Colts at Bills: First re-watch

[Meathead 72,126]

First bills touchdown
- bills not playing with their usual emotion. The play when Josh Allen tried to run it in then quickly pulled the ball up and pushed it to knox for an easy TD was fantastic. But the response from the team was uncharacteristically tepid. I think they thrive on emotion, and yet all Allen and Knox got some half-assed high fives and shoulder bumps. I understand keeping your emotions in check but that doesn't prevent them from running to Knox and jumping all over him like they normally would. I think showing that kind of team chemistry not only helps the team but it also demoralizes the opponent. They need to get back to who they are and demonstrate that emotion like they have all season

Allen's Juke and fake repertoire
- Allen's Jukes aren't working as well as they used to. He used to plant a foot in the ground and go in the opposite direction and leave the linebackers grasping at air. His pump fakes and shoulder flinches aren't working nearly as well as they used to either. The Colts defense appeared prepared for that and did not go for those kinds of fakes that worked so well in the past. Josh is going to have to come up with some new moves

Tackling
- tackling was highly inconsistent in the first half. Too many missed tackles and multiple times several bills Defenders were in position to team up and keep a runner from making the first down marker, only to see the runner split two or three guys to actually get the first down. Kind of shocking from a team that has generally been strong at tackling

Goal-line stand
- bills picked the perfect time to fix their tackling woes. Three runs from the two netted -2 yards. It look like the bills knew exactly what they were going to do every time because there was three or four or five guys right there to stop the ball carrier. Outstanding

Rivers with a rookie mistake?!?
- Rivers had a pocket to step up into on the 4th down pass, but instead he elected to backpedal making the throw exponentially harder. A shocking mistake from a guy who normally knows exactly where to go in the pocket

Allen wastes free play
- on the 4th down where he got the defense to jump offsides, Diggs had gotten by both Defenders and would have had an easy touchdown if Allen had thrown it into the right edge of the endzone. Instead he threw it way short where it was intercepted. No harm since it was a penalty, but no easy touchdown either. A rare mistake on a stellar late half Drive

Second very poor pass in a row
- very next play Josh throws it across the face of the end zone where it was very nearly intercepted. Diggs had excellent position for a corner throw. All he had to do was throw it to the corner of the end zone and it would have been an easy touchdown. He was mostly amazing on this drive but those two passes were crap

Allen on the late half drive

- are you kidding me? Allen rolls out left and hits davis for a toe tap. Allen rolls right and gets diggs for another to tap. and allen stays in the pocket and hit davis for yet another rubber pellet trail. i may have the order wrong bc im doing it from memory now, point being allen destroyed the narrative on accuracy during that run. he temporarily sputtered in the red zone, but eventually just ran it up there and in. just spectacular

Gabriel Davis is going to be a star
- it goes without saying he was incredible on that late half touchdown Drive. The way he was casually catching those nearly oob passes and toe dragging inbounds like he was eating a piece of pie is way more incredible than it looks. I wouldn't even expect a first-rounder to be able to be that smooth, and he was a fourth-rounder! I'm afraid John Brown is going to be too expensive next year so they're going to give the job to Gabe

I got to take a wicked dookie so I'll be back with second-half observations when I'm done. Or maybe it'll be tomorrow. But it's going to happen whether you like it or not. LOL

[jc856 9,696]

Nice analysis. Congrats on the dookie! Well done!👍

[Victor7 89,923]

2 hours ago, Meathead said:

First bills touchdown
- bills not playing with their usual emotion. The play when Josh Allen tried to run it in then quickly pulled the ball up and pushed it to knox for an easy TD was fantastic. But the response from the team was uncharacteristically tepid. I think they thrive on emotion, and yet all Allen and Knox got some half-assed high fives and shoulder bumps. I understand keeping your emotions in check but that doesn't prevent them from running to Knox and jumping all over him like they normally would. I think showing that kind of team chemistry not only helps the team but it also demoralizes the opponent. They need to get back to who they are and demonstrate that emotion like they have all season

Allen's Juke and fake repertoire
- Allen's Jukes aren't working as well as they used to. He used to plant a foot in the ground and go in the opposite direction and leave the linebackers grasping at air. His pump fakes and shoulder flinches aren't working nearly as well as they used to either. The Colts defense appeared prepared for that and did not go for those kinds of fakes that worked so well in the past. Josh is going to have to come up with some new moves

Tackling
- tackling was highly inconsistent in the first half. Too many missed tackles and multiple times several bills Defenders were in position to team up and keep a runner from making the first down marker, only to see the runner split two or three guys to actually get the first down. Kind of shocking from a team that has generally been strong at tackling

Goal-line stand
- bills picked the perfect time to fix their tackling woes. Three runs from the two netted -2 yards. It look like the bills knew exactly what they were going to do every time because there was three or four or five guys right there to stop the ball carrier. Outstanding

