dave mcbride

The Titans were playing coverage from the get-go with a cover-two shell. You should be able to run against that type of defense with ease, particularly given that they had been giving up 5.8 yards per rush going into that game. Tuesday the Bills found out that they are in fact a really bad rushing team. Hence the pursuit of Bell, a significant upgrade over what they have. If they don't get Bell, I won't be surprised if we see more of Yeldon going forward given that he's actually a good receiver.

Or ... he's simply never met him.

Bell is a lot better than both of those guys and an elite receiver. Damn. As I said above, he is still an elite receiver. Also, remember Corey Dillon, who had 1,635 rushing yards in 2004.

I am going to challenge you here. The LAST thing Daboll wanted was 12-play drives. Watch the Simms video that Thurman posted. The big plays just weren’t there given the scheme TN was running.

Man is Simms down the Bills’ RBs and running game in general. Indeed, after the game, McDermott basically said it was terrible that they couldn’t run better than they did against a D playing coverage/cover 2 all night. I wonder if we suffer from the illusion of Singletary being good rather than a mere change of pace back who is quick but not fast in space. There are a lot of negative plays with him and he is not fast enough to break really long runs.

The stuff Simms says about blitzing strikes me as totally true. The fifth man-only blitzer is functionally useless and only gives the qb a free shot. I never thought about it, but one of the reasons offenses are so dominant is that the qbs who can’t diagnoses blitzes are being run out of the league. Just about all of them are good at it now, and just about all of them understand tempo and getting lined up quickly to give themselves the time necessary to diagnose who is probably blitzing.

This is awesome. Thanks.

People forget that McDermott had a great D in 2015 in Carolina, but saw that D suffer a big decline in 2016: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/car/2016.htm. Why? The loss of key players (norman, who was elite in 2015) and injuries. Keuchly missed close to half of the season. On D, personnel matters more than anything else by far. I think the top issue by far is talent and the way refs are calling games. The Bills are on pace for their worst defensive season ever, but they are middle of the pack in terms of yards and points allowed.

As I have said numerous times, he has been one of the three best qbs in the nfl over the last season. He led the league in passer rating last year, for chrissake. People need to wrap their head around the fact their assessments of him have a lot to do with Adam Gase.

The sanchez comp is apt.

I agree, but it bears mentioning that roughly 1/3 of the way through the season, they are on the way to having the worst pass defense in team history (103.6 passer rating for opponents; and tied for a record-low pace in sacks -- just 8 through 5 games). It's a problem.

You dictate to opponents via a pass rush, and the Bills are currently talent-deficient. Their D line corps plus LoRax was more talented last season than it is this season when it came to getting to the passer. Look at the talent. The Bills were a top five time the last two seasons on defense. They have serious front-seven talent issues. I have to think they are seeking out help right now.

Since this is a postgame thread ... https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/10/13/2020-titans-match-a-feat-last-accomplished-by-the-2007-patriots/ According to NFL Research, the Titans became the first team to score a touchdown on every red-zone possession (with a minimum of six), commit no turnovers, and allow zero sacks since Week 11 of the 2007 season, when the Patriots did it to the Bills during a 56-10 blowout. There’s another link, beyond the fact that the Bills were on the wrong side of each game: Mike Vrabel coaches the Tennessee team that pulled it off, and he played for the 2007 Patriots.

I don't actually think the pass rush is fixable with the talent they have. If they had two shut-down corners, then yes, they could gamble a little more, but whenever they blitz now someone is wide open quickly. Mario Addison has had success in recent years, but he's not enough. Hughes is their starting RDE - the premier pass rushing position - and has 0 sacks right now.

In the first quarter, I have to think he ran the wrong route on that throw by Allen that landed near the sideline not near anyone. Thank god a DB wasn't sitting there in zone. I also seriously doubt that Allen didn't know the play. That can't happen, especially since TEs are supposed to be reliable safety valves.

They seem vanilla/predictable because the front seven (pick your combo) simply cannot beat their man in passing situations with any regularity. Not having a pass rush makes every opposing offense look good. Same goes for the Bills - Allen is mostly untouched back there.

The key problem to me with regard to the Bills' pass D is that they simply can't generate consistent pressure with their front four, and none of their LBs coming are difference makers as pass rushers either. LorAx was a good pass rusher, but none of they guys they have now at LB can get to the passer with any regularity. Milano is the best, and he's been banged up all season. People praise Harrison Phillips as a good run stopper, but the guy he replaced from last year -- Jordan Phillips - could actually bring the QB down. Sure, he'd blow some running plays, but sacks destroy drives. The Bills have 8 sacks through 5 games, which works out to 25 and a half sacks over the course of the season. That is TERRIBLE, and in line with their worst ever since they started keeping the stat (they had 26 in 1984 and 25 in 1985, and they were 2-14 both times). Relatedly, opposing offenses have a collective QB rating of 103.6 (a team stat that factors in lost sack yardage), which is the worst in team history by 10.1 points (1984 was the previous worst). Even factoring in the crazy passing stats now, that is truly abysmal. One other note: the corners they rolled out last night are not good. Josh Norman is feisty but he's not good anymore. He had that one unicorn season in 2015, but he's been sub-average ever since. Note that he got burned on press coverage last night: https://www.pff.com/news/pro-the-redskins-are-looking-for-more-from-josh-norman-in-2019.

In three tries, Yelden converted three third-and-shorts last night ...

And they played at home. That matters!

The best player on that line in 2014 was Dareus. He was unblockable. Then he got paid.

As I said in another thread, he was one of the three best QBs in the NFL last season, and he literally led the league in passer rating. I think a lot of fans here don't watch Titans games, which I get, but he's really taken it to another level. Also bear in mind who his coach was in Miami, and what that coach is currently doing to Sam Darnold, a legitimately talented QB. Gase's offensive system sucks. Note who is at the bottom of the chart embedded in this piece: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/scoring-is-way-up-in-the-nfl-which-teams-does-that-help/.

I am a huge Josh fan, and simply love him. But that first INT was not the best throw. Yeah, it should have been caught, but any time you ratchet up the difficulty you run the risk of something like that happening. It happened later in the game too on a pass to Gabe. Finally, he threw a pass to Diggs on the right side in the first half that was simply terrible and could have been picked if not for a nice defensive play by Diggs. He's not going to be great every game, and this just happened to be one of them.

This. It is terrible across the league.

Regarding our blitzes, Tannehill was awesome at negating them. He got to the line quickly, and went through long calls at the line that allowed him to see who was coming. That's why tempo matters so much, and it's why they got rid of Mariota. He was terrible at that, and it showed up in his sack rate (13.5 percent last year). I was really, really impressed by Tannehill last night. Good field manager, super accurate, and uses his legs well (good athlete). Bear in mind that we basically shut Henry down last night too.

I honestly think that if the play mattered, they would have overturned it. I think they just wanted to get out of there and the game, which was a total blowout by that point. That does happen.