the Jim Leonhard of Rex's Bills defenses

[BADOLBILZ]

 

Did AW not get injured last year against the Pats in week 2?

 

 

Yes he did.

 

 

 

 

 

You guys are incorrect.

 

He hurt his neck with one of his patented spearing, helmet first hits early in the 2014 season.

 

Originally it looked like a knockout concussion but was later casually reported as a neck injury.

 

He babied the neck injury for the rest of the season and made it thru........but he was nowhere near the same player.

 

In 2013 he was making all kinds of plays........thereafter......nothing.

[dave mcbride]

You guys are incorrect.

 

He hurt his neck with one of his patented spearing, helmet first hits early in the 2014 season.

 

Originally it looked like a knockout concussion but was later casually reported as a neck injury.

 

He babied the neck injury for the rest of the season and made it thru........but he was nowhere near the same player.

 

In 2013 he was making all kinds of plays........thereafter......nothing.

He was playing pretty solidly this year, but that's not the issue, really. The issue is that the defense couldn't function without him because he knew what calls to make and no one else could handle the task. Dareus said this explicitly. Hence the Leonhard reference. It's not like Leonhard was some great player ... Edited December 29, 2016 by dave mcbride

[BADOLBILZ]

He understood the defense. No one else did, apparently.

 

 

No question they were WORSE without AW........but he was also on the field for absolute offensive SLAUGHTERS of the defense against NE in 2015 and NYJ in 2016.

 

Also the Dolphins were running at will in the game where Landry brought on the inevitable. They weren't playing well that day.

 

He wasn't a cure for the ills of the Bills D........they still sucked.

 

Jim Leonhard was actually part of very good defense for Rex.......AW was absolutely NOT.

 

The 6-3 record was a lot more about the feeble offensive opponents like the Brisset Pats, Keenum Rams, rookie Mariotta/Whisenput Titans.........REALLY BAD offensive teams.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

I was listening this morning on the radio and they were talking how Rex would be a great collage coach as players and parents would love him which I'd tend to agree with. He'd be great with recruiting, etc.

 

But if NFL players had trouble understanding his defense with as many hours they put in, how would college players ever figure it out. He'd really likely have to dumb it down. Admittedly if they could figure it out, no offense could probably stop them either.

 

 

Losing AW killed the defense. Why losing one specific player had such an impact on Rex's defense is beyond me.

[GG]

 

 

No question they were WORSE without AW........but he was also on the field for absolute offensive SLAUGHTERS of the defense against NE in 2015 and NYJ in 2016.

 

Also the Dolphins were running at will in the game where Landry brought on the inevitable. They weren't playing well that day.

 

He wasn't a cure for the ills of the Bills D........they still sucked.

 

Jim Leonhard was actually part of very good defense for Rex.......AW was absolutely NOT.

 

The 6-3 record was a lot more about the feeble offensive opponents like the Brisset Pats, Keenum Rams, rookie Mariotta/Whisenput Titans.........REALLY BAD offensive teams.

In the first 2-1/2 quarters of the game, Bills gave up about 150 yards in 7 drives, and then gave up 270 yards in 4 drives. What happened? Edited December 29, 2016 by GG

[BADOLBILZ]

He was playing pretty solidly this year, but that's not the issue, really. The issue is that the defense couldn't function without him because he knew what calls to make and no one else could handle the task. Dareus said this explicitly. Hence the Leonhard reference. It's not like Leonhard was some great player ...

 

 

1) The defense wasn't very good when he was in there. You are a promoter of the FO scale so you know that the teams an "AW lead" D won were not against good competition and even then they still had issues......like the Rams game they couldn't put away.

 

2) That was just ONE thing that Dareus mentioned.

 

What he also talked about was the REAL issue.........that they were constantly adjusting to offenses right up until the snap.......looking at each other at the snap......playing uncertain, flatfooted and slow as a result........AND to greatly compound matters, offenses were on to their adjustments....and were using motion to further confuse them up until the snap and THEN not doing what Rex's check system was telling Bills defenders that they were going to do based on formations and motion. That being the case there was little help AW or Jim Leonhard were going to provide when offenses were intentionally putting them into the wrong looks.

 

This is why the system was so f*cked.

 

Toward the end Rex has just been flooding the D with coverage and allowing the run. He was clearly befuddled about what to do........the answer was to break tendency on D......but these players were so confused already it would have been a disaster to try to complicate matters.

In the first 2-1/2 quarters of the game, Bills gave up about 150 yards in 7 drives, and then gave up 270 yards in 4 drives. What happened?

 

The Fish stopped throwing the ball when they didn't need to. They were killing themselves with mistakes......much like the Raiders game.

 

Re-watch the game.

[GG]

The Fish stopped throwing the ball when they didn't need to. They were killing themselves with mistakes......much like the Raiders game.

 

Re-watch the game.

The phins certainly benefited from Blanton not knowing where to line up or what calls to make.

[BADOLBILZ]

The phins certainly benefited from Blanton not knowing where to line up or what calls to make.

 

Out of curiosity.......in the minds of people who think AW was the difference between being a good D and a bad D........was AW NOT flattened as the Dolphins were punching the ball into the end zone? It seems that people think that everything was fine that day.......like maybe the ball was at the Dolphins 10 yard line and then they subsequently marched the length of the field.

