Cam Newton, recognizing coverages, disguises and Sean McDermott

[DapperCam]

  On 8/25/2024 at 9:45 PM, WotAGuy said:

Those teams you mentioned have all lost playoff games during McDermott’s tenure.  It’s not like they all went to the Super Bowl every year. 

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Elite passers eviscerate this defense, especially in the playoffs. There just aren’t very many elite passers in the league. McD’s scheme seems to really shut down average passers, so we have great regular season stats.

 

It’s happed every season where the defense is the primary reason we’ve lost in the playoffs, so it’s not a one-off thing (I guess the Bengals loss was a team effort, everything was bad in that one).

 

  On 8/25/2024 at 11:49 PM, appoo said:

 

Bills literally just played Mahomes well in the playoffs. 

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Mahomes did literally whatever he wanted, what game were you watching? They didn’t even force a punt until the very end of the game. To be fair we were very injured, but in no universe did they play well.

Edited August 26, 2024 by DapperCam

[TheFunPolice]

one type of defense slows down elite passers: physical on all 3 levels and with DL who can get to the QB. 

 

That is really, really hard and quickly becomes expensive to assemble. 

 

A great team usually has a top QB and some offensive weapons, who make such a defense even harder to assemble or keep together. 

[Mikey152]

If our talent is not great and our coaches are poor, but we have won the second most games in the NFL over the last 5 years with the best point differential...

 

...does that mean that Josh Allen is the single greatest player in the history of the NFL? Or maybe some of the assessments of our talent are a bit hyperbolic?

[LABILLBACKER]

  On 8/25/2024 at 9:40 PM, WotAGuy said:

But isn’t this also true for almost every team that faces a Brady or Mahomes?  Those guys can outsmart defenses as well as outplay them. The Bills are not a special exception. 

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Well if they want to ever win a SB they better be.

[SoonerBillsFan]

Bottom line we have needed better athletes at LB and in the Secondary. Our DL NEVER gets enough pressure and IF they get there, they usually whiff and don't get a sack.  Carolina had a great ranked (Superbowl type) defense when the DL could generate CONSISTENT pressure with just the front 4. Consistent is the key word.

[SirAndrew]

  On 8/25/2024 at 11:37 PM, GoBills808 said:

It doesn't explain how we play Mahomes well in the regular season and not in the postseason. We have the players to do it

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I’m fully convinced there’s a major mental element to KC dominating us in the postseason. I don’t think we expect to win. The players and coaches both appear timid and afraid against KC in the postseason. Josh Allen being the major exception of course. 

Edited August 26, 2024 by SirAndrew

[GaryPinC]

One of the biggest problems we've had over all the years is the lack of a dominant defensive front.  Got to be able to rattle Mahomes to have a chance in the playoffs.

 

Our playoff "next men up" defense did about as good a job as they could this year vs the Chiefs.  They gave up 7 yds per play, but KC was 1/5 on third down, we also held them under 400 yds (361) but benefitted a significant TOP advantage, roughly 37 min to 22.  

 

People can read as much as they want into things but we were missing a number of playmakers behind the D-line.  27-24 loss, the game came down to the Diggs drop, the defense was adequate and the best we were going to get for that day

 

 

[boyst]

  On 8/25/2024 at 9:42 PM, GunnerBill said:

It is well known that McDermott is one of the best at designing disguised coverages (Belichick I think called him "the best" at one point) but you gotta have smart players on the backend to make it go. That is one of the reasons I am far less chilled about safety than some are. Yes, it's just safety.... not a premium spot.... but if you don't have the right guys there in *this scheme* it forces you to be way more vanilla. 

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i am very curious to see how disciplined McDermott can run this unit. running a vanilla defense can be very successful. if everyone does their 1/11. if everyone maintains their positions and demands. it should be possible.

[Don Otreply]

As said above, we have an excellent “regular season “  defense, that unfortunately gets shown to be noticeably less effective in the postseason, this as said above is not a one off incident, what is so troubling is that McDermott never has a plan to to overcome this, he rolls out the same soft zone Defense in the playoffs and it fails over and over, one would think that he would do something a little different, but he hasn’t to date been able to think his way around this problem, at some point one has to think he doesn’t even see the problem,  frustrating as hell for us fans. 
 

Mean while, back at the ranch…, our offense languishes for the lack of a consistent supply of top shelf WRs, we seem to be short two of them every season…, this as well is frustrating as hell for us fans…, oh well, always hoping for the best 👍

[julian]

  On 8/26/2024 at 3:00 PM, Mikey152 said:

If our talent is not great and our coaches are poor, but we have won the second most games in the NFL over the last 5 years with the best point differential...

 

...does that mean that Josh Allen is the single greatest player in the history of the NFL? Or maybe some of the assessments of our talent are a bit hyperbolic?

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Yes and yes

[GoBills808]

  On 8/26/2024 at 2:24 PM, Jauronimo said:

Since when does spending correlate with success?

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We have had very successful regular season defenses.

[Old Coot]

  On 8/25/2024 at 9:16 PM, appoo said:

Poyer and Micah were pretty pedestrian athletes, and there are limits to what you can do with them, no matter how brilliant your scheme is, when the opposing team has elite athletes and a QB that could do work

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This is basically true but they worked so well together as a team. It's like each was living rent-free in the other's mind.

