Buffalo Bills: Top 3 takeaways from Divisional Round win over Ravens

Playoff football

Whether it be an aversion to or just his dismissal of the run game, Brian Daboll had to pivot on his offensive playcalling for the second week in a row.

Against Indianapolis last week, Daboll’s first-half gameplan revolved around the run. Rushing from the gun, the pistol, the jet sweep, there may have even been some wild-cat formation sprinkled in there too but the point remains that a week ago, the run was all that mattered. That was a far cry from the passing attack that had made Buffalo so successful throughout the season. Establishing a few sprinkles of the run followed by heaping servings of the pass is what got Buffalo to the Wild Card.

On Saturday, it was the same but also the opposite.

Refusing to run the ball and sticking with the pass every play, Baltimore began to know what the Bills were going to do before they even got to the line. After running 14 play passes to one run (which was a Josh Allen scramble), Baltimore was not expecting to see Devin Singletary up the middle anytime soon.

Due to that, Daboll had to pivot again during this game and tap into his least productive offensive strategy; the run game.

Coming out of the half, Buffalo put together an 11-play, 66-yard touchdown of which four of the running plays accounted for 26 yards.

All season long, Daboll has leaned more on the pass but has not entirely dismissed the run. On Saturday, he finally did that, completely ignoring the importance of establishing the run. Though, to his credit, he did do it in the second half.

Against a phenomenal team defense like the Kansas City Chiefs or Cleveland Browns, having a multi-dimensional offense and a variety of playcalling will be the only way to ensure offensive success.