HoofHearted

No idea. I don't know the players they brought in well enough to give an opinion of them nor do I have any insight into how the coaching staff plans on using any of them. All I can tell you is a lot of the issues we had last year was from guys on the defensive line getting reached or being doubled and overtaken allowing offensive linemen to work up to the second level faster than they should be able to.

The struggles vs the run stemmed from the defensive line more so than the linebackers. I did some breakdowns during the season which highlighted a lot of this. The change of guard on the defensive line this offseason did not happen by accident. Just wanting to clarify - us running nickel does not make Edmunds a two gapper.

Yes

Not going to happen. If Frazier leaves we're getting a Tampa 2 guy.

Why would it matter? A loss is a loss. Doesn't matter to them how close the game was. This doesn't make you play any differently in close games than in blowouts.

Must have been the one earlier that they called the timeout on then. It's still not the same alignments though. Addison is flipped and I'm curious as to why.

100%

@Einsteinalignment and coverage are two totally different things. Before the timeout the Bills showed a 0 Blitz - came out of the timeout playing Cover 2.

But they didn't roll out in the same coverage.

Sure. Nothing ground breaking there from Belechick. They ran power on that long run from Singletary - the cut was impressive but that was the path he should have taken on the play regardless so it ran as designed. The inside backer should not have been unblocked on that play, but since Daryl Williams got hung up he was. Good on Singletary for setting him up outside before cutting it back inside. Also as already mentioned Josh flipped it to Knox so that he could get out of bounds and stop the clock, not pick up extra yardage, which is kind of disappointing that Belechick didn't have the wherewithal to think about the situation in the game when breaking that down. Other than that nothing really special was said.

How so? Can you explain the discontinuity?

It's not though - you can run RPO's to any blocking scheme. Whoever wrote that article is misguided.

What can I clarify? I'd like for these to be informative, but written in a way anyone can understand and discuss.

Not an RPO - that was Q Counter Read That doesn't make sense. You can RPO off any run scheme.

No, I meant athletic. Outside of Morse, Dawkins, and Bates we have a bunch of big lumbering guys who don't have great feet and don't move particularly well in the open field and on the second level. The issue you are seeing is that when we run any of our zone scheme stuff it's a zone overtake scheme. The entire OL is on tracks and then have to move in unison in order for the zone overtake to work. Their rules are simple - are you covered or uncovered. If you're covered you block your guy back to the uncovered OL - he'll eventually pick him up - and then you work to second level. You can see if they aren't moving in unison how this is an issue. Our problem is we have a few athletic guys and a few non-athletic guys on the OL - it's a hodge podge of personnel. What they can ALL do however is block down! This sets them on their path right now and allows them to get immediate push. This is exactly what teams like the Colts and Titans do. Tons of gap scheme runs.

If Josh is running on an RPO we're not doing something right. Zone is what Daboll wants to be. We're not athletic enough across the board up front in order to do it efficiently though.

There has been a noticeable shift in the Bills philosophy when it comes to their run game over the past several weeks and it has been paying off in big ways. Daboll has increasingly leaned on more gap scheme concepts (think pulling offensive linemen), relying on heavy doses of Counter, Power, and C Lead at various times. What has really helped the improvement though is the incorporation of the Quarterback threat (whether that be run or pass). ---Q Counter Read--- This past week against the Falcons the Bills ran Q Counter Read a number of times - each time going for big gains. In this concept Josh is responsible for reading the backside ILB (or scrape player). If that read player doesn't scrape with the pulling offensive linemen in front of him Josh will keep it and run Counter behind his blockers. If the read player does scrape then he will give it to the back and we'll run outside zone off of it. Reading a defensive player forces that player to be "wrong" no matter what they do and allows our offense to essentially play 11 on 10 football. What Q Counter Read allows for is to not only read the backside inside linebacker, but also leaves the backside defensive end unblocked forcing him to make a decision whether to squeeze hard or play the outside zone path by the back. The concept behind this is that whoever ends up keeping the ball is a far superior athlete to this defensive end and will make him wrong regardless of what he does - the Bills are now playing 11 on 9 football and getting numbers to either side of the play based on the read. ---Counter RPO--- Another variation of Counter the Bills ran this week for much success was Counter with a backside RPO tagged to it. For Josh it's the same read as the Q Counter Read play we previously discussed. Josh will read the backside ILB and make a decision based on what he does. If the read player scrapes Josh will pull it and throw the slant to the slot receiver right in the area that the backer vacated. If the read player sits then Josh will give the ball to the back and we'll run Counter. Again, reading this player allowed the Bills to guarantee a numbers advantage to where they ran the football and we saw big runs from both Singletary and Moss running this concept. These concepts aren't anything new for the Bills - they've been running them since Daboll and Josh got here - but the increased volume of these concepts has certainly lead to a resurgence of our run game. Go Bills!

Yes please! More Q Counter Read, Daboll!

Why does Stevenson run so high? Just setting himself up for the kill shot.

Jesus, we aren't commanding double teams up front - and backers aren't getting downhill quick enough in the run game or getting off blocks.

Gap Scheme!!! Keep calling it!

Milano getting worked in the run game early on.

Boy that was telegraphed with Moss out there in the bunch set. Love the play call though!

Low man always wins!

Beasley - with all the zone we'll see he should eat.