All-22 review: Did Josh Allen hold the Bills’ offense back against Patriots?

The Buffalo Bills suffered their worst loss of the 2023 season, allowing a previously one-win Patriots team to pace the game and steal back the victory after it seemed like Buffalo pulled a late-game heist for a second consecutive week. It leaves the Bills with plenty of questions and little time to find the answers ahead of their Thursday night game this week.

Now, the Bills approach a critical game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, attempting to avoid a 4-4 start in the soft part of the schedule. But what did the coaches’ film reveal from the Patriots outing?

After studying the All-22, here is a deep dive into some of the key elements from the game that stood out.

Allen held the offense back a bit

As the Bills continue to ponder questions about how to get their offense back on track, specifically in the first halves of games, franchise quarterback Josh Allen may hold the key to all of it. For a second consecutive outing, Allen’s game was marred by missed opportunities and poor execution. Last week, it was in the first half before Allen turned in an outstanding second half of football. This time around, Allen never truly got in sync the way he did against the New York Giants and primarily relied on the playmaking abilities of his skill position players to put the Bills in position to win. There were two high-level throws that are usually commonplace in his game, but were the exception to the rule in this outing. His best play was standing tall against the Patriots sending eight rushers at him and delivering a perfect ball to receiver Stefon Diggs, who then somehow got into the end zone even after going to the ground after the initial catch.

What a play!

📺: @CBS pic.twitter.com/TCeCjCJ6XA

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) October 22, 2023

Outside of that, though, several things stood out, showing Allen was not playing at the level he had been earlier in the season. Above all else there was too much hesitation in his game. Whether it was not trusting what he saw to deliver a quick pass early in the game, or sensing a free rusher coming at him to get the pass off to a quick option, Allen missed the mark for much of the afternoon. There was also an overall hesitation to take off and run when he had a clear and obvious chance to, which created little fear in the Patriots defense to sell out on the pass rush, or dropping into coverage. If Allen escaped the pocket, he was looking to throw the ball almost every time. On Tuesday, Allen said he didn’t believe it to be an intentional approach. But amidst the same answer, Allen said he would rather get the ball to his quicker and shiftier teammates, which seems rather intentional. The hesitation in general, is a slightly concerning trend because Allen has been a decisive and dynamic passer and runner, which helps give the Bills a big edge on offense against opponents.

On top of the hesitation, Allen showed a clear tendency to drift from the pocket when he didn’t need to, and that was an early-career habit he actively attempted to fix. His ball placement was also as bad as it had been this season, with far too many of his throws being either high, low, behind, or generally increasing the level of difficulty for his receivers even when throwing from an uninterrupted base. That does raise the issue as to whether the Week 6 injury to his throwing shoulder was impacting his ball placement, but even if it wasn’t, something was very off with Allen for much of the game. There were also instances of Allen not having a proper sense of the pressure coming at him, and either sliding protection or getting the ball out quickly. For whatever reason, Allen just lacked the overall sharp quality he usually plays with and the Bills offense suffered because of it.

The good news is that the overall offensive environment didn’t look broken to the point where it was stale with nothing open down the field, which should result in some better starts and more points if things return to normal. But over the last two weeks, Allen’s absence of the dynamic quality that makes the Bills one of the best offense’s in the NFL, along with some slight deterioration of areas of his game that he previously conquered in his development, is at the very least notable. Allen could come out with an outstanding game and a renewed focus for all of these areas on Thursday night, and much will be put to rest. But until it does, all eyes will be on Allen to deliver the way that he did against the Las Vegas Raiders and Miami Dolphins earlier this season, thereby reducing the pressure on the offense and coordinator Ken Dorsey amidst a season with incredibly high expectations.

Defensive tackles moved off their track too easily

The Bills saw a preview of what life would be like without both starting defensive tackles DaQuan Jones and Ed Oliver on Sunday, and specifically against the run, it did not go well. The Bills went into the contest with Jordan Phillips and Tim Settle as their starters, Poona Ford as their top rotational player and practice squad call-up Kendal Vickers. But perhaps as a bit of a flaw to the roster, the Bills didn’t enter the year with a true-to-form backup one-technique defensive tackle who could hold up at the point of attack well enough against double teams. They didn’t have one between the four active defensive tackles, either. And without Jones, it forced a lot of players better suited to the three-technique role to try and hold up at the point of attack against the Patriots, and they predictably struggled.

