Where was the defensive adjustment on Puka Nakua?

[FireChans]

14 minutes ago, Mango said:

It wasn't just "the defense" that got smoked by Nacua, Taron Johnson was abused. 

Surprisingly Ingram manned up better against him late in the game.

The big gaffe is having Elam a healthy scratch. We struggled in man but we had our best man corner in sweats. I know Cam Lewis is versatile and special teams and all that. But I would rather have Ingram fill Lewis' role and have Elam available on game day. Crazy to me that the camp reports had him in a very close battle to start and he is a healthy scratch. 

I don't think he is a world beater, but Elams skill set is a tool this team needs in its tool box on game day. This game is a great example of that.  

Yeah we had arguably our best defender with the best chance of stopping Nakua play him all night and he just got abused.

 

Elam can’t really play inside though so it doesn’t really matter if he was active or not. 
 

I think Ingram would do better than Elam in that scenario.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

Lost me at nacua isn’t that good lol the guy has completely overshadowed Kupp who’s very good 

Edited December 9 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[Cray51]

6 minutes ago, 26TrapDraw said:

Maybe I don't give Nacua the credit he deserves. He looked all world out there yesterday. When a QB has all day to throw , any WR will look all pro.

The Rams did exactly what the needed to do yesterday.  They moved the pocket to buy time, they created plenty of screens/motions to get the ball out quickly.  They layered routes on one side of the zone to give Stafford time to open pockets.  You still need a QB that has to be able to execute the plan, but Stafford did, and Nacua (and Kupp) made some absolute A+ catches when needed (Nacua had 2 AWESOME 3rd down catches + Kupp made that TD grab where Douglas knocked the ball out and Kupp pinned it to still make the grab)

[JerseyBills]

1 hour ago, Simon said:

 

If your blueprint relies on a first ballot HOF QB playing one of the very best games of his entire career, then there might not be a whole lot of teams that can use it.

Stafford might get in but 1st ballot is ridiculous.  He did play an amazing game though

[Livinginthepast]

Nacua IS that good. He was a diamond in the rough for the Rams in the 5th round. I guess the NFL scouts were asleep the first 4 rounds?  He was a great player last year and there is no excuse that McD and Babich had for not double teaming him on reputation alone. But especially after the idiotic soft zone they kept playing against  him failed.   It might have worked if there was a pass rush but it became abundantly clear very early that was not happening. 

[Mango]

1 minute ago, FireChans said:

Yeah we had arguably our best defender with the best chance of stopping Nakua play him all night and he just got abused.

 

Elam can’t really play inside though so it doesn’t really matter if he was active or not. 
 

I think Ingram would do better than Elam in that scenario.

 

I thought Ingram actually did do better than Taron by a pretty wide margin. Granted different points in the game.

Inside, outside, whatever. The reason I give Elam a shot at some point in this game is to see if he can man up against Nacua and at least slow down the freight train. 

As a whole I thought our corners were extra grabby last night. Something we don't often see. I kind of liked it. We get torched by KC in large part because their corners are super grabby and dare the officials to call it. Good practice for us as we head into the playoffs. 

[VW82]

1 minute ago, Mango said:

 

Agreed. I have been really high on Ingram. I just like his style of game. Bigger physical DB. 

An aside, i felt bad for both Douglas and Rapp on that play. Rapp has taken some heat for too much friendly fire and dirty hits on the other team. He legit pulled up and tried not to hit Douglas. Tough end result to add to his list of these events when this one was definitely not like any of the others. 

 

Yeah, you can definitely see him trying to avoid it. I'm trying not to get too attached with Rapp given the theoretical upside with Bishop, but he's been one of our more consistent defenders/tacklers this year.

 

Ingram is yet another example of why we shouldn't draft DBs day 1/2 ever as long as McD is here. I still like Elam for his man coverage but Ingram probably gets the starting nod next week. He's just solid all over the field, a lot like Benford in that way.   

[JoshAllin]

Every time Nacau made a catch, I said to myself, this guy is amazing. It's just one of those games where the defense got too relaxed and the other team/player was in win only mode

[PoundingDog]

Nacua is one of the reasons the Bills drafted Coleman. Nacua had production in college, with basketball background, but ran something like 4.57 40 times and considered not able to get separation at the next level. Sounds familiar? Coleman actually has better measurables than Nacua.

