MYTH Busted: "The Defense couldn't stop the Run"

[Matt_In_NH]

The long runs against Tenn and NE were soul crushers....I honestly believe those two plays lost those respective games....

[Chaos]

Patriots did exactly what they wanted to do last night.  The concept of running every single play was designed to control time of possession and field position, and there was no intention of scoring on every drive.  BB understands you only need to score more than the other team. 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Chaos

[DabillsDaBillsDaBills]

6 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Held them to 240yds total offense, 14 points, 6 of 9 possessions 5 plays or less. And you put the larger percentage on the Defense?

 

You guys really expect any team to hold another offense to, what, 0 yards just because they are going to run every play? Cmon.

 

I find it more than a little ironic that you keep mentioning that 6 of 9 possessions were 5 plays or less. That includes the 3 play 69 yard TD drive that had the most important play of the game. 

 

In normal weather conditions holding a team to 240 yards and 14 points would be an exceptionally good game. In the exceptional weather conditions last night, with the opponent running on 95%+ of the plays, allowing 240 yards and 14 points (with 0 forced turnovers) is bad. 

[DrDawkinstein]

4 minutes ago, FireChans said:

Hyperbole isn’t a strawman lol. Are you addicted to that word? 
 

Acceptable would have been not allowing a 14 play drive. Or not allowing a 64 yard rush. Either of those and we win on the backs of our “great” defense. Unfortunately, they remain the “great defense (when playing the Jets or Texans)”.

 

I know but its fun to keep busting your chops since your points are so ridiculous with the high level you expect from our D, but seem to be excusing our O.

 

I'll continue to state that 240yds total offense, 14 points, 6 punts on 9 possessions with 4 3 and outs is a good/great D performance. You can keep saying it isnt. But good luck with that.

[FireChans]

Just now, DrDawkinstein said:

 

I know but its fun to keep busting your chops since your points are so ridiculous with the high level you expect from our D, but seem to be excusing our O.

 

I'll continue to state that 240yds total offense, 14 points, 6 punts on 9 possessions with 4 3 and outs is a good/great D performance. You can keep saying it isnt. But good luck with that.

Where did I excuse the offense Mr Strawman?

[DrDawkinstein]

Just now, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:

 

I find it more than a little ironic that you keep mentioning that 6 of 9 possessions were 5 plays or less. That includes the 3 play 69 yard TD drive that had the most important play of the game.

 

No it doesnt. That is a 7th. Which I dont count in my examples of a good performance because I am based enough in reality to know that wasnt a good performance.

 

Punt (3 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

TD (3 plays)

FG (9 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

Punt (4 plays)

Punt (5 plays)

FG (14 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

[Mr. WEO]

11 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

Lazy take.

 

Since were playing the what-if game.

 

- What if Diggs didn't drop a perfectly thrown TD?

- What if Breida didn't fumble the ball with no one touching him?

- What if the refs called PI in the endzone? (image below)

- What if Knox didn't drop 3 passes?

 

what if NE decided to pass more than 3 times as Buffalo was putting 8 guys in the box 65% of the time ( NE averaged 5.4 YPC against that)?

 

Meanwhile, Josh, easily the Bills best rusher, had just  6 rushing plays. 
 

BB put on a coaching clinic. 

[DabillsDaBillsDaBills]

4 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

No it doesnt. That is a 7th. Which I dont count in my examples of a good performance because I am based enough in reality to know that wasnt a good performance.

 

Punt (3 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

TD (3 plays)

FG (9 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

Punt (4 plays)

Punt (5 plays)

FG (14 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

 

Ouch buddy. When you're trying to twist the stats at least own up to it. When you say 5 plays or less* that would mean the 5 play Punt drive wouldn't count. 

 

Punt (3 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

TD (3 plays)

FG (9 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

Punt (4 plays)

Punt (5 plays)

FG (14 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

 

 

*fewer

 

 

 

[DrDawkinstein]

1 minute ago, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:

 

Ouch buddy. When you're trying to twist the stats at least own up to it. When you say 5 plays or less* that would mean the 5 play Punt drive wouldn't count. 

 

Punt (3 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

TD (3 plays)

FG (9 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

Punt (4 plays)

Punt (5 plays)

FG (14 plays)

Punt (3 plays)

 

 

*fewer

 

 

 

 

I cant waste my time replying to such idiocy. I said "5 plays or less" not "Less than 5 plays". Cmon dude. Your first post was wrong, just own it.

 

 

(Good call on using 'fewer' tho)

[The Frankish Reich]

17 minutes ago, Chaos said:

Patriots did exactly what they wanted to do last night.  The concept of running every single play was designed to control time of possession and field position, and there was no intention of scoring on every drive.  BB understands you only need to score more than the other team. 

Exactly. No need to try to put up 30 points, or even 20. Just keep grinding it out and let the other guys make mistakes.

[Big Turk]

3 hours ago, UB2SF said:

Had the same thought, Doc -- they couldn't stop "a" run (the 64 yard TD), not "the" run (the rushing attack). I woke up today feeling mad about missed opportunities on offense more than defense.

