Bills pass D with 2+ score leads in the 2nd half has been atrocious lately. What gives?

[Cheektowaga Chad]

6 minutes ago, Bleeding Bills Blue said:

 

Well we played a bit more man, blitzed some more in this one.  They're definitely experimenting because of the issues.  

 

The pass rush didn't have a good game in this one either.  

They need more from the pass rush, blitzing should help

 

Really just need to speed up the QB as much as possible, need to help your defensive backs

[Nephilim17]

Nick Chubb is one of the top two or three rushers in the league — and with far fewer attempts than Henry or Barkley and even Jacobs. Yesterday we held him to 19 yards on the day.

 

19 yards.

 

We were all afraid of Chubb and the Bills D totally held him in check. So, missing two pro bowl defensive backs Frasier and the D decided to let Brissett pass the ball — and try to beat us that way. He could not.

 

As good as Brissett was (I'd love to see him back up Allen), the Bills were in control of the game the entire second half.

 

The D did its job yesterday. With Poyer back in the lineup I expect the secondary to do its job for the remainder of the season. We don't have the veterans to lock down both the opponents run and pass game every game but our D will be good enough to win if the offense limits turnovers.

[BuffaloRebound]

The injuries in the Back 7 are probably 80% of the reason.  

The other 20% is wasting $6m per year on special teams only players like Neal and Matekevich instead of quality backups.  

[zow2]

There's no scheme issue, no excuses...they just sucked lately.  Some of the backups just aren't up to it.  And the QB's are too comfortable in the pocket, even Zach Wilson was able to do what he needed to do to extend drives.

[billsbackto81]

Scheme and personnel, mostly due to injuries. A healthy Poyer, White and Elam will do wonders down the stretch.

[HoofHearted]

Just for clarification, is zone coverage considered "prevent defense" to most of you?

[US Egg]

An atrocious win?

 

[RocCityRoller]

50% of CB1, CB2, SS1 and FS1 have been out for most of the season.

There have been games where the entire starting secondary, other than Taron Johnson, have been out.

 

Dane Jackson has regressed without Poyer and Hyde making adjustments and calls.

Taron Johnson's knack for PD and INTs has also disappeared, perhaps due to the same reason.

 

Rumor has it if a guy is a backup, he probably isn't starter caliber in the NFL.

 

CB3 and CB4 are rookies going through growing pains and injuries. If I'm not mistaken Benford is playing with a broken hand

OBD didn't address S in a very deep S draft

 

It's a mystery. The fact this staff still has the Bills anywhere near the top of the defensive stats is impressive to me given the injury bug.

[mikemac2001]

9 minutes ago, RocCityRoller said:

 

 

Taron Johnson's knack for PD and INTs has also disappeared, perhaps due to the same reason.

 No idea why he was covering amari so much that’s a terrible match up. I assume they trusted him more but he was getting torched 

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

They actually played well yesterday. The coverage is there. The receivers are just making a lot of insane catches recently on insane throws. 
 

if there was a coverage lapse, it was at linebacker. I really don’t want to see Dodson and Bernard out there in coverage again. 

[Radar]

I've always thought our D is very soft protecting leads or in critical situations defying stats. I have much more confidence in our offense to come back than I do our defense to protect leads. All in all we've had a good defense many consider a great one. Great/good depending on the circumstances.

[buffaloboyinATL]

1 hour ago, Big Turk said:

 

Only game he had over 300 yards passing and 3 TDs this year was against the Bills...

 

He had 212 against the Fins last week and 266 against the Pats, although he was 21 of 45 with a completion percentage of under 50%.

 

not used to seeing the Bills struggle like this in pass D.

 

He played well but we made him look better than he was.

Part of it is that we are getting everyone else's A game, like you illustrated with Brissett's performance.  That's what happens when you are the perceived "team to beat". For better teams, or teams built the right way, that A game is difficult to beat. (i.e. Vikings) For others, we are good enough to beat them 9 out of 10 times, but that A game still narrows the margin for error.  

[st pete gogolak]

Browns had approximately 400 yards total.  Of that, 75 on opening drive (which counts of course) and approximately 150 on last two "garbage time" TD drives with Bills having big leads.  Incredible job to hold Chubb to 19 yards on 15 carries.  I also get playing prevent defense up big late.  Ask the Browns.  They gave up an 80 TD pass under 2 minutes left and cost them loss to Jets early in the season.  Helped ruin their season.  What I don't get, however, is the last drive and not forcing the play away from the sidelines.  Play after play Brisset was completing passes to receivers who stepped out of bounds and stopped the clock burning maybe 5 or 6 seconds.  A completion inbounds burns 30.  Keeping receivers in play would have forced Cleveland to heave something towards the end zone at the end instead of having a shot to recover an onsides kick and causing more heart palpatations in BUFF.

