How good is the Bills new starting defense?

[Eastport bills]

9 minutes ago, Success said:

 

How can you say that the team is not good enough to withstand the loss of the 3 players....and then we don't even know what our new D looks like?

 

Did you watch Jax march down the field in the 2nd half last week. It was ugly. Ridley made Elam look  like a clueless scrub. He’s in the mix with Jackson and Benford. Both are nursing injuries. Are you confident a rookie or AJ Klein can replace one of the top LBs in football. The loss of Jones is not as bad because our rotation can overcome. 

[balln]

1 hour ago, EmotionallyUnstable said:

I think one of the biggest changes will be how McD adjusts schematically from a philosophical stand point. 
 

With the injuries mounting, does he pull back a bit and play things safer, or instead lean into it and step things up a knotch.

 

I have no idea what his answer will be. I don’t have any ideas what the right answer WILL be (regardless of if he chooses to do that or not). 
 

White, Jones, Milano losses hurt a ton. But football is played with 11 guys. And the players stepping in aren’t peewee level. It’ll be up to McD to craft a plan to cover any significant deficiencies they perceive and cover them up how they see fit. This might come at an expense in numerous ways. Although I do think McD is up to the task.

 

I still see this D as a top 10 unit, which should be fine enough to win most games. 

Lol. McD isn’t changing anything. he is going to play the exact same D no matter what. No matter how it does in game

 

and that will Be yet another reason why this D will get smoked against good O. I’m talking cincy and kc. They’ll pound us right up the gut. And just pick apart our zones on the outside. 
 

I feel like a broken record. It’s all on Josh to ascend to a unanimous mvp and take the offense and team to new heights 

Edited October 15, 2023 by balln

[SCBills]

6 minutes ago, Eastport bills said:

Did you watch Jax march down the field in the 2nd half last week. It was ugly. Ridley made Elam look  like a clueless scrub. He’s in the mix with Jackson and Benford. Both are nursing injuries. Are you confident a rookie or AJ Klein can replace one of the top LBs in football. The loss of Jones is not as bad because our rotation can overcome. 

1) I’m confident in McDermott to figure out the secondary before the trade deadline passes. 
 

2) No one will be Milano, but Milano plays the “RB” Position of the Defense in off ball linebacker.  It’s the easiest position on the defense to replace. 
 

3) Actually we better hope Poona Ford can play, because a huge component of having undersized fast linebackers is keeping them clean, which our DL with Jones absolutely did.  

[Eastport bills]

14 minutes ago, BillsUberAlles said:

 

Allen turning the ball over in the first game is what led to that and the offense doing nothing is what led to the loss against Cincy.

 

If you are expecting the D to hold a good offensive team to 7 points in the playoffs you are dreaming...that's not the way the NFL works anymore.

 

Did you watch the Super Bowl at all last year? How important was defense in that game? Not very.

 

 

Before responding please read up on the game against Cinn. They scored 27 and manhandled our defense. The receivers destroyed our secondary. The run game was prolific. Take a look at the statistics of the game . Our offense was bad but the defense lacked talent, intensity or coaching. I’m done.

[RG Murdock]

25 minutes ago, Eastport bills said:

“The D will be plenty good enough “ because they had Elam let Ridley run free and convert every 3rd down in the second half.of the Jags game. How will our corners do against Cinn.receivers or Philly’s, or Miami’s? Now we don’t have our best underneath defender(Milano) and our defense will be plenty good enough. To beat the G-Men, NE and Denver, sure. This team is not good enough to withstand the loss of White, Milano and Jones. I don’t scour the board to research your previous posts, I respond to the insulting response to my post.  You don’t even know what our new D looks like, they haven’t played yet.

Get a grip, and off your high horse. Looking at past posts show haven't added much insite. The insulting response was justified. Elam was unfairly thrown to the wolves last week. The entire team (Except Epenesa) was embarrassingly unprepared last week. He's had some solid games. He "might" not ever be #1 worthy, but he'll be fine. Cincy, KC's, or Miami's CB's don't exactly instill fear in anyone either. Bills can still win the AFC. But beating SF, or Philly as currently construed is another story all together..      

