Thurman#1 Posted March 30, 2021 Posted March 30, 2021 16 hours ago, Lv-Bills said: No, once again, I'm glad Milano is back. Not overly joyed by any means, but he's a decent player. He's not this legend that somehow he's garnered since becoming a free agent. ... Star wasn't that good two years ago. Period. He was brought up in almost everything said about the Bills as one player that was likely to get cut in 2020. He's not the answer. He's being made into something he wasn't, just because the defense was very mediocre last year and people are trying to act like he was the reason. Phillips and Lawson were the disruptors on the Bills defense in 2019. They missed them, and their play in the opposing teams backfield, way more than Star. I can't believe people forgot how much Star was criticized. Matter of fact, if I remember correctly, even the reports from Carolina weren't all that great when we picked him up. Hopefully we draft pretty heavy on the defensive front 7 and get lucky and find a really good player or two. Star is nice to have as a rotational guy, but this team needs some physicality and nastiness somewhere on it's front 7. They lost a lot of that physicality and energy when Lawson and Phillips left. Oh well. I get all sides to the argument. Here's hoping Beane crushes the draft and finds some help on defense. I think he will. Together, they will all function better for sure. Wow, your saying "Star wasn't that good two years ago," and then adding "Period." was very forceful. Still pretty misguided, but very forceful. Yes, he got a lot of criticism. Most of that came from people who were busy scapegoating. Not that he was terrific or anything. He wasn't. Had a few bad plays too. But overall he was a good solid player who did what they hired him to do. And what they hired him to do is something that very few people in the world can do at a high level. It made a great difference in our ability to stop the run when he wasn't here this year. And Milano is far better than "decent." He's really smart, really quick and very instinctual. One of the better LBs in coverage in the league and good at the run as well. 1
Green Lightning Posted March 30, 2021 Posted March 30, 2021 2 hours ago, Thurman#1 said: Yeah, it wasn't just one game. It was a lot of the beginning of the season. But the last ten games or so they were good, very good actually. In the last ten games, if their per game stats on points and yards were pro-rated out to 16 games, they'd have been 8th in yards allowed per game and 5th in points allowed per game. That's not great, but it's very good. How many good QBs did they play when the defense was playing well later in the season? Russ Wilson, Kyler Murray, Justin Herbert and Roethlisberger. Which is 4 out of 10, and 40% is probably about how many teams in the NFL have good quarterbacks, so these are fairly normal numbers. The defense didn't look great against the Colts but the Colts have a terrific offense. Holding the Colts to 24 points and 340 yards was a good solid game, well below the Colts averages. And the D ended up winning the game that day, as the Colts got the ball at the 14 with 2:30 left on the clock, plenty when a field goal would have tied it, and the D systematically strangled them on that drive. Yes, they were outmatched by the Chiefs offense. You do realize that pretty much the whole rest of the league was too, right? You didn't have to be a bad defense to have the Chiefs perform well against you. The defense was very good. Not great. They certainly need to work on being better - as does every person, every coach and every unit really - if they want to compete for a championship. But they were very good after those first six games where we had injury problems and problems with the new guys meshing and learning to deal with not having a space eater as well. When they stop giving up gobs of yards on the ground, get bullied by good O Lines, actually cover a TE and get off the field on 3 and 15, I will say they have improved. It's not a SB defense and we haven't done anything to date to improve it. Gettng one rotational DT back is not going to fix this D.
