Cover 1- Why And How Miami Gashed The Bills In The Run Game

[Shaw66]

On 11/4/2024 at 8:11 PM, Logic said:

Thanks for posting this. Cover 1 always does a good job.

Staying in nickel all game and still being able to at least somewhat limit the opposing run game has pretty much been the Bills' defensive identity since McDermott took over. Every once in a while, they come up against a team who is able to effectively call their bluff and run it down their throats. Baltimore did it earlier this year, Miami did it yesterday. 

Most teams can't do it. They either don't have the OL, don't have the scheming, or don't have the personnel to make it work. Credit to Miami.

At the end of the day, neither defense really did much to stop the opposing offense. It took the Bills getting one extra possession via forced fumble to win the game, and even then it was a 61 yard miracle of a kick away from going to overtime.

Live by the sword, die by the sword. They lived on Sunday, but just barely.

Logic -

 

I saw this when you posted it, but didn't have time to respond then. I just remembered. 

 

The bolded part describes it exactly. It's a great, succinct statement of the philosophy of the run defense. The Bills put a lot of people on the field who can run and can tackle. Then they give them assignments that require them to run to the point of attack, starting from some optimal place. They are not power guys, not on the line of scrimmage, and certainly not at linebacker or DB. The result is that they are susceptible to getting block, because they are running to make the play.  The Bills force the offense to execute those blocks, which isn't easy, because the defense is so fluid. As you say, the best offenses execute consistently enough to get good yardage in the run game consistently. But even then, except Henry's run, they don't get beat for game-breaking runs. 

 

And to their credit, when they're in the red zone, they are really tough against the run. 

 

The Chiefs showed the other night that they are happy to play against a defense like that. They'll run all day long. 

 

Great post.  Thanks.

 

 

Edited November 6 by Shaw66

[gjv]

Luckily for us, McDaniels didn’t call more runs.

[ganesh]

On 11/5/2024 at 4:59 AM, BillsFan130 said:

https://youtu.be/EPkedRDUGgI?si=RZxz3m4BYhHINKKG

 

Main Summary/Observations if you don't want to watch the video

 

-Dolphins had 31 rushing attempts for 159 yard- On 18 of those runs, Bills played light boxes and gave up 108 yards on those plays

-Said Mcdaniel was very creative with motion and creating leverage on a lot of the runs

-Said  they were picking on Taron a lot in the run game and it seemed to me they were attacking him with Ingold a lot of the time

 

My own thoughts from seeing that:

 

-D line wasn't good, but as a lot of us know this was more scheme related into why the Bills couldn't stop the run yesterday

 

-Miami was in 21 personnel a lot with Ingold, meanwhile Bills only had 6 guys in the box, or 7 with Taron.

 

That right there^ is a massive advtantage for Miami, and it seemed like Mcdermott/Babich were betting on Mcdaniel getting away from the run, but he never did and remained patient all game long.

 

Speed kills.  The Dolphins have speed with their backs and WRs.  The Bills cannot compete with them on that.  They played a defensive game and asked their offense to score more points and they did.  Go Bills !!!

[JP51]

On 11/4/2024 at 7:38 PM, DrMaxPower said:

With Tua back and Waddle and Hill to deal with, I think it was a 'lesser of 2 evils' situation. History has proven that coaches rarely have the patience to stick to the run.

 

That said, Daquan looks nothing like last year and it's really hurting us.

Nor does Ed Oliver... they are both non existent.

[4th&long]

This is the bills m.o. , nothing new. Other teams will always be able to run on the bills because of the scheme they play. The bills never want to get burned by the big pass play. They count on being able to get you off the field before you score. What tarron said was not news. 

[henry jones]

Didn't Indy put up almost 300 yards rushing against us a few years ago?  Hopefully our vaunted "run defense" doesn't perform as poorly Sunday.  Need to get off the field on 3rd downs.

[WideNine]

On 11/4/2024 at 3:43 PM, FLFan said:

Meanwhile, the Bills averaged more yards per run than Miami did, yet we are not talking about how the Bills run game “gashed” the Dolphins.  Bottom line:  the Bills game plan worked and they won.  The rest is noise.  

 

So bottom line you believe we should be comfortably satisfied with the Bills performance against a 2-6 team coming down to a 61 yard FG having to be made by a shakey kicker?

 

I don't think anyone is unhappy with the fact that we pulled off the "W".

