Bills Defense - Preseason Stats

[PTS]

Our defense which gave up 17 points in two games against supposedly offensive minded teams is only third in points allowed this preseason to Dallas' 13 and Seattle's 15.

 

BTW: Dallas and Seattle have only played one game so far.

 

We are #1 in Yards Allowed with only 224.0 per game and #1 in yards per pay with 3.5 yards.

 

Granted, the only thing we can take from this for certainity is that our depth on defense is great, but for all of you worried about the GB's 1st drive, calm down. It's only one drive. We can't stop everyone from scoring all the time.

[BRH]

We can't stop everyone from scoring all the time.

414430[/snapback]

We could if we got Corey Simon!

[eball]

my god, i really shudder to say this, but -- gasp -- jerry sullivan actually raised a good point in today's editorial. the bills faced some really crappy QBs and offenses last year, and really haven't gotten the job done against elite offensive teams. brady (and dillon) carved them up last season. and of course, who can forget the fiasco against pittsburgh's scrubs in the 4th quarter of that game.

 

understand, i really believe the bills' D will be fantastic and ranked in the top 5...but we need to see them do it against some good QBs and good offenses.

[scribo]

Our defense which gave up 17 points in two games against supposedly offensive minded teams is only third in points allowed this preseason to Dallas' 13 and Seattle's 15.

 

BTW: Dallas and Seattle have only played one game so far.

 

We are #1 in Yards Allowed with only 224.0 per game and #1 in yards per pay with 3.5 yards.

 

Granted, the only thing we can take from this for certainity is that our depth on defense is great, but for all of you worried about the GB's 1st drive, calm down. It's only one drive. We can't stop everyone from scoring all the time.

414430[/snapback]

I have plenty of confidence in our defense, but go ahead and show me what they have faced so far? Manning was in for one drive and was handed his ass. Farve was in for one drive and handed the Bills their ass. Seems like a push to me. Of course, Manning didn't have Edge or half his o-line.

 

I don't like to throw stats around like they prove something, unless they are first put into context.

 

But, I still believe our defense is among the top three in the league.

[Assquatch]

my god, i really shudder to say this, but -- gasp -- jerry sullivan actually raised a good point in today's editorial.  the bills faced some really crappy QBs and offenses last year, and really haven't gotten the job done against elite offensive teams.  brady (and dillon) carved them up last season.  and of course, who can forget the fiasco against pittsburgh's scrubs in the 4th quarter of that game.

 

understand, i really believe the bills' D will be fantastic and ranked in the top 5...but we need to see them do it against some good QBs and good offenses.

414441[/snapback]

From Sullivan's article: "Given a solid quarterback and good skill players, an offensive coordinator will find ways to attack the Buffalo defense."

 

Gee, I guess Sullivan will only be satisfied when opposing offensive coordinators with good skill players can't even think of a gameplan.

[krazykat]

I have plenty of confidence in our defense, but go ahead and show me what they have faced so far? Manning was in for one drive and was handed his ass. Farve was in for one drive and handed the Bills their ass. Seems like a push to me. Of course, Manning didn't have Edge or half his o-line.

414453[/snapback]

Or Harrison, Wayne, Clark or any other starting receivers. As long as we're looking at things objectively.

[PTS]

From Sullivan's article: "Given a solid quarterback and good skill players, an offensive coordinator will find ways to attack the Buffalo defense."

414464[/snapback]

 

What an expert. In fact, I think you can also say this...

 

"Given a solid quarterback and good skill players, an offensive coordinator will find ways to attack the FILL IN THE BLANK TEAM defense."

[Catholic Guilt]

Sullivan's glass is ALWAYS half empty. The guy is mr. negative about everything. His job is to sell newspapers and stir up the pot. Why anyone cares what mr blowhard says is beyond me...

[AKC]

Ron Edwards had a couple of vulture tackles against Indy and outside of an unblocked pressure in the Green Bay game he was getting knocked 3 or 4 yards off the ball on running plays and was otherwise non-existent on passing downs. A totally underwhelming pre-season for him to date.

 

At this point Tim Anderson is being left single-teamed with our opponents getting the better of the matchup onj most downs.

 

You can get superior LB play for the pre-seaosn, and we're getting it (hence our run D superiority), but unless Edwards and Anderson start holding up their end against the run our LB corp will be decimated by the time critical games are being played.

[scribo]

Ron Edwards had a couple of vulture tackles against Indy and outside of an unblocked pressure in the Green Bay game he was getting knocked 3 or 4 yards off the ball on running plays and was otherwise non-existent on passing downs. A totally underwhelming pre-season for him to date.

 

At this point Tim Anderson is being left single-teamed with our opponents getting the better of the matchup onj most downs.

 

You can get superior LB play for the pre-seaosn, and we're getting it (hence our run D superiority), but unless Edwards and Anderson start holding up their end against the run our LB corp will be decimated by the time critical games are being played.

414605[/snapback]

That sounds a lot different than that other reviews I've heard/read about Edwards' play. I'm saying I don't believe you, but I would think a lot more people here who have seen the games would be commenting like that if Edwards was getting knocked off the ball like that.

[AKC]

That sounds a lot different than that other reviews I've heard/read about Edwards' play. I'm saying I don't believe you, but I would think a lot more people here who have seen the games would be commenting like that if Edwards was getting knocked off the ball like that.

414611[/snapback]

 

Grab the tape of the Green Bay game. First series- first running play- Edwards is knocked easily three yards off his stance and completely out of the play. He's not in the package for the second running play but the third comes right up his gap, where he's been knocked two yards downfield giving the Pack a 4 yard gain- the tackle is made by LBs and DBs. This series is indicitive of his play throughout the game.