[Kelly the Dog]

 

Out of curiosity.......in the minds of people who think AW was the difference between being a good D and a bad D........was AW NOT flattened as the Dolphins were punching the ball into the end zone? It seems that people think that everything was fine that day.......like maybe the ball was at the Dolphins 10 yard line and then they subsequently marched the length of the field.

You know better than anyone good and great players make crappy plays.

[GG]

Out of curiosity.......in the minds of people who think AW was the difference between being a good D and a bad D........was AW NOT flattened as the Dolphins were punching the ball into the end zone? It seems that people think that everything was fine that day.......like maybe the ball was at the Dolphins 10 yard line and then they subsequently marched the length of the field.

You mean the play where dolphins committed two penalties, and were held to a FG on the drive?

[BADOLBILZ]

You know better than anyone good and great players make crappy plays.

 

You are out of context.

[Dragonborn10]

The defense is too complicated. By design it is supposed to confuse the QB's. Has any opposing QB looked confused or said after a loss that the Bills defense was difficult to play against? In fact the defense does the opposite, it causes mental breakdowns that lead to big plays for the opposing teams.

I will also point out the Bills under Rex where terrible getting the play called in the first place. Then they are supposed to make all these pre-snap reads to adjust the defense. They didn't have the time to do it. And lastly, when teams go no huddle, there is no time for the defense to make adjustments pre-snap.

I'm glad he is gone. You can't fool most good QB's. The Giants didn't fool Brady to beat him twice. Even Wade and his 3-4 defense is not based on confusion. Please just give me a 4-3 DC and let KW and Dareus destroy the interior of the offense

[BADOLBILZ]

You mean the play where dolphins committed two penalties, and were held to a FG on the drive?

 

Yeah with all due respect to AW Landry hit him with his shoulder and AW should have been aware of a WR possibly coming back to block. It was just an unfortunate play......if a Bills WR had done that we'd have been up in arms about the penalty. Ajayi already had 10 carries for 83 yards at that point before that run was negated. Fish had one drive in first half killed by an unsportsmanlike penalty for spinning the football on Landry after a 26 yard completion and the Bills blocked a punt that set up a Bills score. At the end of half Ajayi ripped off another big run and the Dolphins botched the clock and ended up taking a knee at midfield. The Fish were self destructing but the Bills D wasn't stopping SH*T........Aaron Williams or not. Ajayi dumped 100 on them in the first half and a little over 100 in the second. I'm afraid y'all memories are of the misty water colored variety when it comes to the "AW lead" defense.

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Losing AW killed the defense. Why losing one specific player had such an impact on Rex's defense is beyond me.

 

because it is too complicated. In theory Rex's D is probably the best but with all the checks and reads it was too much to process and really slowed the players down or confused them outright. Also playing corners in man all the time only works if you have the BEST CBs.

[dave mcbride]

Yeah with all due respect to AW Landry hit him with his shoulder and AW should have been aware of a WR possibly coming back to block. It was just an unfortunate play......if a Bills WR had done that we'd have been up in arms about the penalty. Ajayi already had 10 carries for 83 yards at that point before that run was negated. Fish had one drive in first half killed by an unsportsmanlike penalty for spinning the football on Landry after a 26 yard completion and the Bills blocked a punt that set up a Bills score. At the end of half Ajayi ripped off another big run and the Dolphins botched the clock and ended up taking a knee at midfield. The Fish were self destructing but the Bills D wasn't stopping SH*T........Aaron Williams or not. Ajayi dumped 100 on them in the first half and a little over 100 in the second. I'm afraid y'all memories are of the misty water colored variety when it comes to the "AW lead" defense.

I don't know what role AW played in the early-season sacks, but it is curious that they went from a team with guys running free to the qb frequently to a team that by the end of the season was getting zero pressure on any qb - even in blitzes - not named RG III. In other words, they were constantly playing slow. They were definitely playing faster earlier in the season regardless of who the opponent was. Ironically, they even put good pressure on Fitz and stopped the Jets run reasonably well. Their cbs just got burned all night on deeper throws. Just one of those games.

 

I'm not saying the defense was ever good, btw - only suggesting that it was competent with pass rush upside when he was in there and horrible with no pass rush when he was out. The Bills got great pressure on Luck in game one of 2015 too. I realize that this is correlation and not causation, but combined with Dareus's comment about everyone playing slower and more flat-footed after he left, it stands to reason. Re Leonhard, that guy continued to run defenses pretty well even after his 40 time crept to the 5.0 mark (as he did for us under Pettine). That's really all my point. No one here said AW was a great player in 2015-16 as far as I know. They did make more plays with him in there, however.

Edited December 29, 2016 by dave mcbride

[BobbyC81]

I was listening this morning on the radio and they were talking how Rex would be a great collage coach as players and parents would love him which I'd tend to agree with. He'd be great with recruiting, etc.

 

But if NFL players had trouble understanding his defense with as many hours they put in, how would college players ever figure it out. He'd really likely have to dumb it down. Admittedly if they could figure it out, no offense could probably stop them either.

 

Dareus was asked if Rex's defense was the most complex he played in and he replied that the Alabama defense was the most complex. Of course my first thought was "You were an All-American at Alabama. Why couldn't you understand this defense then?"