GDT 9/25/22 Week 4 - Buffalo Bills (2-1) @ Baltimore Ravens (2-1) - 1pm EST

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

3 hours ago, diamondbull424 said:

Yeah these refs were trash. To not call that but to call the Mark Andrews play that IIRC forced us into a FG, OPI was ridiculous. Then the three defensive holds back to back on our defense the series after they “missed” a blatant DPI on the Bills against Andrews, also ridiculous.

Like people are blaming our offense for not doing enough and that may be true, but it’s hard to build offensive momentum when you’ve got terrible refs. The Bills capitalized on what was provided so I’m not castigating their actual efforts, but the refs were one way trash.

Agreed on all counts here, but our 2nd half offense was truly trash to watch, penalties or not.

3 hours ago, diamondbull424 said:

The Bills absolutely would’ve needed a score. It would’ve been 23-20, Ravens, on that drive if we kicked a FG. Which means they would’ve had to score at least a FG to not lose. They also don’t have the turnover on downs/interception momentum boosting their offense either.

They could’ve played for OT but at least at that point our offense would’ve had some momentum from having gotten a second half score finally and OT would’ve been back to neutral, allow the home crowd to get back into the game.

Yeah and what I'm saying is that they needed a FG anyways to win the game, unless they're playing for OT (which they're not because they're an actually competent team). It's the same scenario. Besides, we were banking on them starting from their 2-3 yard line if we failed to convert, not their own 20.

3 hours ago, diamondbull424 said:

We’ve had too many failed conversions of late and it needs to stop. This isn’t Madden. If it’s one yard, sure. But three yards, with the way our defense is looking was an instant death knell. Scoring a TD there doesn’t instantly win us the game anyway it simply forces the Bills to have to score 7 on that drive. So it literally does nothing.

Again I will point to the fact that in almost all of the failed scenarios, a good play was called that got at least one person WIDE OPEN and our players (read: QB's) have failed to execute them. Pin that on whoever you want, but if we want to cheer and idolize decisions like the ones we made in Seattle, against New England and against KC to win games or convert 4th downs, we have to also be okay with failing some of them and recognize that the decisions are correct, but the results didn't come.

3 hours ago, diamondbull424 said:

The FG was the absolute right decision there. Take the momentum. Lastly while people want to blame Lamar for not seeing Duvernay at first, it’s raining with the defense having no threat of the run so they ALL have their hands up and are blocking passing lanes to see what’s clear to the viewer.

Roman consistently makes boneheaded calls in those situations where he does something COMPLETELY different from what’s worked in the game up to that point- in those situations.

Roman consistently calls plays that have dudes wide open on the play side of the call. There's no way you can blame anyone except Lamar for that 4th down play.

3 hours ago, diamondbull424 said:

JK Dobbins is catching passes left and right? Let’s throw Mike Davis out there. We’ve had success forcing the Bills to overcommit to the run and getting outlet receivers. Let’s just remove our RB from out of the backfield entirely.

But again, there’s no reason to put it there. Scoring 7 there doesn’t win the game. Had it been 20 seconds left in the game, going for 7 there is the right call. But 2 minutes left in the game? Absolute wrong call.

Your defense has to get a stop no matter what you do. Even when we failed the 4th down conversion, they still had to go 80 yards. In that drive, they faced 2 3rd downs:

• 3rd and 2 from their own 28 (result was the 20 yard pass to Dawson Knox on a blown coverage by Chuck Clark)
• 3rd and goal from our 3 (they kicked the FG to end the game).

Our defense DID NOT do it's job, and that's why I don't think the decision to take the points was easily the right call, because even if we do, Buffalo was just going to march down the field anyways. They were inside our 10 yard line with just under 2 minutes in the game. Theoretically, because they got the ball back with 4 minutes left, we should have been able to just let them score or get off the field and give our offense another shot. Instead, the defense did what it's done all year - completely collapse.

----------------------------

1 hour ago, baltimoreRebel said:

Hard disagree? 

By my count our defense turned it over twice and had two red zone stops. Not to mention a 3 and out right after a turnover at midfield. Held them to 4-11 on third downs. They're the best 3rd down team in the NFL and also a top 5 offense. 

Our offense didn't score a point in the 2nd half.. 

Like I've said, blame goes both ways but when your defense allows points on 4/5 drives to end the game that's not doing your job. Bills averaged 10.5 plays/drive on the drives they scored points on, and those drives' average starting field position was their own 23 yard line. This demonstrates that they did whatever they wanted up and down the field on 4/5 drives against this defense starting from the last drive of the 2nd quarter all the way through the end of the game.

Our offense was putrid - that's an entirely different situation. How about we just conclude with this: The entire team collapsed in the 2nd half. Defense couldn't get off the field when they needed to, offense couldn't do anything, special teams also collapsed with some bad punts. We can call this an entire team collapse. I'm just focusing on the defense mainly because it's been a trend now for 4 straight weeks, whereas the offense has consistently been putting up enough points to win games.