Let’s make one thing perfectly clear about the Buffalo Bills’ offense.
It scored 41 points Sunday, so it’s not as though things are broken.
To hear all of the key players and coaches talk about it, though, there is plenty to work on ahead of Week 2 against the New York Jets.
“The biggest thing is I’ve got to get our offense in a better rhythm,” offensive coordinator Joe Brady said Monday. “Every game, we take some learning from it. It’s never going to be perfect. Sometimes, we’ve just got to find a way to get a first down.”
That was true on the Bills’ second and third possessions Sunday night. After needing just seven plays to go 50 yards and score a touchdown the first time with the ball, the offense went three-and-out the next two times. That turned a 7-3 lead when the offense got the ball for the second time into a 17-7 deficit when the fourth possession started.
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Included in those drives were some ugly plays:
On second and 1 from the Bills’ 44-yard line with 2:46 left in the first quarter, running back James Cook was stuffed for no gain.
On third and 1, Cook lost 2 yards and the Bills punted.
“We should never be punting in those situations,” coach Sean McDermott said Wednesday. “It’s early in the year, and we’ve got a lot to improve on. Our focus needs to be squarely on what we can do better and putting in that work today to do that. We’re here to practice. We’re here to get better, and last week needs to be hard. It really needs to be hard for us.”
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Bills wide receiver Khalil Shakir knows the offense has things it can improve on heading into Week 2. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
If there was an underlying theme to McDermott’s news conference Wednesday, it was improvement. The coach had a sense of urgency in his messaging to the media that, surely, was shared with his team. McDermott said the team needed to have “truthful conversations” on where it can improve.
It is easy to point to the defense, first and foremost, in that regard, but the offense wasn’t without its flaws against the Ravens.
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The Bills went three-and-out last season on 17% of their offensive drives, according to data from analytics website FTN Fantasy, which ranked sixth best in the league. They matched that 17% number Sunday against the Ravens, going three-and-out on 2 of 12 possessions.
Going three-and-out does more than just give the ball back to the opponent. It means field position isn’t flipped. It exhausts the defense, which was reeling Sunday, trying to deal with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry.
It also prevents quarterback Josh Allen from getting into any sort of rhythm with his receivers.
On the second three-and-out, the Bills tried a screen pass to Keon Coleman, but it was dropped.
After a 4-yard completion to Joshua Palmer on second down, Allen tried a screen to tight end Dalton Kincaid on third down that was immediately blown up by Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton, who forced a fumble that went out of bounds.
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Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman runs after a catch during the fourth quarter against the Ravens on Sunday. Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
At that point in the game, Brady wanted to get Coleman a touch, because he had yet to receive a target. The screen pass to Kincaid was a check by Allen at the line of scrimmage. The quarterback has certainly earned the right to go with what he’s comfortable with, but when it doesn’t work, criticism can be quick to follow.
Brady was getting roasted on social media for much of the first half for what many fans thought was conservative play calling.
“I don’t think it was … necessarily a conservative approach,” he said. “They didn’t work. So I think, naturally, when they don’t work, it looks like we’re not trying to push the ball. The original play calls were potentially ones that were going to be pushing it down the field.
“I got to be better than (Sunday) night. But some of it was getting a feel of the way the defense was being played, too.”
That is to be expected at the start of any season. To hear Brady on Monday and McDermott on Wednesday, you’d almost never know the offense put up 41 points. Such is the standard that has been set. As he so often does, Allen pointed at himself first when discussing the offense’s performance.
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“There’s lot’s to clean up,” he said. “A lot of things that I can do better and be better at. There’s a couple times where the ball was in harm’s way. Got to clean that up, but, yeah, just making sure that each and every play that we have our plan, we have our answers, and we go out try to execute to the best of our abilities.”
The Bills know they got away with one Sunday on offense and defense. They needed an awful lot to go right for it to happen, though, and can’t depend on it happening every week.
“You can sit here and pat yourself on the back and look at all the great things, but I think to Joe’s point, it’s, well, how much better can we be?” wide receiver Khalil Shakir said. “Obviously, we did have some really good drives that we put together, especially at the end of the game, but how do we do that from start to finish? We can’t depend on waiting until the fourth quarter to roll like that. If we can do that from start to finish, we know that we’re unstoppable, so just trying to find ways to make that work.”
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