Buffalo Bills: Top 3 takeaways from Week 16 win over New England

Brian Daboll

As mentioned in the prequel of this article, Brian Daboll coached one of the most competitive and complete games in his Bills career.

One play, in particular, got the attention of some of the biggest names in Sports Media. Dan Orlovsky of ESPN tweeted out a video breakdown of Lee Smith’s touchdown reception.

In the video, Orlovsky points out how well Daboll has coached Allen pre-snap. Though this is something that normally goes unnoticed, Orlovsky notes that the simple hand gestures Allen makes in the red zone fooled the Pats defense before the play even started.

He went on to note that this is something that is implemented by the coaching staff (Daboll and McDermott) and is the hallmark of a good staff. Due to the pre-snap confusion by Allen, he was able to draw the Patriots’ safeties to the wrong side of the field, setting up Smith for a wide-open receiving touchdown.

Coaching was not the only area that Daboll excelled on Monday night as his playcalling was superb as well. Knowing that the Patriots were thin a linebacker, Daboll decided to try and pound the ball between the guard and tackles. While the Bills have had success running between the tackles, this decision allowed them to carry out the play-action pass more effectively.