Arm of Harm Posted March 30, 2021 Posted March 30, 2021 (edited) 8 hours ago, Thurman#1 said: Yeah, it wasn't just one game. It was a lot of the beginning of the season. But the last ten games or so they were good, very good actually. In the last ten games, if their per game stats on points and yards were pro-rated out to 16 games, they'd have been 8th in yards allowed per game and 5th in points allowed per game. That's not great, but it's very good. How many good QBs did they play when the defense was playing well later in the season? Russ Wilson, Kyler Murray, Justin Herbert and Roethlisberger. Which is 4 out of 10, and 40% is probably about how many teams in the NFL have good quarterbacks, so these are fairly normal numbers. The defense didn't look great against the Colts but the Colts have a terrific offense. Holding the Colts to 24 points and 340 yards was a good solid game, well below the Colts averages. And the D ended up winning the game that day, as the Colts got the ball at the 14 with 2:30 left on the clock, plenty when a field goal would have tied it, and the D systematically strangled them on that drive. Yes, they were outmatched by the Chiefs offense. You do realize that pretty much the whole rest of the league was too, right? You didn't have to be a bad defense to have the Chiefs perform well against you. The defense was very good. Not great. They certainly need to work on being better - as does every person, every coach and every unit really - if they want to compete for a championship. But they were very good after those first six games where we had injury problems and problems with the new guys meshing and learning to deal with not having a space eater as well. Your post is well thought-out, and you make your case well. Nevertheless there are parts with which I disagree. First, I'd argue that even though Roethlisberger has had a great career, the 2020 version of him was not a particularly good quarterback. In 2020 he averaged 6.3 yards per pass attempt. The career average for Trent Edwards is 6.5 yards per attempt, for Losman it's 6.6 yards per attempt. As for Russell Wilson: in 2020 he averaged 7.5 yards per pass attempt, and 9.5 yards per pass attempt against the Bills. However he threw 2 INTs and took 5 sacks against the Bills, so you could argue the Bills defense used big plays to help make up for their lack of performance on normal plays. Kyler Murray averaged 7.1 yards per pass attempt against his opponents in 2020, but 7.7 yards per attempt when playing the Bills. Justin Herbert averaged 7.1 yards per pass attempt during the regular season, but just 6.1 yards against the Bills. This is the best example of the defense playing well against a good quarterback. I maintain my belief that the Bills defense played badly against the Colts, and that the stops were largely due to mistakes on the Colts' part, rather than the Bills defense making plays. As for the Kansas City debacle: only one KC drive ended with a punt or turnover. That was their first drive, when a dropped pass forced them to punt. All the rest of KC's drives ended in touchdowns or kneeldowns, except for one drive which was a field goal. That defensive effort was bad enough that it alone determined the outcome of the game. Edited March 30, 2021 by Arm of Harm
Da webster guy Posted April 3, 2021 Posted April 3, 2021 On 3/23/2021 at 1:26 AM, Thurman#1 said: To me, this is hilarious. Star was these boards favorite whipping boy through all of 2019. Then due to a pre-existing medical condition has him opt out and we see the D take a major step back. And for a few weeks people say, "Oh, gee, we really missed this guy." But that's all forgotten and now it's "can't believe he opted out." I mean, the way folks have to desperately twist and flail to find ways to criticize the guy. It cracks me up. You've got a great example here too. First, you criticize him for taking a year off. Then you do a 180 and criticize him for having a lot of miles. Hunh? He just took a year off. And then after knocking him for too many miles, it's "hasn't played a live snap for a year." Jeez, which is it? Played too much? Played too little? You can't reasonably have it both ways, though many here seem to try exactly these arguments, and, wackily, together. The girlfriends simile doesn't work. You saw your girlfriends again. You have NOT seen Star, you're just remembering him, and unlike what you apparently did with your exes, underestimating. We missed him last year, a lot, especially Oliver and Edmunds. Oh, and in answer to your question, my answer is likely the same as the Bills think. He's been above average every year he's played. At what they hired him to do. No, he's not athletic, and no he's not going to penetrate just about ever. But is he well above average as a space eater, which is what they knew he was when they signed him? The Bills would tell you yes, and the evidence shows they believe it. Star is average at best since 2014. He has played a lot of snaps in this league (mileage) AND he hasn't played a live snap in a very long time so yes you can have both things working against you. (rust, age, ability to maintain skills, fitness etc) You say we missed HIM last year, I say we missed a legit 1 tech, not necessarily him and his $50M deal. I trust McD and Leslie, hope Star comes back and has a tremendous season for us, but I agree with the poster who said he was never more than an average dude for us so lets not get carried away with the notion that he's going to significantly elevate this defense. Sincerely hope I'm wrong.
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