Welcome to the Bills’ existential crisis era.
Both of these statements can be true.
The Bills defeated the Giants on Sunday Night Football.
The Bills are going through an existential crisis.
Following a 14-9 win, Josh Allen looked despondent in his post-game interview. They had won and sometimes you need an ugly win and he knows that.
But he knows they have A LOT to clean up too. And boy do they.
So let me put my conspiracy hat on for a second…
Stefon Diggs was targeted on what seemed like every pass in the first half. He ended the game with 10 catches for 100 yards and to start it looked like he could’ve had 30 catches last night.
But as Cover1 (love y’all) and other online film students have shown, Allen DID have other options open on a few instances. But instead, he forces the ball to Diggs.
Two theories are at play for me.
- Allen doesn’t trust his secondary receivers and hasn’t all year. Look at the stat line against Jacksonville. Look at last nights target share. Sherfield, Harty, Knox, Shakir are all basically invisible. Either the OC isn’t scheming properly or QB1 doesn’t trust his options.
- Allen and Diggs took matters into their own hands and decided to make a statement to the front office and staff. WE. NEED. HELP. And so Allen forced the ball to Diggs in the first half to make a point. “It’s us against the world right now and you need to do more to help us.”
Message received? I sure hope so
We doubted the lack of pass catchers all summer. Dalton Kincaid could be a star TE in the future, but the Bills haven’t used him like that so far. Gabe Davis has been a good WR2, but fumbled early on and has had drop issues this year.
Knox, Sherfield and Harty all should’ve been primed for a huge opportunity with Kincaid missing last night’s game. Instead, Allen didn’t really care to involve them in the game.
Is this Allen’s doing? Could be. Maybe he has trust issues with the staff and personnel, leading to an inconsistent offense (even though the stats are encouraging.
But we’ve known. We’ve known all summer that the WR3 and secondary playmakers issue could rear its ugly head once more and it’s shown through in the last two weeks.
The QB needs to adjust. But Brandon Beane has also failed the QB. Josh Allen can be great with this group because he is great. But the Bills have a playmaker problem. And with a defense marred by injuries (Giants anemic offense withstanding, last night wasn’t a real test for them) the offense is what will carry the Bills to a potential Super Bowl run.
But to expect Josh to lift up this receiving corps every week would be GM malpractice.
Get Josh and Stef some help, BB.
Go Bills.