BillsZone Exclusive: OpIv37's Postgame Review

[shelby]

:couch:



What a disappointing effort. The Bills were the last team in the NFL to play a division game. We finally got a shot against a mediocre Dolphins team, and no one showed up. The defense designed to prevent big plays gave up big plays. The smart QB who doesn't turn the ball over coughed the ball up several times.
The large, expensive OL lost battles at crucial moments. Special teams were anything but.


And the coaching staff had their heads up their asses. Jauron just received a contract extension- after today's game, it's hard to see why he deserves it.


This game felt like last year. Every time the Fish had a 3rd and 1, I had ZERO confidence that the Bills would stop it. When the Fish took the lead late, the team felt like they were already out of it and had nothing left to come back.


The good:
-Lynch.
-Evans.
-Peters, other than the safety (which I put more on Dockery anyway).
-Preston did well filling in for Fowler.
-Copeland Bryan made a few plays.


The Bad:
-Dockery had an absolutely terrible game. He was getting beat all day long, he basically whiffed on Porter on the safety, and he had the holding penalty.
-Edwards did not protect the ball well at all.
-I am sick and tired of Robert Royal. This guy consistently makes mental mistakes. He doesn't keep his head in the game. This position absolutely needs to be upgraded in the off-season (although I feel like I've said that for the last 6 off-seasons).
-McGee got destroyed by Ted Ginn Jr. TED @#$%ING GINN. There is absolutely no excuse for that.
-there was no pressure whatsoever by the DL.
-The defensive coaches were pathetic. The D overpursued on play and basically bit on every single play fake by Miami.
-The offensive coaches were pathetic. Lynch had 61 yards on 13 carries, which is a 4.7 ypc average. Yet, he only had 13 carries? And using Jackson on the goal line instead of Lynch is just mind-boggling.
-The Special Teams coaching was pathetic. Miami is one of the worst teams in the league on kick coverage, yet they shut down Buffalo's return attack.
-The overall coaching was pathetic. The team took more penalties than usual, did not protect the ball well, and did not adjust well late in the game.


more... (http://www.billszone.com/mtlog/archives/2008/10/26/opiv37s_postgame_review.php)

[Pinkerton Security]

I was so angry with the defense. McGee looked about 75%, and unfortunately Ginn is quick enough to take advantage of that. I thought it was telling that on the first play, Ginn had about 3 steps on Mcgee, and it would have been a TD on that play if Pennington had a stronger arm.

Also, as Op pointed out, on EVERY SINGLE PLAY FAKE, we bit HARD. How many times do you remember them running a playaction stretch, and Pennington basially waggling out and having no one within 15 yards of him? I can count at least 4 or 5. We overran plays and were undisciplined in many facets of the game.

I HATE ROB ROYAL AS WELL.

All this being said, we shot ourselves in the foot a lot and were still in the game for just about all of it. If we can cut down on mistakes, I think we should be OK.

[Buffatexas]

as I watched those gains by Ginn, especially the long ones, it looked to me as if the fins really ran the film from the arizona game. I so hate those effing little slant routes.

[Ingtar33]

as I watched those gains by Ginn, especially the long ones, it looked to me as if the fins really ran the film from the arizona game. I so hate those effing little slant routes.


bingo

the fins altered a lot of their passing game to take advantage of the holes the cards found in the defense.

throw in the fact mcgee had no business playing today, and the fact the fins played out of their minds (that was about as complete a game i've seen the fins play all season... they didn't even look that good agaisnt NE)... while we were pretty mediocre... and you have a loss.

we play that game 4 times and i think we win 3 of them, but you have to give the fins the credit.

they played as close to a perfect game as they can, and we didn't come with even a B game (which probably would have been enough to win, even with the fins playing lights out) but more like our C- game.

[dolphan117]

as I watched those gains by Ginn, especially the long ones, it looked to me as if the fins really ran the film from the arizona game. I so hate those effing little slant routes.Which was kinda odd because we have run VERY few slant routes all year, it has left some of us scratching our heads.

Also today was the first I had seen us throw that quick hitch at the line where the WR just stands at the line and the QB rises up and fires right at the snap. Why we waited till today to pull that out I have no idea.

[LtFinFan66]

He didn't rant as much as I expected

[DraftBoy]

One thing I heard from a friend who watched the game (I did not) was that Poz was biting very hard in the middle on the play action plays. Is there truth to this?

[TacklingDummy]

You forgot to add...

The Bad

-Lynch dropping a screen pass that was setup perfect and would have went for a huge gain. Instead Buffalo had to punt.

[BlackMetalNinja]

You forgot to add...

