Then the Bills pulled out the tricks. Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll called a trick play which was wideout John Brown throwing a pass to Allen, much like the trick play the Philadelphia Eagles pulled out in the past.
The Arizona Cardinals did not make it to the postseason but Arizona Cardinals fans can see a few former Cardinals players in the playoffs. The first playoff game of the weekend is between Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans. Between the two teams, there are seven former Cardinals.
Let’s check out who they are.
Bills LB Lorenzo Alexander
Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports
Alexander spent two seasons with the Cardinals in 2013-2014. He became a pretty good pass rusher when he got to Buffalo. He had 50 tackles and two sacks in 2019.
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar names eight unheralded players who could make all the difference for their teams in the wild-card round.
Every NFL postseason has its share of surprise performers. Whether it’s Otto Graham in the Browns’ first year in the NFL schooling the 1950 Philadelphia Eagles in that year’s championship game, or L.C. Greenwood — perhaps the least-known member of the Steel Curtain front four — racking up four sacks against the Cowboys in Super Bowl X, or then-Bills backup quarterback and current Colts head coach Frank Reich authoring the biggest comeback in NFL history against the Houston Oilers in the 1992 wild-card round, or Washington running back Timmy Smith shocking the Broncos with 204 rushing yards in Super Bowl XXII, it’s just as likely that the most important postseason performance comes from a guy whose name you’re not familiar with just yet.
This postseason is no exception, and there are all kinds of potential stars you might not know who are mere hours away from their breakout performance. Here’s one potential secret superstar for each of the eight wild-card teams this weekend.
Buffalo Bills: WR John Brown
(AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Bills general manager Brandon Beane has made more than his share of smart personnel decisions since he took the job in 2017, and one of the most astute has to be the March, 2019 signing of former Cardinals and Ravens receiver John Brown to a three-year, $27 million contract with $11.6 million guaranteed. All he’s done this season is set career highs in receptions (72) and receiving yards (1,060), while giving second-year quarterback Josh Allen quite the security blanket — especially on deep passes, where Brown has caught 10 of his 27 targets of 20 or more air yards for 332 yards and four touchdowns. No other Bills player has more than five deep receptions, and that’s tight end Dawson Knox.
There are all kinds of plays we should show to represent Brown’s importance to Buffalo’s passing game, but this 53-yard touchdown against the Patriots in Week 16 is the most compelling example.
Out of the right slot, Brown demolishes cornerback Stephon Gilmore on a nasty out-and-up for the only touchdown Gilmore’s given up all season, and then, he smokes safety Devin McCourty for good measure. No other NFL receiver can claim to have beaten both of these defenders on the same play in 2019; 2020 could be more of the same for the defenders trying to deal with Brown. Houston’s average to below-average cornerbacks could find him to be a particularly vexing test.
The Buffalo Bills are back in the playoffs and will be facing the Houston Texans.
The Buffalo Bills are back in the playoffs for the second time in three years, and will be facing the AFC South champions Houston Texans. After a surprising 10-6 season, the Bills will be going to Houston to face Deshaun Watson, J.J. Watt, and DeAndre Hopkins on Wild Card weekend.
Here are the five matchups to watch against Houston on Saturday:
Let’s not beat around the bush here, this is the biggest test in the young career of Tre’Davious White. These two locked horns last season and White had an underrated performance. He held the Pro Bowl receiver to five catches, 63 yards, and one touchdown. White was in a great coverage, but Hopkins made an exceptional back shoulder grab that only a few players can make in the NFL.
White has had the best season of his career, with six interceptions, and 17 pass breakups the most important stat for White though, is that he’s allowed zero touchdowns this season. Putting him in the running for Defensive Player of the Year.
DeAndre Hopkins on the other hand, has been having a down year by his lofty standards. The Pro Bowler has 104 catches, 1,165 yards, and seven touchdowns. His past two seasons saw him go over 1,300 yards, and go into double digits for touchdowns as well.
With fellow wide receivers, Will Fuller V and Kenny Stills both listed as questionable for Saturday the offense will run through quarterback Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins.
Touchdown Wire highlights that the team needs to find a wide receiver for quarterback Josh Allen.
Happy New Year!
