We are now the worst defense in the league

[JoshAllin]

When you lose the top 2 players in the defense and replace them with the bottom 2 on the team it's not going to look pretty on the stats

[HappyDays]

 

[Low Positive]

3 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

I think the plan was “look at what Frazier did last year and do the opposite.”

[Airseven]

This calls for an Epenesa lucrative extension.

[BringBackFergy]

Does anyone have a good hot dog, meat sauce recipe?

 

[TampaBillsJunkie]

4 hours ago, dave mcbride said:

Just one turnover in five games will do that you ...

And sh^t for sacks, hurries and pressure.  

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

16 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

i actually don’t know what people expected him to do. The front 4 can no longer generate pressure without DaQuon and Oliver both commanding tons of attention. He had to send guys.

[Matt_In_NH]

I know the points against have not been there but the defense sucking is definitely something you feel watching the games.   Last night they only gave up 24 but the Bengals always had drives that had several first downs.   Right down to the last meaningful 3-2 where Von dove to air.  Teams are converting 3rd downs.    The blitzing is not getting home, it is hurting this team.   

[Capco]

3 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Even if the Bills had rotated their decent stable of pass rushers with perfect timing, I don't think they could've gotten sufficient pressure on Burrow with just a 4-man rush vs the Bengals offensive line.  

The defense did get several batted passes at the line and sacks during these blitzes as well.  That part of the game plan was working at times, and had the defense been playing with a lead it probably would've worked even better.

Alternatively, if the Bills had abandoned pressuring the QB entirely and went to a 2-man rush, the Bengals would've simply turned to their running game.  

The defense got out-muscled in the trenches in the playoff game last year, and that was probably on McD's mind for this game given how gut-wrenching it was to endure.  Rushing 5-and-6 in relatively broad, nonexotic blitzes has the added effect of beefing up your rushing defense at the point of attack.  

So schematically I do understand the approach, all things considered.  It just didn't pan out.  

[Alphadawg7]

4 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 disrespect @HappyDaysbut we have not lost a single game because our defense was the issue.  We lost 4 games because the offense sucked.  The defense has held opponents scores low enough for us to be undefeated right now, but our offense is averaging 19 points a game over that stretch above.  

 

The offense isn't sustaining drives and putting the defense back out on the field.  The offense is turning the ball over and giving short fields.  The offense is anemic and hasn't scored over 25 since Miami.  

 

Meanwhile, our offense has 0 relevant injuries...none.  The defense lost arguably its 3 best players in Tre, Milano, and Jones and played games and parts of games without Oliver, Bernard, etc.  

 

If you take your best players off the field of any unit on any team its going to make a significant impact.  Yet that decimated defense has held opponents in check enough for us to win every single game had our offense just did its part.  Instead, we are 2-3 and were one lucky play in each of the Giatns and Bucs games from being 0-5 because the offense sucked for all of half of each of those games.  

 

In 4 of those games, the Bills had just 1 TD scored heading into the 4th quarter.  

 

So for me, just being honest, I can not fathom how there can be any anger towards our defense who despite missing all its talent is still doing enough for us to win while our all world offense that is fully healthy is doing nothing to help us win.

[frostbitmic]

This year the problem is on both sides of the ball ...

 

On Offense - I can't believe that the problem just lies with Dorsey, the OC isn't calling for bad INTS's to be thrown or for people to fumble the ball, however the 6 yard deep handoffs on the goal line and the constant quick outs that gain between 0-1 yard needs to be torn from the playbook. I still believe something is wrong with Josh, whether it's physically, mentally, emotionally, something just seems off with him.

 

On Defense - Watching receivers singing "Born free, as free as the wind blows" on seemingly every 3rd and 10 has to end, this soft zone is almost like playing a prevent Defense the entire game.

 

I'm starting to believe that McDermott is on the verge of losing this team. With the upcoming schedule that could happen quickly.

[AZSanta]

5 hours ago, PBF81 said:

Our injuries are not that bad.  

 

Honestly, Milano and Jones.  White hasn't been around for the vast majority of either of the last two seasons.  

Jones simply started strong, he did nothing even approaching his play in the first few games this season against some of the worst offenses in the league, throughout the rest of his nearly decade-long career.  It wouldn't have lasted.  

 

Our starting line-up is largely the players that they themselves have drafted, and apart from Milano and Jones is what it would have been anyway.  We knew coming into the season that White hadn't played well in the few games he was in last season, so no difference there.  

 

Von Miller, yeah, a 34-year old player that got injured.  Not a problem unless you give him a 6-year $120M contract at the age of 33, with nearly half of it guaranteed.  

