Defense: let’s grade and comment your grade

[Billsfan1972]

The defense was not special yesterday, while the offense was.

 

Defenses are supposed to stop the opposition from scoring tds andn75 yard td drives 80% of the time. 

 

NE when they needed to respond to Bills scores did so yesterday.

 

A tipped pass int and yep a questionable penalty that instead of second and 3 (or maybe a first down at the Buffalo 38 if the Hughes late hit stood) instead was 2nd and 18 saved the Bills too in all likelihood.

 

The defense was okay at best.

 

 

 

[HamptonBillsfan]

11 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

If Groot and AJE are taking over next year when Hughes and Addison are gone, we're in deep trouble. I know we need to draft multiple OL this April but we may have to take a runner on a late round pass rusher. 

Dude watch Harris's 31 yard gallop and tell me where 49 was on that play. It's pretty sad.

He got blocked by an O-lineman and at 3 other guys overran the play including Johnson. Big deal, how about the 12 tackles,6 solo and the QB pressures. No comment huh.

[BillMafia716ix]

Defense was decent. I say it every week but it needs to be said. I hate watching Tremaine Edmunds playing MLB!! He’s just not it

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

Per Statista

 

In the years from 2010 to 2019, the offenses of the teams in the NFL gained on average 234 passing yards and 113 rushing yards per game

 

Add those together, that's 347 yards total, Pats had 288.  It's like the old Balloon perspective; you push in in one spot, someplace else it will pop out.  The Bills gave up more than average rushing +36, but less in the air -94, so overall good job.  I gave them a B-

 

 

[97bills]

20 hours ago, HappyDays said:

Our pass rush is bad, that is the fundamental problem. We don't sack QBs enough so teams never get behind the sticks. Since we rarely tackle RBs behind the LOS that compounds the problem. Mac Jones had clean pockets to work with on almost every snap. No matter how good your secondary is the coverage will break down eventually. We need to get a difference maker on the d-line next year.

I don’t no who disagreed with you but clearly they haven’t watched many bills games. Our pass rush has been bad for a few years now, let’s hope one of the rookies come along next year. 

[HappyDays]

7 hours 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.

 

The 2nd half was troubling. New England had 2 real drives in the 2nd half and scored TDs on both. No telling what happens if JC Jackson catches that interception, the Pats would have had the ball past midfield down just 5 points and coming off two consecutive TD drives where they ran it down our throat. At that point in the game I was not confident in our defense at all. I saw our DEs and LBs get totally fooled by standard New England misdirection plays again and again. I saw a defense forced to play soft zone because we have no CBs capable of holding up in man coverage and New England started taking advantage. I saw Mac Jones with a clean pocket on just about every throw. Our offense was the reason New England wasn't able to get back into the game in the 2nd half, not the defense. Allen and the offense killed them with ball control drives that ended in TDs. New England was 100% on red zone trips and 4th down conversions on drives that mattered. IMO that is very disappointing especially against a limited QB and a RB that is far from elite.

Edited December 27, 2021 by HappyDays

[GymShorts84]

B

 

Only gave up a couple big plays. Frasier is willing to sacrifice run yards in order to shut down the pass. 
 

pass rush is a problem, but I don’t think scheme can improve that much. Pass rush is about winning your one on one battle, especially with Fraiser blitzing so little. We just don’t have a guy that can get around the edge consistently. 
 

Fraiser’s scheme does deserve some credit. We are hiding a very thin cornerback group. Hyde and Poyer deserve a substantial cash bonus at the end of the year for what they do against the deep ball and helping in the run game. 

[Billsfan1972]

12 minutes ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

Per Statista

 

In the years from 2010 to 2019, the offenses of the teams in the NFL gained on average 234 passing yards and 113 rushing yards per game

 

Add those together, that's 347 yards total, Pats had 288.  It's like the old Balloon perspective; you push in in one spot, someplace else it will pop out.  The Bills gave up more than average rushing +36, but less in the air -94, so overall good job.  I gave them a B-

 

 

NE only had 8 possessions the entire game.  They scored TD's on 3 of them (all 75 yard drives) or 37.5% and that is not good.  A tipped ball Int and yes a big break on the Hughes play (and NE penalty) was a turning point. 

 

The Bills defense was very good the first drive and made a big stop on 3rd and 3 from the NE 8.

 

The Defense was okay at best.  

