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How does a D cover this offense?


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That's pure speculation. Let's put it this way, Cassel has shown the ability to have a season that produced 22 TD.'s, 7 int's, a playoff appearance with a trip to the pro bowl. Obviously his ceiling is higher than bottom 5. I'm hoping that there is a good honest QB competition between the three and may the best man win.

 

Go Bills.

 

Good stuff. :beer:

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Been giving this thought, and no matter what personnel I'd put out there, I'm never gonna matchup.. the best I could do is mix my D depending on the game situation and try to disguise that I'm defending where I think you're going - cause I'm hoping you go there. There's no way to get a warm and fuzzy about what you've called, until the ball's blown dead outside the endzone

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If I was DC I would play a single high safety and short small zones from the LOS to about 12 yards deep. That is how defenses stopped Fitz and Gailey. Sammy or Clay or Harvin, or Goodwin or Shady can all beat this type of defense over the top. But you still have to pass protect long enough and the QB needs to deliver an accurate medium to deep throw. Neither of which this team's QB's or O-line have proven they can do.

Can the line play better? Yes. Can EJ be that guy - I think so. Will it happen? We will know by mid October.

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Blitz. Blitz blitz... Our QB's will need to be able to make quick reads and medium to long accurate passes. As a defensive coordinator I would still stack the box to stop the run and force the QB to make the decisions at the line. Single high safety to prevent the occasional correct read AND accurate throw from turning into a highlight reel. Cover three to fill the accuracy issue. There is no mistaking the talent of our receiving core. The question is... will the ball find its way to the correct location when thrown. In my opinion this is EJ's offense for the taking. He is best when throwing short passes and if I recall, made some nice audibles before the Texans game. If he could just throw the deep ball with some accuracy we would have a legitimate NFL offense. Regardless, this team wins the east crown this year. Go Bills.

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Matt Cassel is not a good QB. He was benched for Brady Quinn and never got the job back.

This needs to be put in perspective. Brady Quinn didn't exactly light it up as he proceeded to win 1 game as the Chiefs went 2 and 14 for the season. The head coach that benched Cassel, Romeo Crennel, was fired at the end of the season and has not seen a head coaching job since.

 

The benching of Cassel was more a desperation move by a failing head coach than it was a calculated evaluation of the two QB's skill set. While Cassel has managed to maintain full time employment Quinn has only managed some part time work and wasn't on a team last year.

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I'm loving this discussion. Read the whole thread before replying. There is no wrong or right in this thread. Everyone makes strong points, but I tend to lean towards those that place the onus on the offensive line over the QB.

 

I'm concerned about the oline because they were lousy at both pass pro and run blocking last year. I'm no offensive line expert and maybe you guys can clear this up for me, but is it true we used a zone-blocking scheme last year?

 

It would seem to me that's the bad way to go with a large and immobile offensive line. Especially in the running game, am I right? Another question I have is about pass protection. Does the zone blocking concept apply to pass protection as well and what kind of effect does it have on pass-pro, if any at all?

 

Assuming we did indeed run a zone blocking scheme and it wasn't a good fit with our personnel then maybe a change to a power scheme is all we need in order to maximize our line play. Does Greg and Aaron utilize a power blocking scheme and if not what do they use?

 

Let me get back to the topic at hand. The Bills will try to run the ball and the defense will be geared to stop us from doing so. They will dare our QB to beat them. This is where our new weapons benefit us most. Assuming teams double Sammy and focus on the running game then that means Clay, Harvin, Woods, and McCoy will all be facing one on ones. These guys should be able to make life easy on any QB we start, but it all comes down to blocking.

 

We struggled mightily against Watt (who doesn't) and Mack last year. We can't afford to have one guy be such a disruption against us, because that usually leads to the rest of the line struggling. Also our running backs were routinely met by defenders behind the line of scrimmage all last season. If this doesn't get corrected then 10-6 is the absolute most we can expect as long as our defense remains elite. After all these changes we can expect a one game improvement, can't we?

 

So far much hasn't changed on the oline. We've added Incognito, but he's a mystery after having missed all of last year. Hendy, Cyrus and Cyril aren't rookies anymore so hopefully they improve. As of now an effective and successful scheme change and maturation is all we can hope for. If this line can block effectively then I see going 12-4.

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Like everyone else says, this offense is weakest at QB... Stack the box and force the QB to beat you. Blitz all day, stop the run, ignore the WRs until the QB can prove he can handle it.

 

Nah, blitzing over and over again is a bad idea with the speed the WRs have.

 

The way to beat them is to stack the box and then drop into zone (or a zone/man) and rush just 4 most of the time. As bad as the OL is four will get pressure often enough and this forces the QB to move the team methodically down field on 10+ play drives. As of this moment the Bills don't have a QB who can has shown the ability to do this on a regular basis.

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Blitz. Blitz blitz... Our QB's will need to be able to make quick reads and medium to long accurate passes. As a defensive coordinator I would still stack the box to stop the run and force the QB to make the decisions at the line. Single high safety to prevent the occasional correct read AND accurate throw from turning into a highlight reel. Cover three to fill the accuracy issue. There is no mistaking the talent of our receiving core. The question is... will the ball find its way to the correct location when thrown. In my opinion this is EJ's offense for the taking. He is best when throwing short passes and if I recall, made some nice audibles before the Texans game. If he could just throw the deep ball with some accuracy we would have a legitimate NFL offense. Regardless, this team wins the east crown this year. Go Bills.

and if we line up 5 across with no RB? Still going to stack the box? Some of these comments are ridiculous. This team has has great speed. If you constantly stack the line or blitz, a quick slant to Sammy and he's gone. Does anyone here actually watch football? (not all directed at you)

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I remember the last time I felt this excited about a Bills side of the ball. Before the 2012 season, signing Mario and bringing an 'experienced' coordinator in, plus some other signings I forget about, and our defense was going to be all world. I even started a thread very similar to this one, asking how you would attack the new D.

