What was the Defensive Strategy?

[st pete gogolak]

This title will invite a lot of sarcastic responses but seriously, what was the defensive strategy yesterday?  Bill Belichick will design a game plan to remove an opposing team's offensive weapon and make someone else beat him (Jim Kelly in Super Bowl XXV, Marshall Faulk when Pats beat the Rams).  The obvious call yesterday, especially with the weather, was design a game plan to slow down Taylor and make Wentz beat us.  To me, that means going from 4-2-5 to 4-3-4.  Did Edmunds injury scotch that idea?   Maybe.  But when Edmunds, Milano and Klein were healthy, we went 4-2-5 against the Titans and Henry killed us.  To me, maybe not the key play of the game, but an illuminating play none the less, came very early.  First Colts drive, 3rd and 2, Taron Johnson hits Taylor behind the line of scrimmage and Taylor drags him for three yards and a first down.  I think that was only 3rd down on Colts' first two touchdown drives.  Would a stop have made any difference?  Probably not, but it was sickening to see Taylor run over us the entire game.  Wentz made a couple of nice throws early but basically he was Wentz.  

[dave mcbride]

To stop the run with the Bills' bigger D-linemen. They just didn't get the job done. Harrison Phillips played 78 percent of the snaps and Butler 67 percent. Hughes played 30 percent, which is very low for him. Basham played 45 and Oliver 46 percent; Epenesa, Addison, and Obada all played under 30 percent. Hughes actually had a couple of nice pressures, but the interior of the d-line couldn't hold up. Missing Lotuleilei really hurt them.

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

22 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

To stop the run with the Bills' bigger D-linemen. They just didn't get the job done. Harrison Phillips played 78 percent of the snaps and Butler 67 percent. Hughes played 30 percent, which is very low for him. Basham played 45 and Oliver 46 percent; Epenesa, Addison, and Obada all played under 30 percent. Hughes actually had a couple of nice pressures, but the interior of the d-line couldn't hold up. Missing Lotuleilei really hurt them.

 

They used motion to identify man coverage way too easily.  And when in man they knew our checks.  We'd check and they'd see the gap switches and their blocking scheme will play to that leverage strength.  If we were in zone they'd pin block the "unblocked" guy in our check.  They used read option a few times to freeze the ends, and would have receivers run RPO routes to force the DBs to stick to them in man.  If any of these doesn't happen you can toss an easy completion, or if the end vacates you can just scramble for an easy gain.  

[dave mcbride]

4 minutes ago, dneveu said:

 

They used motion to identify man coverage way too easily.  And when in man they knew our checks.  We'd check and they'd see the gap switches and their blocking scheme will play to that leverage strength.  If we were in zone they'd pin block the "unblocked" guy in our check.  They used read option a few times to freeze the ends, and would have receivers run RPO routes to force the DBs to stick to them in man.  If any of these doesn't happen you can toss an easy completion, or if the end vacates you can just scramble for an easy gain.  

How did they do it last year? They couldn't use RPOs with Rivers.

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

1 minute ago, dave mcbride said:

How did they do it last year? They couldn't use RPOs with Rivers.

 

I didn't mention last year, but you can run RPOs with any QB.  

[dave mcbride]

1 minute ago, dneveu said:

 

I didn't mention last year, but you can run RPOs with any QB.  

No, I know you didn't. I was wondering what your take was on how they shredded the Bills last season with a very different QB.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

9 minutes ago, dneveu said:

 

They used motion to identify man coverage way too easily.  And when in man they knew our checks.  We'd check and they'd see the gap switches and their blocking scheme will play to that leverage strength.  If we were in zone they'd pin block the "unblocked" guy in our check.  They used read option a few times to freeze the ends, and would have receivers run RPO routes to force the DBs to stick to them in man.  If any of these doesn't happen you can toss an easy completion, or if the end vacates you can just scramble for an easy gain.  

heard something interesting about the Colts. Unlike most teams in the NFL, they run a ton of gap blocking, in addition to your inside zone.
 