 

I mean what did they have like 9 or 10 TFLs? I thought other than that one big run and a couple of other 10-15 yard ones they did pretty well. If they were getting run over the Pats would have scored more than a single touchdown and had more than 1 trip to the red zone.

 

Getting run over is what happened against the Colts. This wasn't that. 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Big Turk

[appoo]

1 hour ago, JohnBonhamRocks said:

Yes, which is why my other post started by saying most of my gripes are with the offense. 
 

Just don’t think the defense had a great game either. Solid point total for a normal game. But not for a game where NE* almost exclusively ran and showed no sign of a passing threat. 

 

That was a MASSIVE OLine they played, and a very well coached OLine. As OP stated the defense was generally successful. 

 

Belichak ***** sucked last night, and all the praise is BS. 

 

Pats didn't win, a superior team shot itself to death

Edited December 7, 2021 by appoo

[Einstein]

12 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

what if NE decided to pass more than 3 times as Buffalo was putting 8 guys in the box 65% of the time ( NE averaged 5.4 YPC against that)?

 

Meanwhile, Josh, easily the Bills best rusher, had just  6 rushing plays. 
 

BB put on a coaching clinic. 

 

What if Josh decided to throw to an open Beasley?

Again, these are all "what-ifs".

 

Belichick did nothing special. Absolutely nothing. He played scared because he knew his QB couldn't throw in that wind. Had any of  5 different things gone different for the Bills, no-one is talking about Belichick.

 

 

[DrDawkinstein]

Just now, appoo said:

 

That was a MASSIVE OLine they played, and a very well coached OLine. As OP stated they were generally successful. 

 

Belichak ***** sucked last night, and all the praise is BS. 

 

Pats didn't win, a superior team shot itself to death

 

One of my favorite Belichick quotes is "More NFL games are lost than won". And that was the case last night as well.

[Big Turk]

2 minutes ago, appoo said:

 

That was a MASSIVE OLine they played, and a very well coached OLine. As OP stated the defense was generally successful. 

 

Belichak ***** sucked last night, and all the praise is BS. 

 

Pats didn't win, a superior team shot itself to death

 

Plus they played most snaps with a 6th OL in there.

[FireChans]

13 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

what if NE decided to pass more than 3 times as Buffalo was putting 8 guys in the box 65% of the time ( NE averaged 5.4 YPC against that)?

 

Meanwhile, Josh, easily the Bills best rusher, had just  6 rushing plays. 
 

BB put on a coaching clinic. 

Basically the Pats executed their entire gameplan on offense and defense last night and they won. Their gameplan wasn’t to drop 40 points on us. They did everything they wanted to do, while our offense and defense didn’t stop them.

[appoo]

At the end of the day the Bills had not one, but TWO chances to win this game on their own terms. 

 

That basically means your game plan failed. 

If anything, I'm coming around to the idea that the Bills need to move on from Daboll. Offense is a bit too finesse. Everything should be tailored to maximizing Allen's abilities, and that's going to allowing him to play off of play action, giving him more 1v1s, and that happens with a running game and 2-3 established receiving threats. 

 

Offense should be base 11, 12, and 22, and should be a lot more even between run and pass with personnel geared towards that. 

[Saint Doug]

This is how it works. When their offense is on the field, our offense cannot be on the field scoring points. NE ran it down our throats, almost having 2 100-yard rushers. They didn’t throw at all. This translated to the Cheatriots being on the field for an extra 3 minutes. Our average TOP this year is 30:48. Last night, it was 27:59. That’s basically 1 less drive or chance to score. 
 

Lastly, 8 points were scored last night directly due to our inability to stop the run. 

[dpberr]

1 hour ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

TOP difference was more because our lack of execution, those stats dont tell the story and are a misleading stat for last nights game.  They run the ball every play, clocks keeps ticking TOP keeps climbing DESPITE actual production.  They punted 6 times and 5 or fewer plays on 7 of their 9 drives.  We were throwing a lot and clock stops on incompletions which makes the TOP looks worse than it was for our defense.  

 

End of the day, offensive gameplan and execution, penalties. drops were the culprit here.   

Don't disagree the offense shoulders a lot of blame, but I think the leaky defense shares some too.  That was no top shelf defensive coaching effort last night, IMO.

 

 

 

 

[DrDawkinstein]

6 minutes ago, Saint Doug said:

This is how it works. When their offense is on the field, our offense cannot be on the field scoring points. NE ran it down our throats, almost having 2 100-yard rushers. They didn’t throw at all. This translated to the Cheatriots being on the field for an extra 3 minutes. Our average TOP this year is 30:48. Last night, it was 27:59. That’s basically 1 less drive or chance to score. 
 

Lastly, 8 points were scored last night directly due to our inability to stop the run. 

 

Picking nits, but 1:55 of that 3min difference was their last possession of killing the clock, not actual game time. And the Bills had 10 possessions to the Pat's 9. Coulda been better, dont get me wrong, but not as bad as it looks on paper.