[BullBuchanan]

2 hours ago, Big Turk said:

 

I know that's part of the issue but even against the Fins they barely gave up 200 yard passing, and that was due to the one deep shot they hit mid 4th quarter.

 

It's a recent issue...the Bills to begin the season and going back to last year when White was out actually gave up LESS yards to teams than they did with him...

Is that the game where we played against Teddy Bridgewater and Tua's scrambled egg brain?

It's not a recent issue at all. Fraziers defense's have been poor against big passing plays since he got here - especially on drive continuing plays like 3rd/4th and long, or game winning drives. We've fallen apart in these scenarios regardless of talent or roster health.

[wjag]

I think it is perfect storm.  One All Pro (and even he is missing games) and a bunch of "who's that" in the secondary and a genuine lack of pass rush to cover up for the fact that the secondary is full of "who's that".

[Big Turk]

1 minute ago, BullBuchanan said:

Is that the game where we played against Teddy Bridgewater and Tua's scrambled egg brain?

It's not a recent issue at all. Fraziers defense's have been poor against big passing plays since he got here - especially on drive continuing plays like 3rd/4th and long, or game winning drives. We've fallen apart in these scenarios regardless of talent or roster health.

 

Yeah...that just isn't correct.  The Bills averaged under 200 yards passing allowed for like 20 games from start of last year into the first few games of this year. This is simply recency bias on your part.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Big Turk

[BullBuchanan]

11 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

 

Yeah...that just isn't correct.  The Bills averaged under 200 yards passing allowed for like 20 games from start of last year into the first few games of this year. This is simply recency bias on your part.

Yea, no.

The issue is that our situational flaws which have resulted in defensive meltdowns are now being exploited more often, like on practically every 3rd down. If you keep giving up 3rd and 20 and 4th and 18, you aren't going to keep defenses under 200 yards passing a large percentage of the time.

Also, average is pretty meaningless when you take into account they had 3 games where opponents had 61 or less passing yards. Our schedule last year was a joke.

Edited November 21, 2022 by BullBuchanan

[smuvtalker]

2 hours ago, FilthyBeast said:

"not much is going to change even when they get some of these other injured players back at some point."

I liked much of your post, but the above statement, I respectfully disagree with. 

 

We have played damn near the entire season with a huge portion of the defense missing, and on more than one occasion the entire starting secondary out.  I'm sorry but that is simply too much to ask of any team.  The fact that we are 7-3 is IMO nothing short of a miracle.   I do agree with you in that we've stopped getting pressure again with our front four which was a huge issue last season and the reason Beane added Settle, Jones, Lawson, and Phillips.  But remember, Oliver, Settle, AND Phillips are all dealing with injuries sustained at some point this season and none of them are really at 100%....couple that with the fact Rousseau's absence has been grossly underestimated...the guy was playing monster football this year, both in pass rushing (2nd on the team in sacks) and he has proven to be a hell of a run defender....

 

IF we get all our starters back (minus Hyde), and that is a colossally huge IF, everything is going to change.  Everything.  

[Billever76]

2 hours ago, Big Turk said:

We used to LOVE when teams had to drop back and pass, it was rare they got to 200 yards passing in a game...now we are seeing 300+ games against us with regularity. It's concerning...more so because the Bills seemingly offer no resistance whatsoever on D for much of the time. The pass rush is dangerously close to going back to the "lots of pressure but no sacks" defense we had with Hughes here. The DLine was ALL OVER Brissett yesterday but only brought him down for a sack once on a blitz by Milano. Is the pass rush not staying in their rush lanes which offers easy escape routes?  Is the D playing too soft thinking the QB won't have time to get the ball deep due to the pressure?

 

I'm not sure what has happened but the turning point was the Steeler game...although we easily won, Pickett had 300+ yards passing. Since that point it's been like a giant sh**show on D when we are up big...players running wide open, easy drives for TDs against us...not sure what the answer is, but it needs to change back to the way we were in the beginning of the year.

Injuries injuries injuries and Frazier not willing to adapt his scheme to compensate for the decline in the secondary 

[Big Turk]

24 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

Yea, no.

The issue is that our situational flaws which have resulted in defensive meltdowns are now being exploited more often, like on practically every 3rd down. If you keep giving up 3rd and 20 and 4th and 18, you aren't going to keep defenses under 200 yards passing a large percentage of the time.

Also, average is pretty meaningless when you take into account they had 3 games where opponents had 61 or less passing yards. Our schedule last year was a joke.

 

Guess the last 5 years worth of schedule was a joke then since the Bills ranked #1 in virtually every pass D category over that timeframe.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Big Turk