Comparing Week 1 loss with KC playoff Loss

[Arm of Harm]

Beane said that if you lose in a postseason game, that loss usually tells you where your team is falling short and needs to be fixed. With that in mind, let's look at the week 1 loss to see what was fixed or not fixed, in comparison with the KC playoff loss.

 

Offensive line: played badly against KC, played badly against the Steelers

Verdict: not fixed

 

Josh Allen: played a decent game against the Chiefs, played badly against the Steelers

Verdict: Worse against the Steelers

 

Receivers: played badly due to injury against KC, had an off game against the Steelers without being hurt

Verdict: Worse against the Steelers after taking injuries into account

 

TE: Knox played well against the Steelers

Verdict: Got better against the Steelers

 

Daboll: Coached a better game against the Chiefs than the Steelers

 

DL: Had a better game against the Steelers than the Chiefs. But, the Steelers have a bad OL.

Verdict: probably got better, but we won't know for sure

 

LBs: Had a better game against the Steelers than the Chiefs. But, Chiefs have better offensive coaching.

Verdict: might or might not have gotten better

 

DBs: Had a better game against the Steelers than the Chiefs. Not that that's saying much.

Verdict: Too soon to tell, because Chiefs were a much tougher test.

 

Defensive coaching: did a better job against the Steelers than the Chiefs. But the Chiefs are a much better offensive team with better offensive coaching.

Verdict: too soon to tell if defensive coaching problems have been fixed.

 

Overall: Obviously the team had a bad game against the Steelers. No arguing that. Underneath that, it appears as though some positions may have gotten better (DL, Knox), others stated the same (OL), and some may have gotten worse (WR). But it's just one game, and maybe some of the weaknesses we saw against the Steelers turn into strengths against the Dolphins. Go Bills!

[KD in CA]

OL is the biggest concern. Fortunately not many teams have the Steelers' talent up front, but Daboll better be prepared for teams to do whatever is necessary to generate pressure.

 

I'm glad OL was a focus in the draft, but that's not gonna help in 2021.

[Foxx]

This week, we'll see if maybe they just weren't ready last week.

[TakeYouToTasker 2.0]

It’s far too early to cast judgment in any of those categories, or really any category at all.

 

The post season is the culmination the season’s work. Last season was a different team.

 

This is a new team with an unestablished identity. They’ve played one game. There is very little you can know about a team after one game.

[Arm of Harm]

3 hours ago, TakeYouToTasker 2.0 said:

It’s far too early to cast judgment in any of those categories, or really any category at all.

 

The post season is the culmination the season’s work. Last season was a different team.

 

This is a new team with an unestablished identity. They’ve played one game. There is very little you can know about a team after one game.

You have a point. That said, let’s look at the things which stayed the same from last year vs. those which may have changed.

 

Stayed the same:

Interior OL. Was a problem last year, same guys, also a problem this year.

DBs: were good for most of last year, looked good against the Steelers

Changed: 

QB: Josh Allen seemingly got worse

OT: The OTs seemingly got much much worse

WR: the WRs seem to have gotten worse

TE: Knox seems to have gotten better.

DL: Hughes seems to have gotten worse. Addison (of all people) seems to have gotten better. Rousseau seems to be more a member of the team this year than last year. 
OC: Daboll seems to have gotten worse.

 

You are 100% right to say that of the above-listed changes, we don’t know how many will be one game blips vs. how many will be permanent. On the other hand I think it’s very safe to say that interior OL is just as much a need this year as it was last year.