 

In fact later he's taken sometimes 5 or 6 yards downfield with single team blocks. He just isn't playing well if you iso on him against run blocking. He is getting substantial help from our LBs, but as I mentioned before that situation has no long term promise since the LBS will become victims late in games where a first team offense has been pounding us all day.

[Bill from NYC]

Grab the tape of the Green Bay game. First series- first running play- Edwards is knocked easily three yards off his stance and completely out of the play. He's not in the package for the second running play but the third comes right up his gap, where he's been knocked two yards downfield giving the Pack a 4 yard gain- the tackle is made by LBs and DBs.

 

Later he's taken sometimes 5 or 6 yards downfield with single team blocks. He just isn't playing well if you iso on him. He is getting substantial help from our LBs, but as I mentioned before that situation has no long term promise since the LBS will become victims late in games where a first team offense has been pounding us all day.

414627[/snapback]

 

AKC, in 2 minutes I will do just as you ask, but are you making a case that Pat Wiliams didn't get taken out of some plays last season?

He did from where I sat.

[AKC]

AKC, is 2 minutes I will do just as you ask, but are you making a case that pat Wiliams didn't get taken out of some plays last season?

He did from where I sat.

414628[/snapback]

 

Not at all- Pat was in for our first down/running primary set plus our goal line D and he sat for passing situations. It appears they're running similar packages this season, with a rotation of our DTs getting the lone down spot on most passing downs and an extra DE coming in since we've fallen so in love with letting Aaron Schobel drop into coverage. I should mention that it's Aaron that Favre burns for his TD pass.

 

Something else to take notice of Bill, on the Pack TD watch Edwards give the play up even though he has a clear line of vision to Favre holding the ball, pulling it down and moving towards the line as if he's going to run-

 

There's one thing any good DLineman does here and it's cut the runner off by decreasing the angle while keeping him inside- not only does Edwards fail to cut the angle down, he doesn't even take any action to contain Favre! He's already given up the play and he never gets back into it- he sure has a great seat for watching the Bills defense play ;-)

[Rubes]

I think I realize it now...

 

AKC = Jerry Sullivan

[AKC]

I think I realize it now...

 

AKC = Jerry Sullivan

414687[/snapback]

 

It's always nice to have an intelligent response to specific game film evidence that's been offered in a conversation.

 

Good thing I'm patient!

[Rubes]

It's always nice to have an intelligent response to specific game film evidence that's been offered in a conversation.

 

Good thing I'm patient!

414695[/snapback]

 

 

Oh relax, buddy, just giving ya a hard time!

[AKC]

Oh relax, buddy, just giving ya a hard time!

414698[/snapback]

 

It's not just the team working on their form in the pre-season ;-)

[Wiz]

my god, i really shudder to say this, but -- gasp -- jerry sullivan actually raised a good point in today's editorial.  the bills faced some really crappy QBs and offenses last year, and really haven't gotten the job done against elite offensive teams.  brady (and dillon) carved them up last season.  and of course, who can forget the fiasco against pittsburgh's scrubs in the 4th quarter of that game.

 

understand, i really believe the bills' D will be fantastic and ranked in the top 5...but we need to see them do it against some good QBs and good offenses.

414441[/snapback]

Quite frankly(As Stephen A. Smith would say) I don't think our defense can shut everybody down, but they do have playmakers on defense ala Super Bowl teams. But, in all fairness, the defense did not get any help from the offense in those games that were mentioned. Despite not getting a great game from our defense, we were still in a position to win toward the end of the games.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Not at all- Pat was in for our first down/running primary set plus our goal line D and he sat for passing situations. It appears they're running similar packages this season, with a rotation of our DTs getting the lone down spot on most passing downs and an extra DE coming in since we've fallen so in love with letting Aaron Schobel drop into coverage. I should mention that it's Aaron that Favre burns for his TD pass.

 

Something else to take notice of Bill, on the Pack TD watch Edwards give the play up even though he has a clear line of vision to Favre holding the ball, pulling it down and moving towards the line as if he's going to run-

 

There's one thing any good DLineman does here and it's cut the runner off by decreasing the angle while keeping him inside- not only does Edwards fail to cut the angle down, he doesn't even take any action to contain Favre! He's already given up the play and he never gets back into it- he sure has a great seat for watching the Bills defense play ;-)

414631[/snapback]

 

I'll take a look at the game again as well looking at the DL though I think pre-season is far more useful for the purpose you put it to in the above post assessing an individual's play within our scheme rather than using it to try to figure out exactly how we will run and substitute to implement the scheme come regular season.

 

Players are substituted in pre-season with an eye toward training and assessing players and not with a primary goal of running the scheme effectively so trying to assess how we will implement the scheme based on pre-season just does not fly.

 

Regarding last year, I also think your description of how we used Phat Pat was not that straight-forward. Generally it is true he was in on 1st downs, running downs and in the goal line D. However, given that many second downs had a down and distance which made them more likely passing situations I think we saw him decreasingly being used as our D became more effective as the season went on. Particularly when Edwards registered a few sacks and confidence in him grew and Sam Adams began butching whenever he was sat and was having a Pro Bowl year, I felt that it began to be mostly a formality to call Phat Pat a starter. He apparently only took 58% the D snaps last year and it would be interesting to see when he played most since I would guess that actually he stacked up a lot of snaps early on when opponents were running more to kill clock and that he may well have been seeing less than 50% of the D snaps toward the end of the season when our opponents had to pass to get back in the game.

[34-78-83]

AKC, I saw the same thing you did re: Edwards in the GB game and I totally agree on your assessment of his play in that game , but I won't go as far as you and say unimpressive preseason because 1- he had a literal highlight reel in the Colts game. 2- He also played solid in the GB scrimmage, and 3- has looked good against our own line in camp.