I had a family emergency Sunday night and could not watch the game live. I saw it on tape, later, and I’m glad I didn’t see it unfold live.
I’ll start by saying what a gem of a game our defense played, perhaps its best of the year. Holding the Bills to only 14 points is incredible. 3 turnovers, including one of the best plays of the century by Christian Wilkins.
The stop right before halftime. The stop on 4th and inches. Those are plays that the Bills “knew” they were going to pick up, but we imposed our will on them, and not vice versa.
Extreme kudos to Vic Fangio and the players for their effort in a shorthanded situation. The defense proved what it can do vs. a strong offense, and we’ll need more of that in the playoffs.
As for Mike McDaniel, we got yet another week of no adjustments. No second-half touchdowns (or points!!!) again. It’s been a long time since we got a TD in the second half. We got 2 of them in the Titans game, but if you remember, both TDs came after turnovers so our drives began at like the 5 yardline. So let’s say we have no real touchdown DRIVES in over a month in the second half. Disgusting.
Can you imagine McDaniel’s speech at halftime? “Hey, guys. Achane is doing too well tonight, so I’m going to call pass plays all during the second half instead. Why run the ball down their throat? Why not call pass plays where we throw it into the heart of their defense.”
McDaniel’s strategy is simply costing us games. He’s not tactical winner. Tua is not as accurate when the defense knows the passes are coming, and McDaniel doesn’t seem to notice or care. Every single man on our defense should be allowed to punch McDaniel in the face as they walk by him on the plane to Kansas City.
More to come.
Well said Admin. Cowturd is praising Allen I thought he played horrific. Sure he made some plays but in reality they should have won handily. Even if they just took the points it would have been an easier win fr them. I’m glad he’s loose with the ball. Even got extremely lucky on the sherfield TD. Ball pops up and he stretches to get his toes in… how many times does a pop up get picked off. The man was lucky. They will not go far if he’s playing like that.
Allen has looked very very human all through December. He got lucky enough to play against some crap teams, and his D won the Dallas game for them. Last night, we owned him, but McD did not want to win.
I forgot to mention that don’t write the Fins off if the D plays like this next week watch out. Just need MM to manage the game better use the run playaction they can win. Buys time for more guys to get healthy you never know. But it all starts with MM.
I feel the same way. Although I think our defensive guys don’t have the heart that is needed (because you play your ass off only to see your coach blow the game for you), they definitely have the physical tools to shut down any opponent.
Also, can we fire our special teams coach mid week?
Our defense played one of the best games we’ve seen in a decade only to be abandoned by the offense! How many 3 and outs in the second half? Absolutely inexcusable! How many dropped balls my Hill? Inexcusable! How many balls thrown high to recivers? Inexcusable? How many balls thrown to Hill that he didn’t go fight for at the top of the angle but lazily drifted back only to be beat by the safety….. 1 huge one! The offense was inept and it wasn’t all Buffalos defense or the fact Buffalo seemed to have more fans at the game it was an inexperienced HC letting his inexperience show! We haven’t had an offensive adjustment in seven weeks! Teams have figured the playbook out we need to add five to ten plays a week but we add nothing! Now we go to Kansas City where as fans we have to download some stupid app to watch the game…. This could possibly be worse than playing on England or wherever in the hell we always seem to have our “home” games ! KC will probably clobber us because you’re going to see the same offensive playbook and then we will just be some foot note to the 23’ season with a few personal records! Man no one on the offensive side was fired up the last quarter of ball, no one! What the hell kind of coaching is that?
Agreed nice post. He did add the misdirection toss it was working great until buf took it away by spreading their D out. So why not then pound it up the gut! Toss some balls in the short middle as it had to be open. How about fake some tosses playaction. I could go on and on but it’s easier to blame Tua for everything.
Admin you are right fire ST coach immediately. That punt return sure didn’t help the cause.
We are one and done. The Bills have Josh Allen, KC has Patrick Mahomes, Baltimore has Lamar, and we have Tua who isn’t close to their level. The Bills were missing both starting CBs, both starting LBs, and a starting WR, and still thumped us.
