Wow! What a breath of fresh air. Joe Brady, who has come under constant criticism from me and others over the past year and a half in relation to his play calling, finally did what others and I have been calling for for months: threw the ball downfield and used his running backs in the pass game. Imagine what might have happened had Brady, rather than I, thought of this earlier this year. Let’s discuss:
For the past four weeks I’ve been clamoring for the Bills offense to become less predictable, especially on 1st down. In the Miami loss the Bills ran Cook on first down 10 times and on 8 of those runs he was stopped for two yards or less forcing the Bills into a second and long situation. We saw defenses putting 8-9 guys up on the line of scrimmage to stop the Bills running attack. We saw defenses blitz Josh on 2nd and 3rd and long situations. This directly led to all three losses. For weeks I’ve been ranting for the Bills to open it up on first down by throwing the ball downfield. I’ve also been pointing out that the use of running backs out of the backfield on passing plays is a perfect way to beat a blitz. In a four game span, two of which were losses, Cook was TARGETED twice. Two balls thrown to him in four games. In the first seven games of this season Ty Johnson, who Josh dubbed the best third down back in the NFL, was targeted seven times for two receptions and 19 total yards. Defenses stacked the box, took away the first down run, blitzed on second and long and the Bills refused (arrogant and stubborn-see my rant of 10/30/25) to change their game plan. Yesterday, however, may have been an epiphany for Brady.
Bills started out poorly with a bad Josh interception. On their next drive Brady was his old predictable self running Cook on first down twice for no gain and a loss of two. Big plays by Josh got them out of second an long and led to a TD. On the next offensive series the Bills were again faced with a third and long but Josh threw a lazar to Palmer and capped off the drive with the scramble/bomb to Shavers. After another bad interception the Bills got the ball back at their own eight yard line with 1:08 left in the half. Five plays later (all pass plays) the Bills, believe it or not, threw a swing pass to, you guessed it, Ty Johnson who went 52 yards for the score. Amazing how well that works against a team that was playing press coverage and blitzing.
The second half started out in typical Brady fashion. After a 41 yard kick return by Davis, Cook got two yards on first down and the Bills went three and out. The next time the Bills got the ball they were down 26-21 thanks to a muffed punt by newly acquired Mecole Hardman. Up to this point in the game Cook had four carries on 1st down and had gained a measly seven yards. This drive started off differently as Josh hit Shavers for 21 yards on first down. With the Tampa defense no longer stacking the box Cook was able to get 6 yards on first down. Inexplicably Brady went back to him on second and four and Cook lost two which again led to a third and long which Josh wasn’t able to convert. Down 26-24 Cole Bishop came up with a huge interception. On first down from the Tampa 25 Josh hit James Cook (yes that James Cook) on a wheel route for a 25 yard TD pass. Watching that play again it was so obvious that there was no way that the Bucs linebacker had any chance in keeping up with Cook on a wheel route. Easy TD. Why in the hell hadn’t they run that play in the previous nine fucking games???
We all saw what transpired the rest of the game. The Bills opened up the passing game by throwing the ball downfield on early downs and the ultimate success they had. Once the Bills offense, especially on first downs, became less predictable Cook was able to run successfully. This is what the Bills need to do for the foreseeable future. Stop being predictable. Make defenses pay when they put 8 or 9 men in the box. Throw the ball downfield. Get rid of the stupid wide receiver screens (Tried it once yesterday to Shakir for a predictable 3 yard loss). Get the running backs involved in the pass game. Going into yesterday’s game the Bills running backs had 179 yards receiving the whole year (58 of those yards were to Cook in the first game where the Bills were forced to abandon the run after being down big against the Ravens). Yesterday they combined for 127 yards. That was more yardage in one game than they’d had in their previous eight games. How didn’t Brady see this earlier in the year?
All year long we’ve been complaining about or Wide Receivers inability to separate. We queried whether it was lack of talent or bad schemes. Yesterday we saw what can happen if you let Josh be Josh and let him throw the ball downfield. Tyrell Shavers, he of the great preseason games who rarely gets the opportunity to play because of Beane’s free agent (Samuel and Moore) and draft (Coleman) busts had the game of his life. I love this kid. Big, strong and gets open and rarely drops a pass. The way he used his hands on the catch he made in the endzone was tremendous. So many other receivers cradle that ball in which ceates issues with the ball coming loose when hitting the ground (Kincaid in last years AFC Championship game). Instead, Shavers positioned his hands so as to prevent the collision with the ground. A true great catch.
In looking at this offense for the rest of the season and with the return of Kincaid, I am confident that we’ll be able to score points on anyone. As long as Brady doesn’t revert to his previously predictable offense we should be fine. The Bills need to pass to set up the run. Defenses had figured out how to stop the Bills. Once they have to worry about downfield passing, corner routes, passes to the running back and the like they can no longer dictate the game. We have Josh Fucking Allen. Use him!!!
I’m going to end here because I hate to ruin a good Monday by talking about how putrid our run defense is. The amount of money and draft capital spent on defense combined with having a defensive minded head coach should have given us better results. That, however, is for another time and for another rant.
Go Bills.