How Josh Allen’s first-half miscues vs. Giants bogged down Bills’ offense

Following their frustrating loss in London, the Bills had hoped to return home with a big offensive performance that erased all the lingering thoughts of ‘what could have been’ against the Jaguars. But all the close win over the injury-riddled one-win Giants brings is more questions.

What heavily contributed to such a slow start on offense? How did some notable players perform despite not being a focal point of the broadcast copy?

After analyzing the All-22, here is a deep dive into what stood out from the Bills’ narrow win over the Giants.

Allen’s poor first half was a big reason for slow start

When the Bills struggled through the first three quarters against the Jaguars, the film showed some execution errors that prematurely ended drives. But it also provided legitimate reasons for optimism heading into a week against the struggling Giants. The Bills’ offense never woke up, though, and overall it got a bit worse than when in London. And a big reason for their slow start had to do with some well-below-average play from their franchise quarterback Josh Allen. As we all know through the result, Allen turned things around to have a nearly perfect second half when dropping back to pass. But there should be a deep sense of getting away with one, as Allen and the Bills likely wouldn’t have been able to win with only 14 points against almost any other opponent.

So, what was happening with Allen in the first half? Whereas it was mostly his teammates in London who were letting him down, it was the opposite whenever Allen didn’t target top receiver Stefon Diggs, and even sometimes that didn’t go well. Allen forced some passes and occasionally left the pocket prematurely, but the bigger problem was not seeing the entire field with targets running open. On those plays, it wasn’t a case of there being an available target on the complete opposite side of the field from where Allen was looking. If that were the case, it would be far-fetched for him to find that player. The open receivers were within a half-field read. Had Allen been on point in the first half, he would have spotted them. On one play, Khalil Shakir popped wide open toward the sideline for what should have been an easy first-down throw, but Allen completely missed the read. The Bills returned to it later in the game, resulting in a key pickup on third down of their first touchdown drive.

It even extended into the second half in small ways, like one where Allen missed what should have been a long touchdown pass to running back James Cook. who sat in the middle.

The play begins with Allen dropping back to pass, and needing to step up in the pocket after the pass rusher beats right tackle Spencer Brown. With the other three pieces of the pass rush neutralized, Cook looks to leak out of the backfield.

At this point, Allen is completely locked into his read to the left side, where there are three receivers. Cook made himself available as an easy dump down target, though with many seconds having gone by, the pass rush eventually began to close in on Allen.

Allen sidesteps the rush from the defensive right side, gets out of the pocket and keeps his eyes purely left, with all three targets covered well. Meanwhile, Cook is eyeing down the Giants linebacker to see if he commits to pursuing the scrambling Allen.

As the linebacker clears out the space, Cook knows the time is now, with a relatively easy and wide open throw for Allen and a clear path to at least the 10-yard line, if not a touchdown, knowing Cook’s speed. Allen remains locked in on the left side.

This view is to show that it wouldn’t be so far out of the realm of possibilities for Allen, who typically sees the full field when improvising, to simply look slightly to his right and see Cook screaming down the field with no one around him.

Instead, Allen keeps staring down his targets to the left, and when a throw isn’t available, braced for impact from multiple defenders. The Bills went on to score later in the drive, though the miss typified some of Allen’s struggles throughout the game.

Compounding some of Allen’s errors was an overall hesitance to take off and run with the ball once he left the pocket, which is part of his magic every week that gives teams problems in reigning the Bills’ offense in. The Bills also did not call any designed runs for Allen even before his shoulder injury. That may be a piece offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey reignites in coming weeks, with how it strains the opposition.

Allen was not good in that first half, but much credit needs to go to Giants linebacker Bobby Okereke. He was, by far, the best player on the field for either team. The number of plays he sniffed out, moments he made Allen nervous, times he made an impact in coverage, and then the speed and physicality to finish plays were remarkable. The Bills were potentially on to something on offense in the late first half, but Okereke’s read on the play and athleticism to get a hand on Allen’s pass tipped the ball in the air and led to an interception. The throw needed more touch instead of being a straight-line heater, but the play by Okereke was extremely impressive all the same. Regardless of that one individual defensive performance, Allen needs to be far better than he was in the first half. Those wins against more talented opponents won’t be there should it continue in the future.