I’m still blaming McDaniel far more than I’m blaming Tua. Garbage play calling
Agreed and don’t get me wrong Tua still needs to be better but why call a deep pass to Claypool of all receivers. Tua shouldn’t have tried to jam it in there no doubt about that but why the call? Achane is ripping it all night and gets abandoned. Jills said thank you…
Mahomes is def better but he has no receivers. If the Fins D comes to play and MM actually runs the ball you never know. I’m not scared of Allen he’s a turnover machine saw it last night should have been a win even with all the injuries. Lamar far scarier right now as he’s actually throwing better these days.
Heard some good insight. Apparently jills were stacking the box in the 2nd half so it wasn’t wrong to throw. Although more playaction would have possibly helped with separation as everyone besides Hill couldn’t get open one on one. Smythe was actually the best which blows my mind. I still think some of this is the actual routes they were being asked to run as I don’t remember any crossing patterns which normally kill the Fins when they load the box.
I’m not afraid to run it when they stack the box. Toss it as a pitchout, and Achane is fast enough to beat the edge and run around their box. Also, guess what? All those guys in the box are fast enough to drop back once they see it’s not a run. THAT is McDaniel’s main flaw. He assumes that 7 men in the box is an easy completion. No. If it’s not a run, then 3 of those defenders backpeddle into the passing lanes, and take away our crossing patterns.
You have to run against run defenses, and you have to pass against pass defenses. Just stick with it and stop trying to constantly outsmart the opponent.
yep, here is snapshot of the bills stacking the box. Tua needs to do audibles in situations like these. But maybe McD doesn’t trust him to do audibles?
yeppers, here is snapshot of the bills stacking the box. Tua needs to do audibles in situations like these. But maybe McD doesn’t trust him to do audibles?
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Yep. I see all 11 Bills lined up within 10 yards of the ball. Hill is in motion running downhill at the 16 yard line. With that running start, he should EASILY be able to sprint past the 11 Bills and be open deep. But instead, McDaniel calls pass plays to go into the middle, and have Hill sit down at the 25 for a first down. Sounds good, in theory, but not when there are literally 5 men waiting for him at the 25.
I’ve also noticed this. There are virtually no audibles called by Miami.
The Dolphins and their j.v. defense may be trounced in this game, but it won’t be because of the cold. It will be because we’re missing 7 starters, and our defense won’t even know each other’s names, let alone where they are supposed to line up
1. Tua has serious issues with timing and reading the field at times. This is not always the case but has been rearing its ugly head against the better defenses.
2. McDaniel not only abandons the run, in general, but often loses drives because he calls the wrong running play. For example, the run was mostly successful running between the tackles all game but McDaniel began calling pitch sweeps that got caught in the backfield. IT only takes one back call to lose you 5-6 yards and thus the drive is killed.
3. Buffalo killed us 2-3 times on pick plays, the same way New England used to. We never use pick play on 3rd down when all the elite teams do. Why?
1. I don’t know if he’s misreading something, but more a case of him forcing things that are not there. His last interception is a great example of trying to throw to a man who wasn’t open, was well covered, was not even looking for the ball, and was not used all year long. It’s impossible to misread that coverage. But it is possible to over-estimate the ability of your WRs to bail you out. Our guys don’t do that. Even his first interception, as bad as it was….Hill made zero effort to turn into a defender and break up the INT. Tua needs to learn to not force things because our WRs are not the type who bail him out if he’s off.
2. Yes, and again, McD keeps harping that the tackle-runs were not going to work anymore because the Bills stacked the box. Well guess what? TRY IT ANYWAY. Pitch and sweeps are great, but only if every single Dolphin blocks his man. One man misses a block, and we lose 6 yards. McDaniel has the Adam Gase disease of ASSUMING that your tiny WR will easily block a charging LB or else a pulling guard will get to the edge faster than a DE. It don’t happen!
3. These plays are always tricky, and we always get called for penalties while other teams do it often. Pick plays and intentionally trying to draw a pass interference are not in our arsenal. When was the last time we had a laugher touchdown, where some unaccounted receiver was open by a mile?