The Bad

-Lynch dropping a screen pass that was setup perfect and would have went for a huge gain. Instead Buffalo had to punt.I was ready to scream at him on that play for absolutely missing a blitz pickup in the middle until I saw him pop out wide open on the screen...

Then I had to scream at him for dropping the pass instead.

[OpIv37]

One thing I heard from a friend who watched the game (I did not) was that Poz was biting very hard in the middle on the play action plays. Is there truth to this?

Not just Poz.

The ENTIRE D was very undisciplined. They bit hard on just about every play fake. The worst one was Miami's first TD to Fasano. Both Poz and Whitner fell for the play fake and Fasano was literally wide open in the end zone. Fasano ran right between the two and neither even attempted to cover him because they were both looking in the backfield.

[OpIv37]

You forgot to add...

The Bad

-Lynch dropping a screen pass that was setup perfect and would have went for a huge gain. Instead Buffalo had to punt.

Yeah I did forget about that one. He had 3 blockers in front of him.

[Mr. Miyagi]

I blame Royal for everything.

[Dujek]

Every time the Bills got in a position to simply step on the Dolphins throat and put the game out of reach they let them back up, and in the end it cost them. Once the Dolphins got their noses in front they showed us how we should have closed out the game from early in the 3rd quarter.

[billogic99]

Every time the Bills got in a position to simply step on the Dolphins throat and put the game out of reach they let them back up, and in the end it cost them. Once the Dolphins got their noses in front they showed us how we should have closed out the game from early in the 3rd quarter.

Umm, the Bills had 3 field goals in the first half, if the Bills were close to putting their foot on the throat it sure was a tentative foot. The Bills were 5-1 and the fish were 2-4, the field goals should have been TD's to begin with and this conversation would't exist.

[OpIv37]

Every time the Bills got in a position to simply step on the Dolphins throat and put the game out of reach they let them back up, and in the end it cost them. Once the Dolphins got their noses in front they showed us how we should have closed out the game from early in the 3rd quarter.

This is what I've been talking about all year. We've let teams hang around. You can get away with it against St. Louis and Oakland. You can't get away with it against an AFCE team, even the worst AFCE team.

[Dujek]

Umm, the Bills had 3 field goals in the first half, if the Bills were close to putting their foot on the throat it sure was a tentative foot. The Bills were 5-1 and the fish were 2-4, the field goals should have been TD's to begin with and this conversation would't exist.

At 16-7 up the Bills should have put the game away, at that point they were perfectly positioned to put the game beyond Miami's reach.

[jdbillsfan]

Not just Poz.

The ENTIRE D was very undisciplined. They bit hard on just about every play fake. The worst one was Miami's first TD to Fasano. Both Poz and Whitner fell for the play fake and Fasano was literally wide open in the end zone. Fasano ran right between the two and neither even attempted to cover him because they were both looking in the backfield.

That was Mitchell's man.

[OpIv37]

Oh I did forget one positive: Hardy had a few catches and made a nice adjustment on the ball early in the game. That was nice to see because he had been struggling with that tremendously.

[shelby]

i love it when Op is positive!
:up:

[patmoran2006]

When you're up by 16-7 in the second half, especially on the road.. You impose your will and you pound Marshawn Lynch and Jackson to death.

Terrible coaching yesterday, though maybe they have even less confidence in the OL run blocking than we do.

[trapezeus]

the bills played as though the team went on Mularkey like team building for burgers, but instead of burgers they had liquor.

they just looked hung over.

[finfan34]

did it ever occur to you guys that you arent as good as some of you had advertised. i know the phins have a long way to go, but you guys looked like youd rather be at the beach getting a tan.

[OpIv37]

did it ever occur to you guys that you arent as good as some of you had advertised.

I've been saying that since the Oakland game but no one here wants to hear it.

[FinFaninBuffalo]

I don't know how you can put the safety on Dockery instead of Peters. Peters totally blew that play. He jumped to the outside and gave Porter the inside move. Unfortunately, Edwards' drop was only a couple of yards into the endzone. Peters should have kept Porter to the outside. He would have not gotten anywhere near Edwards.

[OpIv37]

I don't know how you can put the safety on Dockery instead of Peters. Peters totally blew that play. He jumped to the outside and gave Porter the inside move. Unfortunately, Edwards' drop was only a couple of yards into the endzone. Peters should have kept Porter to the outside. He would have not gotten anywhere near Edwards.

Peters missed the initial block, but when Porter jumped to the inside Dockery was standing there and blocking NO ONE. He was literally doing nothing. All he did was get one hand on Porter's shoulder and it barely slowed him down. Dockery could have- and should have- knocked him on his ass.

if I had to guess, I'd say Peters jumped to the outside and gave up the inside move because he thought he had Dockery's help.