[BillsUberAlles]

1 minute ago, Eastport bills said:

Before responding please read up on the game against Cinn. They scored 27 and manhandled our defense. The receivers destroyed our secondary. The run game was prolific. Take a look at the statistics of the game . Our offense was bad but the defense lacked talent, intensity or coaching. I’m done.

 

It's about time...you needed to be done 5 hours ago.

[Boatdrinks]

32 minutes ago, Ya Digg? said:

You said the Bills haven’t gone to the conference championship in Josh’s time, that’s not true 

C’mon man. The Bills lost to KC in the AFCCG ; he’s just not accepting it! 

[Ya Digg?]

24 minutes ago, Eastport bills said:

Who did they play in the conference championship? 

They played the Chiefs 

[Eastport bills]

1 minute ago, SCBills said:

1) I’m confident in McDermott to figure out the secondary before the trade deadline passes. 
 

2) No one will be Milano, but Milano plays the “RB” Position of the Defense in off ball linebacker.  It’s the easiest position on the defense to replace. 
 

3) Actually we better hope Poona Ford can play, because a huge component of having undersized fast linebackers is keeping them clean, which our DL with Jones absolutely did.  

I like Sean’s defensive coaching this year. I just think it’s worth bringing someone in to bolster the secondary. I agree with the other stuff.

[Eastport bills]

4 minutes ago, Ya Digg? said:

They played the Chiefs 

2022 KC beats Bengals, 2021 Bengals beats KC, 2020 KC beats Titans what am I missing?

[Ya Digg?]

2 minutes ago, Eastport bills said:

2022 KC beats Bengals, 2021 Bengals beats KC, 2020 KC beats Titans what am I missing?

Google is your friend…if you’re gonna try to troll, gotta be better about it. If you’re not trolling….yikes 

[BADOLBILZ]

4 hours ago, VW82 said:

We're fatally flawed unless we can trade for a one tech. Even if Williams and Elam work out and no one else goes down, we still won't be able to stop the run against the better offenses. We have too many data points of what it looked like minus Star/Daquon.

 

 

Did you say minus Star?  GTFOH! 

 

We have some real jokers on this site.

 

Poona Ford was a better player than Daquon Jones before "DQ" came to a team that has a dynamic offense and plays with leads much more often than not.

 

So let's not pretend that Jones was Aaron Donald.    Settle and Ford have an opportunity to elevate their games the next few weeks.   If they don't then they can call one of the veteran ring chasing free agent DT's or look for a trade.  

 

Just be very glad they didn't extend Jones to some 8 figure aav deal just because he was playing at a high level.   His growing veteran know-how is crossing paths with his declining durability.

 

He plays for an organization that has some of the fewest soft-tissue injuries in the league but he's popped two of them off the bone in his last 6 games.

Edited October 15, 2023 by BADOLBILZ
auto-correct re-correct

[Eastport bills]

13 minutes ago, RG Murdock said:

Get a grip, and off your high horse. Looking at past posts show haven't added much insite. The insulting response was justified. Elam was unfairly thrown to the wolves last week. The entire team (Except Epenesa) was embarrassingly unprepared last week. He's had some solid games. He "might" not ever be #1 worthy, but he'll be fine. Cincy, KC's, or Miami's CB's don't exactly instill fear in anyone either. Bills can still win the AFC. But beating SF, or Philly as currently construed is another story all together..      

That’s my point, counting on a player that was a healthy scratch for the first four games is the formula for disaster. “Unfairly thrown to the wolves” do you mean by playing him at all. You know he’ll be fine by what godly evidence. He’s been scratched in favor of a 7th rounder(Benford) and sucks every time he gets thrown to the wolves. What’s your problem with someone on a high horse? Insult me when I ask for a corner to be acquired before the deadline and you get the high horse. 

[newcam2012]

1 hour ago, Royale with Cheese said:

Man, you will make sure you will find the negative.

