“Never Want to Lose your Fastball”: Cover 1 deep dive on Emmanuel Sanders

[Perk71]

This is gonna be a year to remember for the Bills. 🤙

 

Go Bills!!

Edited March 20, 2021 by Perk71
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[TroutDog]

55 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

This one? 

 

 

It musta stung for Brown for the Bills to say "we love you, thanks for all you've done, we're going for an upgrade" but I can see a lot of routes in that film where I believe Brown would have been taken out of the play while Sanders brushes the DB off like a pesky fly

Is it a reasonable comparison given Smoke’s health issues this year? I’m wondering if looking at other years would yield significantly different metrics. 
 

Just wondering. 

[Green Lightning]

1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

This one? 

 

 

It musta stung for Brown for the Bills to say "we love you, thanks for all you've done, we're going for an upgrade" but I can see a lot of routes in that film where I believe Brown would have been taken out of the play while Sanders brushes the DB off like a pesky fly

Yep. That's the one. Jeebus, I had to look at that for a while to take it all in. For not a big guy Sanders is rugged, much like Diggs and Beasley.  You can't sit in cover 2 and rough up our wide outs anymore.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

18 minutes ago, TroutDog said:

Is it a reasonable comparison given Smoke’s health issues this year? I’m wondering if looking at other years would yield significantly different metrics. 
Just wondering. 

 

I could be wrong, but I don't think the Bills faced that much zone coverage last year or early in the season this past season. 

 

I think the word on Josh Allen last year was "man up and bring the house" because he struggled to effectively throw deep and he wouldn't make those anticipation throws to Beasley or Brown.  Beas said in preseason that Josh was making throws he wouldn't try last year.

 

The transition about game 4 was that teams realized "That was then, This is Now" and if they tried it, Josh would carve them up like the T-day turkey - and he did it to the Rams and the Raiders.

 

 

[Green Lightning]

16 minutes ago, TroutDog said:

Is it a reasonable comparison given Smoke’s health issues this year? I’m wondering if looking at other years would yield significantly different metrics. 
 

Just wondering. 

Why take the chance? Sanders stop and go and wiggle creates instant separation.  Smoke was more of a full speed all the time guy. He's going to be an upgrade.

[WhoTom]

Thanks for posting, Yolo. One thing the video briefly mentioned, and I think will be significant, is his ability to improvise and communicate his adjustments to the QB. Josh, who's fond of improvising,  developed a quick rapport with Diggs, in spite of limited minicamps and no preseason. If he and Sanders can get on the same page as quickly, I pity opposing DCs trying to develop a scheme against this offense.

 

This is one more reason I'm glad Daboll is back for another year.

[Logic]

1 hour ago, Shaw66 said:

 

The zone numbers are eye-opening.   In man, Sanders can't threaten downfield like Brown could, but Sanders catches the ball in traffic better.   He's more like one of those guys who's open when he's covered.  

 

One other thought.   If the Bills are fielding three good zone busters, it forces teams to play more man-to-man.   Once they're in man-to-man, the running lanes for Allen open up, and he becomes more of a threat to leave the pocket and head upfield than he was last season.  Those 20 and 30 yarders every game or two make a big difference in the offense. 

Exactly right.

 

The book on stopping Allen used to be one page long: play press-man coverage and blitz the hell out of him.

 

Last year, Josh pretty quickly showed that he would dice that approach up easily. Crossers, comebacks, drags, scrambling. Diggs, Beasley being uncoverable 1-on-1. You wanna play man? Go right ahead. Good luck!

 

Then everyone started putting two safeties deep and playing zone, and it took the Bills offense a while to adjust. They still did fairly well, as evidenced by their year-end point production and record. But you could tell it was more of a slog for them. They had to work much harder.

 

Now they’ve added a third zone-beater, as you said. Further, Daboll’s Ehrhardt Perkins offense incorporates many option routes (which Beasley and Sanders also ran in June Jones’ SMU offense in college), which become nearly unstoppable so long as your WRs are making the right decisions. Sanders is apparently quite the smarty.

 

All of this adds up to one simple conclusion: defenses are going to run out of ways to stop Josh Allen and the Bills offense. The theme for 2021 will be “pick your poison”. I have a feeling that no matter which poison defenses choose, they’re going to get stung no matter what.

[Rubes]

I think this will turn out to be one of the real underrated signings this offseason. Really eager to see how the offense evolves with 3 really savvy vets and one up-and-coming young guy.

 

I'm interested, though—with all of this talk about the previous strategy to stop Allen being to play man and blitz the hell out of him, what were defenses doing in the playoffs? Allen didn't play poorly against the Colts and Ravens, but they seemed to keep him from blowing things open. And against the Chiefs, Allen looked a lot more like he did in the Texans playoff game than he did most of the last regular season. I was under the impression it was some of that approach—play tough man coverage and blitz the heck out of him. Were those teams using a different approach?

 

[Chandler#81]

7 minutes ago, Rubes said:

I think this will turn out to be one of the real underrated signings this offseason. Really eager to see how the offense evolves with 3 really savvy vets and one up-and-coming young guy.

 

I'm interested, though—with all of this talk about the previous strategy to stop Allen being to play man and blitz the hell out of him, what were defenses doing in the playoffs? Allen didn't play poorly against the Colts and Ravens, but they seemed to keep him from blowing things open. And against the Chiefs, Allen looked a lot more like he did in the Texans playoff game than he did most of the last regular season. I was under the impression it was some of that approach—play tough man coverage and blitz the heck out of him. Were those teams using a different approach?

 

Assuredly, KC took our receivers away. They were pretty banged up though..

[SectionC3]

1 hour ago, YoloinOhio said:

The Bills WR4 is much more important than most teams’ WR4. So I don’t see this signing as any  kind of shade on how they view Gabriel Davis as I’ve seen suggested. I think it’s to ensure 4 Wide can continue to be successful, John brown was eroding at the end of the season 

 

Agree on all counts.  An NFL receiver can't be getting hit in the face with the ball.  When the ball went through his hands in the AFCCG and was intercepted, my immediate reaction was that Brown is gone.  I'm not surprised they didn't offer him a chance to stick around.  Return/gadget guy to come at WR5, Hodgins at WR6, and on we go. 

[Boxcar]

3 hours ago, YoloinOhio said:

 

Not to be vulgar, but this video made me absolutely turgid.

[Haslett_Stomp]

2 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

Assuredly, KC took our receivers away. They were pretty banged up though..

 

Agreed, however as many have said on different threads, there may have been a different outcome had the referees called a tight game like they did the in Superbowl.

[dawolv]

This video is certainly much more entertaining and insightful than watching the Sabres right now...