OCinBuffalo

Hmm. Nickel is a package. So is dime. By definition they are subbed and different schemes. So, in essence you're not playing 46 at all in those packages. The real trick is the the "hybridization" of schemes. Something that looks like 46, but is actually nickel, is the idea here. Something that is nickel, but gets shifted to 46, or, "hike"..."oh noes, it IS 46!" ,(with say, Reggie Robey suddenly lining up as the farthest left OLB and stunting, or running around the TE.), is also the idea here. It comes down to how much we can do with who we have on the field. But, more importantly, it's about how much the other team thinks we can/can't do. IF we can run 46 with Reggie Robey? That's a B word.

The 85 bears ran nickel and dime. 5 wides is asking a hell of a lot from your O line against our D line, especially if we rush 4 and drop 7. That comes down to CB depth. That's why its never a bad idea to draft a CB. Against spread, your 4th CB has to be nearly as good as your 1 and 2. Unless it's no huddle we get to sub, so, it all depends on who the O puts on the field. But, no huddle, against a properly run 46 == 3 and out or worse. IF you don't have the athletes on D, who can run all day, you can't run a 46 anyway. So it's kinda mutually exclusive. The bears had far more INTs than sacks in 85: because the QB was throwing, trying to throw, the ball before he got killed.

Too late. I think showing it alone is scary to a QB pre-snap, especially if you've been effective with it on film, this season. In that respect, sure they could shift into what you're saying just before the snap, but, that's already after the QB has audibled from pass, to run, on 3rd and 5...which is what we want. Doing it is the key. IF you can do it, it changes whole game plans, and puts a good slot WRs, pass-first TEs, and 3rd down scat backs/pass catchers on the bench. It's hard to be hurt by Julian Edelman if he never sees the field. That's the question at hand: are we generationally that good? Rex would, I assume, know that. And, if we are spending any time practicing the 46? Perhaps, he thinks they are. Or, as I said in the OP, he's sending a message to the other teams, especially in our division: "Hey we might be good enough to run the 46 as a base D, you better do something about that".

Then as usual, you'd be wrong. I am trying to solicit other posters ideas on the Defense. Partially because the notion of playing the 46, for real, is extremely exciting, and, partially because I'm sick of the QB thing.

