The End of McDermott’s Defensive Line Rotation

[Phil The Thrill]

Just listened to the “Buffalo Beat” podcast and found this fact interesting.  Since his days in Carolina, McDermott has used a defensive line rotation to frequently substitute players.  I guess the idea is to keep players fresh.  
 

According to Joe B., Star Lotulelei and Jordan Phillps were on the field over 70% of the game.   Ed Oliver and Corey Liuget were used sparingly.

 

Ironically Buscaglia’s big point was that during the crucial moment of the game in the 4th, the Bills took Star off the field and replaced him with Liuget.  That was the run where Nick Chubb dragged the Bills for 10+ yards
 

I think that this move shows a few things:

 

1. The play on the Defensive Line vs the run  is a major problem.  While fans aren’t high on Star, he might be their best option at holding up the run.   Things are so bad that McDermott is changing one of his main principles on defense.  The problem isn’t a “quick fix” or a matter of adjusting a scheme etc.  They don’t have the talent up front to be effective.  

 

2. The team has little faith in Ed Oliver.  On the Chubb run, rather than moving Phillips to 3 tech and putting Oliver in, they chose to go with Liuget - player who was signed 6 days ago.  This has to be a tremendous disappointment for the Bills.  Oliver was supposed to be someone who could help immediately.   When you use a street free agent over your first round pick, it’s not a good sign.  

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Good find, Thanks!

 

Here are the D snap counts for the game from pro-football-reference. As can be seen, not just Phillips and Star but Hughes and Murphy played the majority of a game where the D was on the field a lot.  Oliver's snaps actually went up a bit from last week, and Corey Liuget saw a surprising number at 17.

 

To your point 1), one viewpoint is actually that it's not the DL play vs the run that's the entire problem.  It's that the DL needs to hold back a bit, not penetrate upfield too fast so as to protect the LB who are not always making the right read and playing the right gap.  So basically McDermott is slapping a DL bandaid on a front-7 problem (in that viewpoint).

Frankly, that's a subtlety that's above my football perceptions to sort from film.  I can see that the defensive playcall didn't work as it should, but I can't necessarily see why.

 

Ed Oliver doesn't have the strength to hold in that role against the run.  He needs an offseason of NFL-level conditioning and some more work on technique.

 

[Virgil]

I’m scared that McD’s solution is retooling and adding. Soon, our entire roster will be all defensive lineman 

[Seven-N-Nine]

11 minutes ago, Virgil said:

I’m scared that McD’s solution is retooling and adding. Soon, our entire roster will be all defensive lineman 

 

If they can catch the ball maybe we can use them as TE's also?

Edited November 11, 2019 by Seven-N-Nine

[Ethan in Cleveland]

I saw Lawson make at least 4 if not 5 really solid plays. I am quick to pick on Murphy but a couple of the runs during the goal line stand were at him and he held up. 

I understand they are using Lawson as the primary backup to Hughes. I think Shaq should start over Murphy. And then Murphy and Zo become the primary back up DEs.

Too soon for the bust label. But Oliver has had very limited impact. Even I thought he would get a few sacks by this point.