Kelly the Dog Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 (edited) To me, and I would suspect most coaches and people that follow football, defensive stats are not at all about how many yards a team gives up. It's important, sure, but it's down the list at least a few notches. Defense is about keeping teams out of the endzone, yards per play, stopping the run on early downs, getting pressures and sacks on the QB, creating turnovers, 3rd down percentage, and giving up less points than your offense scores, thereby winning the game. If you had to chose the most important it would be points against, or better, giving up less than your offense scores. I would argue that turnovers is the second most important. Here are the stats as of now. In points given up, at 24 a game, we rank 14th. Upper middle of the pack. In yards per game, we are 29th, very bad. In yards per play, we are 31st, terrible. In turnovers, we are #1. In 3rd down % we are tied for 15th, Middle of the pack. In 4th down %, we are tied for the worst giving up 4-4 although it's a small sample. In penalty yards against, we are 14th. In time of possession, we are #7, very good, but that has a lot to do with our offense controlling the ball. In sacks we're tied for last, terrible although we have hardly ever blitzed because of the QBs and teams we have played. We have scored three TDs on defense, the most in the league. And in the most important stat, we are tied for third best in the league in allowing less points than we score ourselves. In other words, we don't have a terrible defense, we have a middle of the road defense, that needs to get a lot better in certain areas. http://www.nfl.com/s...&qualified=true Edited October 10, 2011 by Kelly the Dog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave mcbride Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 To me, and I would suspect most coaches and people that follow football, defensive stats are not at all about how many yards a team gives up. It's important, sure, but it's down the list at least a few notches. Defense is about keeping teams out of the endzone, yards per play, stopping the run on early downs, getting pressures and sacks on the QB, creating turnovers, 3rd down percentage, and giving up less points than your offense scores, thereby winning the game. If you had to chose the most important it would be points against, or better, giving up less than your offense scores. I would argue that turnovers is the second most important. Here are the stats as of now. In points given up, at 24 a game, we rank 14th. Upper middle of the pack. In yards per game, we are 29th, very bad. In yards per play, we are 31st, terrible. In turnovers, we are #1. In 3rd down % we are tied for 15th, Middle of the pack. In 4th down %, we are tied for the worst giving up 4-4 although it's a small sample. In penalty yards against, we are 14th. In time of possession, we are #7, very good, but that has a lot to do with our offense controlling the ball. In sacks we're tied for last, terrible although we have hardly ever blitzed because of the QBs and teams we have played. We have scored three TDs on defense, the most in the league. And in the most important stat, we are tied for third best in the league in allowing less points than we score ourselves. In other words, we don't have a terrible defense, we have a middle of the road defense, that needs to get a lot better in certain areas. http://www.nfl.com/s...&qualified=true 5 sacks in 5 games - ugh. That said, we are 4th in passes defensed (12 of those 38 total defensed passes are INTs, of course!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRW Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 5 sacks in 5 games - ugh. That said, we are 4th in passes defensed (12 of those 38 total defensed passes are INTs, of course!). The sack totals are bad, but QB pressures yesterday led to at least 2 (I would argue 3) of the interceptions the D got. So there were signs of life in that department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dorkington Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 QB pressures/batted balls are leading to turnovers, so I can't fault the Sack numbers. My biggest beef is how many yards we are giving up, especially per play. We need to figure out a way to stop giving up large plays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 102 first downs in the last 4 games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 102 first downs in the last 4 games. That proves it, giving up 25.5 first downs per game gives you a 75% chance of winning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan in Chicago Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 In other words, we don't have a terrible defense, we have a middle of the road defense, that needs to get a lot better in certain areas. http://www.nfl.com/s...&qualified=true Besides the stats themselves, I am concerned that we have a tough time protecting a lead. Not sure what it is but doesn't feel right. Individually, there are some really good performers - Barnett, Wilson, Byrd, KWilliams, Dareus, Kelsay. But together, as a unit, we seem incapable of stopping drives and preventing a lot of yards. George Edwards may be the reason or it may be that the players are very young and, with the short off-season, haven't had time to gel. Good to see that we are winning despite a below average defense. But to reach and go deep in the playoffs, things have to change or improve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 Besides the stats themselves, I am concerned that we have a tough time protecting a lead. Not sure what it is but doesn't feel right. Individually, there are some really good performers - Barnett, Wilson, Byrd, KWilliams, Dareus, Kelsay. But together, as a unit, we seem incapable of stopping drives and preventing a lot of yards. George Edwards may be the reason or it may be that the players are very young and, with the short off-season, haven't had time to gel. Good to see that we are winning despite a below average defense. But to reach and go deep in the playoffs, things have to change or improve. Probably but not necessarily. Fans don't like conservative play nearly as much as coaches seem to, but it's been working. The Bills had a lot of guys down. The whole game plan was conservative this week, and it worked, because it produced a win. It gets to be a problem when it prevents you from winning. The Eagles are a very talented, explosive team despite their record. We did what we had to do. Gailey is a very smart, very good coach, IMO. He's never going to always make the right decisions, but we have won a few different ways in the five games, sometimes being attacking and sometimes being conservative, and sometimes both. People may (rightfully) say that we were too conservative but throwing