First thing: here's a basic diagram and explanation. There's a few things wrong, or not-Bills specific in that explanation. First of all, the NT lines up directly over center, not shaded to the center's left as in the diagram. In fact, the alingment is wrong in that what the diagram has as 3T and 5T are actually both going to line up to the outside of each G. (The only reason I'm keeping this wrong thing in this post is to explain where the "conventional 46 wisdom", shown here, is wrong WRT the Bills). Here's a better diagram with the right alignment, but no positions, that comes from here. And finally, a much better explanation from here: Bills Modified Explanation: 1. You run 3 down lineman like you would in a normal 3-4, except neither of the outside guys are DEs and have those responsibilities. They are all DTs in effect. This is the run-stopping base. As you can see, the inside gaps are all clogged up, before the ball is snapped. In our case, Dareus or Kyle Williams is the middle guy, with the other being outside, and, either Bryant, Charles or Alex Carrington(remember him? Yeah, now this makes sense) on the other outside. You could also, using a shift, bring Mario in to play the other DT spot. Also, this is "cauldron of chaos": these 3 guy are going to dictate where the blitz/stunts/hell comes from in the passing defense. We have the elite DTs for this, and, no team in the league is going to win 1v1 much against them. Taking away the doubles from Kyle and Marcell is frightening. It all but requries teams to use their FB/H-Back, which, is one less receiver. We may see 3 WR sets against this, but 4 is suicide. 2. Notice how there's 2 LBs to the left? That "stuntable" out of the basic formation. It sets up "who is going to rush the passer, and who is going to cover the TE"? Are both guys rushing? Do you dare leave one OLB unblocked, and send the TE on a rout, hoping the FB or HB can get to the block? How about if the inside of the 2 is Mario? This formation causes trouble in just lining up, and that's BEFORE you know the bodies represented by the dots. We have Manny Lawson, Mario, Bradham and a wide assortment of other players, any of whom can be shifted into this position before the snap, and either get to the QB, knock the TE off his release, or get off a block and make a play in the run. Again, you need all 11 to be elite to make this work. 3. Notice how the MLB is shifted over to the left? That's who will get the TE, if he goes out, and both OLBs rush. He's also responsible for the inside if they run against 2 blitzing OLBs. And, he's responsible for whatever comes through on a sweep/down blocking zone scheme. Yeah: you better have a very talented MLB, because he may have to cover a TE, shrug off a tackle, and deal with a pulling guard. We have Preston Brown. Enough said. 4. The right side DE needs to be a stud, because he not only has to play the run, he HAS to be able to apply immediate pass pressure every down, by himself. Jerry Hughes fits. If the opposition can run/roll to the right, then the whole thing is exposed. Hughes has already shown he can do this, with his quickness and his pass rush ability. AND, this is where the teamwork comes into play: the LT is on an island. He can't get any help from the LG. The LG has his own 1v1 matchup to worry about. This entire alignment removes O line double teams from the field. 5. See the SS? He comes down and plays like a LB in this. Aaron Williams is a hitter, and as we have seen, is just as tough as a LB, but with decent cover skills. Against a 2 TE set, he covers the TE on his side, or blitzes, with Jerry Hughes dropping back. The 3 DTs can dictate a lot of this, because again, none of them can be double teamed. 6. It's 6 D vs 5 O before you even start. The O is now relying on FBs and HBs to take on elite pass rushers/DEs and big/quick/fast LBs, for help. But, those guys are starting behind the QB, and are at a disadvantage to get to a spot before the D, who are all on the line do. Depending on who is rushing, and who falls back into coverage, the whole point of the 46 is to get 2 guys blocking 1 D, and nobody blocking 1 or more other D players == mass confusion and chaos. 7. You absolutely positively MUST have shutdown corners at both spots. This should be obvious. (And, also why we drafted Darby) 8. The FS? Well, he's a saftey. If we F up, he's gotta be ready, because he's the only thing between a stop and TD. However, if the CBs are elite, he can help with covering RBs out of the backfield, 3rd WRs, and TEs. 9. As you can see, 46 requires 11 talented men. Each one relies on the other positions being elite, so that they can be elite. It's like the concept of a suspension bridge. If everything works, you get great results. One part breaks down, or is inferior, and the whole thing can go to hell.. Now, back to the "faults" defined in playing the 46 against "today's" offenses. 1. We have the players who can do the jobs listed above, and go out and cover a 3rd WR if necessary. Getting tired? Please. We also have the depth to sub in guys all game. In our case, this is backwards: when we line up in a 46, against a 3 WR set? Rack that up as a sack before the ball is snapped. Now you have no TE, and 1 OT against 2 OLBs. (Remember #3) We stunt both of those OLB inside, have the left, outside DT hit the OT and push him away, and now you've 2 guys, in space, with a free run to the QB/RB, and the G can only block one. Running a 3 WR set against THIS team, playing this formation? All it takes is Nigel Bradham making 1 clean hit: and your franchise QB/RB is out of the game. 2. Which brings us to the Patriots standard formation: 2 TEs and an H back, unbalanced line, etc. The 46, played with these Bills, counters that nicely. IF we are physical, every one of their guys gets hit on the snap, which disrupts their timing. And, again, you are forcing everybody into a 1v1 situation from the snap. It only takes one mistake from the entire 8 guys on O, and they've got real problems: too many bodies, their own included, and nowhere to go. Rather than laying back and reacting the Pats offense, we would be attacking it on every play. A statue like Brady can't move around in pocket, that is all 1v1 matchups, somebody will get him if he does, so you are taking away a great strength of his. 3. Beyond just the Pats, this makes the read-option useless. You stand around in the backfield/move laterally against this, for even a second, and you're asking to be killed. Our guys are firing through every gap, and hitting everybody at the LOS, with the added advantage of starting at the LOS or very near it in the SSs case. Therefore, there's nothing to read but "Oh schit, here they come again". It's also a wildcat killer in that respect. Ultimately, as I said: this defense requires extremely good personnel to run. If we have the horses, it maximizes each of their abilities. It's difficult to say whether the scheme is repsonsible for so many Bears being in the HOF, or, whether their invidudal talent, allowed the scheme to be run in the first place, and that's why. This scheme allows, and requires, each player to play to his elite potential. IF they do? Look the F out.

