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History Repeats Itself -- and it's confusing


Vinaccia

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I suggest looking at the drive charts for this year. Outside of Patriots 1, and Bengals, Redskins (Where Williams most visibly gave up) the drive charts for the defense look similar to what you are touting as good. The defense was worse than last year, but was by no means awful, terrible, garbage, or any other derogatory remark people can think of. And of course don't even mention the injuries because those don't count.

The one-word that sums it up appropriately is disaster! From 1st to 31st in sacks can't be called anything but a disaster! Little or no pressure on the opposing QB usually gives even the bad QB's time to make plays.

 

I keep coming back to this conversation because so many Bills fans are so darned nonchalant about what happened to the defense this past year and it's really inexcusable!

 

Injuries? The entire defense was healthy and on the field for that Patriots game in week two and the Bills vaunted defense was smoked because of the scheme Ryan ran that game. Tom Brady set a Buffalo Bills franchise worst 466 passing yards allowed by a single player in that game. The Bills defense after this game ranked 29th.

 

"Rex Ryan, Dennis Thurman and defensive coaching staff: Ryan told his team that this loss was on his shoulders, and so he's a natural place to start in the "down" column. Ryan's defensive game plan couldn't put pressure on Tom Brady-- the Bills disrupted (a sack, batted ball, passed defense or interception) only 9.8 percent of Brady's dropbacks, a lower rate than in any of the Bills' 2014 games -- and he never seemed to have an effective plan for stopping either Rob Gronkowski or Julian Edelman."

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/21042/bills-breakdowns-vs-patriots-start-with-rex-ryan-defensive-staff

 

Then surprisingly the defense with several players out with injuries played the Patriots so much better in their second game in week 11. No Aaron Williams, No Kyle Williams, No Mario Williams and yet the defense in this game had Brady screaming at his O-linemen like a little girl. The Bills defense managed to put pressure on Brady on 20 of his 40 dropbacks (50%) and the front four actually rushed the QB in this game.

 

Then, inexplicably, that great defense we saw in week 11 went back to the Rex Ryan way of gap control and continued to stink for most of the rest of the season. The injury excuse is a fail!

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Rex wasn't brought here to build a program. That's not what he, Whaley, or the Pegulas sold when he was hired. If you don't think folks are going to be upset when we were told all offseason we were "close" and our FA splash/"proven HC" was going to put us over the hump, and then it looks like a big failure, I think you're being unreasonable.

 

Of course there are reasons for hope, and hopefully next year will be better.

 

I just find it curious where the "the 2014 defense was bad" crew was 1 year ago. Just like Stevie's 3 straight seasons of 1k yards suddenly sucked once he was traded. Even though it took us 2 seasons to have a single WR do that once. It's some strange, roundabout way of proving addition by subtraction, even though we're clearly worse off.

 

All this. There is a lot or rewriting of history goes on in these parts. Coming next in this particular series "Mario Williams: He was never that good."

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Here's a quote from a Denver D-lineman about why he loves playing for Wade Phillips. Maybe Rex should rooster an ear:

 

"He lets the dogs go," Jackson said. "Me, Wolfe [Derek Wolfe], DeMarcus Ware, Von Miller, Antonio Smith and Sly [sylvester Williams] -- he lets us go rush and do our thing and he lets the secondary cover. I think that's why as a defensive lineman I love Wade, because he lets us do our thing and do what we do best, and we do it very well for him. He's going to let us go for him."

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The one-word that sums it up appropriately is disaster! From 1st to 31st in sacks can't be called anything but a disaster! Little or no pressure on the opposing QB usually gives even the bad QB's time to make plays.

 

I keep coming back to this conversation because so many Bills fans are so darned nonchalant about what happened to the defense this past year and it's really inexcusable!

 

Injuries? The entire defense was healthy and on the field for that Patriots game in week two and the Bills vaunted defense was smoked because of the scheme Ryan ran that game. Tom Brady set a Buffalo Bills franchise worst 466 passing yards allowed by a single player in that game. The Bills defense after this game ranked 29th.

 

"Rex Ryan, Dennis Thurman and defensive coaching staff: Ryan told his team that this loss was on his shoulders, and so he's a natural place to start in the "down" column. Ryan's defensive game plan couldn't put pressure on Tom Brady-- the Bills disrupted (a sack, batted ball, passed defense or interception) only 9.8 percent of Brady's dropbacks, a lower rate than in any of the Bills' 2014 games -- and he never seemed to have an effective plan for stopping either Rob Gronkowski or Julian Edelman."

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/21042/bills-breakdowns-vs-patriots-start-with-rex-ryan-defensive-staff

 

Then surprisingly the defense with several players out with injuries played the Patriots so much better in their second game in week 11. No Aaron Williams, No Kyle Williams, No Mario Williams and yet the defense in this game had Brady screaming at his O-linemen like a little girl. The Bills defense managed to put pressure on Brady on 20 of his 40 dropbacks (50%) and the front four actually rushed the QB in this game.

 

Then, inexplicably, that great defense we saw in week 11 went back to the Rex Ryan way of gap control and continued to stink for most of the rest of the season. The injury excuse is a fail!

 

And the Patriots beat us silly in week 6 last year as well 37-22 Brady 361 yards 4 tds. Where was our defense that week?

 

As for injuries, whether you believe it or not, they were there, they are a factor, and they did affect the team. As did Mario Williams taking off the last 7-8 games. How come everyone else on the D Line can get tackles but him? Just his bad luck I guess. :rolleyes: I am sure he will be just fine on another team which sucks, but he should have played to his ability no matter the scheme.

