Breakdown of Leonard Fournette 47 yard touchdown

[HoofHearted]

44 minutes ago, TheProcess said:

I have no doubt you’re accurate in your play design, but you know what’s better than funneling your guy back inside? Using your instinct and just making the tackle. Edmunds passed up just making the tackle on Fournette to engage the blocker because that’s what the play told him to do. He went right by him to force the play inside when he could have just shown a little instinct and stopped it right there. Players rely on their instinct and deviate from script all the time to make a play. Rarely, if ever, seems to happen with Tremaine who tends to be out of position on many big plays. 

It’s a catch 22. If Edmunds were to have fit tighter in the gap Fournette ultimately hits then the Guard who is wrapping on the Buck Sweep will just hinge back inside on Edmunds and Fournette hits in between the two pulling guards (in the gap Edmunds filled) for likely the same outcome. Everything with stopping the run has to work in unison - when guys don’t do their job and instead do their own thing is when you have breakdowns.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

12 hours ago, HoofHearted said:

 

OK, can you do anything to improve this?:

[JohnNord]

Maybe that play wasn’t his fault but the lengths people will go to try to show that Edmunds is slightly above average is insane.

 

He is what he is.  An average MLB who is a part of a defense that is consistently outmuscled.  What’s there to argue?

 

 

[HoofHearted]

2 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Maybe that play wasn’t his fault but the lengths people will go to try to show that Edmunds is slightly above average is insane.

 

He is what he is.  An average MLB who is a part of a defense that is consistently outmuscled.  What’s there to argue?

 

 

Don't take this as anything more than it is. In no way am I trying to make Edmunds out to be anything more than what he is - a mediocre inside backer. There's no agenda with this post. I just saw a lot of people were misinformed and thought I'd address it.

[JohnNord]

Just now, HoofHearted said:

Don't take this as anything more than it is. In no way am I trying to make Edmunds out to be anything more than what he is - a mediocre inside backer. There's no agenda with this post. I just saw a lot of people were misinformed and thought I'd address it.

Ok cool… this has now made the rounds of Twitter.  Tough play, yes but again it’s why I don’t think as good as some hype him up to be
 

 

[HoofHearted]

19 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

OK, can you do anything to improve this?:

How'd I do?

[HoofHearted]

10 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Ok cool… this has now made the rounds of Twitter.  Tough play, yes but again it’s why I don’t think as good as some hype him up to be
 

 

Nothing tough about it - Edmunds fit it perfectly and whiffed on the tackle because he stopped his feet on contact. It's inexcusable.

[Coach Tuesday]

13 hours ago, HoofHearted said:

Tampa runs Buck Sweep on 1st and 10 and catch Buffalo rolling 3 weak. Buffalo is beat at birth right here based on alignment since they have Rousseau lined up in a 7 tech instead of a 9 and their Sam linebacker (Milano) playing a 50 and having to set the edge from depth. Milano's responsibility is to set the edge so he is going to take on the first puller with outside leverage forcing Edmunds to take on the second puller with outside leverage and force the play back inside to the Will/Nickel (Johnson) and Strong Safety (Poyer). Johnson missed the tackle and Poyer got worked by the Left Tackle as the Alley player allowing the touchdown. Edminds fit his gap assignment. Anyone who says he overran the play doesn't understand football and run fit assignments.

 

Flame on haters.... @AlCowlingsTaxiService @LABillsBacker @Rick 'r Mortis

 

 

 

Taron Johnson got a nice pay raise for being an undersized slot corner and has responded by missing tackles at an alarmingly high clip.  Has been an issue all year.  By contrast there were street FAs in the Bucs secondary yesterday making form tackles all over the field.  

Edited December 13, 2021 by Coach Tuesday

[HoofHearted]

11 hours ago, BillsFan130 said:

Is there a breakdown for when Edmunds couldn't stop Fournette on a 3rd and 1 in the backfield, then got burned by Tom Brady's eyes that led to the game winning TD?

