We are now the worst defense in the league

[newcam2012]

3 minutes ago, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:

 

I don't think anyone is claiming the offense has been perfect and without blame. Just pointing out the DEF has been complete garbage

To be honest, the Bills have problems on both sides of the ball. 

 

The defense at least has a legitimate excuse with injuries to their star players. Anyone who thinks this defense is solid or good is out of touch with reality. 

 

The offense on the other hand has zero excuses. Pretty much everyone is healthy except Knox. Their performance after the Miami game has been terrible. Another poster broke down the inefficiency. 

 

The offensive woes have to largely fall on coaching, play calling, schemes, and lack of talent. That's the short end of the story.

 

In short, the team has gotten worse on both sides of the ball. The coaching is not good. It all equals mediocrity. Thus, 5-4 is an accurate picture of the team. 

[colin]

1 hour ago, HappyDays said:

 

Sure it does, but WLB is the least important position on the defense. I can't attribute all of the ineptitude to injuries. I think a lot of it is just McDermott's play calling to be honest. We gave up two quick TD drives to start the game. Most drives featured a 3rd down conversion that came off of a terrible play call. And then from there we mostly let the Bengals move the ball down the field. We would stop them at the 40-50 or so, but that meant we lost the field position battle for pretty much the entire game. When you're chasing a team and losing field position for an entire game, that is not a recipe for success.

 

dude, this.

 

collinsworthless was saying "they keep calling that the safety is coming, or (whatever else the cue they kept saying was).  im not sure how they can always tell" which means they scouted the bills and saw how OBVIOUS what we are doing is.  on the flip side, we seemed to have tremendous issues figuring out protections and and not having guys run into each other on O.

 

mcd get the d a bit better after the first two drives, and they even had some solid outings, but we scored two flipping tds all day, so allowing them to have 2 lay ups to start the game is just not on.

 

both our o and d are playing way below their abilities, but when our d has a weak player (dodson) or some kind of other issue (rushing 6 on 3rd and 10 with no one touching the qb at all) and can be read presnap like an open book, it's clear we don't have our head on straight as a defensive football team and that is what mcd makes millions for.

[Lionel Hutz]

I’ve said for years that the defense has been overrated under McDermott. The stats are misleading because they played well when we had a big lead or against lesser opponents. When the pressure is on they always seem to come up short.

 

We need an offensive minded head coach and a good defensive coordinator.

[Buffalo03]

36 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Because his play calling and personnel usage has absolutely been an issue. He has put his defense in bad spots at the end of games against the Jaguars, Pats, and Bengals. Poor blitz timing has led to backbreaking conversions on multiple 3rd downs.

 

I mean you really think the only reason that our defense is the worst in the league is injuries? No way we have the worst defensive roster in the league, I refuse to believe that even with the injuries. So that leaves coaching as a major issue.

We had a top D in the league when all our starters played. We have the worst D in the league when we are missing half our starters and more guys are going down each game. This isn't rocket science. The injuries are the problem. 

[GunnerBill]

2 hours ago, GoBills808 said:

Those first weeks aren't opponent adjusted either

 

It's been worse than that even

 

I think they are now retrospectively opponent adjusted. Not 100% but think that is how it works. After week 6 they start opponent adjusting and they don't only do it for the games from then on I think they go back and adjust for the entire season.

[newcam2012]

9 minutes ago, colin said:

 

dude, this.

 

collinsworthless was saying "they keep calling that the safety is coming, or (whatever else the cue they kept saying was).  im not sure how they can always tell" which means they scouted the bills and saw how OBVIOUS what we are doing is.  on the flip side, we seemed to have tremendous issues figuring out protections and and not having guys run into each other on O.

 

mcd get the d a bit better after the first two drives, and they even had some solid outings, but we scored two flipping tds all day, so allowing them to have 2 lay ups to start the game is just not on.

 

both our o and d are playing way below their abilities, but when our d has a weak player (dodson) or some kind of other issue (rushing 6 on 3rd and 10 with no one touching the qb at all) and can be read presnap like an open book, it's clear we don't have our head on straight as a defensive football team and that is what mcd makes millions for.

Bingo!

6 minutes ago, Lionel Hutz said:

I’ve said for years that the defense has been overrated under McDermott. The stats are misleading because they played well when we had a big lead or against lesser opponents. When the pressure is on they always seem to come up short.

 

We need an offensive minded head coach and a good defensive coordinator.

100% on board with this!

[PBF81]

2 hours ago, dave mcbride said:

Huh? Jones was freaking phenomenal for all of 2022. He's without question one of the best players on the team. White was also playing extremely well before getting hurt. They've also had scattered injuries throughout too - Oliver out vs NE, Rousseau out vs the Giants, Bernard, Benford, and Hyde going out last night. They have been DECIMATED. 

 

Phenominal's a bit embellishing for a DT that logged a sack and a pair of half-sacks, 3 TFLs, and 11 QB Hits on a 16-game season.  

 

As to White, we all know that White hasn't been the player that he was since getting hurt and hasn't recovered yet to date.  Douglas will be better.  So there's that, which is a wash.  

 

The primary player is Milano, and that situation is the creation of McBeane, the depth part of it.  

 

Either way, other teams suffer worse injuries than we have without dropping from the top of the rankings to the bottom of them.  

 

Some are using that as an excuse to defend McD and Beane if we can be honest.  Yes, it's a hit, but not that big of a hit.  

 

 

1 hour ago, Bleeding Bills Blue said:

2 week span they lose 3 starters for the year.  Take out Reader, Pratt, and Taylor-Britt from Cincy yesterday - it's going to take some time for a team to adjust to the new group of guys.  

