A.J. Epenesa was the best Bill on the field in Miami

[Rc2catch]

I was so focused on Rousseau every play I didn’t see Epenesa until he was almost murdering quarterbacks. Good thing Washington gets 10 days to rest up. I might be a little worried if my name is Taylor Heinicke

[947]

I don't know if anybody can get 10 sacks with all the DL rotation we  do. It seems to me that AJE & Rousseau are clearly outplaying Hughes & Addison through 2 games, but they'll still never see more than 55% of the snaps. I really wish McD would ride the better players.

[Nelius]

Rousseau's gonna get 10 sacks. On that note I'm going to see if there's a place where I can bet on that.

I think he was the best Bill but it's 1A 1B, take your pick. 

[MJS]

I think Milano was the best. He was all over the place. Taron Johnson was also really good. But yes, Epenesa was great.

 

It's really good to see major contribution outside of the guys that usually have to do it, like Tre White and Jerry Hughes.

[John from Riverside]

3 hours ago, Mat68 said:

Epenesa and Rouseau are the key to a Championship defense.  They look better than Hughes and Addison.  

At some point basham is going to join this group and I think you’re going to see the veteran guys get less snaps

 

It was hot down on the field today being able to rotate quality guys in and out was also a big key to this game

 

[GunnerBill]

I thought Milano was the best player on the field but it was between those two. AJE was awesome. Looks so much quicker off the edge. 

[Marvlevydraftdaygenius]

6 hours ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

Agreed. Bills could have easily had 3 more sacks, but Brissett got tripped up for like 1-yard gains. 
 

my favorite play was when AJ almost decapitated Brissett. Brissett wiggled free and I think someone else cleaned it up.
 

Don't forget the last play for the dolphins Rousseau went right around the tackle and missed his third sack.

[Solomon Grundy]

4 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

I thought Milano was the best player on the field but it was between those two. AJE was awesome. Looks so much quicker off the edge. 

Taron Johnson 

[TPS]

8 hours ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

Agreed. Bills could have easily had 3 more sacks, but Brissett got tripped up for like 1-yard gains. 
 

my favorite play was when AJ almost decapitated Brissett. Brissett wiggled free and I think someone else cleaned it up.
 

I think that was the sack credited to Zimmer. 

[foreboding]

8 hours ago, Inigo Montoya said:

If you ever needed an example of how stats can be deceiving, here are Epenesa's stats for the Miami game;

 

1 Tackle and 2 QB hits.

 

If you were to look at that stat line you would think Epenesa had a pretty pedestrian game.  Those stats don't tell the story though.  Epenesa was killing the Phins all day.  He knocked out Tua on a clean hit.  He was routinely getting into the back field today and disrupting the Dolphins passing game.   On one of Rousseau's sacks Epenesa drove Brissett right into Rousseau's arms.  A.J. is getting off the snap so much faster than he did last season and getting around the corner on speed rushes and into the pocket.  

 

If A.J. continues to play like this he could end up with 10 sacks this year.   Epenesa, Oliver, Zimmer, and Rousseau could end up being really scary.

 

Yep, he was a wrecking ball. Loved it. Also, Milano was everywhere. If he stays healthy, man, what a year.

[2020 Our Year For Sure]

Derm and Co. just need to teach him not to jump right before impact. He jumped right over Brissett! 

[TPS]

4 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

I thought Milano was the best player on the field but it was between those two. AJE was awesome. Looks so much quicker off the edge. 

AJ may be the new Hughes, leading the team in QB pressures but doesn't get the sacks.  Everyone else is going to benefit in the sack stats because of him.

 

As for looking quicker, he started to come on last year toward the end.  The play that made me take notice last year was very similar to his hit on Brissett, it was against the Pats on Stidham.  They called it roughing the passer penalty, but it looked legal. 

 

 

[GunnerBill]

25 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

Taron Johnson 

 

Yep. Taron has been excellent too.

[CapeBreton]

Pretty crazy how different AJ Epenesa looks physically from when he was drafted. Amazing tape at Iowa but he was 275 lbs at the combine, had the highest body fat % of any defensive end, and ran his 40m in over 5 seconds. 
 

Now he looks shredded and is flying all over the field, amazing what the Bills strength and conditioning coaches have turned this guy into. 

[ProcessTruster]

8 hours ago, Big Blitz said:

I'll tell you this our front 7 looks much better then KC's right now.   

you mean front 6.   Bills play nickel on almost every down.

[1ManRaid]

9 hours ago, Augie said:

First we had no NFL quality WR’s. Fixed. Then we had no pass rush. Fixed (and cheaper!). Having a pass rush in this league changes everything. Look at Tampa vs KC in the Super Bowl.

 

 

Next year will be OLine for us. The flip side of having a pass rush will be fixed. 

 

 

.

 

Well they did already revamp the O-line back in 2019, and I think it was generally better than before.  I think they will just continue to tweak it, rather than another revamp.

[Jerome007]

6 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

I thought Milano was the best player on the field but it was between those two. AJE was awesome. Looks so much quicker off the edge. 

Milano was THE best player on the field. By a mile. Especially in the 1st half. Wow. Of course Epenesa  was a force too. Most of the OL were damn good too.

[BuffaloBill]

13 hours ago, Inigo Montoya said:

If you ever needed an example of how stats can be deceiving, here are Epenesa's stats for the Miami game;

 

1 Tackle and 2 QB hits.

 

If you were to look at that stat line you would think Epenesa had a pretty pedestrian game.  Those stats don't tell the story though.  Epenesa was killing the Phins all day.  He knocked out Tua on a clean hit.  He was routinely getting into the back field today and disrupting the Dolphins passing game.   On one of Rousseau's sacks Epenesa drove Brissett right into Rousseau's arms.  A.J. is getting off the snap so much faster than he did last season and getting around the corner on speed rushes and into the pocket.  

 

If A.J. continues to play like this he could end up with 10 sacks this year.   Epenesa, Oliver, Zimmer, and Rousseau could end up being really scary.

 

 

 

Simmer was a hidden gem yesterday also. The guy plays all out.

[FilthyBeast]

I really like what I see from this defense so far, if this play continues this season and the DL continues to wreak havoc this will be the best overall defense that McDermott/Frazier have fielded during their time here.