All-22 review: Josh Allen improvement needed, Bills’ defensive additions settling in

The Buffalo Bills’ stinging loss to the Broncos brings along a dramatic shift to their 2023 season. Ken Dorsey is out as offensive coordinator, as coach Sean McDermott hopes it will be the change to spike some energy into an inconsistent offense to limit turnovers and finish drives.

Their next opportunity is at home against the Jets on Sunday, but what did we learn from the coaches film of the Bills’ defeat to the Broncos?

Here is a full look at where things went wrong, and right, as the Bills prepare to keep their playoff hopes afloat on Sunday.

Josh Allen deserves a lot of the blame for Monday night’s offensive woes

After watching the film, it’s apparent franchise quarterback Josh Allen cost the team dearly, and had he been just a bit better, the Bills likely would have walked out of Monday with a victory. The defense for Allen’s performance probably alludes to some drops and the James Cook fumble on the first offensive play, and those certainly weren’t discounted to the overall game result. Gabe Davis and Cook deserved blame for those specific plays. But well past that, Allen lacked precision and a certain sharpness to his game for too long, and the Bills couldn’t quite get into a groove offensively.

His decision-making was poor far too often, and he got away with a couple of throws that should have been an interception, on top of two brutal turnovers as it was. The running game continued to bail Allen out in a game where he wasn’t at his best. The offensive line played excellently all game. There were open targets, and Allen missed them more than he should have, either by not seeing them or with an inaccurate pass. The defense had a keen sense for what he’d be doing with the ball a bit too much. His technique throwing toward the sidelines to his left, which had been something he needed to correct and promptly fixed in his first two seasons, had an instance of regression. He’s leaving the pocket too prematurely at times. These minor mishaps here or there accumulated to the point that he deserves a bevy of blame. Allen was the worst-performing player on the field for the Bills on Monday, even when accounting for his throwing and scrambling touchdowns.

The lack of sharpness, resulting in several costly mistakes over the last six games, has suddenly become a staple of Allen’s game in 2023. There have been flashes of the top-tier player Allen had developed into at times this season. The Raiders game stands out as they got comfortable. The Dolphins game, of course, was excellent. There were even signs of life against the Buccaneers in Week 8, although the second-half inconsistency didn’t help the overall picture. But since that Dolphins game, the unfortunate truth for the Bills is Allen being overwhelmingly average for an extended stretch of games. Average is fine for some teams, especially when there is a lot of bad quarterback play out there. But with so many defensive injuries, they need Allen to carry the team forward in 2023, not the other way around, which shockingly has been the case during most of this six-game stretch.

GO DEEPER

What happens next for the Bills after firing offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey?

Something is off with the franchise quarterback. He’s making mistakes he didn’t in previous years. And at the moment, he is not the same dynamic quarterback the Bills built their entire operation around. A lot has been made about his “low positive” mentality, which he discussed a few weeks ago, and whether or not it’s playing into his current string of performances is something that can’t be answered accurately by anyone other than Allen. But what is clear is Allen has to be better, and if the Bills have any hope of making it to the postseason, they’ll have to hope the firing of Ken Dorsey will be the catalyst to help Allen get back on track.

After Dorsey’s removal, McDermott spoke a lot about instilling energy and confidence within the offense. Given some lacking vibrance from Allen and not executing the attention to detail they are used to from their franchise quarterback, perhaps it’s where some of the desires for higher energy are rooted. The coach also spoke about how the offensive coordinator role needs to be a leadership position, and maybe within McDermott’s mind, they weren’t getting enough leadership out of Dorsey where there was faith he could pull the offense out of this doldrum state before the season got away from them. Dorsey’s firing could be as much about helping Allen to get back to his top-five quarterback form as anything. The flashes shine through from time to time. It’s in there somewhere. Now it’s on interim offensive coordinator Joe Brady to draw it out in time for a whopper of a five-game stretch.