Admin,
back to your original post – I agree with you and others, a big bravo to the defense, they get the game ball,
they played their hearts and bodies out.
Baker broke his wrist but continued playing till the end of the game.
After losing three LB’s, I don’t see how they (the defense) feel anything except demoralization – they busted their balls and bodies for the team against the Bills, only to be rewarded with a trip to sub-zero arrowhead.
Thanks offense. McDaniel/Tua let us down!
if you you watch video of that last pick, Tua was locked onto Claypool with his eyes, so the high safety was able to get into high cover position and pick it off.
admin asks – When was the last time we had a laugher touchdown, where some unaccounted receiver was open by a mile?
– I think there are opportunities every game, but Tua misses them. in the last Chiefs game there were two or three opps that he missed. Sprinkle in a Tyreek drop here or there, and we have a frustrated offense that can’t score no more than 20 against good teams
A video guy had said that the receivers simply weren’t getting open on man to man. Hill was also out that play. Tua shouldn’t have thrown that but probably felt like he had to try to force a play even though he had plenty of time on that drive. Hopefully learn from it. I just don’t understand how the Fins receivers couldn’t beat the jills 3-5 remaining DBs as some were hurt. Douglas went out that game too. Either way Admin is right that they should have been running more either way eventually they were breaking through. Just stop the tosses if they are being covered and run up the gut! Will have to this weekend.
on that last pick, he had a man open on the right side in the “flat”, within 10yards.
So yes, I hope and Pray Tua does better tomorrow!
Tua should know where his outlets are I just think he was forcing that throw. I guess most QBs do look at allen how many stupid throws did he force last week. Fins just didn’t punish him like they should have. I bet with less injuries they would have won that game.
I think Tua and McD worked their asses off in the off-season and early 2023 season on the long passing game. It was perfection. They are going to need to enhance that more on 2024. Need to add some more elements. I don’t think McD is blind. He must see the same stuff we all see, especially FlyerPhin 🙂 Given an entire off-season to study all of his stupid play calls and all of Tua’s bad plays, I think he’ll get there. Two playoff appearances in two years. He was close to taking the next step until the injuries ravaged our December and January
I broke down and bought the Peacock Network. My mouse is on speed-click to cancel immediately after the game. I hope the credit card companies go ballistic when they have to process a zillion cancellations after the game
It truly is ridiculous Admin. I’d milk the trial for what you can at least get some value for the aggravation. I’ve been testing my IPTV box for some time now and it’s pretty good for the most part. Just need decent internet for live TV and its a little delayed but you can’t beat the cost. Watching movies and series on demand its money.
I miss the days of my “black box” when we had a cable box. Free HBO and dirty movies and PPV wrestling or MMA. Some friend of a friend knew how to rig them from the inside. Back when football was on regular TV
I also miss the days in the early 80’s, when we had a (big) dish, and could get all the games for free, and could even get the back-haul feeds, and hear what the announcers were saying during the commercials, cursing and all.
BTW- I can’t believe how many pundits are actually picking the fins to win this game. Do they even watch football ? Hope I’m wrong, but with the extreme : weather, fin’s injuries, McD’s blunders, special teams, etc., etc. – I just can’t see the fins winning here – even if the chiefs have their worst game, like they did at home vs. the Raiders. I think they learned their lesson.
Honestly with the super cold weather it negates what Mahomes can do. This could turn into a run game and the Fins can run the ball. They have been stuffing the run pretty good all year but its a bit of a wildcard to say how they’ll do tomorrow. Maybe those wily vets they picked up will show us enough. Just takes a few big runs to change a game like that. Also if Hill can snag a few he could take it to the house as well.
Unfortunately I have to work today so won’t be able to watch the game which is a bummer. Hopefully it will be a close game and we can anqueezee out a victory with the running game. I also hope the officiating will be fair unlike the Eagles game earlier this year.
Hopefully everyone can make it to the chat. Probably be a delay due to online only but its a big one!
ON another note I hope they run a log of big formations with max protection and throw to a wide open Hill a few times.