Because I'm not in the habit of telling people what they already know, and I hate it when people do that to me. And, your act is becoming tiresome.

http://bills.buffalonews.com/2015/08/02/what-they-said-transcripts-of-rex-ryan-marcell-dareus-richie-incognito-from-day-three-of-training-camp/ Rex: Who here knows the 46? I know it, because I watched the 80s Bears run it every weekend when I was a kid. And, I've studied it since. (I can explain it if asked) It is absolutely devastating, but, it requires all 11 to be highly talented, and work together at a very high level. Otherwise, a decent QB can pick it apart rather easily. It can be high risk, high reward. But, with elite personnel? It's mostly just high reward. Insane reward in fact. A few weeks ago, I started a thread about the 1985 Bears, and compared their numbers to ours, "If we want to be the best of all time, we need to be on their level" etc. Being able to run the 46, seriously, and actually devoting any practice time to it? The most likely conclusion: Rex thinks this D is on that level. IF this isn't merely camp-camouflage, Rex actually thinks he has the horses to run the 46, we come out in a 46 formation against the Colts(forget preseason, because we won't show it much there), and are able to run it consistently? We're going to be looking back and laughing about this entire QB thing by week 6.

1. This is PPP. Are you just catching on that it's: silly? 2. Ergo, of course it's silly to want a catchphrase, but it's also, PPP-esque. 3. I am the first one to write it here, and I highly doubt you ever read those 2 words in combination before. It's eligible all day. 4. I own it. Find your own.

Uh...how to the 2 bolded sentences resolve one another? Premium pick...but worthles to anyone who is not the owner? If RG3 is kind of worthless to anyone other than Synder, why would anyone trade for him? The Bills don't have to do anything Dan Synder wants, desperate or not. If anything, Dan Synder has to do what the Bills want, if there is a trade, in this situation. This appears to be left-over "RG3 Trade is the Best trade of all Time" residue. Let me help: if Stevie Johnson is worth a 4th? So is RG3.

The reason we tend to believe Astro isn't complicated: track record. He has been right a hell of a lot more than wrong. One of the reasons? Objectivity. 2nd reason: he's not getting paid for clicks. 3rd reason: independence, he's not looking to support, or provide, whatever an "on air analyst" or "columnist" has to say. 4th reason: all he cares about is...us. This community. Well, that and Draftek. It's the same reason any poster here does a camp report: help the rest of us get the best info we can get. This site has arisen, like most things, due to necessity. Necessity: the media has been looking to kick this team, or ignore it, based on their own business considerations, forever. We wanted better/competent/no agenda, so the posters here provide it. Regarding the media: I see the pattern. Throw out 3-5 controversial tweets in a row, then link to your "Day 3 camp review" article. Marketing 101. Are the rest of you seeing this pattern? As far as your question: you're not getting it, because you left somebody out of your hypothetical. We'd still listen to Astro over Fairburn. Why would the Bills trade for somebody the Redskins have talked about releasing? Why not just wait until they do? And, if we entertain a trade, how the hell does somebody who is demonstrably not good enough to start for the Redskins(um, we're not talking Peyton Manning's backup here) rate a 1st or conditional 2nd? Dude, I think you need to re-run your calculations. Logic is getting in the way. EDIT: Worst of all, you're listening to DC sports(well, an NFC ESPN reporter by proxy) guy who covers football. Dan Snyder and his cronies have cowed all of those guys: you do as he says, and support his speculation, or you never see the locker room again. Does anybody remember the "Aaron Schobel is unhappy in Buffalo, and Dan Snyder is "aggressive!" fiasco? I'd be happy to tell the story.

