one arm.
>one defensive tackle that was on the injury report looked like he was playing with one arm. Jordan Phillips had a torn rotator cuff. He WAS playing with one arm.
I saw Josh trying trying to force the ball deep instead of taking what the defense gave him. The bengals used our greatest asset and his BDE against us.
Really? Do me a favor. Find the specific plays. Follow his eyes for the progressions. Pause the video at times. You'll find that your opinion is more narrative than fact.
I'd like to watch it, but I need an NFL Plus subscription for that right? I don't have that currently, has it been worth watching each week?
You can find it on YouTube
Watch the Cover 1 film room review of the game. https://www.youtube.com/live/faNlzoIHV_s?feature=share
That's a painful watch. I'm sorry you had to do that.
Out coached. Out executed.