Defense: let’s grade and comment your grade

[Italian Bills]

For all the people that is claiming that arguing the defense performance in the game, tell me, how many of the pats’s drives you felt they wouldn’t score ? Me no one single time, lucky we have Josh and the OL that played a heck of a game, A. 

[Marvlevydraftdaygenius]

I think teams have there qb’s taking short drops in the pocket to avoid our defensive ends the bills have to use a lot  of middle linebacker blitzes aka a (McDermott Carolina special) double a gap blitz to have the opposing quarterbacks take instead of 3-5 steps to more 5-7 steps and bills secondary has to start playing up more on the wide receivers to many qb’s take three steps and throw taking advantage of the bills soft zone looks.

[ganesh]

34 minutes ago, Marvlevydraftdaygenius said:

I think teams have there qb’s taking short drops in the pocket to avoid our defensive ends the bills have to use a lot  of middle linebacker blitzes aka a (McDermott Carolina special) double a gap blitz to have the opposing quarterbacks take instead of 3-5 steps to more 5-7 steps and bills secondary has to start playing up more on the wide receivers to many qb’s take three steps and throw taking advantage of the bills soft zone looks.

We simply don't yet have a game changing Pass Rusher !!!!  Still have hope for Groot though

[Marvlevydraftdaygenius]

48 minutes ago, ganesh said:

We simply don't yet have a game changing Pass Rusher !!!!  Still have hope for Groot though

If qb’s are only taking three step drops against you, you could have Bruce Smith in his prime and still have problems sacking the quarterback.

[JimmyNoodles]

I gave the D a “C” because after the game was in hand they couldn’t get a stop to seal the win. The offense had to go out again and score or I believe we would have lost. This is against an average QB with no real WR threats. Bills have the same issues as last year. They don’t get sacks and they can’t stop the run. The team will go as far as Josh can carry them. 

[billsbackto81]

Gave them a B-

 

The Achilles heel of this D is their inability to get to the QB with the front 4 only. They can't beat their 1 on 1's and get pushed away from the pocket all the time. 

 

This allows even the most mediocre of QBs (looking at you Mac) to find receivers on critical downs. Not being able to get off the field on 4th down was really frustrating yesterday.

 

I'm really impressed with our secondary though. Even without Tre these guys are really disciplined in their zone coverage and rarely get beat.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2021 by billsbackto81

[GunnerBill]

What went wrong with the defense?? Errrr... would have liked them to be a bit better in the redzone but beyond that nothing. The defense played well.

6 hours ago, Italian Bills said:

For all the people that is claiming that arguing the defense performance in the game, tell me, how many of the pats’s drives you felt they wouldn’t score ? Me no one single time, lucky we have Josh and the OL that played a heck of a game, A. 

 

You felt like they would score every drive? That explains the 22 points then.

 

Go away.

[thurst44]

6 hours ago, Italian Bills said:

For all the people that is claiming that arguing the defense performance in the game, tell me, how many of the pats’s drives you felt they wouldn’t score ? Me no one single time, lucky we have Josh and the OL that played a heck of a game, A. 

Every one but the three. There were only three drives where they made it past the 50. There were eight drives. Three were 3 & out. Two were INTs where McCorkle was on his own side of the field. Two were drives where the Pats had to fight for everything with multiple 4th downs. The other was not as hard-fought, but it still took a lot of time off the clock.

 

Seriously, did you guys watch a different game? I'll say it again. We just beat the Pats handily in their home stadium and allowed them exactly our usual amount of yards which is first in the league and stopped one of the top teams in the NFL cold on 5/8 drives. 

 

If you thought "they would have scored" on five drives that were 3 & out or ended in an INT, well, that's on you.

[GunnerBill]

1 minute ago, thurst44 said:

Every one but the three. There were only three drives where they made it past the 50. There were eight drives. Three were 3 & out. Two were INTs where McCorkle was on his own side of the field. Two were drives where the Pats had to fight for everything with multiple 4th downs. The other was not as hard-fought, but it still took a lot of time off the clock.

 

Seriously, did you guys watch a different game? I'll say it again. We just beat the Pats handily in their home stadium and allowed them exactly our usual amount of yards which is first in the league and stopped one of the top teams in the NFL cold on 5/8 drives. 

 

If you thought "they would have scored" on five drives that were 3 & out or ended in an INT, well, that's on you.

 

Post of the ***** year. Can we get this framed? 

 

Further debate on this subject is utterly asinine. 

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

12 hours ago, motorj said:

They need to work on the 4th and short plays

This was really the difference between a solid defensive performance and a

stellar one. The D held them to 1 for 10 on 3rd downs! Yet, the pats converted like 5 for 6 on 4th down. The only 4th down stop was the Hyde pick to end the game. 
 

if we had come up with even one 4th down stop, this game would have been a total blowout. 
 