Rivers with a rookie mistake?!?
- Rivers had a pocket to step up into on the 4th down pass, but instead he elected to backpedal making the throw exponentially harder. A shocking mistake from a guy who normally knows exactly where to go in the pocket

Allen wastes free play
- on the 4th down where he got the defense to jump offsides, Diggs had gotten by both Defenders and would have had an easy touchdown if Allen had thrown it into the right edge of the endzone. Instead he threw it way short where it was intercepted. No harm since it was a penalty, but no easy touchdown either. A rare mistake on a stellar late half Drive

Second very poor pass in a row
- very next play Josh throws it across the face of the end zone where it was very nearly intercepted. Diggs had excellent position for a corner throw. All he had to do was throw it to the corner of the end zone and it would have been an easy touchdown. He was mostly amazing on this drive but those two passes were crap

Gabriel Davis is going to be a star
- it goes without saying he was incredible on that late half touchdown Drive. The way he was casually catching those nearly oob passes and toe dragging inbounds like he was eating a piece of pie is way more incredible than it looks. I wouldn't even expect a first-rounder to be able to be that smooth, and he was a fourth-rounder! I'm afraid John Brown is going to be too expensive next year so they're going to give the job to Gabe

I got to take a wicked dookie so I'll be back with second-half observations when I'm done. Or maybe it'll be tomorrow. But it's going to happen whether you like it or not. LOL
 

I think it was John Brown Josh was looking for on the near INT in the end zone. Not Diggs. But other than that great analysis. One thing to point out though on the long touchdown to Diggs I do think his pump fake worked. Didn't he make one to move the safety out of position ?

[LiterateStylish 11,977]

Good stuff.

I think it’s really hard for anyone to argue that we didn’t get outplayed and probably should have lost.

If I recall correctly, the Colts beat us in damn near every stat except the score, and even that is just because Reich decided to go for 4th and goal instead of kicking a field goal.

If we play like that against the Ravens, I don’t know how we are going to win.

And not for nothing, Daboll who has been clutch down the stretch called a very weird game in my opinion.

I think at one point I saw a graphic during the game that said we had 22 passes and 18 rushes.

Thats not how we have been winning.

We don’t run.

I’m not sure we even can run.

Running on 3rd and 1 or 3rd and 2, which he did at least twice that I can remember, doesn’t work for this team.

And they were both stuffed.

The more I think about that game, the more I realize how lucky we are that we got out with a Win.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

PS, Allen needs to stop taking crucial 20+ yard sacks in playoff games.

He’s 2 for 2 so far in doing just that.

[Victor7 89,923]

1 minute ago, LiterateStylish said:

Good stuff.

I think it’s really hard for anyone to argue that we didn’t get outplayed and probably should have lost.

If I recall correctly, the Colts beat us in damn near every stat except the score, and even that is just because Reich decided to go for 4th and goal instead of kicking a field goal.

If we play like that against the Ravens, I don’t know how we are going to win.

And not for nothing, Daboll who has been clutch down the stretch, called a very weird game in my opinion.

I think at one point I saw a graphic during the game that said we had 22 passes and 18 rushes.

Thats not how we have been winning.

We don’t run.

I’m not sure we even can run.

Running on 3rd and 1 and 3rd and 2, which he did at least twice that I can remember, doesn’t work.

And they were both stuffed.

The more I think about that game, the more I realize how lucky we are that we got out with a Win.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

PS, Allen needs to stop taking crucial 20+ yard sacks in playoff game.

He’s 2 for 2 so far.

Spot on post. Agree on every count. 

I do think we can run on 3rd and short here and there. The thing is IIRC both those times you mention we tried to run outside. Screw that. Up the gut and lets fucking go. Those demoralize a D if you get'em. 

[Meathead 72,126]

47 minutes ago, Victor7 said:

I think it was John Brown Josh was looking for on the near INT in the end zone. Not Diggs. But other than that great analysis. One thing to point out though on the long touchdown to Diggs I do think his pump fake worked. Didn't he make one to move the safety out of position ?

stef, john, whatever

if im thinking of the right play, no he actually looked him off

idk if it was a decoy or not but josh actually looked at three guys before throwing to diggs. i watched his head move, left-middle-position his body right-right-throw. exactly as youre supposed to to keep the safety away

he also may have pumped but i dont remember that. and im not saying his jukes or pumps will never work, im just saying hes losing the surprise element to a significant degree. he needs a spin move that wont put him in harms way, for example. theres more tricks he can pick up and he will. i hope he shows us some next game

or im thinking of another play and this is all bullshit to your question

50/50

[Meathead 72,126]

1 hour ago, jc856 said:

Nice analysis. Congrats on the dookie! Well done!👍

lol. thanks. i just dictated it into my tablet while i watched and posted it from there. it was easy. do i now have a web presence?