 

The year our defense stopped the Ravens, they were 7th in the league in scoring.  In their last 5 games, they scored 37, 47, 40, 27 and 38 points. 
Clearly, Lamar Jackson being one dimensional means they couldn’t score.

 

In 2021, New England was 6th in the NFL in scoring.  They were only .4 points less per game than the Rams who won the Super Bowl.  So clearly, the Pats couldn’t score that year either.

I hear you but you are really missing the point I'm trying to make. McD has been very good at game planning when a QB is limited such as Lamar and Jones were. Both were very sub par passers when we played them. He basically game planned to stop the run. 

 

He was excellent with him s game plan against both of those teams. However, he has had no answer containing KC in the playoffs and we saw what Cinci did. 

 

I just have a difficult time believing his defense that's now depleted of key stars is going to be good enough vs either of those teams. I'd very much like to be wrong here. 

 

 

[Eastport bills]

25 minutes ago, Ya Digg? said:

Google is your friend…if you’re gonna try to troll, gotta be better about it. If you’re not trolling….yikes 

You’re unintelligible first of all and the Bills never got to the conference championship since the 90s genius. I’m done.

[Ya Digg?]

1 minute ago, Eastport bills said:

You’re unintelligible first of all and the Bills never got to the conference championship since the 90s genius. I’m done.

I’m confused, why would you intentionally make yourself look this dumb?

 

seriously, go to google, it’s gonna help you 

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

4 hours ago, newcam2012 said:

Fatally flawed is a bit extreme. However, losing three stars on your defense is more than concerning. The defense clearly won't be as effective. I think that's a given. 

 

I almost feel like it's too big to overcome when the playoffs arrive. That's probably why some refer to it as a fatal flaw. Time will tell if the Bills can overcome such big losses. I get the hope for the best attitude. 

I agree but I'd add in the Bills organization contributed to Jags loss with terrible planning. 

With Josh Allen this team always has a punchers chance even if they lost half the starters. Come playoff time most teams will be losing some significant starter as well so I’m not super worried, but I am partially concerned. 

Edited October 15, 2023 by ChronicAndKnuckles

[Eastport bills]

Just now, Ya Digg? said:

I’m confused, why would you intentionally make yourself look this dumb?

 

seriously, go to google, it’s gonna help you 

How does it feel knowing you’re just wasting your time and everyone else’s not accepting the facts. Ask one of your friends and get some rest. Good night 

[gobills404]

Let’s just say the offense is gonna need to be firing on all cylinders come January, cause his defense is gonna crumble in the playoffs against teams with a good OL.

[Billznut]

11 minutes ago, Ya Digg? said:

I’m confused, why would you intentionally make yourself look this dumb?

 

seriously, go to google, it’s gonna help you 

It’s actually hilarious to watch. I hope he keeps going and then everyone can rightfully ignore anything he spews from this day forward. 

[Ya Digg?]

1 minute ago, Billznut said:

It’s actually hilarious to watch. I hope he keeps going and then everyone can rightfully ignore anything he spews from this day forward. 

Clearly he’s not a Bills fan-I don’t understand why you would go to another team’s discussion board and pretend to be a fan. It was entertaining for a second now it’s just annoying 

[Billznut]

8 minutes ago, Ya Digg? said:

Clearly he’s not a Bills fan-I don’t understand why you would go to another team’s discussion board and pretend to be a fan. It was entertaining for a second now it’s just annoying 

Unfortunately there are a few that do that exact thing. Including here. 

[DapperCam]

1 hour ago, Eastport bills said:

Did you watch Jax march down the field in the 2nd half last week. It was ugly. Ridley made Elam look  like a clueless scrub. He’s in the mix with Jackson and Benford. Both are nursing injuries. Are you confident a rookie or AJ Klein can replace one of the top LBs in football. The loss of Jones is not as bad because our rotation can overcome. 

I kind of disagree that Jones isn’t as bad as the other losses. He was an anchor and made our run defense respectable. His pass rushing was also near the top of the league for a DT.