[BuffaloBill]

  On 8/25/2024 at 8:47 PM, appoo said:

 

 

I'm a Bills/PSU/Syracuse/Knicks/Mets/USMNT guy, he's been the best coach on any of my teams since I can remember - and Cam here lands on one of the reasons why. He is an absolutely brilliant defensive coach. Start at about 1:40 to get to the McDermott part, but the whole clip is pretty good if you're interested in how to read a coverage pre-snap

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The problem is that the Chiefs have figured out the Bills in the playoffs. No doubt that 13 seconds is the worst example of this.  The Bills telegraphed their coverage and two smart players took serious advantage of it.   It will be interesting to see without Poyer and Hyde how much of the “disguise” the Bills can keep up.

[C.Biscuit97]

  On 8/26/2024 at 3:00 PM, Mikey152 said:

If our talent is not great and our coaches are poor, but we have won the second most games in the NFL over the last 5 years with the best point differential...

 

...does that mean that Josh Allen is the single greatest player in the history of the NFL? Or maybe some of the assessments of our talent are a bit hyperbolic?

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We had a borderline top 5 roster for most of those 5 years. 

  On 8/26/2024 at 3:16 PM, GaryPinC said:

One of the biggest problems we've had over all the years is the lack of a dominant defensive front.  Got to be able to rattle Mahomes to have a chance in the playoffs.

 

Our playoff "next men up" defense did about as good a job as they could this year vs the Chiefs.  They gave up 7 yds per play, but KC was 1/5 on third down, we also held them under 400 yds (361) but benefitted a significant TOP advantage, roughly 37 min to 22.  

 

People can read as much as they want into things but we were missing a number of playmakers behind the D-line.  27-24 loss, the game came down to the Diggs drop, the defense was adequate and the best we were going to get for that day

 

 

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Yup. Lack of a legit scary pass rusher costs this team. We have nice “solid” all around DEs but no one who scares offenses. Those we have to create pressure with blitzes and the better qbs you see in the playoffs eat that up. 

[hondo in seattle]

  On 8/26/2024 at 2:40 PM, TheFunPolice said:

one type of defense slows down elite passers: physical on all 3 levels and with DL who can get to the QB. 

 

That is really, really hard and quickly becomes expensive to assemble. 

 

A great team usually has a top QB and some offensive weapons, who make such a defense even harder to assemble or keep together. 

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So imagine McD's scheme but with at least one elite DE, LB, and CB.  

 

That's, I think, what Beane was aiming for.  But injuries derailed Von, Milano, and Tre.

 

People will point out that the Bills haven't been cursed with an exceptional number of 'player days lost' due to injury.  But the injuries we have suffered on defense have been to key people.  

[Rockinon]

Year after year, Buffalo's defense is ranked pretty high. Unfortunately, it has been handicapped by a poor pass rush and an inability to stop the run. If our Dline can just stay healthy, that would change. And it's not just the DE's that need to be healthy. The interior needs to be healthy too. It seems to me, too much focus has been on DBs and LBs. The heart of the defense is the big guys up front. Also, I think having DaQuan back healthy is bigger than having Von back healthy for this defense.

 

The defense as a whole was decimated by injuries last year but the injuries to the Dline is what hurt the most. If that unit can stay healthy, McD's defensive schemes can flourish. The DB's and LBs will look like all pros, but only because they had the support of a more dominant front four.

[SoonerBillsFan]

Who took over Cam Newtons body?  That was actually good.

[notpolian]

There are more if and buts in this thread than I've seen in a while.  The fact is Beane has invested major draft capital (and one enormously misguided free agent mega-contract) on the DL and come up with zero difference makers.  Oliver is the poster child for this version of the Bills: occasionally effective, small for his position, and overpaid for what he is.  If Beane had hit on one DL that really was a disruptor, it would make a big difference against the likes of Mahomes and Burrow.  Heaven help this team if you got players like Hamlin back there with no pressure on the opposing QB.  

[NoSaint]

  On 8/25/2024 at 9:42 PM, GunnerBill said:

It is well known that McDermott is one of the best at designing disguised coverages (Belichick I think called him "the best" at one point) but you gotta have smart players on the backend to make it go. That is one of the reasons I am far less chilled about safety than some are. Yes, it's just safety.... not a premium spot.... but if you don't have the right guys there in *this scheme* it forces you to be way more vanilla. 

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the other major issue is quite simply that you can get a near McDermott quality DC, but the equivalent offensive coaching talent essentially only exists at head coach. 
 

so great Defensive HC and churning OC 

 

vs 

 

Great Offensive HC and stable excellent DC 

[GunnerBill]

  On 8/26/2024 at 7:06 PM, NoSaint said:

the other major issue is quite simply that you can get a near McDermott quality DC, but the equivalent offensive coaching talent essentially only exists at head coach. 
 

so great Defensive HC and churning OC 

 

vs 

 

Great Offensive HC and stable excellent DC 

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It is certainly fair the way the league has gone to say that if you do hit on an OC it is harder to keep them. That said the number of these offensive whizz kids who fail as HCs is pretty high too. I still believe the #1 criteria for your head coach hire is get the best leader of men you can. If all things are equal after that lean offense.