Buffalo Rumblings
I already penned one article pointing the finger at the Buffalo Bills’ offense for the loss to the Atlanta Falcons, and it felt so good I figured I’d come back for seconds. But seriously, while the last piece focused on attributing liability mostly to the offense, this one dives into the film to figure out why. I think there might even be a glimmer of good news for you at the end… if you stick around.
Let’s do a quick review of each of the Bills’ failed offensive drives and I’ll give you my opinion of what happened.
Almost all of the drives will have a clip of where I think the drive went wrong, and in all but this case it’s usually the last play of the drive (see below why that’s good news). This drive resulted in a three-and-out but this first play set a bad tone. This was a somewhat rare occasion where quarterback Josh Allen had a clean pocket and was able to throw a clean pass. Note that “able to” in this case refers to the potential, not the result. Allen’s throw was a bit behind and honestly that’s just a good breakup by the defender. Had the pass been out front more where tight end Dawson Knox caught it in stride, the hand in the air would have been irrelevant.
On the next two plays, a keeper by Allen was just completely covered by Atlanta. On third down, quick pressure on Allen forced the throw, but it was still pretty near to a perfect pass to Khalil Shakir who just couldn’t quite stay in bounds.
This drive was going okay until Buffalo reached midfield and Atlanta’s defense found their groove. A short gain by running back James Cook on first down was followed by good coverage from the Falcons on a passing down. Allen scrambled up the middle but was taken down for what was officially a sack, but for zero yards. Then the play above happened.
I hinted at some good news along the way and for those of you wondering why no Bills receivers were open during the game, I’d argue there were some good examples of available targets. In this case, the insanely quick pressure leads to a massive loss. You have two free rushers coming for Allen in the same gap, who scrambles towards left tackle Dion Dawkins’ side. Dawkins however was put in conflict early staring down three defenders and was going to end up letting two by regardless. The one he made contact with was an attempt to push wide to buy Allen time, but Allen had to vacate the pocket backwards. That is, right where the third defender was pushed by Dawkins.
The play design does have a little blitz-beater potential built in over the middle, but Buffalo’s line may as well have not even existed on this play — and Allen had no time to even...