Even though the NFL is concluding its final month of the 2019 season, the calendar has shifted to 2020, meaning the start of something new for many people.
What should be Buffalo’s resolution for this year?
“Find Josh Allen a wide receiver. It can’t be made more clearly than that and doesn’t need to be, either. The Bills’ passing game was the weak link in 2019, and a lot of the plain-oatmeal malaise can be energized with a wideout who can cause coverage nightmares (or simply be an unstoppable force.) Yep, filling a need such as this falls under the “water is wet” category, but the Bills will need to balance the attack next season (and beyond) because the division is seemingly becoming less top-heavy.”
It makes sense that Buffalo would look to supplement the offense, as the team was 26th averaging 201.8 yards passing per game. John Brown and Cole Beasley were major upgrades to the receiving corps, but it can be argued that the organization needs to do more to help Allen.
The Bills could look for a game-breaking wide receiver in the draft. Buffalo will complete their first-round pick no higher than the 21st pick in the selection order. The last time the Bills picked that late in the draft, they hit a home run, selecting Tre’Davious White with the 27th overall pick. The team traded down to gain draft capital, and they came home with a perennial All-Pro cornerback.
No matter how great any NFL team, there’s always that one potentially fatal flaw. Here are the things that could upend each wild-card team.
No NFL team is perfect, no matter how great they may be. The 1972 Dolphins, the only team in NFL history to put up a perfect season from start to finish, lived in an era where they didn’t need much in the way of quarterback performance. So, they could deal with the broken leg and dislocated ankle that cost quarterback Bob Griese eight games in the regular season. The 2007 Patriots, who came within one game of joining the 1972 Miami team with a perfect season, found it more and more difficult to pace themselves through a defensive regression that started with linebacker Rosevelt Colvin’s foot injury in late November.
So, if even the greatest teams in NFL history have potentially fatal flaws, what does that say about the eight wild-card entrants in the 2019 postseason? It says that, for each of those teams, they’ll have to overcome the things that could upend them from the first round on, hoping that the things that make them great are more present at the most opportune moments.
Here are the most obvious flaws for each of those teams as we head into wild-card weekend.
Buffalo Bills: Josh Allen’s ceiling
(Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports)
The Bills have an exciting run game with veteran Frank Gore, rookie Devin Singletary, and quarterback Josh Allen. They have perhaps the strongest defense from front to back in this particular wild-card group. They have Tre’Davious White, the only cornerback this season to pick off six passes without allowing a touchdown. Were it not for the relatively low ceiling Allen brings as a passer, they might be the most formidable team in the 2019 postseason. But Allen’s low ceiling is there, and it might be a problem.
Allen has been reasonably efficient. He’s thrown just three interceptions this season since his three-interception meltdown against the Patriots in Week 4, so at least he’s learned to minimize the damage to his own offense. And he does have 17 touchdown passes in that time period, so productive plays are a possibility — especially in concert with John Brown, who may be the NFL’s most underrated receiver. And certainly, Allen’s two-touchdown game against New England in Week 16 was a nice summary of his growth as a passer this season. But if the Bills wind up in a one- or two-touchdown hole in the playoffs, can Allen turn it loose effectively enough to mount a comeback? For a guy with a big arm, he’s been relatively quiet on bog downfield plays — just 18 completions on 68 attempts for 589 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions on passes of 20 or more air yards this season. And he’s not been terribly efficient under pressure this season, with a 41.2% completion rate and five touchdowns to four interceptions when his dropbacks have been disrupted.
Perhaps the 2019 playoffs is when Allen hits the proverbial next level. If that’s the case, the Bills instantly become as tough an out as you’ll find in this postseason and beyond. If not, everything else will have to work perfectly for a long postseason run.
What we learned, Buffalo Bills vs. New York Jets, NFL Week 17
There’s little that should be taken away from the Buffalo Bills’ final game of the 2019 regular season, a 13-6 loss in the rain against a New York Jets’ team that was finishing up its playoff-less season.
The Bills, with nothing to play for on Sunday, rested several key players and played mostly backups throughout the contest. In what looked like a preseason game, the Bills struggled to do much of anything on offense. The Jets struggled as well, but did just enough to outlast the Bills as both teams ran for the proverbial bus, just hoping to get this game over and done with.