One of the very few, negative but valid, points I've seen made about the QB situation. However, a potential counter is that this is about timing. We have 4 QBs trying to establish timing with a bevy of WRs, TEs, and RBs. I'm not saying every QB in the league doesn't have the same problem. I am saying: it may take longer than we like.

Beware of buttons. Panic. Reset. None of them are real, and none of them produce results.

I believe that those who put so much faith in the opinion of 1 or 2 draft guys, that they don't do any thinking on their own, made a choice that EJ was bad. Ever since, they've been supporting that choice no matter what happens. It's a type of bias. Now, nothing says that in the end, EJ doesn't make it. Nothing. And, these choice-supporters will be "right". But, not because they personally knew anything then, or know anything now. And, the nuances(coaching, playing vs. sitting, etc.) are all ignored. They are "right", which is the equivalent of winning a coin flip, and then attempting to conflate and extend that win into all sorts of things, beyond what it is == nonsense. EDIT: And, as far as all the rest, twitter and such? Astrobot's earned my respect via his work, not talk. Planting his ass every day at camp, proving he knows football, being able to show cause and effect in his posts? Objectivey, I've seen him quantifiably bat ~.850...for years. == I put his posts above all others on this subject.

Yeah um, when I say "know-nothing-about-business" clowns? Object lesson. Marginalized. Do you know what that word means? How marginalized can you be, as a president, if you are now responsible for 2 divisions of the business(and make no mistake, that's precisely the organizational structure now), instead of one? Holy Inigo Montoya. Look up the word marginalized in the dictionary.

Any time works for me. Last year I confused my two draft times, and I ended up with autodrafted RG3 @ #1. Massive irony, since I laughed at that trade day 1 as yet another Redskins F up, and then rejoiced: because the Rams pissed away the results to us...and by way of Kiko, we now have Shady F'ing McCoy, EJ, Goodwin, and Gragg, in return for Tavon Austin and a JAG safety. I'm still trying to process the coincidence/fate/assclownery. No. This year, I will draft my own team, and I don't care if it short-dicks every cannibal on the Congo.

Um, I believe we tried this here, and got Solyndra as a result. When 360 clowns, who have no idea about the business they are in, decide they are suddenly VCs, blessed by God knows what? That's the formula that created Obamacare. Gruber: an MIT professor with 0 experience in the insurance field. 0 experience being a doctor. 0 experience being a nurse(which btw is more important when we are creating health care systems, and you know it). 0 experience being an IT project manager. 0 experience leading anything. 0 experience being accountable for the efforts of 10 people, never mind the 1000+ who worked on Obamacare. 0 experience being a techincal architect. 0 experience being a client-side exectutive project sponsor(meaning he knows how to deal with with and manage consultant partners and project managers). 0 experience designing enterprise systems, never mind Federal, "everybody in the country" systems. And, worst of all 0 experience in the real world whatsoever. And of course, 100% experience creating theoretical, mathematical models of what health care, "might do", if this macroeconomic, top-down approach, or that one, is taken. You really, honestly, want us to be impressed with 360 Grubers playing at being VCs, with none of their own personal $ involved, with no personal risk or reward, funded by the Finnish government. Did you even bother to research what the hiring standards were for the vaunted 360? Did they? Hell, you were capable of perceiving the solution I have built. Therefore, I refuse to believe that you are incapable of seeing the "F'ed before we even start" reality here. You are defying all reason and intellectual responsibility with this, which is why I feel compelled to whack you upside the head and say "wake the F up".

Hey, WTF? I haven't even read the rest of the thread yet, but I gotta say: get your own catchphrase. Yes, I know all about mimicry and praise, but come on. Surely you can are capable of something original and good.

Tag Team back again, check its records lets begin, party on people lets hear some noise, OC's in the house jump jump rejoice. There's a party over here A party over there Wave your hands in the air Shake your deriere These three words when you're gettin' busy Whoomp there it is I really think that the 15 years of sucking began when we stopped cheering this song at the stadium. Also, for the metaphorically challenged: I rejoined the league.

