How Good or Bad was our Defense,Really?

[Freak-O]

They were good enough to force lots of 3:rd and 5 or more, but the frustratingly bad at stopping those. I had expected them to play better.

[BillsPride12]

The best defense is a great offense....but I do think we will focus on the defensive side of the ball this offseason

[BuffaloBill]

Have people forgotten that we won that game?

[Sweats]

Our D was dismal all day.

The Colts could have easily taken advantage of rushing our edges all game...why they didn't exploit it is beyond me cause we were giving up huge plays on the perimeter run game the whole afternoon.

[ganesh]

44 minutes ago, Jukester said:

Yesterday’s game reminded me of how this defense played early in the season.  Gave up tons of yards, not getting to the QB, couldn’t get off the field on third down, couldn’t force turnovers, letting them answer quickly after we score, all propped up by our offense.
 

HOWEVER, they made clutch plays when needed. The goal line stand, the drive at the end. Technically we did force a turnover.

Agreed.  Thsi game sounded a lot like the game against the Rams.

[Rockinon]

I look at that time of possession and how well the Colts were able to run the ball. They had a great game plan against Buffalo. Control the clock, run the ball, quick passes. That is one hell of a nice OL that team has. But I am a bit more focused on the passing game. There was one hell of a lot of dropped passes, on both teams. It is an adjustment getting used to that colder air. The ball is stiffer and the dryness of the air makes the ball slippery. You could see the look on John Brown's face when the ball squirted right through both of his hands. Hopefully, our receivers are getting used to it now. I remember the Jim Kelly years and how those all hands catches are more difficult in the cold. Your hands are numb from the cold and you don't have as much feeling. The key is keeping your eyes on the ball even while catching it because the feeling in your hands isn't there. We know Josh will fire some absolute lasers from time to time. They need to practice outdoors. In the cold. Get used to it. Embrace it. I don't think we are there yet.

[billsbackto81]

43 minutes ago, JoshAllenReceipts said:

The Bills defense was completely bailed out by Philip Rivers being Philip Rivers in big games.

 

Ask Charger fans how Rivers does in the biggest spots. 

 

Perennial choke artist.

Rivers played well. He made big time throws and conversions the entire game. Reich and his decisions is what cost them. He may not have a ring but I do believe this was his first wildcard loss in his career. 

[JohnNord]

Call me crazy but I don’t think the defense was that bad over 3 quarters.   They held the Colt ground game in check until the 4th quarter.   It’s easy to point out the weaknesses but they also did some good things as well.  

 

They stuffed Indy on 4th and goal and were faced with some terrible field position in the first half that they overcame by allowing only 10 points.  

 

Phillip Rivers sliced up the defensive secondary up the entire afternoon.  I’m not sure whether it was a good passing game from Rivers or if the secondary just struggled with the route concepts, but it seemed like receivers were always open.  Also the Bills failed to force any turnovers.
 

The 4th quarter is another story.  I’m

not sure how they let up those big drives so easily and so quickly but that will need to be addressed.  
 

The one point I think we’re sleeping on is that Reich and OC Nick Siranni are very good offensive minds.  They put together a solid game plan to exploit the weakness of the defense and Rivers did a great job executing.  
 

Make no mistake about it - outside of a failed 4th down conversion and a few drops - this was the Colts “A” game.  The Bills didn’t play their best but still withstood a good performance from an 11-5 win team.

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

I agree that the defense didn't exactly show clout but in the modern NFL if you hold a team to 24 points you'll usually win.  Since others have already covered the negative, here were some big plays the defense did make...

 

- Poyer made the play of the game waiting for Pascal to get up and then stripping the ball

- Addison got penetration to turn 3rd and 1 into 4th and 4

- Edmunds had a couple nice PDs and generally had good run fills despite a couple missed tackles

- Milano stuffed the 2 point conversion attempt

- Zimmer read a screen perfectly and forced Rivers to spike it

- Hyde with 3 PDs including batting down the Hail Mary and swatting away a potential TD to Hilton early in the game

- Taron Johnson made Blankenship feel self-conscious about his glasses, forcing the missed FG

[Buffaloflash]

33 minutes ago, Captain_Quint said:

Dont forget that Taylor ran for 250 yds last week and came into the game as the hottest rb in the league. I think the game plan was to slow him down and make Rivers beat you, which is almost what happened. We wont see another RB of his talent again in the playoffs, including Henry. 