The Bills wanted to get this game out of the way without any significant injuries before they made their journey out to the Central time zone for a Wild card Matchup against the Houston Texans. Unfortunately, the Bills were unable to escape without significant injury.
Levi Wallace and Ty Nsekhe were knocked out of Sunday’s contest and failed to return. Cody Ford, Taron Johnson and Siran Neal also left the game with injuries, but returned. The injuries were the last thing the Bills’ coaching staff wanted to see. The injury to Wallace was particularly troubling. The Bills’ No. 2 cornerback was hurt making a first quarter interception. It was a non-contact injury, which is never a good thing, as he planted his foot awkwardly in the wet New Era Field turf while trying to pivot and intercept a pass from Jets quarterback Sam Darnold. Wallace turned his ankle on the interception and hobbled off the field with help from a couple of teammates. The Bills get ready to face a Houston passing attack.
Nsekhe and Ford, Buffalo’s two right tackles, were banged up in this game and their absence was felt greatly. The Buffalo offensive line struggled all day against the Jets’ defensive front.
The Bills finish the 2019 regular season at 10-6, earning the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs. Their wild card matchup with Houston will be the first game of the coming weekend, kicking off at 4:30 at NRG Stadium.
Here are four things we learned about the Bills from Sunday’s game and how they relate to Buffalo’s attempt to finally win a playoff game for the first time since 1995 this coming Saturday in Texas.
Through the first 15 weeks of the 2019 season, the Patriots’ pass defense was historically great. Not so now. What’s gone wrong?
The most shocking game result in Week 17 of the 2019 NFL season was unquestionably Miami’s 27-24 win over the Patriots. New England was playing for the AFC’s two-seed, which they ceded to the Chiefs with the loss, so it wasn’t like Bill Belichick was resting guys out there. And while it was no surprise that the Patriots’ offense was unspectacular — Tom Brady completed 16 of 29 passes for 221 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, and Sony Michel led the team with 74 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries against the Dolphins’ sub-par defense — it was the performance of New England’s defense that raised some red flags as the defending Super Bowl champs head into the postseason.
Throughout most of the season, it’s been the defense that has kept the Patriots humming while the offense has performed in fits and starts at best. Through the first 15 weeks in 2019, New England allowed the NFL’s fewest completions (261) for the second-fewest passing yards behind San Francisco (2,666), for the fewest touchdowns (10), the lowest completion percentage (56.01%), the lowest yards per attempt (5.72) and the most interceptions (25). The Patriots allowed an opposing QBR of 57.39; the Bills ranked second in that time period at 76.73, You could argue that New England faced a relatively weak slate of opposing quarterbacks overall, but still, on that side of the ball, things were going at a historic level.
And then, over the last two weeks, it seems to have fallen apart. Against the Bills in Week 16 — a game the Pats still won to take their 11th straight AFC East title — and in that Dolphins loss, New England has allowed a completion rate of 60%, 42 completions for 548 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and an opposing QBR of 98.99 — only five teams have been worse over the last two weeks of the season in that regard.
The most worrisome character in this particular regression is cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who looked like the runaway Defensive Player of the Year through the first 15 weeks of the season. Then, he allowed just 38 receptions on 82 targets for 444 yards, no touchdowns, six interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 32.8. Among cornerbacks taking at least 50% of their teams’ defensive snaps, only J.C. Jackson, Gilmore’s teammate, allowed a lower passer rating.
All of a sudden, opponents like Dolphins receiver DeVante Parker are finding reasons to take the Patriots’ pass defense less seriously. (Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports)
But over the last two weeks — that tight win over the Bills and the upset loss to the Dolphins — Gilmore has allowed nine catches on 16 targets for 180 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 131.5. Among cornerbacks taking at least 50% of their teams’ defensive snaps in that time, only eight have allowed a higher passer rating.
And it’s not just Gilmore. Jackson has been more vulnerable. Safeties Devin McCourty and Duron Harmon have not been as efficient and opportunistic of late. Perhaps most disconcerting for those aficionados of Belichick’s defensive brilliance over time is the seeming breakdowns between cornerbacks and safeties.