Cook was the best back, by far

Whether it was to send a message to Cook, the team’s promising second-year running back, or because they thought Latavius Murray offered more, the Bills made Murray their lead back through the first three quarters. It was a slightly confusing maneuver, given that Murray really didn’t stand out as a runner in the Week 5 loss to Jacksonville. Though, the brief Cook demotion may have had more to do with his uneven results in pass protection. After all, Murray recently has seen his time on the field increase on third downs. Perhaps the move was the spark Cook needed because there was a large gap between his effectiveness and Murray’s.

Cook looked explosive, decisive and ran for some tough yardage when they needed him most in the second half. He had a pair of consecutive 14-yard gains which were great, but his toughness and vision to get either four or five yards on four first-down attempts during the team’s game-winning touchdown drive is even more impressive. On top of that, Cook intimidated the Giants in a way Murray simply did not. When the Bills looked to handoff to Cook, whether it be as an actual rushing attempt or on play action, the Giants reacted differently and respected the run more than they did with Murray. There were a couple of reps where the Bills did play action with Murray, and the linebackers barely moved from their spot.

Moving forward, Cook should be the unquestioned starter. At positions where they can rotate players more often, the Bills love to reel their young starters back in if they fall victim to some inconsistencies in previous weeks. This situation reeks of that. Murray has been an effective player and will continue to get run, but the offense is different, and feels like it can erupt for a big play far more with Cook on the field. The Bills should lean into that moving forward and re-insert Cook to the starting lineup next week. And given the gap in performance between the two backs, reasonable logic should yield that as the Week 7 approach.

How has Von Miller looked so far?

One of the most common questions since pass rusher Von Miller returned from a torn ACL is how he’s performed through his first two games. The Bills put more snaps on Miller’s plate this week, though they approached it in a different way against the Giants than the Jaguars. In Week 5, the team got Miller a bunch of snaps early on, and then shut him down for most of the second half because he reached his snap limit. Against the Giants in Week 6, the Bills used Miller only sparingly early on before deploying him frequently down the stretch. It was mostly in obvious pass-rushing situations, and the longest stretch of plays they gave him up until the fourth quarter was four consecutive plays at a time. That was until the final drive of the game, when Miller played the entire drive up until the final few plays. I would expect longer stints on drives in the coming weeks and more snaps early on as his snap restriction lifts.

As for his on-the-field performance, Miller looks like a player still trying to work back from 10-month long injury rehab. There hasn’t been any discernible rushes in any of his reps to this point. He hasn’t really attempted to bend the edge or use explosiveness to zoom past the opponent. He also really hasn’t utilized many outside-in moves in his sparing snaps. There was one rep against the Giants where Miller looked a bit more like himself, when he went wide and casually chopped down the offensive tackles arms from a block attempt to keep his pads clean. Other than that, it’s seemed like a bit of a feeling out process through his first two games. It would be unfair to expect him to be the same guy as he was immediately, but the Bills are banking on him to get there eventually and being the impact player in the playoffs they signed him to be.

Players with fewer than 15 snaps:
DE Shaq Lawson (13), NCB Siran Neal (13), WR Deonte Harty (10), OL David Edwards (8), FB Reggie Gilliam (5), DE Kingsley Jonathan (5), LB Tyrel Dodson, OT Ryan Van Demark (3), QB Kyle Allen (2), RB Damien Harris (1)

Active players without an offensive or defensive snap:
IOL Ryan Bates, LB Tyler Matakevich, LB Baylon Spector, CB Ja’Marcus Ingram, S Taylor Rapp, DB Cam Lewis

Inactives:
*(Total games inactive in 2023 season while on the active roster)
IOL Alec Anderson (6), Germain Ifedi (6), S Damar Hamlin (5), TE Dalton Kincaid (1), LB A.J. Klein (1), CB Dane Jackson (1)

The core:
*(Position players who play the core-four special teams units of kickoff, kickoff return, punt and punt return)
LB Tyler Matakevich (100 percent), NCB Siran Neal (100), LB Baylon Spector (100), LB Tyrel Dodson (100), FB Reggie Gilliam (100), S Taylor Rapp (100), DE Kingsley Jonathan (100), CB Ja’Marcus Ingram (93), TE Quintin Morris (57), WR Khalil Shakir (50), WR Trent Sherfield (43), WR Deonte Harty (29), CB Christian Benford (21), DB Cam Lewis (21), RB Damien Harris (21)

*Minimum 90 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.

(Top photo of Josh Allen: Bryan Bennett / Getty Images)