Edited December 27, 2021 by Billsfan1972

[97bills]

3 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

The 2nd half was troubling. New England had 2 real drives in the 2nd half and scored TDs on both. No telling what happens if JC Jackson catches that interception, the Pats would have had the ball past midfield down just 5 points and coming off two consecutive TD drives where they ran it down our throat. At that point in the game I was not confident in our defense at all. I saw our DEs and LBs get totally fooled by standard New England misdirection plays again and again. I saw a defense forced to play soft zone because we have no CBs capable of holding up in man coverage and New England started taking advantage. I saw Mac Jones with a clean pocket on just about every throw. Our offense was the reason New England wasn't able to get back into the game in the 2nd half, not the defense. Allen and the offense killed them with ball control drives that ended in TDs. New England was 100% on red zone trips and 4th down conversions on drives that mattered. IMO that is disappointing especially against a limited QB and a RB that is far from elite.

And I believe McDermott felt the same way going for it on 4 down. If Allen and the offense wasn’t on I could see us losing this game, by us scoring they had to get away from the run, but we had no answer for there running game and didn’t sack Jones once. I’m super pumped for the win but I also get what your saying.  Go BILLS 

[Billsfan1972]

1 minute ago, 97bills said:

And I believe McDermott felt the same way going for it on 4 down. If Allen and the offense wasn’t on I could see us losing this game, by us scoring they had to get away from the run, but we had no answer for there running game and didn’t sack Jones once. I’m super pumped for the win but I also get what your saying.  Go BILLS 

Bills sacked Jones the first possession & that was it.....  

 

Years 1&2 it was holding the opposition under 20.....  Now it is under 25 and a rookie qb with a noodle arm?

 

Add to that NE never had good starting field position.

[GunnerBill]

13 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

The 2nd half was troubling. New England had 2 real drives in the 2nd half and scored TDs on both. No telling what happens if JC Jackson catches that interception, the Pats would have had the ball past midfield down just 5 points and coming off two consecutive TD drives where they ran it down our throat. At that point in the game I was not confident in our defense at all. I saw our DEs and LBs get totally fooled by standard New England misdirection plays again and again. I saw a defense forced to play soft zone because we have no CBs capable of holding up in man coverage and New England started taking advantage. I saw Mac Jones with a clean pocket on just about every throw. Our offense was the reason New England wasn't able to get back into the game in the 2nd half, not the defense. Allen and the offense killed them with ball control drives that ended in TDs. New England was 100% on red zone trips and 4th down conversions on drives that mattered. IMO that is very disappointing especially against a limited QB and a RB that is far from elite.

 

The redzone D being 0/3 on holds was disappointing. I grant that. The rest is the way this D wants to make offenses play.

1 minute ago, Billsfan1972 said:

Bills sacked Jones the first possession & that was it.....  

 

Years 1&2 it was holding the opposition under 20.....  Now it is under 25 and a rookie qb with a noodle arm?

 

Add to that NE never had good starting field position.

 

The Bills give up 17.6 points per game on average. Still keeping them under 20. 

[HappyDays]

2 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

The redzone D being 0/3 on holds was disappointing. I grant that. The rest is the way this D wants to make offenses play.

 

I have no problem with the philosophy. The execution yesterday was just not good enough. 1st half, B+. 2nd half, D. I don’t blame McDermott or Frazier. I blame our talent. We have zero elite players in the front 7. Milano and Edmunds are pretty good. Oliver is pretty good. Everybody else is average to replacement level at this point. After all the big investments on the d-line we still another 1 or 2 next year. Forcing offenses to play mistake-free football is a great philosophy, but when the opposing offense meets that challenge you need elite players capable of making game changing plays.

[97bills]

6 hours ago, clayboy54 said:

Some fans seem to want Wade Phillips’ defense. They keep asking for Ted Washington and Pat Williams. In today’s pass-happy game, that defense would lose more than they would win. As Gunner points out, this McD/Frazier group is built to stop the pass. They are exceptional at that. We are indeed vulnerable to run-first teams. Today, there is not one team that excels at both.

 

Pick your poison. Make teams run at you and burn clock while Josh and the offense scores points. More times than not we will win that battle because the clock is our friend. I would rather have a team built this way. Could we be better on the edge-rush? Absolutely. Should we be better at 1T? Sure. Overall, I like what this D brings to the table.

I understand what your saying but CIN NE COLTS TEN, can run that rock. The first team we play in the playoffs guess what’s coming. 

[GunnerBill]

7 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

I have no problem with the philosophy. The execution yesterday was just not good enough. 1st half, B+. 2nd half, D. I don’t blame McDermott or Frazier. I blame our talent. We have zero elite players in the front 7. Milano and Edmunds are pretty good. Oliver is pretty good. Everybody else is average to replacement level at this point. After all the big investments on the d-line we still another 1 or 2 next year. Forcing offenses to play mistake-free football is a great philosophy, but when the opposing offense meets that challenge you need elite players capable of making game changing plays.

 

So I don't disagree we still need a game changer up front. I just don't think the second half last night was too much of an issue. Would have liked a redzone stop but two long clock killing drives for a team two scores down (they never had the ball down 1 score at any point in the second half) is part of the way this team is set up to play.