Henry didn't get nearly 2,000 yds doing nothing!

[billsfan714]

I thought that was one worst performances by a D line that I have ever seen.   I cant remember one pass rush play, not one.

[Mr. K]

I though Rivers had complete control. I also think part of that was playing heavy over the top and shutting down the outside of the field. It seemed like the corners were the best position group today. The pass rush started getting there faster in the second but after that game I hope we can figure out something to replenish the DE talent in the draft or through free agency. Milano and Tre both missed tackles that led to big plays. Josh did his part but could've been better. Diggs was awesome. The game was great. Competitive, entertaining, and nerve-wracking all in one. I'm excited to find out who we get for the next matchup.

[Jpsredemption]

Not good. Got screwed on the fumble but other than that they literally did not play one play. 

[nucci]

1 hour ago, TBBills said:

Extremely bad, the Defense had luck on there side. The Bills would have lost the game of not for a couple of wide open drops that would have put this team behind in the score. This defense needs to fix it's problems ASAP.

The Colts dropped passes, missed a kick and 2 pt conversion and we stopped them on 4th down. That's why Colts lost. We weren't lucky

[Rochesterfan]

37 minutes ago, Beast said:

Not very good, IMO.

 

The Colts ran all over them and we couldn’t get off the field on 3rd downs.

 

See - this is going to be a narrative that just is not true and it is going to be stated numerous times no matter who we face next week.

 

Let’s take a second and dive into the run defense in this game. Overall the Bills gave up 163 yards on 30 carries - yep looks like they got run all over.  Now let’s take a second and look at the 4th quarter where the Bills were up multiple scores.  The Bills went back to their Nickel off ball coverage that did not focus on the run game.  They gave up 93 yards on 6 carries when not focused at all on the run.

 

The first 3 quarters when they played with a focus on the run - they gave up 70 yards on 24 carries about 2.9 yards per carry.  It was not like they ran all over us when the game was close. As a matter of fact in all drives that the Score was within 1 score either way - the Bills gave up a total of 78 yards on 26 carries.  They also bowed up and stopped the Indy team from running on a goal line drive and on a 2pt conversion attempt from the 1.

 

What this game tells me is the Bills when they want to focus on the running game they have the ability to contain the run with how they attack the line of scrimmage with their DL, LBs, and CBs.  When they move to attack mode late in the game and up 2 scores - they lose lane discipline and the LBs are not quickly filling the gaps leaving lanes to run through - then they get gashed for big games.  The 2 drives that the Bills were up 2 scores and ran a more attacking DLine style with LB and CB support dropping off for passing - they gave up 85 on 4 carries or about 50% of their rushing total on 2 drives where they were ready to let them run.

 

Indy is a good team and Frank got the absolute best out of Rivers in that game, but it was Rivers making good reads and quick short accurate passes that kept them in this game not the running game.  At least in my opinion 

[Big Turk]

1 hour ago, Buffaloflash said:

I thought that the Colts had their way with our defense pretty much three quarters of that game.

But,the score doesn't reflect that conclusion.

So,after finding out that the Colts became first team in NFL playoff history to do this" Indy's 27-24 loss to the Bills in the wild-card round, the Colts became the first team in NFL playoff history to lose after turning the ball over zero times AND totaling 450 or more yards of offense. Before Saturday, that exact situation had happened a total of 11 times ever and those teams had combined to go 11-0. The crazy part is that none of the other games were even particularly close as those 11 teams won by an average of 21.3 points."

I guess I can cut the Defense a lot of slack!

Go Bills!

 

They had 10 points going into the 4th quarter and great field position for most of the first half. The D held their run game in check for 3 quarters as Taylor was averaging under 3 YPC but Rivers was able to consistently convert 3rd downs to keep the chains moving.

 

4th quarter was not good as they gave up 2 easy TDs that didn't force Indy to use hardly any time off the clock as they ripped off 3 huge plays in the run game.

 

But they also had a clutch goal line stand and played pretty well on the last drive as Rivers got the ball with 2:30 left on the clock on their own 25 and only was able to get to the Bills 46 before having to toss a desperation Hail Mary(that didn't even make it to the end zone...how sad was that??). In comparison Allen got the ball at his own 4 and took 1:32 to go 96 yards for a TD at the end of the first half.

