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Are Buffalo Bills holding back their playbook during regular season?

Could the Buffalo Bills be holding back on offense during the regular season as they focus on a playoff run?
Randy Gurzi|
Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady on the field before a game against the New York Giants at Highmark Stadium.
Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady on the field before a game against the New York Giants at Highmark Stadium. | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

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Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady is tough to figure out. There are times when he seems to be among the elite play-callers in the NFL, then there are times his offense seems impossible to watch.

This has led to a theory that he and the Bills are "holding back" during the regular season. The thinking is that Brady is doing enough to keep the offense moving forward, but keeping the big plays for the postseason.

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That doesn't seem like something a team would truly do for an entire season, but Dan Mitchell recently broke down the Bills' play calls and believes there could be something there. Mitchell says there has been a massive change in the offense over the past four games.

As he states, they've gone from using play-action 30.1% of the time in Weeks 1-10 to 46.1% in Weeks 11-14. They've also had a jump in motion passes(19.7% to 26.1%) and RPO usage (3.3% to 8.7%).

Joe Brady holding back might have cost the Bills

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen runs with the ball, trying to avoid Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen runs with the ball, trying to avoid Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai. | Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Perhaps Brady has begun using these plays with more frequency due to the success he's found. If, however, he truly was trying to stay "vanilla" early in the year, it might have cost the Bills.

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Buffalo has won the AFC East five years running, but they're trailing the New England Patriots by two games entering Week 15. They can still catch them, but they have to beat their rivals this weekend and then need some help down the stretch.

Perhaps that's not the way things unfold if Brady would have had his foot on the gas from Week 1.

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Randy Gurzi
RANDY GURZI

Randy Gurzi is a graduate of Arizona State and has focused on NFL coverage since 2014.