Phillips struggled to hold his ground against both single and double teams against rushing attempts, which is a pretty common feature of his game this season. It’s a sizable problem moving forward because he’ll likely be entrusted as the starting one-technique next to Oliver as long as the roster remains this way. Despite his struggles, no one else on the roster matches his size so they’ll just need to live with some of it, despite a lack in production. Against the Patriots, Settle was turned by one blocker far too easily and never forced the action, instead allowing the block to take him where the offense wanted him to go. Ford randomly had the best run-defending rep of his 2023 season at one point in the second half, but the rest of the time like Phillips, struggled to hold his ground at the line of scrimmage when lined up at one-technique defensive tackle.

The Patriots offered a better offensive line than what the Bills faced with the Giants, and the difficulty level only increases on Thursday against the Buccaneers. The Bills may get Oliver back this week after he practiced on Tuesday which helps tremendously because Oliver is a solid run defender. The team also re-signed the all-too-familiar Eli Ankou to its practice squad after he was signed off of it in Week 5 by the Falcons and then released by the Falcons on Tuesday. Ankou is a prototypical one-technique, so it would not be a surprise if he is a practice squad elevation on Thursday to deal with the issues that were apparent against the Patriots. Defensive tackle remains a major need for as long as Jones is out and should be near the top of the Bills’ mind for the trade deadline.

DT Eli Ankou has been signed to the Bills practice squad. pic.twitter.com/EfrB0vwsp4

— Buffalo Bills PR (@BuffaloBillsPR) October 25, 2023

Despite some pressure, the offensive line held up well

With how Allen had to scramble within the pocket at times, the initial thought is that the offensive line struggled considerably against the Patriots. But after reviewing the All-22, while there were maybe two or three instances of a flat-out one-on-one pass-rushing win over a Bills offensive lineman, much of the pressure came from delayed blitzes, overloading the number of blockers by sending more rushers, some issues with Allen calling for sliding the protection the proper way and with Allen hanging on to the ball a bit longer than he should have at times along with escaping the pocket, which lessened the chance of holding on to the block.

In one-on-one pass-blocking situations with Allen in the pocket, the Bills offensive linemen generally thrived. The starting five has continued to be a strength, with left tackle Dion Dawkins, left guard Connor McGovern and right guard O’Cyrus Torrence continuing to stack solid performances. Right tackle Spencer Brown also had a good day pass blocking after one early beat around the edge. Although it wasn’t nearly the overwhelming and dominant performance that this year’s starting five have seen at times this season, it wasn’t a horrible outing either. This is still a good pass-blocking unit, and the best Allen has had since he entered the league in 2018.

Players with fewer than 15 snaps:
S Taylor Rapp (8), DE Von Miller (6), FB Reggie Gilliam (4), OL David Edwards (4), RB Ty Johnson (1), DE Kingsley Jonathan (1)

Active players without an offensive or defensive snap:
QB Kyle Allen, IOL Ryan Bates, OT Ryan Van Demark, LB Tyler Matakevich, LB Baylon Spector, NCB Siran Neal, CB Kaiir Elam, DB Cam Lewis

Inactives:
*(Total games inactive in 2023 season while on the active roster)
IOL Alec Anderson (7), Germain Ifedi (7), S Damar Hamlin (6), LB A.J. Klein (2), TE Quintin Morris (1), DT Ed Oliver (1)

The core:
*(Position players who play the core-four special teams units of kickoff, kickoff return, punt and punt return)

S Taylor Rapp (100 percent), DE Kingsley Jonathan (100), LB Tyler Matakevich (93), LB Baylon Spector (93), NCB Siran Neal (93), DB Cam Lewis (93), WR Trent Sherfield (87), RB Ty Johnson (53), WR Khalil Shakir (47), LB Tyrel Dodson (47), LB Dorian Williams (47), CB Kaiir Elam (40), WR Deonte Harty (13), DE Greg Rousseau (7), DT Tim Settle (7), DT Kendal Vickers (7), LB Terrel Bernard (7), CB Christian Benford (7), CB Dane Jackson (7), NCB Taron Johnson (7), S Jordan Poyer (7)

*Minimum 105 snaps

How the standards work

When the All-22 film becomes available, we’ll go through and watch every player on every play as many times as necessary to assess letter grades. It is a subjective analysis, and it’s important to note we do not know the play calls and full responsibilities. The grades stem from technique, effort and presumed liability.

The study accounts only for players who take a snap on offense or defense. Players with fewer than 15 snaps — unless they significantly impact the game — will not factor into weekly rankings. The grades range from an ‘A’ (a perfect 4.00 GPA) to ‘F’ (0.00 GPA). There is no such thing as an ‘A+’ on this grading system. Season-long grades will be tallied and documented, with a single game’s grade weighted based on how much the player was on the field in a given week.

(Photo of Josh Allen: Billie Weiss / Getty Images)