YattaOkasan

Up thread paint wasn’t desirable based on slippery surface. Custom rivalry end zone and mid field logos do see viable in the new stadium

Don’t think suspended players count. Bass would though.

The end zone in met life is wholesale replaced from jets to giants.. I assume mid field too. Having those on hand makes it easier. Don’t think we would get special turf for end zones for one game in the last season of the stadium.

what does new hot metric mean? its years old, sorta why i could explain. PFR (which does it a bit different) did not have the defense with a good EPA that game. Offense and ST combined were what won the game, which tracks from my recollection.

Getting a turnover is more important than getting a third down stop cause of field position. Thats why EPA is so helpful. It will account for that huge swing in points expected. Their ability to get turnovers at a greater than average clip was more important than inability to get off the field at a lower than average clip. That is likely cause they got much better field position. Getting into EPA a bit, given the entire historical data set of all plays in the same down/distance/field position ever you can calculate the expected points the drive will get. That analysis is telling you being number 1 in TO% and number 28 in 3rd % results in 12th best expected points added for a defense. The how can that be is clearly field positioning.

EPA per play is a good metric. Bills were 12th (20th this year but still working off that ravens mess). Right in the big mess of average. Feels about right and pretty good for a first time DC. Hoping we get just above that this year. DVOA is also a pretty good holistic stat. edit: found dvoa rankings and 11th. Almost beyond the average mess and still good for first time DC

I can still not believe on 4th and 4 Vrabel rolled Carlos Santos out for a 53 yard FG down 7 from the BUF 35 with 6:35 to go when Santos missed his previous 3 kicks. Peeps wanna harp on McD as conservative but that was absolutely bonkers bad. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201910060oti.htm See above for his great in-game performance. Do you have examples were he made a "top notch" decision. Cause the coaching in that game was pretty rough. If McD tried to kick a FG like that we would not let him go home (oh yeah that game was at home). Youre right he would definitely try to get an extra last minute FG lololol

Coleman roasted that CB right off the LoS. CB got benched shortly after i believe.

As much as were teasing about Coleman dude has a career YAC/R 5.3 (being held down by his performance this year) and last game got Yiadom benched (had played poorly before but at least got the start).

Taron has his lowest % of snaps since his rookie year this year. We are using him less. Now sort by QBR. Those 13 sacks and fumble loom large. Maye is playing well but the things he does less well are not being captured by passer rating. The Bills defense is not horrible with regard to passing defense. Its actually top 10 (top 5 in many metrics) in the league. Maye as a thrower versus our pass defense will be strength on strength.

Particularly the pass defense. Air Raid Hour had Judge predicting that Shaq might see time over Dorian in the pre game. Was a good call also a good Bills focused pre-game that comes out early Sunday so you can listen at your leisure.

I think NE is closer to NO and Miami than they are to us (heck the miami game was very close with them). I dont think they have a good running game (30th in YPA) and their defense gives up a lot of passing yards (28th in YPA) and scoring drives (27th in Sc%). They are better than the last two teams and we need to play better to come away with a two score win. However, we have lots of room to improve and I think the focus will be tight this week given the gravity of the game.

Interestingly we’re third in pressure rate though. Not sure PFR is to be trusted on this one. But would explain why our pass defense has been so good. Just need to stop the third and longs from the Miami game. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2025/opp.htm#all_advanced_defense

That was granderson a DE and their sack leader that roasted him. Tough match up for Torrence as it’s an obvious passing down and they purposefully tested his speed with that match up. He over set and was dusted. Cybo is great in the run game and no one goes through him. But he does give up the edges.

@Scott7975 reminded me where to look. Blitz rate for every team here at PFR https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2025/opp.htm#all_advanced_defense

Was definitely a problem last year and why I thought Josh deserved MVP. He carried the offense and the defense.

not unreasonable and would put us just above average for each. Im not sure we are a bend dont break defense. i think we are super opportunistic and getting the ball back to Josh Allen (in 3 plays no less) was often said this offseason. If we are bend dont break then i agree RZ% would be much more important. were like a weird hybrid cause we get so many TO's but also are pretty decent at preventing the big play (at least thats from years past).

Miami was funny cause that was a game I didnt want the new scheme. Our old approach of spinning coverage post snap has always been effective against Tua. Thought we should have stuck with that versus going man and getting gashed on mesh or trying to keep up with the cheetah. Corner blitz against the run was def a new wrinkle that i love. Its interesting because its a more high risk high reward strategy. I think that makes sense given how good our offense is. We can make up for the risk when were on offense by scoring. Also the high risk involves getting us the ball back quicker which gives more opportunity to overcome those issues. I agree we are not great at it yet and am hopeful we settle in. I also agree the bye is big for us to reflect on performance in different roles as well as get players back.

Its nothing radical, but has been stuff many fans have been clamoring for. Mainly bringing extra guys on the pass rush and playing more man. We have had 5 on the LoS and 3 LBs on the field more than anytime that I can remember in the McD era. We will still drop out into coverage at times and sometimes drop a traditional rusher (DE/DT) and replace them with a non-traditional rusher (DB/LB). We saw some of this late in the season last year. In that case it worked cause it was more of a wrinkle that teams didnt expect. But by the chiefs game we were getting hit with mesh and we didnt know how to deal with that in man coverage. This year teams seem to be expecting it more and I think thats why BAL is quick snapping the ball on us (though they do that with everyone a bit) and we are seeing more mesh concepts. In the run game it can be tricky for a DE/DL that has coverage responsibilities if its a pass. They need to process run to pass different than when they are rushing. That difference can affect how they are fitting gaps. You could say the same thing for LB/DBs that are also reading run to pass but now their pass responsibilities are to rush. Then lastly we dont know who's better at doing these multiple things so i think we still have yet to optimize the players that will do fill those roles (though Hoecht will be all over Im sure based on his LAR tape). I dont think we master a new defensive approach in a year but if we can settle in and be better at what we have done in the past (crazy post snap coverage spins while rushing 4) then we can be an above average defense. But for now with injuries and not knowing whos best for what role we seem to struggle at times. hope that reveals my thoughts a bit more.

Definitely a risk. Full mastery seems unlikely in a single season. Im mostly just hoping they find some identity and settle into an above average defense rather than the average to slightly below average defense they are now. Few years ago they had a similar situation with Milano being out and they did find the identity as a team that uses dime more often. I dont think were going with more dime (though not sure our dime usage rate), but gives me hope this staff can figure out how to find an identity for the defense in time for the playoffs.

Worth adding that the defense is trying new schematic things. As they master those parts they will improve and hopefully itll lead to an identity for this defense. But right now were struggling with things like getting set or getting people on the field. Some of that is coaching but also think some is cause players are still learning too.

While we’re all eating crow I’ll eat some on the Kincaid and Josh connection. Thought it was small sample size and not that too far off from clicking. Issue continued or worsened as sample size increased.

I would be concerned with not taking a team lightly if i was player or if we had lost to the raiders in the last 4 seasons. Also what is the scrub colts team we lost to? 2021? Where they beat the playoff pats a couple weeks after beating us and only missed the playoffs by blowing the final game to the Jags (still lolz). So Jets (division rival) and Jags (this is the worst loss of the McD era imo) are the scrub teams we lost to in 4 years? Thats hardly every year and is not concerning me with the way this team has evolved over the past year.

You can't see Henry fumbling the ball at a critical time? Chiefs havent been blown out and Ravens couldnt put Bills or Lions away. If its a 1 score game in the 4th I would bet on the Chiefs to win.

Agreed was very happy for him. Does this mean Indy won the trade?