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Who cares? It's after the fact reporting that was and is absent in real time. Start writing good pieces during a coach's tenure and during the season and many will care. What happened is the past and been rehashed here and elsewhere forever. Move on.

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It's a really good piece, with some cool headed analysis. Maybe you can only do that after the fact, not in the heat of the moment. Takeaways for me:

 

- Billick (whether you like him or not) makes some good points. The best: this whole 4-3 vs. 3-4 thing is overrated. But it is properly rated with respect to Rex, who (unlike Billick) didn't adapt his defense to maximize the talent he has available.

 

- The article doesn't specifically call out Gilmore and Darby, but the conclusion is obvious, and it's what many of us have noted: Rex's defense depends heavily on strong pass coverage play from the secondary. After the Jets game exposed them, Rex moved away from his Rexy schemes to protect the lack of talent in the secondary. And the loss of Aaron Williams mattered ... a lot.

 

- Stopping the run is more on the players than on Rex. Weak tackling, and a seeming willingness to put up with being manhandled by other teams in the run game.

 

Most of all, the failure of Rex (and Rob) is the failure to adapt to changing times and circumstances. Rex's personnel wasn't adequate to do what he did with the Jets during his early successes there.

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This is a very, very good piece. We need more from Nick Veronica. This is the sort of piece that informed fans (of which there are very many) want and expect these days. http://buffalonews.com/2017/01/14/bills-2016-defensive-autopsy-rex-ryan/

Excellent article. The analysis is basically the loquacious coach didn't get it and the not so smart players didn't get it.

 

A core point that the writer made is if Rex's defensive backfield is insufficient the scheme collapses. Being wedded to an approach can leave you without good options when things go wrong. Another point that was made was that a lack of talent can't be hidden. When you try to compensate for a weakness you end up creating another weakness.

 

Rex was too self-absorbed and to smart for his own good to realize that simplicity is a better solution than complexity. He just didn't understand that it's not about the schemes---it's about the players on hand.

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It's a really good piece, with some cool headed analysis. Maybe you can only do that after the fact, not in the heat of the moment. Takeaways for me:

 

- Billick (whether you like him or not) makes some good points. The best: this whole 4-3 vs. 3-4 thing is overrated. But it is properly rated with respect to Rex, who (unlike Billick) didn't adapt his defense to maximize the talent he has available.

 

- The article doesn't specifically call out Gilmore and Darby, but the conclusion is obvious, and it's what many of us have noted: Rex's defense depends heavily on strong pass coverage play from the secondary. After the Jets game exposed them, Rex moved away from his Rexy schemes to protect the lack of talent in the secondary. And the loss of Aaron Williams mattered ... a lot.

 

- Stopping the run is more on the players than on Rex. Weak tackling, and a seeming willingness to put up with being manhandled by other teams in the run game.

 

Most of all, the failure of Rex (and Rob) is the failure to adapt to changing times and circumstances. Rex's personnel wasn't adequate to do what he did with the Jets during his early successes there.

 

I have to disagree about many of our problems being on the players. It's the coaches job to inspire and instill a certain attitidue and toughness in the players. The X's and O's of where to line up and who are you covering is one thing, but as Billick said players have to be willing to sacrifice and buy in to thier roles. That's what the really good coaches do. They get the players to buy in and instill that attitude, before the wins stack up and give evidence that it's all working.

 

All these players know how to tackle. They've been doing it their whole life. So all of a sudden they forget? They stop trying? Or caring? Why is that? It comes back to coaching. Same with Gilmore ans Darby. They were 2 of the best CBs in the league one year, the next... They can't cover? What changed? Is it they suddenly forgot what they were doing? Or is it the mentality and attitidue of the coaching staff that led them to either be confused or complacent?

 

Rex and his coaching staff installed a lackluster, easy going attitude. Then they piled on an overly complex and misguided system. It's easy to see why it failed. And some people knew it was going to happen from the day he was hired, because that's where his teams had been trending for years.

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Who cares? It's after the fact reporting that was and is absent in real time. Start writing good pieces during a coach's tenure and during the season and many will care. What happened is the past and been rehashed here and elsewhere forever. Move on.

 

Well the media seemed to care a lot at the time of the firing, had they written this article at the time terms like dyscunction wouldn't have been printed/said. Rex was a failure as a defensive coach, moreso when he brought his brother along, it was the kiss of death, make it work or get out.

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It's a really good piece, with some cool headed analysis. Maybe you can only do that after the fact, not in the heat of the moment. Takeaways for me:

 

- Billick (whether you like him or not) makes some good points. The best: this whole 4-3 vs. 3-4 thing is overrated. But it is properly rated with respect to Rex, who (unlike Billick) didn't adapt his defense to maximize the talent he has available.

 

- The article doesn't specifically call out Gilmore and Darby, but the conclusion is obvious, and it's what many of us have noted: Rex's defense depends heavily on strong pass coverage play from the secondary. After the Jets game exposed them, Rex moved away from his Rexy schemes to protect the lack of talent in the secondary. And the loss of Aaron Williams mattered ... a lot.

 

- Stopping the run is more on the players than on Rex. Weak tackling, and a seeming willingness to put up with being manhandled by other teams in the run game.

 

Most of all, the failure of Rex (and Rob) is the failure to adapt to changing times and circumstances. Rex's personnel wasn't adequate to do what he did with the Jets during his early successes there.

 

- Totally agree that Rex didn't match his scheme to his talent.

 

- Gilmore isn't Revis of a few years ago, I don't think anyone is saying otherwise. But Gilmore and Darby as a pair should be far more than adequate talent-wise to run an effective defense. This is more of an issue of Rex failing to adapt his scheme to his talent. If you need Revis and Cromartie to run an effective defense, then you're not very good at it. You know who can do well with talent like that? Pretty much everyone.

 

- As for stopping the run, yes players have to play. I saw a lot of times where the defense was gashed because a player did not fulfill their responsibility. Failure to keep contain on the edge, failure to contain cutback lanes and filling the wrong gap happened far too often. Miami killed the Bills with the zone run. Adjai was patient and simply waited for a crease. Some of this is definitely on the players, but some was surely due to confusion caused by Ryan's complex scheme.

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Come on Dave, don't cut corners yourself in a topic like this. Give some synopsis, and start a chat on the topic covered too!

Sorry - i was in a rush! What was interesting to me is how bad of a blitzing team the Bills were. I know they got some sacks, but it seemed that more often thant not they got lit up. The evidence here suggests that this was in fact the case.

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I like the part where billick points out, if his talent was in the dline, use it. If it's in the lb's, use them. Something totally missed by Rex. After 2 drafts we're still better suited to be a 4-3. What a waste of 2 years.

Better than reading sully any day.

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