The reality is that the pats O basically played a perfect game, but still was

held in check. They were on the edge though of getting blown out. 

[HamptonBillsfan]

The defense is still a bit spotty. Overrunning the blocking schemes hurts us with long runs every game. The good news is that we play hard and on NE 2nd long drive we made them take 8+ minutes off the clock. We were also opportunistic with the Hyde interception and ensuing 2 drives. I thought Edmunds was really good. He was very physical and flying around running down balk carriers like few inside LBS could. Overall, if we play that type of defense, we'll win most games because our offense will put up 30.

[Lenigmusx]

I graded them a B not as much based on overall performance as being able to get off the field enough to let the offense do it’s thing. 
 

the run D was still a D- today. It is simple and player related as the coaches have indicated. The speed of our linebackers combined with the need of our safety’s to play backside and cover for the loss of Tre is a legitimate weakness. Our linebackers are the worst at over pursuit in the entire league even in base personnel with Klein, Edmonds, Milano all on the field. Gap integrity and as McD says doing your 1/11. Still a problem but I would argue that it is partially schematic because the margins are so thin. Backside counters are an absolute weakness of the scheme and McDaniels exploited that yesterday. Our Defense looks like an Elephant on roller skates against a well schemed directional run offense. Or a hockey defender who takes the wrong angle against Gretzky in his prime. It’s a schematic flow issue and unless the edge is set and our linebackers are perfect bad things happen. 

 

pass D was a B but gave up too much on 3 down. This could easily be a bigger weakness against a better QB. Wentz😳. 
 

overall B for handling the situation!

 

I think the fix for the run D is two fold. One playing Harrison Phillips snd Star together in the middle. And two playing enough base to keep teams honest. Star would have help on those backside counters or delayed tosses. I also think that even Jonathan Taylor will be forced to bounce thing outside if both Phillips and Star are in the One and Three technique. Rousseau is actually playing the run the best of all the ends. He sets the edge really well. 
 

bottom line to beat the Colts this D needs to be A- at worst. I fear everything leads to a showdown with the Colts right now. They are undefeated when Taylor has over 100 yards. They remind me of the 1988 Buffalo Bills more than any other team I’ve ever seen. 
 

 

[BuffaloBill]

14 hours ago, Italian Bills said:

Today the defense had a poor performance. My grade is C-

You have to be kidding me. It’s no secret the Bills are not built well to stop run first teams. They played good ball yesterday.

[Billsfan1972]

53 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

What went wrong with the defense?? Errrr... would have liked them to be a bit better in the redzone but beyond that nothing. The defense played well.

 

You felt like they would score every drive? That explains the 22 points then.

 

Go away.

They came out on fire and got a three & out.  The next possession they went 75 yards for a TD.  Next the int.....  Then a three & out at the goal line (where you know from the 1 it is just a run up the middle.  A roughing the passer wiped out a good defensive stand and got lucky on the Hughes overturned late hit (and yup then NE got the 15 yard penalty) turning 2nd & 3 into 18.....  

 

They allowed three 75 yard TD drives.  That is not particularly good.

 

Second half NE scored on both their possessions & a game ending int.  

 

The Defense was not that good.

Edited December 27, 2021 by Billsfan1972

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

8 minutes ago, Lenigmusx said:

I graded them a B not as much based on overall performance as being able to get off the field enough to let the offense do it’s thing. 
 

the run D was still a D- today. It is simple and player related as the coaches have indicated. The speed of our linebackers combined with the need of our safety’s to play backside and cover for the loss of Tre is a legitimate weakness. Our linebackers are the worst at over pursuit in the entire league even in base personnel with Klein, Edmonds, Milano all on the field. Gap integrity and as McD says doing your 1/11. Still a problem but I would argue that it is partially schematic because the margins are so thin. Backside counters are an absolute weakness of the scheme and McDaniels exploited that yesterday. Our Defense looks like an Elephant on roller skates against a well schemed directional run offense. Or a hockey defender who takes the wrong angle against Gretzky in his prime. It’s a schematic flow issue and unless the edge is set and our linebackers are perfect bad things happen. 

 

pass D was a B but gave up too much on 3 down. This could easily be a bigger weakness against a better QB. Wentz😳. 
 

overall B for handling the situation!

 

I think the fix for the run D is two fold. One playing Harrison Phillips snd Star together in the middle. And two playing enough base to keep teams honest. Star would have help on those backside counters or delayed tosses. I also think that even Jonathan Taylor will be forced to bounce thing outside if both Phillips and Star are in the One and Three technique. Rousseau is actually playing the run the best of all the ends. He sets the edge really well. 
 

bottom line to beat the Colts this D needs to be A- at worst. I fear everything leads to a showdown with the Colts right now. They are undefeated when Taylor has over 100 yards. They remind me of the 1988 Buffalo Bills more than any other team I’ve ever seen. 
 

