So those of you that have followed my rants over the past few weeks it was clear that I’ve been promoting/demanding/praying that the Bills would go into a hurry-up no-huddle offense. I’d correctly pointed out that every time they’d gone into the no-huddle this year, they’d scored points. Do I thing McDermott and Dorsey read my rants? Not a chance. Do I think that enough of this idea got out to them on various forms of social media which caused them to rethink their offensive strategy? You bet. So let’s look at the past week’s game.
THE GOOD:
1. Bills win-always a good thing.
2. Bills go no huddle right off the bat. They move the ball down the field and get a field goal on their first series. It’s the first 1st quarter points that the Bills have put up since Miami game (none in last three).
3. Bills get a first half touchdown for only the second time in the past four games. Again, it is a result of going no-huddle.
4. Bills get a second touchdown before half-time and again it results from a no-huddle hurry-up offense.
5. Bills went hurry-up five times in the first half. One drive ended early on an Allen Interception. One drive ended on the one yard line due to the inexplicable imbecilic calls by Dorsey or McDermott (more on that later), and three ended in TDs or a FG. Good half of football on the offensive side of the ball.
THE BAD:
1. Bills are up 3-0. They go no-huddle again. They move the ball from their own 40 to the Tampa four yard line in six plays which take about three minutes. On first down at the eight with plenty of Time outs left the Bills run Cook to the four. Allen then hits Kincaid with a pass and he’s stopped at the half yard line. Third down and a half yard. What was every Bill fan screaming at this point? What has worked in this situation every time they’ve tried it this year? What have the Eagles made famous as their “Friendly Push”? Of course the Bills will sneak Allen, a 6’5” 250 lb monster of an athlete right? Again Dorsey or McDermott, or whomever is making these calls, decides to do exactly what they did against the Giants in the exact same situation. Instead of sneaking Josh they go into the shotgun and hand the ball off to a stationary Murray who gets stuffed. Again on fourth down, shot gun pass incomplete and the Bills end the quarter up 3-0 rather than 10-0.
The abject stupidity and arrogance of these calls just galls me. They did it against the Giants and lost three yards. Luckily they scored on the next play on a swing pass to harty. Three other times earlier this year the Bills have tried that play in short yardage situations and were stopped cold. Josh has been stopped short on a sneak once out of eight times this year ( and that was last week in New England in a situation where they just tried it again on the next play and he scored anyway). The idea that it is a smart move to hand the ball off to a stationary back who is five yards behind the line of scrimmage just makes no sense. I just have no clue what the offensive brain-trust is thinking in these situations. I learned a long time ago about the term KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid is as apparent as it gets but for whatever reason the Bills don’t get it.
2.. The Bills defense late in games. For three straight weeks the Bills defense has given up late drives which have either allowed their opponent to win the game (New England) or come close to winning the game (Giants and Tampa). In each of these games stupid penalties have been costly and allowed drives to continue. Against the Giants, the Bills allowed Tyrod Taylor to drive 46 yards in a minute 22 seconds with only one time-out. The Bills give the Giants a second opportunity to win the game on the last pplay after benford is flagged for Pass Interference on what sould have been the game ending play. Thank God the ref’s missed the hold on the next play or we could have lost that game. The next week we allow another mediocre at best quarterback (Mac Jones) to drive 75 yards nine plays to win the game. Again, this TD was helped by another Pass Interference call on Benford which gave the Pats the ball on the Bills one yard line. Thursday night it was almost the like deja-vu happening all over again (Yogi Berra line here for you youngsters). After forcing the Bucs to punt on four straight possessions and with a 14 point lead with 10 minutes left the Bucs drive 92 yards for the TD. During this drive the Bucs survived a 4th and 10 due to Taron Johnson’s Illegal contact penalty and survive a second fourth down when Jordan Phillips inexcusably grabs Mayfield’s facemask while wrapping him up for a sack. Twice the Bills would have gotten off the field up 14 points. Twice defenders committed stupid penalties to keep the drives alive .To make it worse, the Bucs convert a third 4th down play when Mayfield hits Mike Evans for a 24 yard TD on fourth and ten. Just bad defense. Lastly, Tampa gets the ball back at their own 20 yard line with 20 seconds left and no time outs left (at least the Chiefs had time outs left in the famous 13 second debacle two years ago and subsequent 12 second debacle for a FG before halftime last year). They have to score a TD. They have to go 80 yards. They have no time outs left. The Bills allow the Bucs to use the sideline and, aided by Von Miller’s offsides penalty the Bucs have a shot at a Hail Mary from their own 45 yard line. I’m not sure about you guys but I cannot remember the last time that a Hail Mary fell incomplete without touching anyone in the middle of the end zone. How easily that could have been completed. and the Bills would have lost another game late. They lost to the Jets in OT, The Pats at the end of the game and coulda/shoulda lost to the Giants. They just as easily could have lost to the bucs.
3. THE NEED WORK ON:
I’m just not a fan of the conservatism of the Bills offense and defensive coordinators. Three times Thursday night they had fourth down in situations which could put the game away. 4th and five from their own 49 wit just under five minutes left in the third and they punt. 4th and four at the Tampa 42 with14 minutes left in the fourth and they punt. 4th and two again at the Tampa 44 with 10 mintes left and again they punt. On the last two, they line up and pretend like they are going to go for it in hopes the Bucs jump offdide. Defenses KNOW this is what Mcdermott does. I can remember once in the past five years when that actually worked. I want the Bill to be more aggressive offensively in these situations. We let bad teams (Jets, Giants, NE and Tampa) all hang around to the end. We could have lost all four of those games. The three other gams were blow outs. It’s when McDermott is involved in these close game agaist teams he’s supposed to beat that he becomes ultra conservative. This keeps these bad teams in the game. He need to take a few more chances (fourth and 1 on first play of second quarter from one yard line was a good agressive call-too bad the actual play calls on 3rd and 4th down sucked).
Defensively we seem to give up way too much ground late in games to poor to marginal quarterbacks. We blew a 10 point half time lead to the Aaron Rogers less Jets by playing conservative, turning the ball over and gave up a TD and FG in the last 5 minutes of the game (and a punt return TD in OT after a Bills three and out consisting of the classic 2nd and 15 draw play to Cook for two yards). Same thing against the Giants who blew at least three points at the end of the half and another scoring chance from the one yard line at the end of the game. New England was the same thing. Our “prevent” defense sucks. Teams walk down the field and score quickly and easily. I know we are missing guys but how is it that the Bills can force the Bucs to punt four straight times and then, once the Bucs go hurry-up, give up a quick TD and almost a second???
CONCLUSION: Bills are 5-3. Huge games coming up. Unless Miller and Floyd put on a much better rush, Joe Burrow will eat up our linebackers and defensive backs. We need a quality corner back. Beane: go get somebody because what we have almost lost to Tryod Taylor and Baker Mayfield and did lose to Mac Jones and Zach Wilson.
Go Bills!!!!