 

One thing I got out this is for the Bills to look at how the Rams use Nacua and apply it to Coleman.

[Simon]

9 minutes ago, 26TrapDraw said:

That is complete bullcrap. I was there and every other Bills fan griped about Stafford having all day and no pass rush in his face. stop it

 

So when Stafford was throwing those quick little tunnels that you just said are a blueprint, exactly how long do you think he was holding the ball?

Would 0.7 seconds have been more accurate?

The Rams were getting the ball out on time for most of the game yesterday and frequently making the pass rush irrelevant. The Bills secondary was constantly confused and totally incapable of handling the route combinations McVay was throwing at them. As fast as the Rams WR's were coming open, you could have had Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, Pat Williams and Leonard Williams out there and it wouldn't have made much difference.

 

[boyst]

33 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

There are multiple parts of the field you don't necessarily have to worry about when dealing with Tua; that is not the case with Stafford's arm.

stafford is one of 5 QB's in the league that have the experience and tools to do anything they want, smart enough to see the entire field with great vision and reading the defense, and then execute the requirements to make the play.

 

that 5 was off of the top of my head but i would say they are: stafford, goff, burrow.

 

i don't think Mahomes, jackson, prescott are on this list for various reasons.

 

the three above can put the ball about anywhere, read the defense, and execute like a thread through needle. mahomes can't chuck it like others and have the great placement downfield, jackson can't read defenses, prescott is good at all of that but not the level of others.

 

anyway, my overall point is the Bills seem to struggle with smart QB's who can use the whole field even if they are not great QB's. experienced vets like Baker Mayfield, Kirk Cousins, can really take advantage of that vs. those with tremendous talent who may struggle read the defense: Hurts, Tua, Purdy....

[26TrapDraw]

1 minute ago, Simon said:

 

So when Stafford was throwing those quick little tunnels that you just said are a blueprint, exactly how long do you think he was holding the ball?

Would 0.7 seconds have been more accurate?

The Rams were getting the ball out on time for most of the game yesterday and frequently making the pass rush irrelevant. The Bills secondary was constantly confused and totally incapable of handling the route combinations McVay was throwing at them. As fast as the Rams WR's were coming open, you could have had Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, Pat Williams and Leonard Williams out there and it wouldn't have made much difference.

 

Granted . there were however several  3rd downs that Stafford dropped back stood in the pocket and had time for his WR's to get open with zero pass rush and he delivered passes without any pressure at all.

[Cray51]

17 minutes ago, Livinginthepast said:

Nacua IS that good. He was a diamond in the rough for the Rams in the 5th round. I guess the NFL scouts were asleep the first 4 rounds?  He was a great player last year and there is no excuse that McD and Babich had for not double teaming him on reputation alone. But especially after the idiotic soft zone they kept playing against  him failed.   It might have worked if there was a pass rush but it became abundantly clear very early that was not happening. 

Similar to Coleman, there were questions about speed and separation.  But when you catch EVERYTHING thrown at you........ speed isn't quite as important

[frostbitmic]

Last night was a coaching clinic by McVay, everything and anything he wanted his Offense to do, they did with little to no resistance.

 

Josh and the Offense deserved a win, the defense should be embarrassed and give their pay to charity, they didn't earn it and the "Not so" Special Teams gave up a TD on a blocked punt, ST has sucked all season.

 

Facing the Lions Offense this Sunday after yesterdays Defensive meltdown feels like a daunting task, especially since we let them run so we can concentrate on stopping the pass ... oops... That won't work vs the Lions.

[RichStadiumGuy]

1 hour ago, 26TrapDraw said:

I sat at SOFI with 30k of our Bills brethren and watched this guy Torch our defense and Babich never made any adjustment to account for him. never slid help and I watched him find soft spots in our zone because there was no pass rush whatsoever.

Nakua is not that good and he looked like a hall of famer. The worst part is our zone is now exposed and teams have a blueprint.

 

Get outa here with that bolded part... all 31 other teams have been getting the same soft zone package since the day McD arrived here. NOTHING has changed so there is no so-called blueprint required. It's the same "bend don't break - soft zone" crap every week with the exception of the one game they ran man coverage that worked great... but unfortunately that scheme got put on the shelf once again!

