Byrd up for ROW

[GrudginglyPessimistic]

Yep. We'll have to see how it goes, now that teams have some game film on him. CIN's #2 pick Maualuga started out strong, but has tapered off the past few games.

 

Still - 7 picks...impressive.

 

I noticed in the stats in the HOU game, he had 2 solo tackles and 3 assists, and Wilson with 7 tackles and 8 assists. I haven't seen Byrd play - is he jumping routes, is he leaving coverage to hawk the ball? How does he look in run defense?

The Byrd man is definitely his nickname of choice by popular use (and he has even stoked its use by making his post INT celebration him flapping his arms like wings). However, even after his first 3 or 4 INTs it was clear he was gonna get a nickname and one of my offerings was gonna be to call him Tipdrill.

 

Of his 7 INTs my sense the primary cause was

 

2 passes- good luck of being in the right place at the right time to INT poorly thrown balls, It is certainly the case on these throws that if the opposing QB had simply made an average throw Byrd was no where near the receiver to defend the pass (in at least one case this is no rap on him as he did seem to have the primary coverage responsibility it was simply that badly thrown. Nevertheless even if he lucked into being in the right spot, he still deserves great credit on these INTs as many defenders may well muff such an unexpected gift.

 

2 or 3 passes- tremendous reactions shown by Byrd on two passes that were clearly tipped and he reacted well and caught them and one which may well have been tipped and he got it.

 

1 or 2 passes- they might have been simply poor passes but it looked to me like Byrd did anticipate where the ball was gonna be thrown and when the QB went there he grabbed it. Its hard to know what he thought and also what the QB was trying to do but I think Byrd got these INTs not only with great hands and good reactions but with a good head also.

 

1 pass- simply extraordinary reflexes by this true ball hawk who was willing to go horizontal and sacrifice his body to get the ball.

 

Regardless, he has demonstrated that lucky or not he has a combination of natural and acquired play reading ability, tremendous hands and reflexes, and a ballhawk desire which adds up to INTs.

 

Even better a post above suggests that Byrd may well see some of his effectiveness neutralized as opposing QBs get more tape on him. I hope so because if so the Bills have won the first battle with the QBs because rather than trying to force the Bills to stop them the opponents are instead going to be altering their O to avoid the Byrdman.

 

This will be particularly difficult against the Tampa 2 style D the Bills employ as their base D. This D is based on the D players making the same read and choosing between several coverage schemes which can be applied out of the same base D.

 

Traditionally in our Cover 2 as best as I can tell (they do vary it a lot because you have to or you end up 0-8, I am limited in my knowledge by being just a fan, and sometimes the Bills look so bad it impossible to tell what the heck they are doing) the CBs will have outside coverage through 12-15 yards and then they let the receiver go to the safeties who cover the outside while Pos covers the deep middle on pass plays (when he reads run Pos goes in to the point of attack).

 

However, the Bills vary this coverage by having the D play traditional match-ups and the CBs have outside deep coverage. Also they can alter it by playing more zone or more 1-1 match-ups if they feel the personnel allows them to do this (they also seem to have D packages for when the O attack is so biased to look for a player like Johnson they may assign a player to cover him all over the field. It varies or you die.

 

Our Cover 2 when it is working well, make it tough for the QB because the D set looks the same whether the Bills are doing the traditional deep safety cover outside or whether the CBs are running all the way downfield. The QB seems to be looking for the usual traditional D tip off of how the strong safety is playing or the positioning of the strong versus the free safety to tell which way the coverage is sliding and thus what receivers are likely to be uncovered or whether he should audible to a run or to a pass. In the Bills Cover 2, the strong and free safety are pretty interchangeable and the general scheme looks the same regardless of whether you are doing a traditional Cover 2 coverage or varying it to do a deep CB coverage. If the other team is now altering their routes to stay away from Byrd it really screws around with their game plan.

 

Also, gameplaning will not be enough to stay away from Byrd as the QB will need to make a read as he comes to the line on where the heck Byrd is likely to be. I am only sorry we do not have Vince Young this week as my guess is that if he plays like before he is very dangerous as few free-lance and improvise as well as Young. However, TN is going to install a gameplan which calls on him to make a series of complex reads then Byrd might as well get ready for some INT chances.

[stuckincincy]

The Byrd man...

 

Thanks for the reply, esp. the game breakdowns.

 

Looks like he's shaping up as the real deal. With hope, he'll become one of those coveted "difference makers."