Tackling is a rough sport for the Bills.

[The Frankish Reich]

3 hours ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

Plus we have a smallish defense. 

Small, and it's become smaller this year.

[strive_for_five_guy]

42 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

I hope fans can truly appreciate how terrible our DT situation is right now.  Phillips, Ford & Settle combined don't equal one qualified roster spot.

Phillips tackling form is to bring the QB down via his face mask rather than even just falling on the guy.

2 minutes ago, The Frankish Reich said:

Small, and it's become smaller this year.

Yep.  We already play nickel as our base defense.  DaQuan is hurt.  Bernard is way smaller than the much maligned Edmunds, although Bernard’s instincts probably make up for the size difference.  And now we have Poyer lining up as WLB.

[The Frankish Reich]

4 minutes ago, strive_for_five_guy said:

Phillips tackling form is to bring the QB down via his face mask rather than even just falling on the guy.

Yep.  We already play nickel as our base defense.  DaQuan is hurt.  Bernard is way smaller than the much maligned Edmunds, although Bernard’s instincts probably make up for the size difference.  And now we have Poyer lining up as WLB.

Agreed.

Look, you miss 100% of the tackles you don't get to. The Bills have a defense built on speed/pursuit. And those guys are smaller, and may have a harder time bringing down a big RB, etc.

[Bills!Win!]

Antoine Winfield Sr. should come in and teach tackling lessons. The smallest guy on the team was always the best tackler 

[Beck Water]

2 hours ago, Chaos said:

It seems like tackling is a lost art in the NFL overall.  But Bill's fans perspective's may be skewed because we may be particularly bad at tackling.  I am perfectly willing to blame injuries as the primary reason for the bad tackling, but it does not really change the fact that the tackling is bad. 

Top tackling teams. Feel free to hate PFF.  I just don't anywhere else to source tackling data of any type. 

 

Dunno if the sort will hold, but the missed tackle stat is here, and yeah, the Bills are dead last

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2023/opp.htm#all_advanced_defense

 

But I'm not sure what that means, since our DL is "leading the charge" for missed tackles

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2023_advanced.htm

 

24 minutes ago, Bills!Win! said:

Antoine Winfield Sr. should come in and teach tackling lessons. The smallest guy on the team was always the best tackler 

 

Since it's our DL that's putting is in that "oops" territory, I somehow don't think a DB's tackling instructions would be too relevant

And it has me asking "just what is being defined as a missed tackle?"

[BADOLBILZ]

5 hours ago, colin said:

its a structural  issue in the d tho.  guys guys and often dbs screaming down the pitch to fill in gaps and make tackles, it will always result in more misses.

 

 

Wrong sport, mate.

[colin]

13 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Wrong sport, mate.

 

 

u w0t m8?  ill rek u m8

[streetkings01]

Our eyes have shown us since McDermott took over that we suck at tackling. The stats back it up.

[finn]

18 hours ago, colin said:

its a structural  issue in the d tho.  guys guys and often dbs screaming down the pitch to fill in gaps and make tackles, it will always result in more misses.

Would you mind elaborating? What schemes lead to easier or more likely tackles? And why wouldn't the Bills use those schemes? 

[Bob Jones]

What, exactly, do the Bills do at practice sessions? Also, some people are saying that the Bills “have had 10 days to prepare for this game, so they should be ready.” How many of those 10 days are they “at work” vs out playing golf or sitting at home playing Xbox? Just wondering…

[colin]

40 minutes ago, finn said:

Would you mind elaborating? What schemes lead to easier or more likely tackles? And why wouldn't the Bills use those schemes? 

 

well, you miss fewer tackles when guys don't have to run far and fast to get to the ball carrier.  so the old new england 3-4 d with gargantuan linebackers and rough dirty safeties will miss fewer tackles.  part of that is because they selected for and emphasized tackling more, part is because it's easier for a bigger guy to tackle provided they don't have to chase teh ball as much, and partly because in that kind of d, fewer guys have a shot at the ball, so you might miss 2 tackles and the ball goes 80s for a td, but in our d you can have 4 missed tackles on a 10 yard pitch and catch (where the 5th guy made it).

 

sanfran has a very similar d to ours, albeit better, so you saw that if you watched them vs cincy.  quick passes get completed in the soft parts of the zone (cinci is on fire right now) and then 4 guys rally to the ball and maybe 1 or 2 of them make the hit.

 

we don't have the players nor the coaches to run a different kind of scheme, and they type (not exact) scheme we run is most popular right now to take away the big pass play, and to a lesser extend to stop qbs running as much (more zone than man).   everybody plays nickel base in the nfl now tho.

 

w our injuries mcd has to earn his paycheck and use some smoke and mirrors to fool the o.  we have trouble vs teams like cinci when we are healthy on d, let alone w a mash unit.

[BADOLBILZ]

3 hours ago, colin said:

 

 

u w0t m8?  ill rek u m8

 

This is why the 2 sports you don't conflate.........m8.  

 

[HoofHearted]

2 hours ago, colin said:

 

well, you miss fewer tackles when guys don't have to run far and fast to get to the ball carrier.  so the old new england 3-4 d with gargantuan linebackers and rough dirty safeties will miss fewer tackles.  part of that is because they selected for and emphasized tackling more, part is because it's easier for a bigger guy to tackle provided they don't have to chase teh ball as much, and partly because in that kind of d, fewer guys have a shot at the ball, so you might miss 2 tackles and the ball goes 80s for a td, but in our d you can have 4 missed tackles on a 10 yard pitch and catch (where the 5th guy made it).

[colin]

31 minutes ago, HoofHearted said:

 

ya, that's a good point.  our d doesn't miss a ton of tackles which has been documented for years now, and they don't rally like mad men to the ball.

[HoofHearted]

9 minutes ago, colin said:

 

ya, that's a good point.  our d doesn't miss a ton of tackles which has been documented for years now, and they don't rally like mad men to the ball.

The gif was for your explanation of why we miss tackles and trying to tie it to the scheme.

[PonyBoy]

18 hours ago, Bills!Win! said:

Antoine Winfield Sr. should come in and teach tackling lessons. The smallest guy on the team was always the best tackler 

Was going to post the same thing. He was like Velcro. 

 

Reminds me of the infamous quote Buddy Ryan said about Chris Carter " All he does is catch touchdown passes"

Antoine Winfield didn't really blow anybody up, he just made technically perfect tackles. 

 

Only 2 players ever bummed me out the Bills didn't find a way to retain. Antoine Winfield & Ted Washington. Killed me watching how good they were for years after leaving Bills. 

Honorable mention not drafting Vince Wilfork ugh...