Defence was dominated and Frazier needs to be more aggressive

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

On the Road 

against a good team

 

down to the last seconds

 

From ESPN power rankings 

Quote

2. Buffalo Bills (4-2)

Previous ranking: 1

 

Week 1 confidence rating: 6.3
How it's going now: 7.8

 

With the way the Bills played against the Steelers to start the season, the initial rating seemed spot-on. Since then, Buffalo has played like one of the best teams in the NFL, winning every game outside of Monday night's loss to the Titans.
 

Honestly, Buffalo's rating could be higher, especially after the way the win in Kansas City went. This team has an incredibly high ceiling, and the confidence will only increase as it fixes the issues that were on display in Tennessee. The Bills still have the potential to be the best team in the AFC, if not the league. -- Alaina Getzenberg

 

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

19 hours ago, Mango said:

Edmunds got worked tonight. He got picked on in the second half. Regularly lightly brushed out of plays. 

 

Edit: A lot of people kicking back on this. Maybe I should be more specific. Edmunds did not have 4 bad quarters, but he was picked on and pushed out of plays more frequently as the game went on. 

He was great against the run but our lbs had a rough night against play action...which makes a lot of sense 

1 hour ago, SlimShady'sSpaceForce said:

On the Road 

against a good team

 

down to the last seconds

 

From ESPN power rankings 

 

Yea I think its gonna be viewed more as an any given Sunday type loss due to that 4th and inches play...if we had picked up that first and then thrown 4 straight incompletions to lose the game the optics probably would've been different...or if we went to OT and Tennessee marched straight down the field and scored.  I think we're underestimating how difficult it is to not get a couple inches on a sneak out of frustration over the loss lol we probably get that 95 times out of 100

Edited October 19, 2021 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[The Firebaugh Kid]

I do not understand for the life of me why we didn't blitz them more in obvious passing situations.

[Jerome007]

8 minutes ago, The Firebaugh Kid said:

I do not understand for the life of me why we didn't blitz them more in obvious passing situations.

Yeah me too. Not every team kills the blitzes like the Chiefs and Bills... use them. 

 

I thought Star, Philipps and Zimmer did  a decent job in the middle. It was the outside rushe that were missing, though Hughes seemed on fire for the first quarter. Titans sure threw quick passes too. I wonder how they gave up so many sacks  before facing the Bills...

[jkeerie]

8 minutes ago, Jerome007 said:

Yeah me too. Not every team kills the blitzes like the Chiefs and Bills... use them. 

 

I thought Star, Philipps and Zimmer did  a decent job in the middle. It was the outside rushe that were missing, though Hughes seemed on fire for the first quarter. Titans sure threw quick passes too. I wonder how they gave up so many sacks  before facing the Bills...

They didn't have AJ or Julio in many of those games.  Tannehill was holding the ball longer looking for open receivers.

[SCBills]

Also seems like, no matter how good our defense is, we have a couple games like this per year.  
 

Rams last year.  Was it Eagles the year before?   Games where our defense literally cannot stop the other team for an entire half or so. 

[JohnNord]

22 hours ago, Niagara Dude said:

End of the day the Bills Offence scored enough to win this game and this game was lost because our defence could not get off the field in the second half and that started in the 2nd quarter.  Frazier called a lousy game and we got zero pressure on a QB and that was a team that was giving up sacks.  

You spelled “defense” and “offense” wrong. 

[GunnerBill]

18 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

 

Obviously false.

 

Bad Red Zone play calling in the 1st half (plenty of FGs!) and a bad choice to end the game are why they lost the game.  Bills are tied for the league lead with 15 FG attempted and over 1/2 are under 30 yards!  They have kicked 8 FG within that range--no other team has more than 5.

 

On the first of those two early drives it is fair to question both the play calling and the decision to take the FG. 4th and 3 I think I'd have been tempted to go. However, even within that sequence the 2nd down run wad a good call and if Feliciano sustains his block then Moss at worst gets the 1st down and might get in for the touchdown. Just bad execution. 

