How Will McDermott Change the Defense?

[Thurman#1]

11 hours ago, KHAN said:

The Bills are always ranked very high on defense. What they do in the regular season "works" because you're not playing top offenses every week while putting out (even with their struggles) a top offense. You don't "give" them anything, and make them work for everything. It kind of works for the regular season racking up wins.

 

When you play Mahomes and Burrow in the playoffs, they carve you up taking what you give them.

 

You can't totally stop those guys. But you do need to get a stop sometimes. That's the biggest failing IMO.

 

 

Every team has a harder time in the playoffs than the regular season because you play better teams. It's not the Bills. It's everyone. Offense and defense.

 

Yeah, when Mahomes (or Allen) are playing at high level, pretty much nobody can stop them.

 

But last year it was more about their horrible injuries, losing Miller and Da'Quan on the DL for that last game, and the whole team playing like crap, appearing emotionally hung over. The D really didn't even play that horribly. Not well, but not horribly. They held the Bengals to their season average of scoring. The problem was that our offense scored ten points.

 

With Von and Da'Quan and Hyde, and with Poyer and Tre White and Phillips moving the way they normally did, that side of the ball might have looked totally different.

 

Against KC, who knows, but when Von and everyone was healthy early, they strangled the KC offense last year.

[Thurman#1]

7 hours ago, Herb Nightly said:

What do you think was the "final straw" that pushed Frazier out?

 

 

The fact that he wanted to go.

 

Him. He pushed himself out. Possibly not getting the Bears job in particular.

[Simon Says]

13 hours ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

The fact that he wanted to go.

 

Him. He pushed himself out. Possibly not getting the Bears job in particular.

Do you really believe that? If he was mad about not getting HC opportunities, why walk out on the Bills? Taking the year off hurts his chance of ever getting a head coaching gig. If its a not a health issued, he should honor his contract.

[Thurman#1]

17 hours ago, Herb Nightly said:

Do you really believe that? If he was mad about not getting HC opportunities, why walk out on the Bills? Taking the year off hurts his chance of ever getting a head coaching gig. If its a not a health issued, he should honor his contract.

 

 

Do I believe it?

 

Yes, of course I do. There isn't a good reason to say that if it's not true, to pretend he's taking a year off if he isn't.

 

"He should honor his contract"? That's just dumb, man, he did. It's not a contract of slavery. He's got the right to leave if he wants. Bless him.

 

 

Edited April 5, 2023 by Thurman#1

[Bills Bud]

Not much probably. Only so much you can do on D nowadays. It's mainly making stops at crucial times. Chiefs, Bengals etc will put up 30 on any D

[Freddie's Dead]

He won't.

[Alphadawg7]

On 4/3/2023 at 9:02 AM, ganesh said:

I remember the one time McDermott took the play calling during half-time and it showed a different team...I hope we get the same....The main issue is that this team is dependent on generating pass rush by its front-four -  Groot, Basham, Epenesa and Oliver.   This group has been vastly underwhelming. 

 

Here is one stat that gives me hope some new thinking and play calling could help spike our ability to get more pressure and get more from our young guys.

 

Jerry Hughes since being traded to the Bills has played 10 seasons.  5 of them with Frazier, 5 of them without Frazier (his first 4 seasons here and last year with Houston).  

 

Without Frazier:  Averages 8 sacks a season.

With Frazier:  Averages 4 sacks a season.

 

Doesn't mean it was all Frazier's fault, could be the scheme too.  But, I don't think it had any chance of being "better" this year had Frazier stayed, more like more of the same.  At least with McD potentially being more aggressive and bringing new thinking and play calling to the table, there is at least the potential to get more out of our young guys and improve our pass rush.  

 

So I am actually quite excited to see if McD can make a positive impact on this defense and ramp up the aggression and pass rush.  The one concern is the MLB spot which has been a key position for McD's defenses.  Hoping we get one of the top prospects there in the draft in the first couple of rounds to give him something more to work with than an unproven Bernard.

 

 

[Saxum]

On 4/3/2023 at 12:25 PM, jkeerie said:

I sure hope there's no limit to the number of posters we can ignore on this site.

 

There is a limit on number of posters quoted though - zero.

[hondo in seattle]

On 4/5/2023 at 11:00 AM, Alphadawg7 said:

 

Here is one stat that gives me hope some new thinking and play calling could help spike our ability to get more pressure and get more from our young guys.

 

Jerry Hughes since being traded to the Bills has played 10 seasons.  5 of them with Frazier, 5 of them without Frazier (his first 4 seasons here and last year with Houston).  

 

Without Frazier:  Averages 8 sacks a season.

With Frazier:  Averages 4 sacks a season.

 

Doesn't mean it was all Frazier's fault, could be the scheme too.  But, I don't think it had any chance of being "better" this year had Frazier stayed, more like more of the same.  At least with McD potentially being more aggressive and bringing new thinking and play calling to the table, there is at least the potential to get more out of our young guys and improve our pass rush.  