 

I always think about that thread when I get excited about offseason moves.

 

kj

 

(I think I have my timeline right.)

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I remember the last time I felt this excited about a Bills side of the ball. Before the 2012 season, signing Mario and bringing an 'experienced' coordinator in, plus some other signings I forget about, and our defense was going to be all world. I even started a thread very similar to this one, asking how you would attack the new D.

 

I always think about that thread when I get excited about offseason moves.

 

kj

 

(I think I have my timeline right.)

As it turns out the defense is elite. I wouldn't mind waiting another year to see this offense become equally as deadly.

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This needs to be put in perspective. Brady Quinn didn't exactly light it up as he proceeded to win 1 game as the Chiefs went 2 and 14 for the season. The head coach that benched Cassel, Romeo Crennel, was fired at the end of the season and has not seen a head coaching job since.

 

The benching of Cassel was more a desperation move by a failing head coach than it was a calculated evaluation of the two QB's skill set. While Cassel has managed to maintain full time employment Quinn has only managed some part time work and wasn't on a team last year.

 

You think Crennel made a knee-jerk decision to bench Cassel? He played so bad for so long he gave him no choice. Cassel was a disaster the last four games of 2011. By mid 2012, Cassel sucked so bad that a Chiefs fan club flew a banner calling for Cassel to be benched. Since his last 10 win season in 2010, Cassel has had a horrible 9-17 record as an NFL starter. His QB rating is in the low 70s.

 

I suggest you go to pro football reference and just look at Cassel's numbers in his last two years with the Chiefs. He was Matt Shaub (free fall in production) before Matt Shaub, and Matt Shaub was a much better QB than Cassel ever was at one time.

 

I think that some Bills fans are fooling themselves into thinking that Cassel is good enough to win the job, be our starting "game manager" QB and guide the Bills to the playoffs. Cassel is like a shot fighter IMO. He had his brief time of being good, but then either the talent is no longer there, or he's scared or the fire is no longer there. He isn't going to magically transform himself back to the confident 2010 Cassel, just like Shaub isn't going to turn into the 2012 Shaub. If Chiefs fans read this thread, they would probably think you guys are being sarcastic in your support for Cassel.

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Like everyone else says, this offense is weakest at QB... Stack the box and force the QB to beat you. Blitz all day, stop the run, ignore the WRs until the QB can prove he can handle it.

Which might happen on the first play from scrimmage in game #1.

 

blitzing and ignoring the WRs wouldn't be a good idea IMO

 

Spoken for truth.

 

and if we line up 5 across with no RB? Still going to stack the box? Some of these comments are ridiculous. This team has has great speed. If you constantly stack the line or blitz, a quick slant to Sammy and he's gone. Does anyone here actually watch football? (not all directed at you)

 

If any DC were that stupid, I hope RexRoman would hang 70 points on them, and up by 45 - go for two with three seconds remaining in the 4th.

 

with the pass rush. if the ball never comes out, the WRs don't matter

 

HEADLINE 2015: BILLS OL INCAPABLE OF PICKING UP A BLITZ! FLASH! ALL NFL DC NOTE - JUST BLITZ AND YOU'RE GUARANTEED A WIN.

 

signed,

 

FU

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You think Crennel made a knee-jerk decision to bench Cassel? He played so bad for so long he gave him no choice. Cassel was a disaster the last four games of 2011. By mid 2012, Cassel sucked so bad that a Chiefs fan club flew a banner calling for Cassel to be benched. Since his last 10 win season in 2010, Cassel has had a horrible 9-17 record as an NFL starter. His QB rating is in the low 70s.

 

I suggest you go to pro football reference and just look at Cassel's numbers in his last two years with the Chiefs. He was Matt Shaub (free fall in production) before Matt Shaub, and Matt Shaub was a much better QB than Cassel ever was at one time.

 

I think that some Bills fans are fooling themselves into thinking that Cassel is good enough to win the job, be our starting "game manager" QB and guide the Bills to the playoffs. Cassel is like a shot fighter IMO. He had his brief time of being good, but then either the talent is no longer there, or he's scared or the fire is no longer there. He isn't going to magically transform himself back to the confident 2010 Cassel, just like Shaub isn't going to turn into the 2012 Shaub. If Chiefs fans read this thread, they would probably think you guys are being sarcastic in your support for Cassel.

Are you suggesting that Chiefs team is as talented as ours? Because they're not. Not even close. Our receivers will win one on one battles and get open. McCoy can make people miss. They will make any one of our QBs look better than they are if the oline holds up their end.

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Nah, blitzing over and over again is a bad idea with the speed the WRs have.

 

The way to beat them is to stack the box and then drop into zone (or a zone/man) and rush just 4 most of the time. As bad as the OL is four will get pressure often enough and this forces the QB to move the team methodically down field on 10+ play drives. As of this moment the Bills don't have a QB who can has shown the ability to do this on a regular basis.

Agreed - the random thrown in blitz or disguised coverage but generally pretty basic. Occasionally one of our guys will make a big play, occasionally we will string together a long drive - but we aren't going to be the "you have to score 7 every time to match the bills offense" type of team

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