Wow!! Was that ugly or what? Ref’s, Hail Mary, missed FGs, stupid penalties and a ton of luck but the Bills now stand 4-2, atop the AFC East, with some “easier” opponents coming up. What could go wrong?
Let’s start with the positives from last night’s game:
1. Josh Allen: again, he put the team on his back and led them to a big road win. 19/25 passing for 215 with two passing and one rushing TDs. Huge run at the end of the game to seal the victory. He threw the ball extremely well in windy conditions. He avoided pressure from a very good Jets defense. The play he made by ducking between his offensive tackle Dawkins and the Jets rusher to throw the TD pass to Dawson Knox was miraculous. Out of his six incompletions, three were intentionally thrown away. Overall a great game from our leader.
2. Ray Davis: What a game. 97 yards rushing, 55 yards receiving including a phenomenal catch for a 42 yard gain. He ran hard and showed tremendous vision in picking holes and cutting back to gain additional yardage. He was drafted as a guy who can both run and catch. Everything I saw out of his game last night makes me wonder do we really need to re-up on James Cook after his contract expires after the 2025 season or whether we allow him to go elsewhere ala Singletary and Moss.
3. Dalton Kincaid: Got him more involved in the passing game. Six catches for 51 yards, four of which went for 1st downs. Bills also used Curtis Samuel more, actually throwing the ball to him beyond the line of scrimmage. Passing game still needs a number one receiver. Since starting this post on Tuesday morning the Bills picked up Amari Cooper who should be a perfect fit into this offense. can’t wait the see Cooper, Shakir, Kincaid and Coleman line up at the same time and see how defenses will be unable to control them.
NEGATIVES:
1. McDermott: game in and game out his in-game decision making reeks with incompetence. Game in and game out he seems to choke in big situations. From the Kyler Murray/Deandre Hopkins Hail Mary three years ago to 13 seconds to 12 seconds to 32 seconds, he just seems to consistently make the wrong calls at crucial times in the game. Last week it was passing the ball three times from his own three yard line with 32 seconds left (the first two throws were also very low percentage targets) when the Bills needed to run the clock, get a first down and get to overtime. Monday night it was the defensive strategy just before half time.
Here is the scenario: even seconds left, Jets ball at their own 48 yard line with no time outs left. Given the windy conditions at The Meadowlands, field goals over 50 yards had little chance of success. Jets come to the line and McDermott calls his usual “I want to see what they plan to do” time-out. Jets come to the line and the Bills have their two DEFENSIVE ENDS guarding the sidelines to prevent a quick sideline pass where receiver can get out of bounds and the clock would stop giving the Jets a chance for a field goal. The problem with this plan is two-fold: 1. The Bills only rush two guys giving Rogers 5.8 seconds to throw the ball; and 2. a ten yard out pattern to a WR would only put the ball at the Bills 42 which would leave the Jets with a 60 yard field goal attempt. Prior to Monday’s game Zuerlein was zero for one from 50+ yards and 1 of 3 from 41-49 yards. With the windy conditions Monday night a 60 yard FG would be next to impossible. So now, with the two defensive ends uselessly guarding the sideline, and with the Bills only rushing two guys, you give rogers all the time in the world to throw deep. Remember the Hail Mary to Hopkins I referred to above? Who was defending him on the Hail Mary toss? Two 6 foot tall defensive backs. We all complained the we didn’t have someone as tall as Hopkins (AKA Gabe Davis, Dawson Knox, etc…) defending Hopkins on the play. We all saw what happened. Previously, I’ve criticized McDermott from not learning from his prior mistakes. One would think that he would have learned from the Hopkins situation (as well as the almost completion/pass interference non-call in week one this year). we have Coleman, Knox, Kincaid and Hollins. All are taller than the Jets WRs. How many times have you seen other coaches in similar situations put their tall WRs deep into the end zone to knock down these types of hail Mary’s? Nope. McDermott keeps his normal nickel defense with an added DB (Elam who is 5’11”). what transpired: Hail Mary TD. Instead of being up 20-10 at the half and getting the ball to start the 3rd quarter, it’s now 20-17. Just brutal situational coaching again.
2. Defense: The Bills gave up 15 “big plays” last week (plays over 10 yards). They’ve given up more than 14 of these big lays each of the past three weeks. Our defensive backs are getting torched on 10-15 yard throws across the middle of the field. Time and time again the Jets, like the Texans and ravens the past two games, were able to keep drives alive and pick up large chunks of yardage with passes across the middle. Damar Hamlin may be the worst safety in the NFL. His ability to read the quarterback and close on a receiver prior to the receiver catching the ball is brutal. Thank God that Taylor Rapp and Taron Johnson are back in the lineup. Rapp prevented a touchdown as well as a big third down completion with hard hits. Johnson had a huge interception to end the Jets hopes at a comeback. Hamlin, however, is a huge liability back there. Cole Bishop needs to replace him in the lineup now.
3. PENALTIES: Yes the refs were horrendous. The Roughing the passer call on Espinesa was one of the worst calls I’ve seen made in 60 years of watching NFL football. That said, to constant penalties on the offensive line for false starts and illegal formations is mind boggling. How in the world can you have your left tackle, spencer Brown, be lined up “uncovered” (at the end of the line without a receiver lined up outside him on the line) TWICE in a game? How many times is Brown going to be called for a false start. Where is the discipline that McDermott harps on about? Brown decides to jump on the defensive lineman after making a great block which nullifies a large gain on what would have been a defensive pass interference call. Dawkins decides to take out his frustrations again and gets an unsportsmanship penalty. Time and time again we take stupid, unnecessary penalties which stop drives.
IMPROVING???
1. Joe Brady: I’ve been very critical of Brady over the past few weeks. His predictability as well as his inability to use players better and call plays that are situationally proper has been an issue. Monday night, however, he came up with a tremendous game plan. The Bills offense scored three touchdowns in four first half possessions. He ran a balanced offense. He rn the ball successfully and balanced it out with a nice short passing game. Josh was on target. The balanced offense prevented the Jets from getting too much pressure on Josh (as the Ravens and Texans had done in the previous two weeks).20 First half points against a good Jets defense. Tremendous!!!
Then what happened? Just like the Chiefs game last year in the playoffs, and like the fourth quarters in both the Ravens and Texans games, the opponent’s defensive coordinators figure Brady out and our offense stalls. We have two touchdowns in the second half of the last three games COMBINED. Both of them were in the third quarter. What happens to our offense late in games? My opinion gets back to Brady being predictable. While he was able to change the game plan this week against the Jets to start the game he has shown an inability to modify that game plan DURING the game to address changes in the way defenses defend us. There is no logical reason why this quarterback should have success in the first half but little success later in games.
CONCLUSION: The Bills won and got a number one wide receiver in a trade. They have a fairly easy schedule over the next few games which should allow Cooper and Josh to get on the same page. These next few games are an opportunity for Brady to figure out how to prevent second half lapses on offense and should allow Bishop to play over Hamlin. There is no good reason that the bills can’t go into at home against the Chiefs 8-2. Let’s see what transpires.
GO BILLS!!!