 

No one is nonchalant about the defense not doing as well this year, we just aren't freaking out about it like you are. Despite lacking a pass rush and being 31st in the league in sacks, they were just 15th in points per game. Worse than last year? Yes. End of the world? No. Adjustments will be made, players will be acquired, and we will move on to next year.

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Those numbers are putrid. So statistically. Mario was tied for Sack lead but did nothing else. Dareus... considering all the up the middle runs also did nothing. We only had 1 guy who... "filled the stat sheet". Hughes. Urgh. Those numbers tell you. Buffalo is mad at Mario for nothing. If he slacked the whole DL sans Hughes slacked. I wish you could have put up the numbers for the same style breakdown for last years DL. Its all about assignments. Its so clear

 

16 games 2014

Mario Williams 36 Tackles 14.5 sacks

Dareus 35 Tackles 10 sacks

Kyle Williams 31 Tackles 5.5 sacks

Hughes 36 Tackles 5.0 sacks

 

Sack production was all that was down. Tackles were actually up by the D line outside of Mario Williams which was the point. He stopped trying after the bye week. Something surely made him stop trying, but if you don't believe me or the stats, then watch the Eagles/Redskins games.

Edited by What a Tuel
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Sack production was all that was down. Tackles were actually up by the D line outside of Mario Williams which was the point. He stopped trying after the bye week. Something surely made him stop trying, but if you don't believe me or the stats, then watch the Eagles/Redskins games.

Sorry, I do not agree with this my friend. Not at all.

 

In my quite humble opinion, the only thing on defense (at NFL level) that is more important than actual sacks is pass pressure. Does a team consistently apply pressure on opposing quarterbacks to force mistakes and early throws? If sack numbers are down, so is pressure.

 

All NFL receivers can eventually get open if their qb has all day to throw. This is the reason why the DL is more important than the secondary. Rex promised a "bully." Remember that? What he brought to town is a system in which big, strong freaks of nature such as Dareus and Mario are either running backwards, standing virtually still, or jumping around and dancing, as if a song from the old disco days is playing in the background.

Perhaps this should be the happy, friendly theme song of the Ryan Brothers:

Edited by Bill from NYC
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Hard to disagree with this, I went off after the KC game to a buddy about firing Rex but he stressed having patience and giving the team time under a new coach. Let Rex get his players in there and his system or what have you so I thought about it.

 

I don't feel Rex really deserves that leeway based on alot of the points mentioned here most notably what he was gonna be able to do with this defense, these players with this athletic ability were gonna be #1 or it was a complete fail he said.

 

 

Well guess what Rex, you failed. Now the fans have to be patient again, Pegula has to be patient while Rex gets more control over personnel, starts signing Jests and changes schemes, hires his buddy's and brother?

 

I don't think Pegula will stand for more than a year of these type of results, $15 mil owed or nor Rex has one year to put up or shut up and he wouldn't be the first to ride off with some Bills $$ tucked into his shorts

 

That's not what he was brought in to do. Or more precisely, it wasn't what he should have been brought in to do. And if it was, the Pegulas made a monumental error and have compounded it by allowing him to jettison Henderson and add his brother to the staff. I hope for the best but fear the worst.

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I said this in a different post. People were saying Jerry could play the scheme. I alluded to the notion that what if Jerry was freelancing and doing what he wanted. He was THE ONLY DL constantly in the back field. Is it because more effort than Mario and Marcell? I think not. I think he just decided he was good enough to go get the qb. A lot of times i saw mario make a pass rushing move and then it was almost like watching him say. Oh snap. Im supposed to stand here and watch these gaps. He was half rumping it TO ME because he didnt want to get upfield and lose contain. Go back and watch some tape and tell me if im way off base. He always made a good move and right when he could have bent the corner. He pulled up and started hand fighting.

i saw this and have been saying it all season.

 

Mario, though, has never been a full tool box dynamic pass rusher. He has limited moved to get to the QB but is extremely good with those moves - notably the bull rush.

16 games 2014

Mario Williams 36 Tackles 14.5 sacks

Dareus 35 Tackles 10 sacks

Kyle Williams 31 Tackles 5.5 sacks

Hughes 36 Tackles 5.0 sacks

 

Sack production was all that was down. Tackles were actually up by the D line outside of Mario Williams which was the point. He stopped trying after the bye week. Something surely made him stop trying, but if you don't believe me or the stats, then watch the Eagles/Redskins games.

 

guess you didn't watch the games.

 

Mario had no tackles because no one ran at him or the outside. Maybe they didn't have to because we couldn't stop runs up the middle due to Rexs stubborn bull headed lying says. We had the wrong DT personnel. We had nothing for MLB. Our middle was soft and teams attacked it.

 

Prior to this year MWilliams lost contain 4-5 times last season and maybe the same the year before. This year I can remember about 8. 3 of those he played poorly. Taking the inside route. 1 of those, the famous one where everyone accuses him of slouching - there if a gif of it - you can clearly see he is assigned an inside stunt and has outside help on the strong side. Lawson, I believe, was the LB assigned to contain.

 

Again, I know nothing about defense I guess. But I didn't see Mario as being an issue until the half of the 14th game and part of the 15th game.

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That's not what he was brought in to do. Or more precisely, it wasn't what he should have been brought in to do. And if it was, the Pegulas made a monumental error and have compounded it by allowing him to jettison Henderson and add his brother to the staff. I hope for the best but fear the worst.

 

Yeah, this is what I said. He was supposed to improve on what they had going and sadly he did not. I was saying damn the money, this team can and should be winning now...with the right coach
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