[Meathead 72,126]

its late but im going to add:

Allen on the late half drive

- are you kidding me? Allen rolls out left and hits davis for a toe tap. Allen rolls right and gets diggs for another to tap. and allen stays in the pocket and hit davis for yet another rubber pellet trail. i may have the order wrong bc im doing it from memory now, point being allen destroyed the narrative on accuracy during that run. he temporarily sputtered in the red zone, but eventually just ran it up there and in. just spectacular

[seandelevan 17,480]

IMO the offense looked vanilla. This looked like the 2019 offense. Not sure if this was by design or it was due to shit field position all game. 

[Victor7 89,923]

2 hours ago, seandelevan said:

IMO the offense looked vanilla. This looked like the 2019 offense. Not sure if this was by design or it was due to shit field position all game. 

Field position def didn't help. But lets not forget the Colts have a great D. They followed their game plan down to perfection. Control de TOP and keep Allen off the field. We really did get lucky guys. Someone on twitter wrote .... This feels like the typical game in which the lesser team plays better but somehow ends up losing. That's exactly what happened. 

[bv 9,440]

The TD passes Allen threw were incredible.

 

I remember frank Reich saying after the game they expected the middle to be wide open on the 4th down play. Is that the Bills lousy red zone defense?

 

 

[someguy 6]

13 hours ago, Meathead said:

First bills touchdown
- bills not playing with their usual emotion. The play when Josh Allen tried to run it in then quickly pulled the ball up and pushed it to knox for an easy TD was fantastic. But the response from the team was uncharacteristically tepid. I think they thrive on emotion, and yet all Allen and Knox got some half-assed high fives and shoulder bumps. I understand keeping your emotions in check but that doesn't prevent them from running to Knox and jumping all over him like they normally would. I think showing that kind of team chemistry not only helps the team but it also demoralizes the opponent. They need to get back to who they are and demonstrate that emotion like they have all season

Allen's Juke and fake repertoire
- Allen's Jukes aren't working as well as they used to. He used to plant a foot in the ground and go in the opposite direction and leave the linebackers grasping at air. His pump fakes and shoulder flinches aren't working nearly as well as they used to either. The Colts defense appeared prepared for that and did not go for those kinds of fakes that worked so well in the past. Josh is going to have to come up with some new moves

Tackling
- tackling was highly inconsistent in the first half. Too many missed tackles and multiple times several bills Defenders were in position to team up and keep a runner from making the first down marker, only to see the runner split two or three guys to actually get the first down. Kind of shocking from a team that has generally been strong at tackling

Goal-line stand
- bills picked the perfect time to fix their tackling woes. Three runs from the two netted -2 yards. It look like the bills knew exactly what they were going to do every time because there was three or four or five guys right there to stop the ball carrier. Outstanding

Rivers with a rookie mistake?!?
- Rivers had a pocket to step up into on the 4th down pass, but instead he elected to backpedal making the throw exponentially harder. A shocking mistake from a guy who normally knows exactly where to go in the pocket

Allen wastes free play
- on the 4th down where he got the defense to jump offsides, Diggs had gotten by both Defenders and would have had an easy touchdown if Allen had thrown it into the right edge of the endzone. Instead he threw it way short where it was intercepted. No harm since it was a penalty, but no easy touchdown either. A rare mistake on a stellar late half Drive

Second very poor pass in a row
- very next play Josh throws it across the face of the end zone where it was very nearly intercepted. Diggs had excellent position for a corner throw. All he had to do was throw it to the corner of the end zone and it would have been an easy touchdown. He was mostly amazing on this drive but those two passes were crap

Allen on the late half drive

- are you kidding me? Allen rolls out left and hits davis for a toe tap. Allen rolls right and gets diggs for another to tap. and allen stays in the pocket and hit davis for yet another rubber pellet trail. i may have the order wrong bc im doing it from memory now, point being allen destroyed the narrative on accuracy during that run. he temporarily sputtered in the red zone, but eventually just ran it up there and in. just spectacular

Gabriel Davis is going to be a star
- it goes without saying he was incredible on that late half touchdown Drive. The way he was casually catching those nearly oob passes and toe dragging inbounds like he was eating a piece of pie is way more incredible than it looks. I wouldn't even expect a first-rounder to be able to be that smooth, and he was a fourth-rounder! I'm afraid John Brown is going to be too expensive next year so they're going to give the job to Gabe

I got to take a wicked dookie so I'll be back with second-half observations when I'm done. Or maybe it'll be tomorrow. But it's going to happen whether you like it or not. LOL

Good stuff. On the dookie, I mean.

But seriously, I pounded beers the entire game and am surprised I remember everything you wrote.

The only thing I sort of disagree with is that the Bills are a good tackling team. I feel like they've had issues there this year... but maybe it was only the first half of the season?

[theAteam 357]

Regarding the tackling, I watched some analysis of Jonathon Taylor and the thing I came out with is that dude does NOT want to go down ever. You could not assume once there was contact that he was going to be stopped because he keep churning his legs and more often than not he'll get a few extra yards out of it. He's also extremely good at making something out of nothing when the hole isn't there. We only held him to 78 yards but it sure felt like a lot more.