 

don’t think there is a fix for the run D. As you said, it is more style/scheme. We have a penetrating fast D. That means we will get a lot of no gain/-1 yard stops with guys getting into the backfield. But against these big gap running teams like the colts and patriots, they are going to get their runs. 
 

what we need to do is limit the long runs (which has really only become a problem for us this year), and that mostly comes down to tackling. 

[GunnerBill]

17 minutes ago, Billsfan1972 said:

They came out on fire and got a three & out.  The next possession they went 75 yards for a TD.  Next the int.....  Then a three & out at the goal line (where you know from the 1 it is just a run up the middle.  A roughing the passer wiped out a good defensive stand and got lucky on the Hughes overturned late hit (and yup then NE got the 15 yard penalty) turning 2nd & 3 into 18.....  

 

They allowed three 75 yard TD drives.  That is not particularly good.

 

Second half NE scored on both their possessions & a game ending int.  

 

The Defense was not that good.

 

You see people who think this way.... I wonder if they actually understand what our defense is. It is year 5 folks, watch the games. You should be getting it by now. The Bills will be disappointed to have given up 3 TDs on 3 redzone trips.... but otherwise that is what this D wants to be. The Pats touchdown drives were 10, 13 and 14 plays. That is music to the Bills ears. In the modern NFL no half decent team is gonna be completely held down for 60 minutes. The Bills understand that but if you are going to score they want you to score slowly and to have to be perfect because they back themselves to make enough plays over the course of the game. That Pats had only 3 drives into our territory all day. The plan works more often than not and it worked yesterday. 

 

As I said in my first post, yes they will have been disappointed that they went 0/3 in redzone holds, that is very unlike them, but overall this was a good defensive performance and if you don't agree it is because you are still not understanding 5 years in the way this D is set up to operate.

[HamptonBillsfan]

Frazier went coverage instead of sending blitzes. We couldn't get any real pressure that way against a stout NE O-line. I think that approach will change against teams like Cinn, Tenn, KC.

[GunnerBill]

27 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

don’t think there is a fix for the run D. As you said, it is more style/scheme. We have a penetrating fast D. That means we will get a lot of no gain/-1 yard stops with guys getting into the backfield. But against these big gap running teams like the colts and patriots, they are going to get their runs. 
 

what we need to do is limit the long runs (which has really only become a problem for us this year), and that mostly comes down to tackling. 

 

Yep. The D is designed almost to bait teams into running and the elite power run teams - Indy and also when they have their guys Cleveland and Tennessee can pose a problem. The Bills have to tackle well at the second level in those games and stay patient and disciplined. 

 

I don't actually think the Pats are an elite power run team. They are a scheme / design run team. They can line up in the offset I and run it straight at you which they tend to do more in the redzone, but generally they out scheme you in the run game with the tosses, the trap runs and the unbalanced lines etc. Their run game is more akin to Baltimore the last two years (ie. 19 and 20) minus obviously the QB runs.

3 minutes ago, HamptonBillsfan said:

Frazier went coverage instead of sending blitzes. We couldn't get any real pressure that way against a stout NE O-line. I think that approach will change against teams like Cinn, Tenn, KC.

 

I hope it doesn't this defense is not a good blitzing defense and is not built to be a good blitzing defense. They played well yesterday and they should be who they are. They beat KC without blitzing a single time in the game.

[Billsfan1972]

12 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

You see people who think this way.... I wonder if they actually understand what our defense is. It is year 5 folks, watch the games. You should be getting it by now. The Bills will be disappointed to have given up 3 TDs on 3 redzone trips.... but otherwise that is what this D wants to be. The Pats touchdown drives were 10, 13 and 14 plays. That is music to the Bills ears. In the modern NFL no half decent team is gonna be completely held down for 60 minutes. The Bills understand that but if you are going to score they want you to score slowly and to have to be perfect because they back themselves to make enough plays over the course of the game. That Pats had only 3 drives into our territory all day. The plan works more often than not and it worked yesterday. 

 

As I said in my first post, yes they will have been disappointed that they went 0/3 in redzone holds, that is very unlike them, but overall this was a good defensive performance and if you don't agree it is because you are still not understanding 5 years in the way this D is set up to operate.

Huh??? 

 

NE is a team that is not quick strike and usually grinds out drives and that is what they did.  That is not a good performance.  If it was not for the offense controlling the game and facing another below average qb, this could have been a loss.  

 

The defense was okay at best.  Sorry three 75 yard drives is not good defense.

[GunnerBill]

2 minutes ago, Billsfan1972 said:

Huh??? 

 

NE is a team that is not quick strike and usually grinds out drives and that is what they did.  That is not a good performance.  If it was not for the offense controlling the game and facing another below average qb, this could have been a loss.  

 

The defense was okay at best.  Sorry three 75 yard drives is not good defense.

 

Right. Well you will be disappointed a lot with this defense then, because save for a redzone hold or two that is the defense this team is trying to play.