 

The second of those drives as all poor execution IMO. 1st down Daboll called a play that went for a touchdown only for a needless hold by Sanders to push them back. Then replaying first down he calls a play that gets Sanders totally free at the back of the endzone, Josh doesn't see him and did have pressure so took the checkdown and then on 3rd down he gets Diggs free at the front of the endzone for a touchdown and Josh just misses him with a low throw. I can't question the playcalling there the Bills just failed to execute. Nor do I question the decision having failed to execute to kick on 4th and 10. Early in the game 4th and 10 you kick the FG. 

[GunnerBill]

5 hours ago, The Firebaugh Kid said:

I do not understand for the life of me why we didn't blitz them more in obvious passing situations.

 

Which obvious passing situations? After the first two drives (where we did get pressure on Tannehill - Hughes should have had a sack and Oliver blew him a play up and forced him to throw it away) we got them in 3rd and long (ie. More than 3rd and 5) exactly FOUR times in the rest of the game. We only actually got them 3rd down of any distance SEVEN times in their final 7 drives excluding kneel downs. We held on FOUR of those SEVEN occasions two of them leading to FGs in the red zone and one to a 4th and short that they converted.

 

We did not lose on defense through failing to defend obvious passing situations. We lost through failing to get Tennessee into obvious passing situations. Which we struggled with against them last year too.

[T master]

What i don't understand is why Epenesa & Basham were inactive Efe Obada was in and did little to nothing for the pass rush although Jerry was doing his thing i believe if those 2 were in there the rush would have been better .

 

Has anyone heard if they were injured or was it just a thing where McD thought Efe was a better fit for what they're going to do ?

 

I think moving forward the need to have Efe as a depth player and put the other 2 on the field because when they are there the D is much better JMHO .

[FilthyBeast]

On 10/18/2021 at 8:43 PM, Niagara Dude said:

End of the day the Bills Offence scored enough to win this game and this game was lost because our defence could not get off the field in the second half and that started in the 2nd quarter.  Frazier called a lousy game and we got zero pressure on a QB and that was a team that was giving up sacks.  

 

This has been this teams pattern on defense for years now and not sure it's all on Frazier since McD also has heavy influence on that side of the ball.

 

But it's mind boggling that they sit in zone and refuse to blitz when opposing QB's are moving the ball at will against them and simply believe that they will hold a team to a FG instead of TD every time.

 

This is why I hate this scheme but something tells me that even if Frazier leaves in the offseason it will still be more of the same no matter who replaces him because of the head coaches philosophy.

[Nitro]

Frazier has a habit of having the defense  play cautiously against strong running teams.   LBs were cheating up and the crossing route was open in the second half for Tannehill to exploit.   It was jarring to see the Bills get shoved around by Titans.  

[Niagara Dude]

16 minutes ago, FilthyBeast said:

 

This has been this teams pattern on defense for years now and not sure it's all on Frazier since McD also has heavy influence on that side of the ball.

 

But it's mind boggling that they sit in zone and refuse to blitz when opposing QB's are moving the ball at will against them and simply believe that they will hold a team to a FG instead of TD every time.

 

This is why I hate this scheme but something tells me that even if Frazier leaves in the offseason it will still be more of the same no matter who replaces him because of the head coaches philosophy.

I agree and Titans were leading the lead in giving up sacks,  to just sit there is a loser mentality.  You're playing not to lose,  i would prefer taking risks and getting a few big defensive plays over just sitting back and giving up time consuming drives.  I don't expect endless blitzing,  but i do expect us to mix in some blitzes

 

[GunnerBill]

3 hours ago, Niagara Dude said:

I agree and Titans were leading the lead in giving up sacks,  to just sit there is a loser mentality.  You're playing not to lose,  i would prefer taking risks and getting a few big defensive plays over just sitting back and giving up time consuming drives.  I don't expect endless blitzing,  but i do expect us to mix in some blitzes

 

You have a stylistic preference for another sort of scheme, that is fine. But the Bills have been very successful with this scheme. It isn't that this scheme if failing. It is just that you don't like it. Personally I don't like blitz heavy schemes, but I look at the Ravens and I go, sure they have had success being blitz heavy. There is no 1 way to win in the NFL. Sitting in zone is not a loser mentality. It is just a different scheme to the one you'd prefer.