 

I’m hopeful Poona Ford can help with the run defense aspect, but we’ll see.

[BADOLBILZ]

All the moping and hyperbole about the impact of injuries.........

 

From the same people who said that the Bills MLB position was a complete disaster heading into the season(and Bernard has been excellent)..........and the same people who said the 2021 season was over when Tre White was injured(and they then proceeded to play far better football without him the rest of the season).

 

Some of you need to accept the fact that you don't know sh!t and maybe let things play out JUST a bit. 

 

[Eastport bills]

3 minutes ago, DapperCam said:

I kind of disagree that Jones isn’t as bad as the other losses. He was an anchor and made our run defense respectable. His pass rushing was also near the top of the league for a DT.

 

I’m hopeful Poona Ford can help with the run defense aspect, but we’ll see.

I agree that he was playing out of his mind when he got hurt, but with Settle, Phillips and Ford, they might be able to get by. The loss of Milano and Tre is more problematic, especially if Jackson and Benford are 100%

[Richard Noggin]

2 minutes ago, DapperCam said:

I kind of disagree that Jones isn’t as bad as the other losses. He was an anchor and made our run defense respectable. His pass rushing was also near the top of the league for a DT.

 

I’m hopeful Poona Ford can help with the run defense aspect, but we’ll see.

 

I would actually argue that Jones is the BIGGEST loss on defense. And that's saying something, with Tre getting back to full speed, and Milano performing at ELITE, ALL-PRO, BEST-IN-SHOW levels. Maybe the best LB in the league over the first quarter of the season. 

 

But DaQuan Jones, healthy and motivated, was pushing the pocket and dominating the LOS in ways that had cascading impacts across all levels of the defense. Oliver and Jones on the interior was lookin' GOOD.  

[Punching Bag]

43 minutes ago, Ya Digg? said:

I’m confused, why would you intentionally make yourself look this dumb?

 

seriously, go to google, it’s gonna help you 

 

30 minutes ago, Billznut said:

It’s actually hilarious to watch. I hope he keeps going and then everyone can rightfully ignore anything he spews from this day forward. 

 

I do not get it. Humor like Keystone Cops is so out of date.  Simpler to change avatar to a dunce cap.

29 minutes ago, Ya Digg? said:

Clearly he’s not a Bills fan-I don’t understand why you would go to another team’s discussion board and pretend to be a fan. It was entertaining for a second now it’s just annoying 

 

There are many, many such trolls.  Something to do with quality of other boards with graphic signatures, popup ads and overuse of icons in titles.

[Richard Noggin]

21 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

There are many, many such trolls.  Something to do with quality of other boards with graphic signatures, popup ads and overuse of icons in titles.

 

 

Do posters here fully recognize how much cleaner, quieter, and just civil, this site is compared to other NFL message boards? They're so seedy and noisy and ugly. 

[Special K]

The Miami game was a tease as to how good this team was going to be this year....such a shame that the D will not be on that level again this year.

 

The D went from being elite to being slightly above average in a span of a few quarters of football.

 

One thing that is for certain is that this D cannot afford any more long term injuries. If say a Hyde, Oliver or Bernard finds their way on to the injured list for a long period of time, the D will further drop from slightly above average to below average very quickly.

 

Please Defense.....stay healthy from this point forward!!

[Royale with Cheese]

1 hour ago, newcam2012 said:

I hear you but you are really missing the point I'm trying to make. McD has been very good at game planning when a QB is limited such as Lamar and Jones were. Both were very sub par passers when we played them. He basically game planned to stop the run. 

 

He was excellent with him s game plan against both of those teams. However, he has had no answer containing KC in the playoffs and we saw what Cinci did. 

 

I just have a difficult time believing his defense that's now depleted of key stars is going to be good enough vs either of those teams. I'd very much like to be wrong here. 

 

 

Our game plan was to stop the run when we scored TD’s on every drive against the Pats?  We were up 28 points by the midpoint of the 2nd quarter and McDermott is playing the run?