I would be curious to see the breakdown in this game— but I suspect going with the gap blocking Gave then major mismatches all across the line. They could double Oliver, and then the other guys inside were push overs— Butler probably fell over on his own most plays. 

[Hebert19]

Feels like it's that time again.  Remember at some point in each of the last 2 seasons McDermott started calling plays and digging in more on D.   I can see that happening for Pats game with 10 days rest.  

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

3 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

heard something interesting about the Colts. Unlike most teams in the NFL, they run a ton of gap blocking, in addition to your inside zone.
 

I would be curious to see the breakdown in this game— but I suspect going with the gap blocking Gave then major mismatches all across the line. They could double Oliver, and then the other guys inside were push overs— Butler probably fell over on his own most plays. 

 

dont block that guy (butler), its breezy out. He'll just tip over.

[D. L. Hot-Flamethrower]

I saw a duo block on Phillips on one of the first runs. He was driven back initially off balance onto his back leg by Nelson/Kelly. Then after hopping back on that leg off balance they moved him 2 more yards off the line. I also saw several situations where we have not 7 or 8, but 9 men close to the box and got blown up. The guys on the field were too small. The Colts do a nice job protecting the edge too as the small guys couldn't attack from the slot.

[Motorin']

Still too soon, but just saw this on Twitter and it's pretty hilarious:

 

 

[auburnbillsbacker]

Johnathan Taylor got way too much credit yesterday.  I only saw 2 runs where his superior athleticism made a difference.  Almost any RB would have carved the Bills up.  Star's ability to stuff the run and Edmunds speed were really missed on Sunday.  

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

4 minutes ago, auburnbillsbacker said:

Johnathan Taylor got way too much credit yesterday.  I only saw 2 runs where his superior athleticism made a difference.  Almost any RB would have carved the Bills up.  Star's ability to stuff the run and Edmunds speed were really missed on Sunday.  

i agree that their line was ridiculous, but come on! They could not bring Taylor down. Guys would just melt off of him. He would get nothing at times, wiggle a little, fall forward, and that would be 6 yards. And those were his worst runs!! 
 

i think he is actually much harder to bring down than Derrick Henry— he has a better center of gravity, lower base, and balance. You can sort of chop Henry at the ankles. You can’t do that with Taylor. 

[dorquemada]

Based on video evidence, I'd say that the strategy was to wear Taylor out by letting him run windsprints up and down the field

 

you asked for sarcastic takes. 

[Maine-iac]

For all the Edwards haters I've seen the guy brought the wood when he hit Henry and no one was thumping Taylor.  You take out that one long run we didn't do so badly vs Henry.  To be honest I'm not even sure Taylor going off is why we lost.  We had them stopped on several occasions and either missed a sack and watched Wentz run 30 yards or hit him in the knees well after he threw the ball and got a penalty.  Don't get me wrong Taylor was going to have a good day but he does that against everyone.  We still could have beat the Colts, there's no doubt in my mind.

[John from Riverside]

Harrison Phillips was literally getting stood up and either stalemated or driven back all game long.

 

We missed Star in this game....and we need to look into a true NT in the offseason

[GETTOTHE50]

the usual, play nickle cause mcdermott is too stubborn to switch it up.

 

the defense is stuck in nickle and the offense is stuck passing.

[Bruffalo]

1 hour ago, Hebert19 said:

Feels like it's that time again.  Remember at some point in each of the last 2 seasons McDermott started calling plays and digging in more on D.   I can see that happening for Pats game with 10 days rest.  

If that's true then I have a lot more issue with McD this season. If he isn't digging in with the defense, what is he doing?  He's said multiple times that he lets Daboll run the offense without a whole lot of input.

[Jauronimo]

Our strategy was not to let Wentz beat us with his arm and limit Taylor to less than 6 TDs and we executed it flawlessly.  Not sure why we lost so badly.

[Patrick Duffy]

Looked like same strategy as against Tenn and Henry. And got same results