3 hours ago, FilthyBeast said:

 

This has been this teams pattern on defense for years now and not sure it's all on Frazier since McD also has heavy influence on that side of the ball.

 

But it's mind boggling that they sit in zone and refuse to blitz when opposing QB's are moving the ball at will against them and simply believe that they will hold a team to a FG instead of TD every time.

 

This is why I hate this scheme but something tells me that even if Frazier leaves in the offseason it will still be more of the same no matter who replaces him because of the head coaches philosophy.

 

Tannehill was moving the ball at will second half, but it is hard to send lots of blitzes when you can't even get a team to 3rd down. One of the two third down conversions we did give up 2nd half was when Leslie sent Milano (not technically a blitz because he dropped Obada out). That was a bad defensive call. 

[FilthyBeast]

3 hours ago, Niagara Dude said:

I agree and Titans were leading the lead in giving up sacks,  to just sit there is a loser mentality.  You're playing not to lose,  i would prefer taking risks and getting a few big defensive plays over just sitting back and giving up time consuming drives.  I don't expect endless blitzing,  but i do expect us to mix in some blitzes

 

 

That's my thinking too and you are going to go down and least go down swinging in that a blitz has a better chance of leading to a fumble/sack/INT than just standing there letting simply letting a team move the ball downfield at will hoping for them to make a mistake or get a FG instead of TD.

 

Tannenhill has definitely been a better player since his dolphin days and taking over for starter as the Titans the last few years, but he's from elite and there's a reason why he was the most sacked QB in the league heading into mondays game.

 

And had Allen not played one of his best games of the season we would have been blown out again by the Titans but even with said game we still lost.

[Figster]

On 10/19/2021 at 12:44 AM, Buffalo619 said:

How many times have we seen this thread topic? Frazier has 2-3 terrible games a year, this was one. 

In defence of OP,

 

its been a hard last couple of days...

[Niagara Dude]

30 minutes ago, FilthyBeast said:

 

That's my thinking too and you are going to go down and least go down swinging in that a blitz has a better chance of leading to a fumble/sack/INT than just standing there letting simply letting a team move the ball downfield at will hoping for them to make a mistake or get a FG instead of TD.

 

Tannenhill has definitely been a better player since his dolphin days and taking over for starter as the Titans the last few years, but he's from elite and there's a reason why he was the most sacked QB in the league heading into mondays game.

 

And had Allen not played one of his best games of the season we would have been blown out again by the Titans but even with said game we still lost.

The offence scored enough to win,  the defense did nothing the whole night. I get they played that way against Mahomes & KC but not against Titans.  We let them do whatever they liked and were happy to accept stopping them to a FG. 

[GunnerBill]

22 hours ago, BTB said:

Frazier’s conservative nature and refusal to change in game hurt the team last night…a lot. 

 

So I think Leslie had a poor night. But some of my least favourite calls of his were some of his more aggressive ones. 

[dave mcbride]

13 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Which obvious passing situations? After the first two drives (where we did get pressure on Tannehill - Hughes should have had a sack and Oliver blew him a play up and forced him to throw it away) we got them in 3rd and long (ie. More than 3rd and 5) exactly FOUR times in the rest of the game. We only actually got them 3rd down of any distance SEVEN times in their final 7 drives excluding kneel downs. We held on FOUR of those SEVEN occasions two of them leading to FGs in the red zone and one to a 4th and short that they converted.

 

We did not lose on defense through failing to defend obvious passing situations. We lost through failing to get Tennessee into obvious passing situations. Which we struggled with against them last year too.

And if you're in, say, a 3rd and 4 or 5 and know the LBs have to account for Henry, then quick throws for firsts on crossing routes are really easy to execute. Pitch and catch, basically. A blitz can't do anything against them.

[GunnerBill]

Just now, dave mcbride said:

And if you're in, say, a 3rd and 4 or 5 and know the LBs have to account for Henry, then quick throws for firsts on crossing routes are really easy to execute. Pitch and catch, basically. A blitz can't do anything against them.

 

Exactly. Glad I am not dying on this hill alone Dave 😆. You are 100% right.