Joseph and Douglas settling in nicely

When the Bills brought in defensive tackle Linval Joseph and cornerback Rasul Douglas, they were hoping to quickly fill two glaring needs on the roster caused by a long-term injury. It was slightly unfair to gauge each player’s performance on just one padded practice the week before, even though both played relatively well. But with a full week of work in between the Bengals and Broncos game, both made their mark in just their second appearance with the Bills. Joseph gave the defense a run-stuffing piece they’d been missing for several weeks. His ability to hold his ground at the point of attack and jam up the intended running lanes as an, at times, immovable object, is exactly what they envisioned from a plug-and-play one-technique defensive tackle. Although he doesn’t have anywhere close to the pass-rushing component DaQuan Jones did, it’s at least a steadying hand for something that could have been a big problem for the Bills. Joseph, along with Ed Oliver, Leonard Floyd, A.J. Epenesa and Greg Rousseau on the defensive line had a collectively excellent day that nearly stole the victory for the Bills.

Bills defense gets a takeaway of their own!

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— NFL (@NFL) November 14, 2023

With Douglas, the Bills watched as their new top cornerback quickly took to the scheme and was an overall nuisance to the receivers he guarded. He provided the physicality, length, quick reactions and plays on the ball they thought they were getting when they traded the equivalent value of a fourth-round pick to get him. The Broncos only got the better of Douglas on one passing play in which they had a deep crossing pattern with two of their receivers. The rest of the time, Douglas was on it. It was an impressive display to learn the cornerback position in McDermott’s defense as quickly as he did and be able to thrive in an actual game setting. He will continue to be their top cornerback, and the Bills will have to decide between Christian Benford and Dane Jackson for who will start opposite Douglas once Benford is healthy.

Dion Dawkins continues his impressive form

The excellent 2023 season for Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins reached its highest peak to this point. It didn’t matter what the assignment was against the Broncos, Dawkins executed and was a big reason why the Bills had some of their best drives. In one-on-one pass protection, Dawkins had another good game. But it was his work as a pulling run blocker where he really stood out. The way he fired off the snap to get out in front of the running back, he was consistently on a seek-and-destroy mission that often turned his blocking assignment and yielded yards for the runner. The Bills utilized Dawkins in this role a lot, and he was consistently up to the task. Usually working in combination with right guard O’Cyrus Torrence, it was one of the biggest reasons for one of the team’s best rushing games of the year. It’s a continuation of Dawkins’s stellar season, too. Along with wide receiver Stefon Diggs, Dawkins has been one of the best players on offense over the entire season.

Players with fewer than 15 snaps:
TE Quintin Morris (14), DE Shaq Lawson (12), WR Trent Sherfield (9), S Damar Hamlin (9), WR Deonte Harty (4), RB Ty Johnson (1), FB Reggie Gilliam (1), DE Kingsley Jonathan (1)

Active players without an offensive or defensive snap:
QB Kyle Allen, OL David Edwards, IOL Ryan Bates, OT Ryan Van Demark, LB Tyler Matakevich, LB A.J. Klein, NCB Siran Neal, CB Josh Norman

Inactives:
*(Total games inactive in 2023 season while on the active roster)
IOL Alec Anderson (10), Germain Ifedi (10), DT Poona Ford (5), LB Baylon Spector (3), CB Christian Benford (2), S Micah Hyde (1)

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

FB Reggie Gilliam (100 percent), TE Quintin Morris (100), DE Kingsley Jonathan (100), LB Tyler Matakevich (100), LB Dorian Williams (100), NCB Siran Neal (100), DB Cam Lewis (100), S Damar Hamlin (100), WR Khalil Shakir (59), RB Ty Johnson (47), CB Josh Norman (41), WR Deonte Harty (29), LB A.J. Klein (29), WR Trent Sherfield (18), LB Tyrel Dodson (18)

*Minimum 150 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 Rasul Douglas: Bryan Bennett / Getty Images)