3rd and 1 - Edmunds fit great and whiffed the tackle because he stopped his feet on contact. No reason to draw that one up.

 

Game Winning TD - Bills were playing 1 Rat coverage - a variation of Cover 1 (Man Free) and rushing 5. They stunt up front on the defensive left side pinching the 3 tech and 5 tech inside and blitzing Milano off the edge. The 3 tech and 9 tech to the defensive right rushed their lanes respectively. Everyone else is responsible for coverage. It's man so everyone except Poyer (F) has a man responsibility. Wallace (defensive right) has the furthest receiver outside, Johnson ($) has the #2 receiver to that side, Hyde (S) has the Tight End, Edmunds responsible for the back if he releases and is free otherwise, and Jackson (defensive left) has the furthest receiver outside to his side of the field. When they short motioned the outside receiver to the strong side of the field (defensive right) and he worked into a stack alignment with the receiver on the LoS Wallace and Johnson should have checked to a combo coverage here. Combo means Johnson is responsible for the first in-cutting route and Wallace is responsible for the first out-cutting route. There was zero communication and both Wallace and Johnson took #14 on the out-cutting route and no one was on the in-cutting route which was eventually thrown. Based on how i've seen the Bills play their 1 high coverage in the past Johnson should have carried the crosser since it went overtop of Edmunds (Typically in 1 Rat if a cross goes in front of the RAT player then they pick up the cross and whoever was on the receiver running the cross now becomes the RAT). Can't see Poyer in the highlight clip, but I'd assume he was "collected" by the vertical that Gronk ran and it took him out of the play entirely.

 

Again, it comes down to players all not being on the same page which caused a failure in execution.

19 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

 

Taron Johnson got a nice pay raise for being an undersized slot corner and has responded by missing tackles at an alarmingly high clip.  Has been an issue all year.  By contrast there were street FAs in the Bucs secondary yesterday making form tackles all over the field.  

Agreed. Our tackling as a defense has taken a huge step back this year. That's one thing (as a coach) I used to be able to point to that the Bills did a really good job of. This year it's like they threw everything they'd done in the past in regards to tackling fundamentals out the window. It needs to be fixed.

[GoBills808]

10 hours ago, bouds said:

Great breakdown brother.  Question, what does playing a 50 mean?

 

Romo even said it on the broadcast, he was talking about our safeties rotating late and keeping QBs off balance, except when you rotate yourself out of position and get slapped.  Seems like thats what happened here, because we kept the rest of the run game bottled up.

 

Appreciate the analysis.

It’s a numerical system for designating linebacker alignments, similar to defensive linemen in 0tech, 1tech etc except LB coaches add a zero.

 

This is a good article for the basics: https://www.stateoftheu.com/2016/7/11/12093870/miami-hurricanes-clinic-talk-terms-and-phrases-for-defensive-football

[Dopey]

12 hours ago, 727Bills said:

Thought I read somewhere that Edmunds took ownership in his PC that it was his fault.... I could be mistaken 

were you able to confirm?

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, HoofHearted said:

3rd and 1 - Edmunds fit great and whiffed the tackle because he stopped his feet on contact. No reason to draw that one up.

 

Game Winning TD - Bills were playing 1 Rat coverage - a variation of Cover 1 (Man Free) and rushing 5. They stunt up front on the defensive left side pinching the 3 tech and 5 tech inside and blitzing Milano off the edge. The 3 tech and 9 tech to the defensive right rushed their lanes respectively. Everyone else is responsible for coverage. It's man so everyone except Poyer (F) has a man responsibility. Wallace (defensive right) has the furthest receiver outside, Johnson ($) has the #2 receiver to that side, Hyde (S) has the Tight End, Edmunds responsible for the back if he releases and is free otherwise, and Jackson (defensive left) has the furthest receiver outside to his side of the field. When they short motioned the outside receiver to the strong side of the field (defensive right) and he worked into a stack alignment with the receiver on the LoS Wallace and Johnson should have checked to a combo coverage here. Combo means Johnson is responsible for the first in-cutting route and Wallace is responsible for the first out-cutting route. There was zero communication and both Wallace and Johnson took #14 on the out-cutting route and no one was on the in-cutting route which was eventually thrown. Based on how i've seen the Bills play their 1 high coverage in the past Johnson should have carried the crosser since it went overtop of Edmunds (Typically in 1 Rat if a cross goes in front of the RAT player then they pick up the cross and whoever was on the receiver running the cross now becomes the RAT). Can't see Poyer in the highlight clip, but I'd assume he was "collected" by the vertical that Gronk ran and it took him out of the play entirely.