 

If you do a man-to-man analysis of their D vs. ours yesterday, as it was on the field, ours is better.  Take a look at their secondary some time.  There's no way theirs even approaches ours.  The front-7 is comparable.  

 

And three starters, what, we're the only team to have lost three (or more) starters without having melted down?  

 

On a related note, take a look at where their front-7 starters as they were on the field yesterday were drafted when you have a few minutes. 

 

 

[The Jokeman]

23 minutes ago, Lionel Hutz said:

I’ve said for years that the defense has been overrated under McDermott. The stats are misleading because they played well when we had a big lead or against lesser opponents. When the pressure is on they always seem to come up short.

 

We need an offensive minded head coach and a good defensive coordinator.

Taron Johnson needs to play a lesser role IMHO and we need a true big nickel or 3rd LB to play on 1st and 2nd downs. As his struggles this year are becoming more and more obvious as the year continues..same thing for Poyer and to a degree Hyde. 

[PBF81]

1 hour ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

Yes the injuries are that bad. 

 

Jones since being in Buffalo has elevated his game.  Lorenzo Alexander's performance elevated when he came to Buffalo.  

It doesn't matter that he wasn't excellent in his years prior, he was with Buffalo.

 

Milano is 1 or 2 as the best off the ball linebacker in the NFL.

DaQuan was playing the best ball if his career.

Tre White may not be an All Pro anymore but he's still our best corner.

 

Those are high level players at every level.  

 

Now with the signings of Joseph and Douglas, the defense should start getting it right.

 

Last night wasn't bad.  It's a success if you can hold Burrow to 24 points.  We should not lose for giving up 24 points with the offensive talent we have.

 

OK, agree to disagree. 

 

They're a hit, but such that, and with our replacements now, like Douglas who's playing better than White has in two seasons, it drops a team from #1/#2 overall to DFL, nah, no way.  

 

 

 

 

[NoSaint]

2 hours ago, HappyDays said:

This isn't a hot take. It's supported by analytics:

 

I understand the injuries. But we have a defensive head coach and we are literally the worst defense in the league since the Jaguars game.

 

And I get why fans are focusing on the offense, but none of that matters to our Super Bowl aspirations if the defense doesn't get back to at least the top half of the league.

No shock when missing both starting lb, cb1, DT, and DE1 is in recovery mode

 

we are the defense with the most cap dollars out, and that’s with von playing right?

 

would also be nice to play with a lead occasionally 

[ProcessTruster]

didn't see most of the game but Cinci scored, what, 24 points?    plus had 2 turnovers to work with.  seems the D did pretty well.  sounds to me like the other side of the ball had a bad night 

[PBF81]

1 hour ago, dave mcbride said:

Don't focus on counting stats with him. Focus on his ability to anchor and allow other players to flow to the ball. He was a wrecking crew last season. I mean, that isn't even really debatable.

 

Of course not, but like everyone was focusing on his 2.5 sacks, 3 TFLs, and 5 QBHits over three games, a pace of 13 sacks, 17 TFLs, and 28 QB Hits, nearly his 9-season total, over three games, you're saying don't do that then like everyone is in establishing how much of a force he's been this season?  

 

Roger.   

 

 

[Dr.Sack]

It’s time to IR some guys. 

 

 

 

 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

 

It will be sad but you have to cut White this off season. He is done. Ideally you do an injury settlement and he retires as a post June cut in 2025 just like Eric Wood and Kam Chancellor did.

 

I'd let Benford get some snaps at safety this week. 

 

 

[TheBrownBear]

The truth is the last 5 weeks, save for a quarter here and there, have been bad football all around.  It's not all on the offense or all on the defense.  They've both been bad.  Special teams too.  We are generally failing in all aspects right now. 

[PBF81]

BTW, here are our available starters on D after the longer-term injuries generally speaking:  

 

Groot 

Floyd/Miller 

Oliver 

Phillips 

 

Dodson

Bernard 

 

Johnson

Jackson

Benford 

Poyer 

Hyde 

 

There's only Milano and Jones without comparable backups.  Two players, not a "decimation" nor anything close.  It's a few injuries, key ones, but hardly anything many other teams haven't seen without falling apart from the levels of 1st overall to DFL overall.  

 

That secondary should be fine.  And maybe it's time to ditch Hyde with his never-ending injury concerns too.  But that's a Beane thing.  We also have Floyd which we didn't have last season.  

 

Maybe time to see what McD really has in terms of coaching up the D.  In Carolina his Ds there averaged 17th scoring in his six seasons there.  

 

 

[Mr. WEO]

2 hours ago, LeviF said:

Friendly reminder that the GOAT (yes it's Brady) has zero rings in years without a top ten defense and only one Super Bowl appearance during those years.

 

Bills have zero rings with 4 top 5 D's and Josh Allen.

[nedboy7]

It's a defense of backups.  Again..... D is not the reason we suck right now. 

[y2zipper]

1 hour ago, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:

 

I don't think anyone is claiming the offense has been perfect and without blame. Just pointing out the DEF has been complete garbage

 

The offense is scoring 20 points a game The last 5 weeks, which basically ranks around where the Chicago bears do for reference. The offense has been atrocious and that's really what the issue is with the team and why McDermott should be fired. I don't trust him to pick the next coordinator so I'd rather fire him and let somebody else do it.

[TAinLack.]

3 hours ago, HappyDays said:

This isn't a hot take. It's supported by analytics:

 

I understand the injuries. But we have a defensive head coach and we are literally the worst defense in the league since the Jaguars game.

 

And I get why fans are focusing on the offense, but none of that matters to our Super Bowl aspirations if the defense doesn't get back to at least the top half of the league.

Time for a separate, new D.C.