AFC Championship Game: The Aftermath

[GG1]

The biggest Qs heading into the season came up small tonight.

 

Great ride

 

Sucked how it ended

 

Will have plenty of time to discuss the path forward

 

Tonight is to drink just enough that I'm coherent for my 8AM call

[KD in CA]

Great season;  most enjoyable ride since the early '90s so hard to complain.

 

Josh wasn't at his best but comparisons to '18 or '19 are ridiculous.  He was moving the ball in the second half, but still needs to learn how to settle down more quickly in big games, and still needs to learn when to get rid of the ball and not take 47 yard sacks.  I think the entire WR corps is just beat to all hell so that didn't help.  Pretty telling that Yeldon was the feature back in the second half -- we need to improve there.

 

Daboll was suspect;  other than the first TD to Knox after the fumbled punt, there wasn't a single play called in the red zone (out of about 10 plays) that was even close to being a touchdown.  FGs instead of TDs is what dug the hole too deep to overcome.  The pass protection was abused repeatedly.

 

Defense:  just not good enough.  Not nearly tough enough.  Our defense doesn't punish anyone.  KC and Marsha both have defenses that punished people today and they both won.  Not a coincidence.  You can live without a pass rush against Sam Darnold and Phillip Rivers and Tua Tagawhatever, but you are going to lose to Mahomes or Marsha every single time if you can't get to him. 

 

FO needs to get to work tomorrow and start to figure out how to turn this into a defense than can hold up in January.

[RochesterRob]

1 minute ago, Comssvet11 said:

The question is, is this the peak or can you expect more of a upward trajectory. 

  I expect the AFC to be a lot tougher this fall so expect a few less wins.  The positive is we have a decent core of players who should be around for a while.  

[GG1]

1 minute ago, Uncle Joe said:

I think we missed  a healthy Gabe tonight 

 

Don't understand why you activated him, but didn't play until last series

[NCBillsFan]

They built a team to beat Marsha and got close. Now need to tweak the team to beat Mahomes. Get to work.

[Boyst]

2 minutes ago, GG1 said:

 

Don't understand why you activated him, but didn't play until last series

Or find a way to use McKenzie regularly without going to gadget and trick plays.

 

We put ourselves in a hole against a team that dominated our OL earlier in the year with no effective gameplan to counter what we already should have learned.

[Ninety-4]

The running game really needs work and there's likely more to it than just adding a back.  With all the spread formations the Bills run, it should be possible to run the ball well far more often with the defense spread out a bit.  Against the better opponents you have to be able to control the ball, move the chains and manage down and distance with some consistency. 

[Fansince88]

5 minutes ago, Uncle Joe said:

I think we missed  a healthy Gabe tonight 

Yes we did!

[Ninety-4]

8 minutes ago, Uncle Joe said:

I think we missed  a healthy Gabe tonight 

 

Yes.  I've never been a big John Brown fan.  I'd like to see the Bills add another receiver with size to be in their top 4 with Beasley and Diggs.  . 

[Fansince88]

Josh got 88 of the 126 rushing yards. We need to get bigger at RB. Romo kept saying KC was sticky on the secondary. Thats because we have not been able to command the run all season. That needs to be addressed in the off season. 

[RochesterRob]

4 minutes ago, Ninety-4 said:

The running game really needs work and there's likely more to it than just adding a back.  With all the spread formations the Bills run, it should be possible to run the ball well far more often with the defense spread out a bit.  Against the better opponents you have to be able to control the ball, move the chains and manage down and distance with some consistency. 

  Yeldon was in over his head and number 22 seemed like he was the only back out there most offensive plays.  The OL leaked quite a bit so even if Singletary or Moss were out there extensively I don't know that the result would have been much different.  OL, DL, and LB are definitely on the table the first three rounds of this year's draft.

[Dubs]

Well, that sucks.

 

DPD Thoughts:

 

- this game was on the offense. Defense didn’t play well, but that’s the chiefs on the other side of the ball. I expected them to score 30+. I anticipated the Bills to score more than 14 (starting a drive on the 3 and also getting an onside kick don’t really count)

 

- disappointed in the Oline. They were terrible. There had to be a dozen instances where KC rushed 5 and one ended up free rushing Allen. 
 

- Allen was not good. He was flustered today. Reminded me a lot of the Houston game last year. He will learn and get better, but disappointing. 
 

- not sure where the blame lies on the overall offensive approach, but it seemed we continuously tried to force things rather than take what was there. Ended up being a frustrating day instead of trying to soften up the defense and take your shots when they were there. 

[Uncle Joe]

1 minute ago, Ninety-4 said:

 

Yes.  I've never been a big John Brown fan.  I'd like to see the Bills add another receiver with size to be in their top 4 with Beasley and Diggs.  . 

Smoke is good when healthy. Those 4 are tough match-up wise when all are healthy. 

That said I believe Smoke may be a cap casualty next year?

[Ann]

14 minutes ago, Comssvet11 said:

The question is, is this the peak or can you expect more of a upward trajectory. 

If this is the peak, Beane needs to give back that GM of the year award.

[Hedge]

1st loss since 11/15/20. We saw a lot of good football, lots of total domination and wins by almost 30 points in that time. We were on the wrong side of it tonight, but the team will be back.

[Ninety-4]

1 minute ago, RochesterRob said:

  Yeldon was in over his head and number 22 seemed like he was the only back out there most offensive plays.  The OL leaked quite a bit so even if Singletary or Moss were out there extensively I don't know that the result would have been much different.  OL, DL, and LB are definitely on the table the first three rounds of this year's draft.

 

I thought TJ played well when he was in there.  Caught some balls, made some blocks and picked up some yards running.  Certainly nothing spectacular and he's not a long term answer but he was more productive than Devin tonight I thought given limited opportunities.

[Ann]

6 minutes ago, Ninety-4 said:

 

Yes.  I've never been a big John Brown fan.  I'd like to see the Bills add another receiver with size to be in their top 4 with Beasley and Diggs.  . 

With Brown's cap space, I think he is gone. Who do they replace him with? Is Davis good enough to step-up?

 

[Ninety-4]

Hopefully Antonio Williams gets more of a look in training camp next year.  Seems like a banger. 

Edited January 25, 2021 by Ninety-4

[Dubs]

1 minute ago, Ann said:

With Brown's cap space, I think he is gone. Who do they replace him with? Is Davis good enough to step-up?

 

I think so. They really didn’t miss a beat without Brown in the second half. 
 

does Stills stay on the roster?

[RochesterRob]

3 minutes ago, Ninety-4 said:

 

I thought TJ played well when he was in there.  Caught some balls, made some blocks and picked up some yards running.  Certainly nothing spectacular and he's not a long term answer but he was more productive than Devin tonight I thought given limited opportunities.

  He had one drop in the first half that was a drive killer.  When playing the Chiefs most teams can't afford mistakes.  I think he is a good reserve but we need to get better in the running game.