[Straight Hucklebuck]

Just notes on some of the big catches

 

- 1st play of game - Taron Johnson is late - too much space - easy Nucua catch

 

- Trips to Nucua

 

- Trips to Kupp

 

- Atwell in front of #47

 

- Stack bunch, flare route to Nucua

 

- Late motion by Nucua, loose coverage, catches ball behind Hamlin

 

- Nucua incredible catch over Benford

 

- Nucua mosses Johnson

 

- 3rd-10, tight coverage, Kupp outruns #31

 

- Atwell wide open, finds hole in zone

 

- Stack Nucua, huge hole

 

- Kupp TD - #31 outside leverage and late?

 

- Nucua crosses Johnson's face

 

- 3rd-18 - everyone runs deep - Parkinson leaks out for 13

 

- 4th -5 - Benford gets beat across the field by Atwell (didn't press)

 

- Nucua stack play, easy pick and blocking down the field for TD

[MiracleAtRich1393]

1 hour ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Puka is a HOF talent.   But he plays with such abandon that he will end up washing out due to injury.   But when he is on he is maybe the most unstoppable WR in the NFL.   Bills ran into a Rams offense that was mostly healthy,  which almost never happens.   McVay and Shanahan beat the hell out of their players and we saw both ends of that spectrum the past 2 weeks.      

We drafted the complete stiff Justin Shorter over him 🤣

[waterglass]

So "Nakua is not that good and he looked like a hall of famer"? 

 

Are you kidding me. He has the 2nd most receptions in 25 games in the history of the NFL. Behind Odell Beckham Jr. Babich was hired as the fall guy so if and when this D fails, coach can blame him and keep his job for another year.  He has a history of doing that. SEE: Leslie Fraiser

 

This all is really simple as Coach has lost playoff games in the EXACT same way since his arrival here because of his defense, scheme and play calling. It goes all the way back to the Texans 2019 playoff game when Allen had them in the lead as McDermotts defense could NOT stop another late drive in the game. 

 

Heres a quote: "The #5 seed Bills attempted to win their first playoff game since 1995 in the wild-card round, but were defeated by the #4 seed Houston Texans 22–19 in overtime after giving up a 16–0 lead. The loss extended their playoff win drought to 25 years."

 

Coach is enamoured with drafting undersize D lineman and it shows like in yesterdays game.  Remember his smurfs comment on his running backs? Dont talk to me about D linemen quickness as he and Beane mention same as their quickness is neutralized and they get bowled over in the run game. Plus they cant pass rush. This is all on Mcdermott. 100% 

 

Same logic was used in drafting midget running backs as in Moss and Singletary. I mean are you kidding me! 

 

This collapse of the "blueprint" is an annual happening and has been in the making for several years as a result of who they drafted based on who they wanted.  The entire league knows it. Just the Buffalo media remains silent on it until Brown went wild this morning! Yea for Brown!  These guys [McDermott and Beane] are out of touch as its 2024 and its a big mans game. It has been since the 1990's. Its NOT the 1980's anymore. 

 

McDermott is so full of himself hes being disingenuous to his own players. A 258 pound D lineman cant move a 330 pound O lineman and thats our story across the entire D line. Number 40 is done as a result of his injury in Detroit and age. Its not his fault. Its his head coach. 

 

In 2025 I say bye bye to McDermott unless he at least makes it to the Super Bowl. Denver did a huge coaching change in the 1990's with the removal of coach Dan Reeves with coach Wade Phillips. They finally got it right with Mike Shanahan. Reeves lost 3 Super Bowls and Mike Shanahan won two with quarterback John Elway. 

 

McDermott hasent even been close and he screwed up the 13 seconds game. Allen is like John Elway. Move on this year from McDermott. History DOES repeat itself!

 

 

Edited December 9 by waterglass

[NewEra]

Great players make great plays.  And as great as Nacua was, Stafford was even better.  If we took nacua out, it would’ve been next man up.  Man, when Stafford is on his game, there aren’t many better

[TwoFlocksofFury]

You can tell those who don't watch other teams. "They are not a good team", "he's not that good of a player" etc