Tag: Trent Sherfield

Bills at Dolphins: Trent Sherfield hauls in helmet-tipped ball for touchdown (video)

That was some touchdown for the #Bills:

Now that’s one way to do it… and a way we’re likely to never see again.

The Buffalo Bills evened up the score at 7-7 in the first half against the Miami Dolphins in their huge Week 18 matchup. It was a score that was anything but normal.

In the red zone, Bills quarterback Josh Allen had one of his passes tipped… by a player’s head. A throw hit the noggin’ of Miami defender Andrew Van Ginkel.

Then the ball floated in the air and somehow went to Buffalo’s Trent Sherfield. Not only that, Sherfield toe-tapped the catch for the score.

Check it out in the clip below:

[lawrence-related id=130000,129996,129993]

Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins: Team connections

#Bills, #Dolphins connections between the rosters:

The Buffalo Bills will visit the Miami Dolphins for a season-finale meeting on Sunday evening in Week 18.

It’s a brand new NFL weekend with plenty on the line for both teams… specifically the AFC East title. But for some on the Bills (10-6) and Dolphins (11-5) there is a bit more at stake than others.

That’s because multiple players or coaches for both sides are going to be playing against their former teams. That can create a little bit of extra motivation for them heading into Sunday… as expected.

With that, here’s a quick list of connections the two teams have with one another ahead of the upcoming matchup at Hard Rock Stadium:

PFF: 5 worst-graded Bills players on offense in Week 17

PFF: 5 worst-graded #Bills players on offense in Week 17 vs. the #Patriots:

The Buffalo Bills won a tight 27-21 final in their Week 17 matchup against the New England Patriots.

The Bills (10-6) had a few players that stood out above the rest in this one. On offense, the Bills were led by tight end  Dalton Kincaid.

But not everyone played as well as him. Buffalo will hope some efforts improve throughout the rest of the 2023 season as they aim to secure a postseason spot.

According to Pro Football Focus, they’ll need these players to start playing at a high level.

Here are the five worst-graded Bills players on offense against the Patriots (4-12) in Week 17:

PFF: 5 worst-graded Bills players on offense in Week 16

Not their best days:

The Buffalo Bills won a tight 24-22 final in their Week 16 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Bills (9-6) had a few players that stood out above the rest in this one. On offense, the Bills were led by wide receiver Gabe Davis. After some quiet games, Davis had a huge effort.

But not every player helped pull out the win. If Buffalo is to crack the 2023 postseason, they’ll need better performances from these players.

According to Pro Football Focus, they’ll need these players specifically to start to playing at a high level.

Here are the five worst-graded Bills players on offense against the Chargers in Week 16:

How Joe Brady has started to turn the Buffalo Bills’ offense around

New Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady has already made a difference, and it starts with pre-snap motion and four-strong.

You never know what will happen when you replace a play-caller in season. You hope for the best, but there isn’t a lot of time to create the changes you want. But in the case of the Buffalo Bills, who fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey on November 14 and replaced him with former quarterbacks coach Joe Brady, there are clear changes and improvements to the structure of an offense that wasn’t really working under Dorsey.

Perhaps the most obvious case of Brady’s offensive mindset showing up on the field happened last Sunday in the Bills’ 20-17 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. While everybody was focused on the now-infamous Kadarius Toney offside scandal, there was Josh Allen’s 25-yard touchdown to running back James Cook with 3:48 left in the first quarter,

Trent Sherfield motioned left to right, which put four to the left side. And it was a cool design. Cook ran a vertical route from the backfield in slot position, Gabe Davis ran a comeback from the boundary, Danton Kincaid ran a seam crosser, and Sherfield had the flat route to that side.

It looked like the Chiefs were in Quarters, and you can see safety Justin Reid telling safety Mike Edwards to jump from the middle third to the offensive left side of the field. So maybe that was a check off the motion. Edwards drove down on Cook, who ran right past him, and that was easy button all the way. The Chiefs had a five-man blitz with safety Chamarri Conner moving up, but the line handled it, and that was that. 

As ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky pointed out, this was an example of “four-strong,” which placed a burden on Kansas City’s defense by putting four potential receivers to one side.

I went back and looked at each of Allen’s 25 touchdown passes this season, and the only other example of four-strong this season came on this five-yard touchdown pass to Cook against the New York Jets in Week 11. This was Brady’s first game as offensive coordinator, which tells you that Dorsey was not on board with the concept. Too bad for Dorsey, because this example of four-strong, in which Cook flared out to accentuate the bunch right design, was wide open. Especially when all three receivers charged to the middle of the field. The increase in pre-snap motion is cool, but it’s a lot cooler when it means something, and it can displace a defense for the betterment of the quarterback.

It’s not the only new wrinkle Brady has sewed into Buffalo’s offense, but it might be the most important as the Bills look for new ways to make the most of their receivers, and Allen’s otherworldly potential.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys got into the Bills’ offense at a deeper level — starting with the theories behind four-strong.

