Bills switch to man coverage vs Steelers

[YoloinOhio]

A departure from McDermott’s scheme 🤔

https://theathletic.com/2824361/2021/09/13/how-the-bills-struggled-to-put-away-the-steelers-diving-into-the-advanced-stats/?amp#click=https://t.co/TtOdk9exUW

Quote

The Bills changed tendency and went with man coverage

Over the last four seasons, the Bills defense has leaned on zone coverage. The Bills will run man coverage for specific looks, but in 2020, they ran zone on 62 percent of their defensive snaps. Against the Steelers, they flipped the script and used man coverage on 58.2 percent of their defensive snaps. The Bills ran man coverage at the second-highest rate of all teams in Week 1, behind only the Patriots.

The Bills changing identity might have something to do with Roethlisberger’s tendency to get the ball out quickly. However, the downside of running as much man coverage as the Bills did is they left their zone-specific cornerbacks in Levi Wallace and Taron Johnson susceptible to bad beats and double moves. It hurt the Bills on a handful of plays, and some reps that the Steelers did not take advantage of could have been significant gains. However, you can’t fault the defense for its overall performance and approach on Sunday. The Bills held four legitimate playmakers in Najee Harris, Chase Claypool, Diontae Johnson and JuJu Smith-Schuster in check for much of the game and allowed only 16 points. Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa held on to the ball for 2.50 seconds on average in the opener, so we’ll see if the Bills get back to their zone tendency next week.

 

 

[0017]

We need CBs that can excel at both man and zone!! I think T. White can but the others have a way to go. IMHO 😬

[Malazan]

22 minutes ago, Dr. Football said:

We need CBs that can excel at both man and zone!! I think T. White can but the others have a way to go. IMHO 😬

 

The Steelers were 18/32 passing for 188 yards and only gave up 16 points. Can you point to specifics about where you think they should improve? 

[The Jokeman]

28 minutes ago, Dr. Football said:

We need CBs that can excel at both man and zone!! I think T. White can but the others have a way to go. IMHO 😬

I agree, Levi isn't fast enough for man.

[YoloinOhio]

9 minutes ago, jeremy2020 said:

 

The Steelers were 18/32 passing for 188 yards and only gave up 16 points. Can you point to specifics about where you think they should improve? 

I don’t fault the defensive strategy  either. Bills defense played well and had some crap calls go the other way. 

Edited September 14, 2021 by YoloinOhio

[Cheektowaga Chad]

Believe they have played man before for specific opponents

 

However everything that continues to come out from this game is the entire team coaches and players over thought everything. They just need to get back to basics in a way and just beat the other team, no over thinking just play football

[NewEra]

6 minutes ago, jeremy2020 said:

 

The Steelers were 18/32 passing for 188 yards and only gave up 16 points. Can you point to specifics about where you think they should improve? 

Specifically, not committing 26 yard PI’s on what was basically a Hail Mary on 3rd down.  

[streetkings01]

Seemed as if Big Ben was going after Levi Wallace on every play.

[Brennan Huff]

The defense played well enough to win the game. The offense never showed up

[Stank_Nasty]

And I say as a general Rule it was a good move. Defense showed did plenty to win this game. 
 

Anytime, in today’s NFL, you hold an opponent to 250 total Yds and 16 pts you should expect to win that game. 

Edited September 14, 2021 by Stank_Nasty

[0017]

12 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

I agree, Levi isn't fast enough for man.

I’m not sure why they haven’t pursued some speed at corner, especially with all the trouble we had with covering Tyreek Hill!! Big problem as I see it. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

29 minutes ago, Stank_Nasty said:

And I say as a general Rule it was a good move. Defense showed did plenty to win this game. 
 

Anytime, in today’s NFL, you hold an opponent to 250 total Yds and 16 pts you should expect to win that game. 

 

The points still count if ST or the other team's defense scores them.

 

I take your point that when the defense allows 16 points you generally expect a good offense to score more, so you win, but we don't get to disregard the points off ST.

[NewEra]

27 minutes ago, Stank_Nasty said:

And I say as a general Rule it was a good move. Defense showed did plenty to win this game. 
 

Anytime, in today’s NFL, you hold an opponent to 250 total Yds and 16 pts you should expect to win that game. 

The game stats are one thing.  We held them to 0 points at the half.  Not sure how many yards we gave up in the 1st half, but it was low.  Our D player lights out in the 1st half. 
 

then the 2nd half happened.  We didn’t force them to punt once in the 2nd half.  They scored on EVERY possession.  That’s not good defense in the 2nd half.  
 

our Defense wasn’t the reason we lost, but if they played better in the 2nd half, we might’ve won in spite of our OL, play calling  and mediocre QB play.  

[Stank_Nasty]

Just now, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

The points still count if ST or the other team's defense scores them.

 

I take your point that when the defense allows 16 points you generally expect a good offense to score more, so you win, but we don't get to disregard the points off ST.

Well I disagree. If we’re talking about the defensive unit I’m 100% gonna disregard a blocked punt. It had nothing to do with them. 

[YoloinOhio]

40 minutes ago, Cheektowaga Chad said:

Believe they have played man before for specific opponents

 

However everything that continues to come out from this game is the entire team coaches and players over thought everything. They just need to get back to basics in a way and just beat the other team, no over thinking just play football

White has followed WRs on occasion 

[NewEra]

1 minute ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

The points still count if ST or the other team's defense scores them.

 

I take your point that when the defense allows 16 points you generally expect a good offense to score more, so you win, but we don't get to disregard the points off ST.

Or disregard allowing them to score on every 2nd half possession and after doing the opposite in the first half.  

[YoloinOhio]

36 minutes ago, streetkings01 said:

Seemed as if Big Ben was going after Levi Wallace on every play.

As he should 

[Stank_Nasty]

1 minute ago, NewEra said:

The game stats are one thing.  We held them to 0 points at the half.  Not sure how many yards we gave up in the 1st half, but it was low.  Our D player lights out in the 1st half. 
 

then the 2nd half happened.  We didn’t force them to punt once in the 2nd half.  They scored on EVERY possession.  That’s not good defense in the 2nd half.  
 

our Defense wasn’t the reason we lost, but if they played better in the 2nd half, we might’ve won in spite of our OL, play calling  and mediocre QB play.  

You’re not wrong. I’m looking at it more as whole. Anytime your defense comes out of a game with those sort of cumulative numbers you should expect to win IMO… and honestly you should win handedly. 

[CaptnCoke11]

Pittsburgh was very vanilla in the first half.  When they put pressure on our secondary in the second half we crumbled.  I think the 2nd half defense is the real Bills defense 

[Malazan]

3 minutes ago, NewEra said:

The game stats are one thing.  We held them to 0 points at the half.  Not sure how many yards we gave up in the 1st half, but it was low.  Our D player lights out in the 1st half. 
 

then the 2nd half happened.  We didn’t force them to punt once in the 2nd half.  They scored on EVERY possession.  That’s not good defense in the 2nd half.  
 

our Defense wasn’t the reason we lost, but if they played better in the 2nd half, we might’ve won in spite of our OL, play calling  and mediocre QB play.  

 

You often strike me as a 'If there was a 3rd half..." kind of guys. 

Edited September 14, 2021 by jeremy2020