Where was the defensive adjustment on Puka Nakua?

[Matt_In_NH]

Several times they guy was covered, great pass, better catch....it happens.   The adjustment needed to be sack the QB but the DL was MIA

[dorquemada]

Clearly the Rams played their best game of the last couple seasons, finally healthy, everything went their way.  That still doesn't excuse the Bills barely showing up in the 1st half and the brutal, low IQ playcalling and clock management at the end of the game.

 

This game laid bare the Bills weaknesses and we're going to see more of it.  If anything Detroit is bigger better faster more than the Rams.  Our DL is a glaring weakness made all the worse by how much we've poured into it.  I just hope McD and company can find a workaround to all this because I can't face the draft next year if the conventional wisdom becomes THE BILLS NEED TO DRAFT ALL DL since they're obviously incapable of good decision making with that

 

[sven233]

The defensive adjustment was to get to Stafford.

 

The fact is, many of the catches that Nakua made were elite, high level catches that only a few WRs in this league can make.  To say Nakua is not that good is an absolute joke.  He is an elite WR and his numbers back it up.  That said, he made several catches that were next to impossible to make.

 

But what allowed this to happen?  The fact that Stafford got to sit back in the pocket, never touched, and rarely even having to move at all.  Stafford is an elite thrower of the football, especially when he can just stand there and throw the ball on time and in rhythm.  Of course, he was brilliant in that game because our line never breathed on him, let alone affected a single throw.

 

So, what was the adjustment?  How about forcing Stafford to move and not be able to thread perfect passes into Nakua and Cupp all day.  So many of those passes were well defended and we're talking fractions of inches from being incomplete.  That is more on the defensive line not even getting close to Stafford and maybe forcing him to be just that little fraction off.  Now, I will say, even the couple of times we did blitz to try and get pressure, we got stuffed and never got close.  Our line got their butts handed to them and that's the primary reason the Rams WRs had big days.  Our entire defensive system relies on the fact that we don't think you can be absolutely perfect all the way down the field because somewhere along the way, we're going to force you to not be perfect.  But when there is zero pressure created, and you are facing a QB that can make any throw at any time under perfect circumstances, and you are playing elite WRs that can make the tough plays, that's when our defensive philosophy fails.  It's why it has failed every year in the Playoffs against elite QBs.  Our defensive line disappears and these elite QBs get to sit back, relax, and deliver perfect throws to the holes in the zones.  Unless our line affects the QB in some way, we will always have bad days on defense against great QBs and WRs.

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

I’ve never seen McD have a successful halftime adjustment. Not only that he is a bad game manager and play caller. Josh Allen is the only reason he has a job and will go down in my mind as the worst HC ever if he doesn’t win at least 1 SB with Allen. 

[BillsFanForever19]

10 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

I knew somebody would crack the code of McDermott's zone heavy defense eventually.  It only took seven and a half seasons.

 

All it takes is having a Hall of Fame Quarterback who is playing one of the best games of his entire career and lining up not one, but two Elite WR's - who are making unreal highlight reel grabs.

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

10 minutes ago, Call_Of_Ktulu said:

I’ve never seen McD have a successful halftime adjustment. Not only that he is a bad game manager and play caller. Josh Allen is the only reason he has a job and will go down in my mind as the worst HC ever if he doesn’t win at least 1 SB with Allen. 

 

The splits in 2024 alone would say you are incorrect.  https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2024_opp_splits.htm

 

Yards per carry goes from 4.9 in the first half to 4.5 in the second.  YPA passing goes from 7.4 to 6.5 in the 2nd half.  17 TDs given up in the first half to 11 in the 2nd.  More INTs in the 2nd half.  More sacks in the 2nd half.  Fewer 1st downs in the 2nd half.  

[Simon]

20 minutes ago, Call_Of_Ktulu said:

I’ve never seen McD have a successful halftime adjustment. 

 

Then you are simply not watching.

I don't think there is a team in the entire league that has a greater differential between points allowed the in the first half and second half.