 

So I am actually quite excited to see if McD can make a positive impact on this defense and ramp up the aggression and pass rush.  The one concern is the MLB spot which has been a key position for McD's defenses.  Hoping we get one of the top prospects there in the draft in the first couple of rounds to give him something more to work with than an unproven Bernard.

 

 

 

Before coming to the Bills, Jerry averaged only 1.7 sacks per year.  I'm not sure why you left that out.  But, yeah, it's a little weird that Jerry only got 2 sacks in his last season with the Bills and then 9 his first year with Houston.  Maybe we did misuse him.  

 

Maybe we're misusing Ed Oliver, too.  He's very fast and athletic.  But he's smallish and maybe a bit weak.  There might be a better way to leverage his strengths.

 

But I'm not sure how much McD will introduce because I think this was his defense - not Frazier's - all along.  Maybe the departure of Edmunds and the addition of Rapp will result in some new wrinkles.  I'm not thinking the DL will be much different.  

[nosejob]

On 4/4/2023 at 2:01 PM, Herb Nightly said:

Do you really believe that? If he was mad about not getting HC opportunities, why walk out on the Bills? Taking the year off hurts his chance of ever getting a head coaching gig. If its a not a health issued, he should honor his contract.

He's 65 and I'm sure he did all right for himself over the years since playing with the 85 Bears. He could probably use a break....and that's good enough for me.😉

[DCofNC]

I hope he just uses players to their strengths instead of ramming square pegs into round holes.  Lrr we TD Elam play some man, Groot allowed to kick in for pass rush etc.

[newcam2012]

On 4/3/2023 at 9:19 PM, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Every team has a harder time in the playoffs than the regular season because you play better teams. It's not the Bills. It's everyone. Offense and defense.

 

Yeah, when Mahomes (or Allen) are playing at high level, pretty much nobody can stop them.

 

But last year it was more about their horrible injuries, losing Miller and Da'Quan on the DL for that last game, and the whole team playing like crap, appearing emotionally hung over. The D really didn't even play that horribly. Not well, but not horribly. They held the Bengals to their season average of scoring. The problem was that our offense scored ten points.

 

With Von and Da'Quan and Hyde, and with Poyer and Tre White and Phillips moving the way they normally did, that side of the ball might have looked totally different.

 

Against KC, who knows, but when Von and everyone was healthy early, they strangled the KC offense last year.

Thurman playing the woulda, shoulda, coulda here. 

 

Not sure what game you watched? The Bills defense was horrible! They could not stop the Bengals early or when it counted. They did whatever they wanted to do. They shredded the Bills defense. In real time, I remember saying to my son the Bills defense sucks. No doubt the offense equally sucked but to say the defense wasn't horrible is disingenuous in my eyes. The Bengals were up by so much that they decided to run the ball with great results. They could have probably scored 40 or 50 points. 

 

Injuries always play a part in football. Clearly, the Bills Injuries on defense hurt.  However, good to great teams have to overcome injuries. Players have to step up, execute, and perform at a higher level. Coaches have to have solid game plans. None of that happened. That's a total failure from the players, coaches, and organization. 

 

Go back and look at the majority of the posters prior to the Cinci playoff game. 95% of them were about how the Bills were going to beat the Bengals. Many were not overly concerned about the Bills defensive injuries. The talk was how the Bills pass rush would beat the injury riddled Bengal Oline and how the Bengal run game wasn't any good. I don't remember you discussing how the Bills defensive injuries were going to be difficult to overcome? I don't remember many posters echoing your theme here. 

 

Time after time and year after year the Bills have continued to disappoint in the playoffs. At some point, Bills fans have to really start thinking can this team, coaches, and organization get over the hump? 

 

It amazes me how fans continually make excuses for the Bills playoff failures. You can decide where your mindset fits. Wondering what excuses people will use next year? 

 

Groundhog day...

Edited April 8, 2023 by newcam2012

[Let's Go Buffalo]

I think the draft will be pretty telling in regard to this.....assuming we draft a Linebacker, of course. There's a few "Swiss Army Knife" types of Linebackers, and then there are also some of your more traditional Linebackers, so only time will tell, in my opinion. 

[Simon Says]

On 4/4/2023 at 9:46 PM, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Do I believe it?

 

Yes, of course I do. There isn't a good reason to say that if it's not true, to pretend he's taking a year off if he isn't.

 

"He should honor his contract"? That's just dumb, man, he did. It's not a contract of slavery. He's got the right to leave if he wants. Bless him.

 

 

Yes, he has the right but why would he pass up the opportunity? We assume he is still getting paid? I haven't heard for sure whether he is. If he wanted to take a year off to rest,or pout, it's odd that Pegulas would pay him.

Why would Pegulas pay a coach that doesnt honor his contract?