 

 

[newcam2012]

1 hour ago, Royale with Cheese said:

Our game plan was to stop the run when we scored TD’s on every drive against the Pats?  We were up 28 points by the midpoint of the 2nd quarter and McDermott is playing the run?

 

 

Initially yes. Then is was all about stopping the pass because the Bills were up so up. They Oats were forced to pass. Frankly, they sucked at it and McD no longer had to worry about their running game. That just bolsters my theme. McD and frankly many other coaches have difficulty when offenses have dual threats. 

 

That lack of duel threat has hurt the Bills in the past. Meaning they couldn't establish an effective running game to keep teams honest. 

 

I can play the numbers game too. McD is 4-5 in the playoffs with an elite Allen for at least 3 years. Not a whole of playoff success under him. Let's get down to the gritty.

[Thurman#1]

15 hours ago, Process said:

Miller-Phillips-Oliver-Rousseau

Williams-Bernard

Jackson-Johnson-Poyer-Hyde-Benford

 

With Floyd AJE Ford as additional depth that will get a lot of playing time

 

That still looks pretty good to me? 

 

CB depth is a concern, we have none. Also WLB, but that's probably the least important position on D.

 

With McDermott as DC, is this still a top 5 unit? 10? 15?

 

And with a top X defense, is our offense good/consistent enough to still win a Superbowl?

 

Last week sucked, but we still have a top 2 QB, top 5 WR, and solid pass blocking o line. If they can go into the playoffs playing their best ball, unlike last year, Bills are still a Superbowl favorite, IMO. 

 

 

My guess is we'll still be a top ten defense with McDermott in charge, because of his schemes and his ability to coach up defensive backfields. But I'm thinking it will take a week or three to get to that level.

[DKBills25]

I think Klein get the start and does very well tonight 

[GunnerBill]

I think it can still be top 10 to 15 so long as we don't lose anyone else. In a lot of spots now we are one more injury away from being bad. Can't afford to lose Oliver. Can't afford to lose Bernard. Can't afford to lose Benford. 

6 hours ago, Eastport bills said:

2022 KC beats Bengals, 2021 Bengals beats KC, 2020 KC beats Titans what am I missing?

 

2020 the Chiefs beat the Bills. 2019 they beat the Titans.

[Bookie Man]

Josh Norman makes the secondary dangerous…

 

not in a good way

[Ya Digg?]

4 hours ago, DKBills25 said:

I think Klein get the start and does very well tonight 

I hope this isn’t the case at all. Klein brings very little to the defense at this point in his career. Giving him any playing time outside of an injury to the current linebackers is a huge mistake 

[Eastport bills]

4 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

I think it can still be top 10 to 15 so long as we don't lose anyone else. In a lot of spots now we are one more injury away from being bad. Can't afford to lose Oliver. Can't afford to lose Bernard. Can't afford to lose Benford. 

 

2020 the Chiefs beat the Bills. 2019 they beat the Titans.

Brain freeze, you’re absolutely right. Sorry 

[rpmfla]

The pass rush has greatly improved and I think this season's Bills defense has been all about the takeaways. Teams have moved the ball on them but the Bills have managed to take the ball away in crucial moments. If they manage to continue this trend they will be fine. 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

20 hours ago, Einstein said:

I wouldn’t assume Williams is the starter. I think it will be a split role.

 

The real problem is the secondary. It’s in shambles.

Not just due to injury. But also age.

 

20 hours ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

If you tell me Williams is actually going to start I’ll be happy. 

 

Interesting article I read yesterdays can't recall where, compared Milano's rookie year, how Rambo Hunter was stater and Milano was brought along slowly, but by the end of the year though he was the starter.  Article thought the same thing may happen here, on likely running plays, you'll see Dobson, but on pass plays Williams and if if Williams learns not to over pursue will see more of him.

[Solomon Grundy]

20 hours ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

If you tell me Williams is actually going to start I’ll be happy. 

I'll take Spector over Dodson