[anyclip-media thumbnail=”https://cdn5.anyclip.com/0t6NaYwBSuOx3Br8AY9b/1702578118763_248x140_thumbnail.jpg” playlistId=”undefined” content=”PHNjcmlwdCBzcmM9Imh0dHBzOi8vcGxheWVyLnBvcHRvay5jb20vYW55Y2xpcC13aWRnZXQvbHJlLXdpZGdldC9wcm9kL3YxL3NyYy9scmUuanMiIGRhdGEtYXI9IjE2OjkiIGRhdGEtcGxpZD0iZ2IyZG10dGJsZjN1ZXUzdmo1NGRncXRzaGJhdnNvbGMiIHB1Ym5hbWU9IjE5OTgiIHdpZGdldG5hbWU9IjAwMTZNMDAwMDJVMEIxa1FBRl9NODMyNSI+Cjwvc2NyaXB0Pg==”][/anyclip-media]

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os,” featuring all of Week 15’s biggest NFL matchups (including Bills-Cowboys) right here:

[anyclip-media thumbnail=”https://cdn5.anyclip.com/sti5ZowBSuOx3Br8rlze/1702532553485_248x140_thumbnail.jpg” playlistId=”undefined” content=”PHNjcmlwdCBzcmM9Imh0dHBzOi8vcGxheWVyLnBvcHRvay5jb20vYW55Y2xpcC13aWRnZXQvbHJlLXdpZGdldC9wcm9kL3YxL3NyYy9scmUuanMiIGRhdGEtYXI9IjE2OjkiIGRhdGEtcGxpZD0ib24yZ3NuazJuNTN1ZXUzdmo1NGRncXRzaGJ6Z3k2dGYiIHB1Ym5hbWU9IjE5OTgiIHdpZGdldG5hbWU9IjAwMTZNMDAwMDJVMEIxa1FBRl9NODMyNSI+Cjwvc2NyaXB0Pg==”][/anyclip-media]

You can listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

PFF: 5 highest-graded Bills players on offense in Week 14

Good games on offense:

The Buffalo Bills narrowly won a thrilling 20-17 final in their Week 14 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Bills (7-6) had a few players that stood out above the rest in this one. On offense, the Bills were led by running back James Cook against a much improved Chiefs (8-5) defense.

In terms of the players who helped Cook close out the win, Buffalo will hope such efforts remain throughout the rest of the 2023 season as the aim to secure a postseason spot.

According to Pro Football Focus, they’ll need these players to continue to play at a high level.

Here are the five highest-graded Bills players on offense against the Chiefs in Week 14:

PFF: 5 lowest-graded Bills players on offense in Week 12

PFF: 5 lowest-graded #Bills players on offense in Week 12 vs. the #Eagles

The Buffalo Bills narrowly lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in overtime, 37-34, in their Week 12 matchup on Sunday afternoon.

The Bills (6-6) had more than a handful of players on offense that stood out above the rest against a fantastic Philadelphia Eagles team that has only lost one game all season. Leading the offense was quarterback Josh Allen along with interim offensive coordinator Joe Brady in his second game.

Even though the Bills went toe-to-toe with the high scoring Eagles offense, the win eluded them as they failed to score the winning touchdown in overtime. As the rest of the 2023 season unfolds, the Buffalo offense will hope to get a better tune out of these players that did not perform well, according to Pro Football Focus.

Here are the five lowest-graded Bills players on offense against the Eagles (10-1) according to PFF’s metrics:

Darius Slay wouldn’t have minded being penalized on controversial no-call

Eagles cornerback Darius Slay said that he wouldn’t have minded being penalized on one of Shawn Hochuli’s bizarre no-calls in the Bills game.

No matter which team you were rooting for on Sunday, we can all agree that the officiating job performed by referee Shawn Hochuli and his crew in the Philadelphia Eagles’ 37-34 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills was iffy at best, and outright incompetent at worst. Moreover, Hochuli seemed to see no issue with his bad calls in the pool report he gave after the game.

It may be too late to do anything about officiating in the NFL at this point outside of unplugging the thing and plugging it back in, but one Eagles player came out on Monday and said that he wouldn’t have minded if a penalty had been called on him. In this case, it was cornerback Darius Slay, who was filmed grabbing Bills receiver Stefon Diggs before the ball arrived while umpire Terry Killens Jr. was looking at… well, who knows what he was looking at.

There was also this incompletion from Bills quarterback Josh Allen to receiver Trent Sherfield with 4:33 left in the first half. This certainly seemed as if Slay basically tackled Sherfield before the ball arrived. No flag.

“So on that play from the view and the angle of the official, we just didn’t feel that it significantly hindered the receiver’s ability to catch the ball,” Hochuli said.

At least the players knew what was up.

Bills snap counts: Depth chart breakdown vs. Jets

How the #Bills snap counts look different vs. the #Jets:

The Buffalo Bills got after it against the New York Jets and ended up pulling out a 32-6 win on Sunday afternoon in Week 11.

But who exactly were the ones on the field for the Bills (6-5) doing all the dirty work against the Jets (4-6)?

More often than not, taking a look in between the lines at snap count totals for Buffalo’s players can give us some insight as to what went down in between the lines on the gridiron.

There is always plenty to discover when looking at these finer details.

With that, here’s how the Bills depth chart broke down via snap counts in their latest win against the Jets:

PFF: 5 worst-graded Bills players on offense in Week 10

Not their day, according to PFF:

The Buffalo Bills lost to the Denver Broncos, 24-22, in their Week 10 matchup on Monday Night Football.

According to Pro Football Focus, here are the five worst-graded Bills players on offense during the contest: