Wow - article on Bills' missed tackles

[Coach Tuesday]

Been out of town, sorry if this was already posted, but this is wild - no wonder they want to trade Clements:

 

http://wnysportsblogs.com/2006/10/14/hitti...ers-week-5.aspx

 

Hitting between the numbers, week 5

This entry was posted on 10/14/2006 7:51 AM and is filed under Bills,NFL,Columns.

 

It’s tough to pick out one culprit behind a 40-7 defeat, but the defensive line would be a good place to start. “Blown off the ball” may be a cliche, but it accurately describes what the Bears O-line did to Buffalo’s D.

 

 

 

The Bears ran for 5 yards or more on 13 plays last Sunday. The missed tackle statistics show that a lineman was not even in position to make a play on seven of them. On half of the plays where he had a shot, the lineman missed the tackle.

 

 

 

Here are the five longest Bears runs on Sunday

 

 

 

1. 9:57 remaining in the third, 2nd and 10 on the Buffalo 34: Thomas Jones ran for 14 yards. The first Bills tackler to get in position was Ko Simpson, 12 yards past the line of scrimmage. Chicago would get a field goal on the drive.

 

2. 12:27 in the fourth, 2nd and 5 from midfield: Ryan Denney missed a tackle at the Buffalo 46, leading to a 12-yard scamper that also featured misses by db’s Terrence McGee and Donte Whitner. John McCargo finally made the tackle 10 yards downfield, getting dragged for two yards. Chicago would get another field goal.

 

3. 2:11 in the first, 1st and 10 from the Buffalo 49: Jones runs unchallenged for seven yards before Chris Kelsay misses a tackle. Ko Simpson cleans up the 11-yard gain. This was the first play of a Chicago touchdown drive.

 

4. 10:05 in the second, 1st and 10 from the Buffalo 21: This time Cedric Benson runs unchallenged for seven yards. This time Kelsay holds on, but he’s dragged for another 4 yards, and another 11-yard gain. Chicago would get another touchdown on the drive.

 

5. 5:21 left in the fourth, 2nd and 7 from the Buffalo 12: Kyle Williams misses at the line of scrimmage. Safety Whitner also misses a tackle downfield as Benson runs to the one. He would punch it into the end zone on the next play.

 

 

 

Five plays, all on Buffalo’s side of the field, leading to 27 Bears’ points. Defensive linemen were two for five on tackle attempts, and only once got into position to tackle within four yards of the line.

 

 

 

Chicago runners got into the Bills secondary before facing a tackler on 11 of the 35 running plays where tackles were made (31% of the time). In the four weeks (and 99 runs) prior to Sunday, the secondary made the first attempt on just 14 plays (14% of the time).

 

 

 

With the defensive line under control, the Bears blockers were able to pick off Buffalo linebackers on running plays. They made the first tackle attempt on just 6 running plays on Sunday, less than half of their average for the first quarter of the season.

 

 

 

Just how far did Ruben Brown and company blow the Bills off the ball? On running plays, the first tackle attempt was made after a 1.72 yard gain. That rate is 28% higher than the 1.34 yard average for the first quarter of the season.

 

 

 

A look at all plays ending in a tackle (runs, completed passes and sacks) and the numbers get downright ugly. The first tackle attempt was made after a 5.51 yard gain, more than double the 2.70 yard average going into the game.

 

 

 

Here are the season leaders in a variety of defensive categories:

 

 

 

Missed tackles

 

1. Nate Clements 13

 

2. Donte Whitner 11

 

3. Terrence McGee 8

 

4. London Fletcher 7

 

5. Angelo Crowell 6

 

5. Aaron Schobel 6

 

 

 

Additional yards after missed tackles

 

1. Nate Clements 104

 

2. Donte Whitner 62

 

3. Aaron Schobel 59

 

4. Terrence McGee 49

 

5. Larry Tripplett 46

 

 

 

Overall, the team has missed 82 tackles for 597 additional yards gained

 

 

 

Tackle accuracy (tackles made divided by tackle attempts)

 

1. Ko Simpson 91.3%

 

