Cam Newton, recognizing coverages, disguises and Sean McDermott

[Jerome007]

22 hours ago, 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. 

Seems tome Bills fans do not appreciate how with a McD defense, Poyer and Hyde, there has been next to zero broken coverages in years. No opponents scoring long TDs because of mix ups. The very few times it happened, Poyer and/or Hyde were injured. Yet we see such plays on highlights around the league nearly every week. A "bend but don't break" defense doesn't seem THAT appealing to fans, but it works! Bills have had very few blowout losses too. Almost all losses were close games.

[GunnerBill]

1 minute ago, Jerome007 said:

Seems tome Bills fans do not appreciate how with a McD defense, Poyer and Hyde, there has been next to zero broken coverages in years. No opponents scoring long TDs because of mix ups. The very few times it happened, Poyer and/or Hyde were injured. Yet we see such plays on highlights around the league nearly every week. A "bend but don't break" defense doesn't seem THAT appealing to fans, but it works! Bills have had very few blowout losses too. Almost all losses were close games.

 

Yea I can remember a couple in all the years. One against Baltimore in '19 stands out and one I think in the Tampa overtime loss. But they were very, very rare.

[Beck Water]

23 hours ago, GoBills808 said:

I usually end up making the Bengals comparison here tbh

 

Theu have similar defensive talent as us imo and they have no problem slowing down the Allen/Jackson/Mahomes of the world

 

I dunno.  I think the Bengals have a talent advantage on defense - of course, depending on who is actually on the field for the Bills

Perhaps I'm mistaken.  And I don't know that much about their safeties, I just think they have a really good DL and CB

[dave mcbride]

48 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Yea I can remember a couple in all the years. One against Baltimore in '19 stands out and one I think in the Tampa overtime loss. But they were very, very rare.

Yeah, and they only lost to the Dolphins in 2022 because Tua hit Waddle on a bomb on third and long where he split the starting safeties -- Jaquon Johnson and Damar Hamlin (!) -- who were basically lost on that play.

[GunnerBill]

3 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

I dunno.  I think the Bengals have a talent advantage on defense - of course, depending on who is actually on the field for the Bills

Perhaps I'm mistaken.  And I don't know that much about their safeties, I just think they have a really good DL and CB

 

Who do they have at corner you are so impressed with? They made the Superbowl with Awuzie who is good not great and Apple who sucks. The following year when they lost the AFCCG (which Im guessing are the two years @GoBills808 is referring to in terms of holding down KC) they had Awuzie who is good not great and Cam Taylor-Britt who is a sort of average zone corner CB2 type. Better than say a Dane Jackson but I'd take him after Christian Benford. 

 

They have been, however, better up front than us. DJ Reader (a guy we tried to get and he went there instead) and Trey Hendrikson (who a lot of us wanted the Bills to go for) were forces on that team. And Sam Hubbard is underrated too. 

 

But I think it is legitimate to say they have done more with comparable talent than we have vs the Chiefs in the playoffs. The thing is the Bills can do it against the Chiefs too. They have shown that in the regular season. To hold KC's offense down you have to play your best game on the day and they have to be a bit off theirs. The Bills have done that 3 of the last 5 meetings. Unfortunately the two that counted most that hasn't been the case. We know its a whole range of factors why.

 

But when you strip it back to brass tacks I do think the statement that the Bengals with similar talent have done better vs the Chiefs in the post season is true.

4 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

Yeah, and they only lost to the Dolphins in 2022 because Tua hit Waddle on a bomb on third and long where he split the starting safeties -- Jaquon Johnson and Damar Hamlin (!) -- who were basically lost on that play.

 

Yep. That was a blown play but by the two backups.

[Big Turk]

On 8/25/2024 at 11:10 PM, Mikie2times said:

Also makes a degree of sense why we might struggle more vs the very best and totally dominant the average to below average. 

 

Because we lack high end difference makers in those games we need them...

 

Look at KC and how many times Chris Jones has pretty much won them playoff games with huge plays at Big times. It happens almost every game for them.

 

Then look at the Bills. Outside Taron Johnson, who has made a huge play in a big game for the Bills on D?

 

The Bills rely on great technique and everyone playing together in unison to succeed far more than individual talent.

 

While that works great during the season for the most part, even against KC, it doesn't work so great when the games are on the line in the playoffs.