 

I would say it was a very uneven performance more than anything. They played very well against the run to get them in a lot of 3rd downs all day but not well enough to get off the field as they allowed them to keep converting. They held them to 10 points through 3 quarters but then allowed 14 points in like 6 or 7 minutes in the 4th.

 

Ultimately they stood tall on the final drive and even forced what should have been the game ending fumble with 28 seconds left that was inexplicably not overturned on replay. Nobody can tell me the replay booth intentionally let the call stand so some last second drama could unfold.

Edited January 10, 2021 by Big Turk

[Codyny13]

This game reminded me a ton of the Bills-Chiefs game. The defense bent so many times but when you looked at the scoreboard, the points weren’t there. It’s a little confusing, but the team seems to find a way to not break, and make sure we have a chance at the end. We need a f****** pass rush though. Luckily, I think the Colts have the best o-line we’ll see, but damn, the Bills better come up with something this week. 

[SCBills]

I’m not going to get on the DL for this game.  
 

Rivers played great... we can admit that, it’s allowed.  His anticipation throws were pinpoint.  That’s an elite OL and Rivers got rid of the ball in an average of about 2.2 seconds.  
 

I never thought we’d be hitting Rivers much..

 

However, I didn’t think we’d get gashed in the run game, picked apart underneath, give up plays down the field AND struggle to get off the field on 3rd down.   
 

That was a really poor defensive performance.  Hopefully we can chalk it up to a bad matchup against a team that executed at a really high level.   
 

I expect this defense to play much better moving forward.  

 

Even if they do get it together, there is far too much $$$ being spent on a good, not great DL.  Also, there are stud linebackers & cornerbacks that will be available towards the end of the 1st round.  
 

Edited January 10, 2021 by SCBills

[thurst44]

Our defense played well enough to win. Period. They came up with huge stops when was necessary.

 

And all the people who are saying things like "well, this doesn't bode well for the next few weeks"... Have you watched this team? Or football? Has it not happened MANY times where the Bills do poorly on one front on D in a WIN and then do well on the same front in next week's WIN. And I know you do watch the team and know about football, it's just that some people have a propensity to only notice the terrible. Yes, I sometimes err in the other direction, but people, we were 13-3 and just won our first playoff game since before Spin City (Michael J. Fox version) or The Daily Show (Craig Kilborn version) existed. It was an exciting game and we lived to fight another day. I get that the board is here for analysis, and saying the D played bad in spots (those two 4th quarter sprints down the field were maddening) is fair game, but the sense of absolute dread here is absurd. Perhaps watch the last 7 or so games of KC and see how close they came to losing in almost all of them. This is a great team. We may lose next week. We're more likely to win whoever we play b/c we are definitely the better team in a matchup against any team except (maybe) the Chiefs.

3 minutes ago, Codyny13 said:

This game reminded me a ton of the Bills-Chiefs game. The defense bent so many times but when you looked at the scoreboard, the points weren’t there. It’s a little confusing, but the team seems to find a way to not break, and make sure we have a chance at the end. We need a f****** pass rush though. Luckily, I think the Colts have the best o-line we’ll see, but damn, the Bills better come up with something this week. 

Have they not in the past over the course of the last 17 games?

[Codyny13]

2 minutes ago, thurst44 said:

Our defense played well enough to win. Period. They came up with huge stops when was necessary.

 

And all the people who are saying things like "well, this doesn't bode well for the next few weeks"... Have you watched this team? Or football? Has it not happened MANY times where the Bills do poorly on one front on D in a WIN and then do well on the same front in next week's WIN. And I know you do watch the team and know about football, it's just that some people have a propensity to only notice the terrible. Yes, I sometimes err in the other direction, but people, we were 13-3 and just won our first playoff game since before Spin City (Michael J. Fox version) or The Daily Show (Craig Kilborn version) existed. It was an exciting game and we lived to fight another day. I get that the board is here for analysis, and saying the D played bad in spots (those two 4th quarter sprints down the field were maddening) is fair game, but the sense of absolute dread here is absurd. Perhaps watch the last 7 or so games of KC and see how close they came to losing in almost all of them. This is a great team. We may lose next week. We're more likely to win whoever we play b/c we are definitely the better team in a matchup against any team except (maybe) the Chiefs.

Have they not in the past over the course of the last 17 games?

What are you asking?