[TheWeatherMan]

On 12/9/2024 at 9:14 AM, Simon said:

 

All true and you have to give some credit to McVay too.

Watching the Bills secondary trying to deal with the route combinations he was throwing at them was sort of embarrassing.

He had them spinning on circles all day while his players were executing with serious precision.

What are you talking about?  55% of Staffords completions were to Puka and 74% were to Kupp and Puka.  It was literally a two man show of WRs exploiting a porous zone.  Stafford had all day in the pocket and wasn’t touched the entire game.  Nothing fascinating about quick slants and 5 yard curls and outs against single coverage.  The inability to adjust your zone or switch to man coverage when your base defense has been figured out is what lost this game for the Bills. 

Edited December 11 by TheWeatherMan

[Simon]

3 minutes ago, TheWeatherMan said:

What are you talking about?

 

I'm talking about the Bills secondary struggling and the Rams coach taking advantage of it.

What are you reading about?

[BillsFanForever19]

44 minutes ago, Call_Of_Ktulu said:

I’ve never seen McD have a successful halftime adjustment. Not only that he is a bad game manager and play caller. Josh Allen is the only reason he has a job and will go down in my mind as the worst HC ever if he doesn’t win at least 1 SB with Allen. 

 

This is a wild take. To the point where I was honestly puzzled that things didn't look better after Halftime. Teams being successful offensively in the first quarter or half and then having issues in the 2nd half, allowing us to re-take the lead and/or steamroll is pretty much the norm with this team.

[BananaB]

Bills D is soft. Bend don’t break right. Give up some yards and force them to make a mistake in 10+ play drives. When you match up against a team that has no flaws or a few weapons, they cut through like a hot knife in warm butter. 
 

 

Edited December 11 by BananaB

[ganesh]

7 hours ago, dorquemada said:

Clearly the Rams played their best game of the last couple seasons, finally healthy, everything went their way.  That still doesn't excuse the Bills barely showing up in the 1st half and the brutal, low IQ playcalling and clock management at the end of the game.

 

This game laid bare the Bills weaknesses and we're going to see more of it.  If anything Detroit is bigger better faster more than the Rams.  Our DL is a glaring weakness made all the worse by how much we've poured into it.  I just hope McD and company can find a workaround to all this because I can't face the draft next year if the conventional wisdom becomes THE BILLS NEED TO DRAFT ALL DL since they're obviously incapable of good decision making with that

 

If Allen hooks up with a wide open Collins then there is no punt block.   That is a 14 point swing that gave them a 17 point lead instead of the Bills being down by 3.  That put us in a deep hole.   Allen is not responsible for the punt block,,,but I am sure he would like to have that throw back...

[Since1981]

3 hours ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

I was honestly puzzled that things didn't look better after Halftime.

I thought the same. I’m not a McClappy superfan but he normally has often made successful changes at a half. As good as they are after half—he’s horrible in 2 min mgr 

[TheWeatherMan]

4 hours ago, Simon said:

 

I'm talking about the Bills secondary struggling and the Rams coach taking advantage of it.

What are you reading about?

Totally disagree with your original assessment.  

[Richard Noggin]

6 hours ago, Call_Of_Ktulu said:

I’ve never seen McD have a successful halftime adjustment. Not only that he is a bad game manager and play caller. Josh Allen is the only reason he has a job and will go down in my mind as the worst HC ever if he doesn’t win at least 1 SB with Allen. 

 

This is a really bad take. Take a look at the splits of 1st half vs 2nd half offense and defense and scoring just this season, and come back here and repeat this claim. Ridiculous. 

 

If anything, McD and his staff are outcoached in the first half pretty consistently. But in the second half, they tend to dominate. They usually make excellent in-game adjustments.

[colin]

The reality is our d was trash, d line was woat, and rams had a day.  

 

the bills just don't like to get out of their base shell nickel d.  the reason why almost 80% of rams passing was to those two guys, mostly out of the slot, was because the saw they could exploit what we were doing on d with them, and we didn't make a change.  that's the mcd way, he doesn't like to make changes to impact specific players on the other team, and that's why we get torched when we can't get pressure and the other team can find open guys underneath the deeper coverage, be it cover 2, 1, or 3.