1. Keith Ellison 91.3%

 

3. Angelo Crowell 85.0%

 

4. John McCargo 83.3%

 

5. London Fletcher 81.6%

 

 

 

Lowest tackle accuracy

 

Nate Clements 53.6%

 

Larry Tripplett 55.6%

 

Aaron Schobel 57.1%

 

 

 

Most Stop in Tracks (0 yds gained after hit)

 

1. London Fletcher 10

 

2. Angelo Crowell 8

 

2. Terrence McGee 8

 

4. Ryan Denney 6

 

4. Nate Clements 6

 

 

 

Best Stop in Tracks % (Stop in Tracks divided by total attempts)

 

1. Kyle Williams 37.5%

 

2. Aaron Schobel 35.7%

 

3. Ryan Denney 31.6%

 

4. London Fletcher 26.3%

 

5. Terrence McGee 23.5%

 

 

 

(McCargo, Kelsay, Whitner, and Anderson have Stop in Tracks %’s below 10%)

 

 

 

Yards per Tackle Attempt

 

1. Keith Ellison 1.87

 

2. London Fletcher 1.97

 

3. Angelo Crowell 2.08

 

4. Ryan Denney 2.11

 

5. Chris Kelsay 2.14

 

6. John McCargo 2.33

 

7. Terrence McGee 2.41

 

8. Tim Anderson 2.70

 

9. Ko Simpson 2.96

 

10. Donte Whitner 3.19

 

11. Kiwaukee Thomas 3.53

 

12. Kyle Williams 4.00

 

13. Nate Clements 4.43

 

14. Aaron Schobel 4.71

 

15. Larry Tripplett 6.11

 

 

 

The numbers show that two of the expected cornerstones of the Buffalo defense—Nate Clements and Aaron Schobel—have struggled this season. Both are among the worst on the team in tackle accuracy and yards per tackle attempt.

 

 

 

Despite Clements’ reputation as a big-play cover man, teams have targeting Clements not avoiding him. Opponents have thrown at Clements 37 times this season, tops on the Bills. Next is Terrence McGee with 31.

 

 

 

Furthermore, teams seem to have come to this conclusion as they see more tape on Clements. Below are his times thrown at by week.

 

 

 

Week Times thrown at

 

1 3

 

2 5

 

3 8

 

4 12

 

5 9

 

 

 

Why throw at Clements? Because it works. Teams have a 64.9% completion percentage throwing against Nate. Against McGee, it’s 58.1%. Of the eight Bills targeted 5 or more times this season, only Kiwaukee Thomas and Angelo Crowell have worse completion rates than Clements. Throwing to an uncovered receiver on a screen has only a 63.2% rate.

 

 

 

Part of this is due to the fact that Clements leaves a large “cushion,” playing off the receiver to help cut off the deep ball. However, weighing the completion percentage by yards (completion yards / total yards attempted) and Clements moves up only one spot (past Jabari Greer) on the Bills rankings.

 

 

 

Due to Clements penchant for missing tackles, he is allowing almost as many yards after the catch as he does yards in the air. His 49% YAC rate is second-worst on the team, ahead of only Kiwaukee Thomas.

[Dan]

Excellent Post!! Email this to OBD. Now, please. Time to go back to How not to Tackle 101.

[dave mcbride]

thanks - very, very interesting. assuming this is correct, then clements is really tanking it this season.

[stephenjames716]

great post. this is why I hate nate clements with a passion. the guy is all talk, and sucks on the field!

[dave mcbride]

bump.

[1billsfan]

Can anyone argue why the team-wide tackling problem isn't because of Dick Jaroun's total failure as head coach?

 

This team got taken to the woodshed by a horrible 0-5 Detriot Lion team. I seriously wish he'd resign.

[cåblelady]

whoa

[IDBillzFan]

Can anyone argue why the team-wide tackling problem isn't because of Dick Jaroun's total failure as head coach?

 

This team got taken to the woodshed by a horrible 0-5 Detriot Lion team. I seriously wish he'd resign.