 

 

[MiracleAtRich1393]

8 minutes ago, WideNine said:

 

So bottom line you believe we should be comfortably satisfied with the Bills performance against a 2-6 team coming down to a 61 yard FG having to be made by a shakey kicker?

 

I don't think anyone is unhappy with the fact that we pulled off the "W".

 

 

That game was a bit fluky IMO.

 

Mostert lowering his helmet into Rapp's head got them +15 yards rather than -15 on a FG drive. Net 30 yards on one play, that's +3 points for MIA.

 

The TD off Coleman's hands to an INT was another +7 points for MIA.

 

The bogus holding call on OCT erased a brilliant Josh TD and we settled for a FG. That's +4 points for MIA.

 

Up 10+ points most of the second half and we're in cruise control mode rather than heart attack scramble mode. Overcoming missing 14 points on (7 ref-inflicted, 7 self-inflicted) to still get the W is not an easy task in the NFL, even against a 2-6 team.

[WideNine]

1 hour ago, MiracleAtRich1393 said:

That game was a bit fluky IMO.

 

Mostert lowering his helmet into Rapp's head got them +15 yards rather than -15 on a FG drive. Net 30 yards on one play, that's +3 points for MIA.

 

The TD off Coleman's hands to an INT was another +7 points for MIA.

 

The bogus holding call on OCT erased a brilliant Josh TD and we settled for a FG. That's +4 points for MIA.

 

Up 10+ points most of the second half and we're in cruise control mode rather than heart attack scramble mode. Overcoming missing 14 points on (7 ref-inflicted, 7 self-inflicted) to still get the W is not an easy task in the NFL, even against a 2-6 team.

 

That is true.

 

Just terrible phantom calls that took points off the board or that ridiculous call on Rapp that helped extend that Miami drive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FLFan]

1 hour ago, WideNine said:

 

So bottom line you believe we should be comfortably satisfied with the Bills performance against a 2-6 team coming down to a 61 yard FG having to be made by a shakey kicker?

 

I don't think anyone is unhappy with the fact that we pulled off the "W".

 

 

Miami is not a typical 2-6 team as you well know.  Without Tua, they were not competitive.  With him, their offense is very good.  At the same time, but for a fluke interception and two bogus holding calls that game is not that close.  Yes, I am very satisfied with that win.  On the rushing angst, they kept Miamis big playmakers from making big plays, which was the point.  

[WideNine]

10 minutes ago, FLFan said:

Miami is not a typical 2-6 team as you well know.  Without Tua, they were not competitive.  With him, their offense is very good.  At the same time, but for a fluke interception and two bogus holding calls that game is not that close.  Yes, I am very satisfied with that win.  On the rushing angst, they kept Miamis big playmakers from making big plays, which was the point.  

 

I acknowledge they are a better team with Tua and their record does not reflect that - fair point.

 

Agree to disagree on the last point. I was not satisfied with our defensive performance and probably would never be and for me it goes beyond scheme to guys winning their 1 on 1's and getting off blocks and how many down field completions we still gave up in their passing game.

 

And our RZ defense was non-existent.

 

 

Edited November 7 by WideNine

[BillsFan130]

2 hours ago, FLFan said:

Miami is not a typical 2-6 team as you well know.  Without Tua, they were not competitive.  With him, their offense is very good.  At the same time, but for a fluke interception and two bogus holding calls that game is not that close.  Yes, I am very satisfied with that win.  On the rushing angst, they kept Miamis big playmakers from making big plays, which was the point.  

What does it matter if you stop the big play if you let up 9-14 play drives that results in TDs?  Thats even worse than giving up a big play as it keeps Josh on the sideline and you let the underdog team shorten the game

[EmotionallyUnstable]

8 hours ago, henry jones said:

Didn't Indy put up almost 300 yards rushing against us a few years ago?  Hopefully our vaunted "run defense" doesn't perform as poorly Sunday.  Need to get off the field on 3rd downs.

This is generally a good strategy. 

[ganesh]

12 hours ago, WideNine said:

 

I acknowledge they are a better team with Tua and their record does not reflect that - fair point.

 

Agree to disagree on the last point. I was not satisfied with our defensive performance and probably would never be and for me it goes beyond scheme to guys winning their 1 on 1's and getting off blocks and how many down field completions we still gave up in their passing game.

 

And our RZ defense was non-existent.

 

 

they made enough plays...the forced fumble by Johnson was huge.