Means to an end. And yes, in business, the ends, more often than not, and despite what the average know-nothing-about-business clown says, almost always justify the means, financially, ethically, all. It's called: owners and stockholders. They require, what they require, but they want trouble even less. Brandon, like many others, has to walk a fine line, and I respect him as much as I do any other highly effective executive. But, that doesn't mean I won't B word when he Fs up: I hate the "new" rules about the game and parking, because I think it was more about punishing the fans for the Bills failures as a team. He should have got up there and started with: "The team has sucked for 12 years, and that's on us, we need to stop sucking. As a result of sucking, we have a bit of a fan behavior problem...". As angry as I am about that, I still see the big picture: hauling in tons of cash from Toronto was the shot in the arm the Bills needed. It led to us having the cash on hand, by the book, as Ralph has always been, to sign Mario.

Yeah. All I did was subject this to standard business law. Of course, if you'd like to explain exactly where I was semi-coherent in the above, I'm sure that would be both entertaining and enlightening for us all.

I don't understand. How are things going to get ugly for the "league", when the "league" represents 31 other cities and regions, don't forget regions! , that not only don't care what Tom Brady and the Patriots have to say about this, are sick and tired of this story, would have been happy with 2 games and done? Are the egos of Tom Brady, his various ballwashers in the media, and Bob Kraft that big, that they think they can stand up against the rest of the country, 2 weeks before the first preseason game, tell us to F off, that their issues matter more, and things have to go their way, or else...big trouble for the league? I got news fellas: Shady McCoy made a great catch today. I'm sure cool stuff has happened elsewhere in the league. And in about 24 hours NOBODY is gonna care about this story as soon as the cool videos of camp start hitting the internet. No judge is going to allow for an emergency injuction after 2 full investigations, conducted by a 3rd party, have already occurred, and Brady not only signed a contract to follow that process, but has already sought and was given, relief, in the form of an appeal, clearly spelled out in the process. Brady was also offered a settlement. That's 2 opportunities for relief denied by Brady, given within the process. Again, where is the emergency that merits an immediate injuction? Did Brady or the Pats not know about this for the entire offseason? Couldn't they have filed with a court immediately? Why didn't they? They thought the process, or more likley nerfing of the process, would result in their favor. They believed in the process enough to follow it. Now, that it doesn't turn out in their favor, they are going to court to ask for relief from a process they followed? IF this plays out in court, it will do so by the court's schedule. Which means he sits the 4 games, and sometime, in November?, the court hears the case. The man violated the employee handbook, and now corporate(The NFL) is handing down its punishment to an employee of one of its divisions(The Pats*). Done.

Screw off. Everybody here has to contribute what they are good at. I don't know why you are being so obstinate. Here is your oportunity to deliver another GG manifesto, and instead? You're F'ing about in Off the Wall, in a fun thread, over a picture of a kid? And, like I've said 100 times, you and DC_Tom are so butthurt it's hilarious. What are the chances he shows up here? Wanna bet me? EDIT: Oh Jesus Christ, would you look at that.

Good one. No go back to PPP and answer my China questions. Do what we pay you for around here.

And, this is how you know it's my godson: 1. He understands internet anonymity without being told. 2. He knows how to hold a football, and where to put his fingers without being told. 3. He wears the same exact thing I do every day, except I wear gym shorts.

Basic marketing rears its head: by your own admission, you never met a Canadian fan who was unaware of it. I bet you'd have been hard-pressed to find anyone in Ontario who was unaware of it. And awareness is marketing job #1. Awareness, followed by supporting interest, and then asking for the sale, is how you increase revenue. This is community college level stuff. Brandon, besieged as he was in 2008 with an elderly, way past his prime, owner, no clear vision for the team's future, potential chaos looming with his owner's death, and with many hostile team owners against, did something nobody expected, and won with it. It doesn't matter whether any of us were angry with it, or are over it now. What matters is Russ Brandon did the team, and all of us as fans, a service despite great odds against. That needs to be acknowledged. And now, it has been: he runs the Sabres too.