808271[/snapback]

Brilliant. I'm with you! Let's start all over again before we get started this time so we're not standing around in a year wishing we were starting all over again when we could have started all over again before we even got started all over again.

 

You remind me of a guy I used to go bowling with. He refused to start keeping score until he got a strike, at which time he'd turn and say "Okay. You're up."

[keepthefaith]

Can anyone argue why the team-wide tackling problem isn't because of Dick Jaroun's total failure as head coach?

 

This team got taken to the woodshed by a horrible 0-5 Detriot Lion team. I seriously wish he'd resign.

808271[/snapback]

 

Sure, why not. DJ must be teaching them poor tackling technique at practice and the assistant coaches too.

[BEAST MODE BABY!]

Brilliant. I'm with you! Let's start all over again before we get started this time so we're not standing around in a year wishing we were starting all over again when we could have started all over again before we even got started all over again.

 

This is the best TBD post I've seen in awhile. Pure brilliance, and I write for a living.

[daquixers_is_back]

We have no idea how credible this is ... a blog?

[MartyBall4Buffalo]

Brilliant. I'm with you! Let's start all over again before we get started this time so we're not standing around in a year wishing we were starting all over again when we could have started all over again before we even got started all over again.

 

You remind me of a guy I used to go bowling with. He refused to start keeping score until he got a strike, at which time he'd turn and say "Okay. You're up."

808287[/snapback]

 

awesome post

[1billsfan]

Brilliant. I'm with you! Let's start all over again before we get started this time so we're not standing around in a year wishing we were starting all over again when we could have started all over again before we even got started all over again.

 

You remind me of a guy I used to go bowling with. He refused to start keeping score until he got a strike, at which time he'd turn and say "Okay. You're up."

808287[/snapback]

 

You're clueless if you don't think these last two performances are a direct reflection of Jaroun's abilities of being a successful head coach. You're even more clueless if you don't think that Marv could do 100% better job than Dick is doing, which isn't starting over again buddy. There's not much else I can say if you can't see how soft Jaroun has made this team. Please tune in for Sunday's slaughter due to this team lacking any balls.

[dave mcbride]

You're clueless if you don't think these last two performances are a direct relection of Jaroun's abilities of being a successful head coach. You're even more clueless if you don't think that Marv could do 100% better job than Dick is doing, which isn't starting over again buddy. There's not much else I can say if you can't see how soft Jaroun has made this team. Please tune in for Sunday's slaughter due to this team lacking any balls.

808753[/snapback]

Did you honestly think the bills would be better than 2-4 at this point, especially given that 4 of their 6 games have been on the road?

[Beerball]

You're clueless if you don't think these last two performances are a direct relection of Jaroun's abilities of being a successful head coach. You're even more clueless if you don't think that Marv could do 100% better job than Dick is doing, which isn't starting over again buddy. There's not much else I can say if you can't see how soft Jaroun has made this team. Please tune in for Sunday's slaughter due to this team lacking any balls.

808753[/snapback]

You would be better suited if you came back and said that you were kidding in your initial post. We don't get sarcasm here, so that trick always works. Instead, you decide to try to defend calling for the firing of a coach who has been on the job for 3/4 of a year. Guess that's strike two.

 

We may well get our a$$es kicked on Sunday, but it is because we are not a very talented team. If you think switching coaches will help....you got another think coming.

[1billsfan]

You would be better suited if you came back and said that you were kidding in your initial post.  We don't get sarcasm here, so that trick always works.  Instead, you decide to try to defend calling for the firing of a coach who has been on the job for 3/4 of a year.  Guess that's strike two.

 

We may well get our a$$es kicked on Sunday, but it is because we are not a very talented team.  If you think switching coaches will help....you got another think coming.

808759[/snapback]

 

 

Sorry, don't take advice from people with low reading comprehension. I didn't call for him to be fired, I said he should resign.

 

Newsflash...we got our a$$es kicked on Sunday by a team that has less talent than the Buffalo Bills.

 

If you don't think Marv would do a vastly better job than Jaroun then you have another thing coming.