 

Again, it comes down to players all not being on the same page which caused a failure in execution.

Agreed. Our tackling as a defense has taken a huge step back this year. That's one thing (as a coach) I used to be able to point to that the Bills did a really good job of. This year it's like they threw everything they'd done in the past in regards to tackling fundamentals out the window. It needs to be fixed.

 

This is great stuff.  My old-ass Eyes wish you would chart your Xs and Os a bit bigger, but fantastic that you took the time to do it.

Wish you'd post more.

 

As far as the "step back" on tackling:

 

Last year, when we would have a bad defensive game, McDermott would harp on fundamentals.  I suspect that the difference between a clean tackle and a whiff is often literally inches or milliseconds.  I speculate that with so many returning players, either the coaches haven't drilled on fundamentals as hard (these guys know what they're doing, right?) or the players have not been as driven (We're good, right?) or both.  There's also a matter of have you watched enough film that your recognition is instantaneous, or do you have to think for a millisecond.

 

It's pretty inexcusable to let Tampa march down the field and score on 4 successive drives in the first half, 3 of them TDs.

 

McDermott said in a presser "you have to have a burning desire to be the Best, Every week"

 

That has to be somewhat on coaching, but there's also a "cup and the platter clean only on the outside" aspect to it - if the coaches preach the same message, but the players are going "yeah, yeah", it's a player problem too - the coaches think they have players who have a "burning desire to be the best every week" but that fire has been banked and allowed to be embers.

 

 

[BillsFan130]

1 hour ago, HoofHearted said:

3rd and 1 - Edmunds fit great and whiffed the tackle because he stopped his feet on contact. No reason to draw that one up.

 

Game Winning TD - Bills were playing 1 Rat coverage - a variation of Cover 1 (Man Free) and rushing 5. They stunt up front on the defensive left side pinching the 3 tech and 5 tech inside and blitzing Milano off the edge. The 3 tech and 9 tech to the defensive right rushed their lanes respectively. Everyone else is responsible for coverage. It's man so everyone except Poyer (F) has a man responsibility. Wallace (defensive right) has the furthest receiver outside, Johnson ($) has the #2 receiver to that side, Hyde (S) has the Tight End, Edmunds responsible for the back if he releases and is free otherwise, and Jackson (defensive left) has the furthest receiver outside to his side of the field. When they short motioned the outside receiver to the strong side of the field (defensive right) and he worked into a stack alignment with the receiver on the LoS Wallace and Johnson should have checked to a combo coverage here. Combo means Johnson is responsible for the first in-cutting route and Wallace is responsible for the first out-cutting route. There was zero communication and both Wallace and Johnson took #14 on the out-cutting route and no one was on the in-cutting route which was eventually thrown. Based on how i've seen the Bills play their 1 high coverage in the past Johnson should have carried the crosser since it went overtop of Edmunds (Typically in 1 Rat if a cross goes in front of the RAT player then they pick up the cross and whoever was on the receiver running the cross now becomes the RAT). Can't see Poyer in the highlight clip, but I'd assume he was "collected" by the vertical that Gronk ran and it took him out of the play entirely.

 

Again, it comes down to players all not being on the same page which caused a failure in execution.

Agreed. Our tackling as a defense has taken a huge step back this year. That's one thing (as a coach) I used to be able to point to that the Bills did a really good job of. This year it's like they threw everything they'd done in the past in regards to tackling fundamentals out the window. It needs to be fixed.