 

its like mcd has sold his soul to stop the deep pass.  it makes scoring against the bills hard, but when someone can square the circle and exploit the d front with power running or accurate passing (honestly, misdirection is the real culprit) then we get boat raced like we did sunday and in playoff losses.

[GunnerBill]

So for all the people saying the Bills stayed in zone all day.... their season averages in man coverage ticked up after this game by a percentage point, which matches what I saw on the all 22. The Bills played a fair amount of man coverage looks and they sent 5 (and sometimes 6) defenders more than I have seen them do in any other game this season. 

 

When the Bills defense gets shredded everyone immediately jumps to "argghhh it's the soft zone." Well on Sunday they absolutely did not sit in soft zone all day. They played very little cover 2, their two main coverages were cover 1 (with man outside) and cover 3 zone. The problem was the Rams guys were better than our guys. They won upfront and they won their matchups in the passing game - particularly Nacua on Taron Johnson. So when the Bills best defensive guy loses his matchup pretty convincingly it is going to impact what they can do on the rest of the defense. 

 

None of which is to say I don't think this was on scheme or defensive playcalling. I do think some of it was but for pretty much the opposite reason of everyone in this thread. I think the Bills blitzed way too much. From mid 2nd quarter they were sending a ton of run blitzes then when Stafford used play action he had 1 on 1s all over the field he liked. Added to that as has been said earlier, Stafford used cadence brilliantly all game to get the Bills out of their disguise, to reveal the blitzers pre-snap. 

 

Personally I'd have tried to play more cover 2 but creep that secondary shell up a bit closer to the line, because I wasn't worried about the Rams beating us deep, but I'd have mixed in 3 and 4 man rush, try and confuse Stafford with people sinking into zones rather than with people rushing. I think flooding the zones would have been more effective against the offense they were running rather than sending pressure and leaving even bigger holes behind them for the short passing game to work in. 

[NewEra]

6 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

 

This is a really bad take. Take a look at the splits of 1st half vs 2nd half offense and defense and scoring just this season, and come back here and repeat this claim. Ridiculous. 

 

If anything, McD and his staff are outcoached in the first half pretty consistently. But in the second half, they tend to dominate. They usually make excellent in-game adjustments.

For sure-  especially to make this case THIS season, of all season 

12 hours ago, TheWeatherMan said:

What are you talking about?  55% of Staffords completions were to Puka and 74% were to Kupp and Puka.  It was literally a two man show of WRs exploiting a porous zone.  Stafford had all day in the pocket and wasn’t touched the entire game.  Nothing fascinating about quick slants and 5 yard curls and outs against single coverage.  The inability to adjust your zone or switch to man coverage when your base defense has been figured out is what lost this game for the Bills. 

Joe Marino broke down the stats for man and zone.  When we went man- they exploited us even more. I think he was around  8-11 for 124 and a td vs man.  Eating of 154.  124 rating. Vs zone.

 

[bigduke6]

the only adjustment to be made there was to somehow have a better man to man corner or actually get some damn pressure on Stafford.  cant double everybody in coverage and Stafford sat back there like it was 7 on 7 just doing what he wanted to.  DLine has to step up massively or this is a 1 and done team in the playoffs.

[GunnerBill]

4 minutes ago, bigduke6 said:

the only adjustment to be made there was to somehow have a better man to man corner or actually get some damn pressure on Stafford.  cant double everybody in coverage and Stafford sat back there like it was 7 on 7 just doing what he wanted to.  DLine has to step up massively or this is a 1 and done team in the playoffs.

 

They tried more man to man and bitzing for pressure and the defense was obviously worse when they did. 

29 minutes ago, NewEra said:

 

Joe Marino broke down the stats for man and zone.  When we went man- they exploited us even more. I think he was around  8-11 for 124 and a td vs man.  Eating of 154.  124 rating. Vs zone.

 

 

Haven't listened to Joe this week but see my post above. That correlates with what I saw.