[daquixers_is_back]

You're clueless if you don't think these last two performances are a direct relection of Jaroun's abilities of being a successful head coach. You're even more clueless if you don't think that Marv could do 100% better job than Dick is doing, which isn't starting over again buddy. There's not much else I can say if you can't see how soft Jaroun has made this team. Please tune in for Sunday's slaughter due to this team lacking any balls.

808753[/snapback]

 

This is such an ignorant post and maybe I will respond to it later ... but for now I have to go.

[Beerball]

Sorry, don't take advice from people with low reading comprehension. I didn't call for him to be fired, I said he should resign.

 

Newsflash...we got our a$$es kicked on Sunday by a team that has less talent than the Buffalo Bills.

 

If you don't think Marv would do a vastly better job than Jaroun then you have another thing coming.

808795[/snapback]

My apologies on my poor reading comprehension. I guess I was blinded your your buffoonary.

 

You are correct. The only thing to be done is for Jauron to quit ala meathead, cause NFL teams never lose to 'inferior' opponents.

 

I wouldn't be so quick to judge the overall talent between the two teams. We have little talent. But the backbone of your argument is we lost to an inferior team, so it must be so.

 

Let Marv be the GM. That's what he's paid to do and his job is far from complete.

[VABills]

Sorry, don't take advice from people with low reading comprehension. I didn't call for him to be fired, I said he should resign.

 

Newsflash...we got our a$$es kicked on Sunday by a team that has less talent than the Buffalo Bills.

 

If you don't think Marv would do a vastly better job than Jaroun then you have another thing coming.

808795[/snapback]

Really, less talent. Look at it with open eyes, and not at potential, but what they are doing right here and right now:

 

QB - Kitna vs. Losman - probably a push

RB - Jones vs Mcgahee - probably a push

WR - Wiliams&Williams vs. Evans&Price - Detroit

OL - who cares they both suck

DL - We have better DE's they have a better interior line especially with Rogers

LB - be honest, I think the lions overall have a better LB corp

CB - Bly&Bryant vs Clements/Mcgee - Buffalo has the advantage

S - Bullocks/Holt vs. Witner/Simpson - honestly our make too many mistakes in coverage, probably even. Again, not potential. Both are young crews.

 

So we are even in 4 categories, ahead in 1 and Lions better in 2.

 

So on paper they are probably a better team. Not Jaurons fault at this point. He has overall subpar talent, and it's his job to take the young kids and grow them. We'll see. One thing I don't see is the look of a deer in headlights like Mularkey had. Will Jauron be good, I haven't a clue, but he's better than meathead, with less talent.

 

Let's give him a year to see,

[stuckincincy]

Really, less talent.  Look at it with open eyes, and not at potential, but what they are doing right here and right now:

 

QB - Kitna vs. Losman  - probably a push

RB - Jones vs Mcgahee - probably a push

WR -  Wiliams&Williams vs. Evans&Price  -  Detroit

OL - who cares they both suck

DL -  We have better DE's they have a better interior line especially with Rogers

LB - be honest, I think the lions overall have a better LB corp

CB -  Bly&Bryant vs Clements/Mcgee - Buffalo has the advantage

S - Bullocks/Holt vs. Witner/Simpson -  honestly our make too many mistakes in coverage, probably even.  Again, not potential.  Both are young crews. 

 

So we are even in 4 categories, ahead in 1 and Lions better in 2. 

 

So on paper they are probably a better team.  Not Jaurons fault at this point.  He has overall subpar talent, and it's his job to take the young kids and grow them.  We'll see.  One thing I don't see is the look of a deer in headlights like Mularkey had.  Will Jauron be good, I haven't a clue, but he's better than meathead, with less talent. 

 

Let's give him a year to see,

808817[/snapback]

 

VA, I recall hearing the odd comment from this or that analyst, that the Lions - thanks to their higher draft positions for quite a while - have accumulated some decent enough talent. How their management has handled it is a different story.

 

And Kitna certainly has his physical limitations, but he's a smart enough vet, and has had some success with an offense "tuned" to his skills.

 

A 3 point road loss is not disaster...certainly no reason to change a staff in mid-stream.