Thank man, that's some great analysis right there.

 

You know your stuff to say the least

[Dopey]

2 hours ago, HoofHearted said:

Don't take this as anything more than it is. In no way am I trying to make Edmunds out to be anything more than what he is - a mediocre inside backer. There's no agenda with this post. I just saw a lot of people were misinformed and thought I'd address it.

14 hours in and barely into page 2 ?!?!? I guess the bashers moved on to a thread that fits their narrative. I'm amazed at how little interaction there is on this post. Great job, HoofHearted. I am wondering if you have an opinion on the long TD run vs. N. E. ? it looked to me that Edmunds made the edge hard for the RB to get anything out of it, so he cut back. I want to ask if you noticed how far off Milano was on that play. At the snap, Milano was to Edmunds' left, but somehow when the cutback happens, Milano is now behind Edmunds and to his right(way out of the play). Obviously the safety was the main culprit with how he over ran the play, but would you say Edmunds was at fault or was Milano way out of position to stop the cutback? I feel it was on Milano and Hyde. I would love a reply from someone who seems level headed, If you disagree, cool. I would rather hear it from you. Thanks in advance, if you decide to answer. 

[HoofHearted]

15 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

This is great stuff.  My old-ass Eyes wish you would chart your Xs and Os a bit bigger, but fantastic that you took the time to do it.

Wish you'd post more.

 

As far as the "step back" on tackling:

 

Last year, when we would have a bad defensive game, McDermott would harp on fundamentals.  I suspect that the difference between a clean tackle and a whiff is often literally inches or milliseconds.  I speculate that with so many returning players, either the coaches haven't drilled on fundamentals as hard (these guys know what they're doing, right?) or the players have not been as driven (We're good, right?) or both.  There's also a matter of have you watched enough film that your recognition is instantaneous, or do you have to think for a millisecond.

 

It's pretty inexcusable to let Tampa march down the field and score on 4 successive drives in the first half, 3 of them TDs.

 

McDermott said in a presser "you have to have a burning desire to be the Best, Every week"

 

That has to be somewhat on coaching, but there's also a "cup and the platter clean only on the outside" aspect to it - if the coaches preach the same message, but the players are going "yeah, yeah", it's a player problem too - the coaches think they have players who have a "burning desire to be the best every week" but that fire has been banked and allowed to be embers.

 

 

It's probably a little of both. We have largely the same defensive group as last year so the emphasis on the basics, blocking and tackling, i'm sure aren't being reinforced the way they were year one when this staff got here. At the same time I'm sure the players have become more complacent with the basics as well partly due to the success we've had and how that affects one's ego. When you do the same thing over and over and over it's easy to get complacent, but the best teams are the ones who have longevity in their focus and drive and never get bored working on the boring things.

[GoBills808]

Just now, HoofHearted said:

It's probably a little of both. We have largely the same defensive group as last year so the emphasis on the basics, blocking and tackling, i'm sure aren't being reinforced the way they were year one when this staff got here. At the same time I'm sure the players have become more complacent with the basics as well partly due to the success we've had and how that affects one's ego. When you do the same thing over and over and over it's easy to get complacent, but the best teams are the ones who have longevity in their focus and drive and never get bored working on the boring things.

Do you think the advantages in the pass defense outweigh the liabilities in the run game? Especially considering that we struggle to consistently dictate on offense so we cannot necessarily rely on playing with a lead.

[HoofHearted]

7 minutes ago, Dopey said:

14 hours in and barely into page 2 ?!?!? I guess the bashers moved on to a thread that fits their narrative. I'm amazed at how little interaction there is on this post. Great job, HoofHearted. I am wondering if you have an opinion on the long TD run vs. N. E. ? it looked to me that Edmunds made the edge hard for the RB to get anything out of it, so he cut back. I want to ask if you noticed how far off Milano was on that play. At the snap, Milano was to Edmunds' left, but somehow when the cutback happens, Milano is now behind Edmunds and to his right(way out of the play). Obviously the safety was the main culprit with how he over ran the play, but would you say Edmunds was at fault or was Milano way out of position to stop the cutback? I feel it was on Milano and Hyde. I would love a reply from someone who seems level headed, If you disagree, cool. I would rather hear it from you. Thanks in advance, if you decide to answer. 