out of the endzone on 1st and 15 from your own five was a ballsy, ballsy call that was a huge play in that game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taglientep Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Hard to pressure a guy like Vick. I am sure he felt a lot more pressure than the stats say but with a guy like his mobile talent...Lets see how we do this Sunday against Eli....Need to pressure him.. Sup with Merriman...Where is lights out...been more like a dimming effect on pass rush... though he has been effective in the run Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan in Chicago Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 People may (rightfully) say that we were too conservative but throwing out of the endzone on 1st and 15 from your own five was a ballsy, ballsy call that was a huge play in that game. By the way, three of the five teams we have faced are top 10 in offense (Pats*, Eagles, Raiders). We now go up against the Giants (#13 overall, #6 passing, #27 rushing). On D, they are #20 overall, #18 against pass, #21 against run. Overall, we are superior but we can be hurt by their passing. I think we wil have to score gobs of points and hope McGee is back this week. I feel very good about our chances this week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Big Cat Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 It's hard getting sacks in the NFL. It's even harder when you have to escape a half nelson every time you get a step past the OLine. The no holds have been ABSURD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonramz Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 After it all plays out, we'll probably be on the lower end of average as far as yards/play go... Philly and NE are fantastic offenses, Oakland is pretty good too. The turnovers though have been wonderful and have definitely saved us a few times. One stat I like is punts forced... (we are 16th) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Kelly - you sre clearly a "glass half full" guy. I've said in many other posts that all that really matters at the end of the day is W's and L's. However, IMO the Bills D is giving up way too many yards. They are continuing to make it very hard on themselves. At the current pace the Bills would finish with a crazy 12-4 or 13-3 record - who could argue with that? But if the D doesn't come up with as many turnovers the house of cards will crumble. The lack of run D is just mystifying and annoying. Perhaps the players selected in this year's draft need more time to come on but outside of Dareus (probably the Bill's best selection in a decade) nobody is jumping out as an impact player on defense. Time will tell how this plays out but I am certainly enjoying the ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozymandius Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 These Football Outsiders rankings haven't been updated for Week 5 yet (as of Monday afternoon) but they agree with you. They have us as #14 as of last week. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamdef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AReed Deep For 7 Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 It's hard getting sacks in the NFL. It's even harder when you have to escape a half nelson every time you get a step past the OLine. The no holds have been ABSURD. Merriman has been held (offensive lineman beat with his arm around Merrimans neck from behind) more than anybody ive ever seen and cant get a call. WTF is going on that all of these are being missed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCinBuffalo Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 1. I think this defense has suffered due to the lockout. 2. They have clearly displayed significant playmaking ability, ballhawkish tendencies, and physical ability. NOBODY has been able to run consistently up the middle on us. The frustration has come on the "we have one guy whose supposed to be getting the edge, but for whatever reason, he's not where he's supposed to be and then misses the tackle by inches". One thing is certain: This team gets off their blocks 60-70% better than they did last year. That is purely about physical ability, and it is clearly improved. They are raw though, but that hopefully gets fixed with experience. 3. I think the coaches have made substitutions and inserted packages that have caused as many problems as they have solved. The team is not there yet in terms of who is supposed to be where, in what set, against what offense, etc. The problem is not technique or physical ability. The problem is they don't fully get the playbook yet. McKelvin is a prime example of this: didn't hear his name all game did you? That's because he was where he was supposed to be this game. However, I don't see how throwing rookies into the game, who aren't really sure wtf is going on, is a better idea than keeping the vets in there. 4. As I said earlier, it seems that the coaches are willing to sacrifice situational awareness for fresh legs. OK. Not how I would do it, but, they appear to be largely getting away with it for right now. Who knows? Perhaps the coaches feel that these guys are closer to starting than I do? Perhaps they feel they need to play em asap? What makes me wrong is: Kevin Sheppard laying Vick out and causing a pick. What makes me right is: Kevin Sheppard forgetting his "contain Vick" responsibility and Vick running for 60 yards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPS Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 When I was putting a post together earlier today about the road to the playoffs, I noticed they ranked in the middle wrt points allowed. Last year the Bills scored 18 ppg, and they are now at 33ppg. They gave up 27 last year and are at 24 this year--the spread went from from -9 to positive 9. That's a big swing. I think what we'll see the rest of the way is the D getting better and the O tailing off a bit, as teams have more film on the Bills, combined with injuries at WR. So it's imperative the D improves and reduces the pppg to 20 or less (IMHO). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsWatch Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 The sack totals are bad, but QB pressures yesterday led to at least 2 (I would argue 3) of the interceptions the D got. So there were signs of life in that department. Vick said as much saying he should have just taken the sacks. It's hard getting sacks in the NFL. It's even harder when you have to escape a half nelson every time you get a step past the OLine. The no holds have been ABSURD. Wrestling is very popular. NFL is trying like SyFy Channel and USA channel to integrate wrestling into football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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