The first real example of things going wrong came with 7:25 left in the third quarter of the Bills game, when quarterback Josh Allen hit receiver John Brown for a 53-yard touchdown on a deep over route. The Patriots are running a man blitz here with McCourty as the deep safety, and Gilmore covering Brown in the defensive left slot. Defensive lineman Lawrence Guy forced a pressured throw from Allen, but Gilmore lost Brown on the fake outside to the seam, didn’t pick him back up, and McCourty was out in the weeds. It’s tough to remember an instance this season in which New England’s secondary was this out of sync.
“We kind of thought we had a beat on the play and we tried to be aggressive on it,” McCourty said after the game. “A call I made in the secondary where we try to be a little more aggressive and after you get beat on a touchdown, I came to the sideline and I’m like, ‘We’re not going to run that anymore.’ I think, like always, guys in our secondary, we move on fast and I think we always come to the sideline and understand exactly what it was and why a bad play happened for us, and then we fix it and got right down to it. A call that we liked coming into the week to be aggressive, and they kind of dialed up the perfect call against what we were doing, threw it away and then kept playing.”
Well, if that was a lone rogue incident, we wouldn’t be talking about a downward trend that really blew up against the Dolphins — the same Dolphins team that just fired Chad O’Shea, their offensive coordinator. So, there’s that. Well, in this game, Gilmore was exposed as he’d rarely been in a Patriots uniform, especially by Miami receiver DeVante Parker, who caught eight passes for 137 yards, and most of them against Gilmore.
Parker’s first reception, a 28-yarder from Ryan Fitzpatrick with 7:50 left in the first quarter, was another example of Gilmore in a schematic pinch.
With the 2019 regular season in the books, let’s take a look at the Bills’ statistical leaders and the team’s ranking compared to the rest of the league.
There were many things to smile about if you’re a Bills fan this year. The team returns to the playoffs for the second time in three seasons. Buffalo produced its first double-digit win season in two decades (and their first of this millennium).
With the 2019 regular season in the books, let’s take a look at the Bills’ statistical leaders and the team’s ranking compared to the rest of the league.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
Team offense (yards per game)
Total offense: 330.2 (24th)
Points per game: 19.6 (t-23th)
Passing yards: 201.8 (26th)
Passing touchdowns: 21 (24th)
Rushing yards: 128.4 (8th)
Rushing touchdowns: 17 (t-18th)
Giveaways: 19 (12 INTs): (t-11th)
Tre’Davious White #27 of the Buffalo Bills. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
Buffalo Bills CB Tre’Davious White could set a Pro Football Focus benchmark.
Folks typically either love or hate Pro Football Focus’ analysis, but when it comes down to hard numbers, those stats are undisputed.
Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White has a massive one in his favor heading into his team’s season finale against the Jets.
According to PFF, White could become the only cornerback since the outlet’s start (2006) to have played 500-plus coverage snaps and not allow a single touchdown while leading the NFL in interceptions.
So what does wide receiver John Brown have to do with that? Here’s where NFL research comes in.
In Buffalo’s 24-17 loss to the Patriots in Week 16, Brown scored a 53-yard touchdown with cornerback Stephon Gilmore in coverage. It was the first time this season Gilmore was scored on, and Gilmore has played well-above 500 snaps this season as well.
Stephon Gilmore allowed his 1st TD in coverage this season on John Brown’s 53-yard score per @PFF.
That leaves the Bills Tre’Davious White as the player with the most targets in coverage without allowing a TD (83).
Combining these stats means and looking back to PFF’s numbers, White can likely set this feat against the Jets in Week 17. White may be a candidate to be inactive for the game, even. Therefore, his numbers will remain the same, but that might not be good.
White is currently in a three-way tie for the most interceptions in the NFL with Gilmore and the Vikings’ Anthony Harris. If either of those two gets to seven, then White’s PFF record is voided based on him no longer leading the league in picks.
Having said that, both Gilmore and Harris, like White, are on playoff-bound teams and could also see limited playing time in Week 17, maybe.
If the cards fall in the right places, White could set an awfully high benchmark for a guy not even getting considerations for Defensive Player of the Year.