I had a breakdown of this play here. A few posts below that is the X's and O's drawn up. Basically it came down to a total collapse of the entire defense. Everyone was wrong.

[HoofHearted]

3 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

Do you think the advantages in the pass defense outweigh the liabilities in the run game? Especially considering that we struggle to consistently dictate on offense so we cannot necessarily rely on playing with a lead.

Personally, yeah. It's a pass driven league and it's moving even more and more in that direction every year. There's obviously got to be a balance, right? You saw us start to gash the Bucs in the second half with our run game and it was all because they were penetrating up front which created lanes and angles for us to run through. I think this defensive scheme does a really good job overall of being gap sound regardless of what we're doing which both helps and hinders us at times. You'll never see us run these exotic blitzes that other teams run because they technically aren't gap sound and would get completely gashed if a team tried to run on us while running one, but at the same time those exotic blitzes are often better at overloading a side and getting a guy free or at the very least forcing 1v1 matchups up front. We are very vanilla in what we do up front which makes it easier for teams to pick up in pass pro, but what we do also creates 1v1's for most of our guys (who should be far more athletic than the guys they line up across from).

 

Ultimately very few teams are going to be patient enough to run for 4 yards a pop all the way down the field.

[bouds]

1 hour ago, HoofHearted said:

3rd and 1 - Edmunds fit great and whiffed the tackle because he stopped his feet on contact. No reason to draw that one up.

 

Game Winning TD - Bills were playing 1 Rat coverage - a variation of Cover 1 (Man Free) and rushing 5. They stunt up front on the defensive left side pinching the 3 tech and 5 tech inside and blitzing Milano off the edge. The 3 tech and 9 tech to the defensive right rushed their lanes respectively. Everyone else is responsible for coverage. It's man so everyone except Poyer (F) has a man responsibility. Wallace (defensive right) has the furthest receiver outside, Johnson ($) has the #2 receiver to that side, Hyde (S) has the Tight End, Edmunds responsible for the back if he releases and is free otherwise, and Jackson (defensive left) has the furthest receiver outside to his side of the field. When they short motioned the outside receiver to the strong side of the field (defensive right) and he worked into a stack alignment with the receiver on the LoS Wallace and Johnson should have checked to a combo coverage here. Combo means Johnson is responsible for the first in-cutting route and Wallace is responsible for the first out-cutting route. There was zero communication and both Wallace and Johnson took #14 on the out-cutting route and no one was on the in-cutting route which was eventually thrown. Based on how i've seen the Bills play their 1 high coverage in the past Johnson should have carried the crosser since it went overtop of Edmunds (Typically in 1 Rat if a cross goes in front of the RAT player then they pick up the cross and whoever was on the receiver running the cross now becomes the RAT). Can't see Poyer in the highlight clip, but I'd assume he was "collected" by the vertical that Gronk ran and it took him out of the play entirely.

 

Again, it comes down to players all not being on the same page which caused a failure in execution.

Agreed. Our tackling as a defense has taken a huge step back this year. That's one thing (as a coach) I used to be able to point to that the Bills did a really good job of. This year it's like they threw everything they'd done in the past in regards to tackling fundamentals out the window. It needs to be fixed.

 

Thanks for breaking this down, question for you, what do you think of Dan's take.  Watching it live I felt like maybe we had to switch the crossers off?  And Dan alludes to that but then doesn't mention that Jackson never switched off.

 

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by bouds
fixed tweet.

[bouds]

I mean you see Jackson point/communicate the crosser, but was he releasing, and if he was why didn't he peel off and grab perriman.