 

We have key injuries, but one player shouldn't explain a drop from 1st/2nd to DFL.  

 

If it does, LOL, well, then time for a new "defensively oriented" head coach.  

 

While we're at it, let's get an offensively oriented one since we haven't been able to count on our marvelous 1st or 2nd ranked Ds in the playoffs anyway.  

 

 

Nailed it!!!

 

[Governor]

1 hour ago, motorj said:

When you lose the top 2 players in the defense and replace them with the bottom 2 on the team it's not going to look pretty on the stats

That really shouldn’t happen on a team where the GM and HC use all of the resources on the defense year after year. It makes them look even more incompetent.

[BuffaloBillsGospel2014]

I mean I know we don't like to use excuses here but it was going to happen when you lose Milano, Tre White, Daquan Jones and Von Miller still isn't back to himself. This would be hard for any team to overcome and I thought we played the Bengals awesome in the 2nd half only giving up 3 points.

[Thrivefourfive]

6 hours ago, dorquemada said:

 

It's a sign that the Bengals took their foot off the gas.  It's nothing the Bills did.  They watched our geriatric secondary struggling to catch their breath and took mercy

This is it. The “positives” that I’m hearing about this game is that the defense showed up in the second half. That’s simply not a sign of anything. The Bengals played with the lead, and made damn sure that they weren’t going to hand it to the Bills. It’s what good teams do sometimes. The Bills have done it. They win, and completely control the game, but only score 24 (it happened last Thursday for crying out loud!).
 

At no point in last night’s game did I feel like the Bills had any control of that game, the entire 60 minutes. You’ll all say admit the same. 
 

I’m hearing all these comparisons about how the Bills defense held the high powered Bengals offense to three second half points, and the Bills started scoring the second half.. BELIEVE ME, if the Bills showed any life earlier in the game, the Bengals would’ve shot them with an elephant gun, right away. 

1 hour ago, frostbitmic said:

This year the problem is on both sides of the ball ...

 

On Offense - I can't believe that the problem just lies with Dorsey, the OC isn't calling for bad INTS's to be thrown or for people to fumble the ball, however the 6 yard deep handoffs on the goal line and the constant quick outs that gain between 0-1 yard needs to be torn from the playbook. I still believe something is wrong with Josh, whether it's physically, mentally, emotionally, something just seems off with him.

 

On Defense - Watching receivers singing "Born free, as free as the wind blows" on seemingly every 3rd and 10 has to end, this soft zone is almost like playing a prevent Defense the entire game.

 

I'm starting to believe that McDermott is on the verge of losing this team. With the upcoming schedule that could happen quickly.

Great. Candy a$$ quarterback. All we need. 

[Big Blitz]

We might be down 7 starters on D Monday 

[78thealltimegreat]

We have so many resources and money tied up into the defensive side of the ball that even with the injuries they should still be average and be in the 10-15ish range. 
The problem is obviously the lulls this offense has against even mediocre defenses. When your number 2 receiver has literally zero catches and your QB is your teams leading rusher….again that’s a problem….a big one.

[major]

7 hours ago, dorquemada said:

certainly matches the eye test.  They can't stop anybody, especially when it counts.  Thank God we spent most of our draft capital on the D so we can watch opponents march up and down the field

Guess Frazier was smart to take that sabbatical 

[Dr.Sack]

To be fair the defense has created 1 turnover the past 4 games, while the offense has turned over the ball 7 times. 

[78thealltimegreat]

29 minutes ago, Thrivefourfive said:

This is it. The “positives” that I’m hearing about this game is that the defense showed up in the second half. That’s simply not a sign of anything. The Bengals played with the lead, and made damn sure that they weren’t going to hand it to the Bills. It’s what good teams do sometimes. The Bills have done it. They win, and completely control the game, but only score 24 (it happened last Thursday for crying out loud!).
 

At no point in last night’s game did I feel like the Bills had any control of that game, the entire 60 minutes. You’ll all say admit the same. 
 

I’m hearing all these comparisons about how the Bills defense held the high powered Bengals offense to three second half points, and the Bills started scoring the second half.. BELIEVE ME, if the Bills showed any life earlier in the game, the Bengals would’ve shot them with an elephant gun, right away. 

Great. Candy a$$ quarterback. All we need. 

Didn’t watch the game did you? The entire second half the Bengals were going for a knockout punch and couldn’t do it. As for the QB being a candyass when he’s your leading rusher in the game…again that’s a problem.