If Only They Could Tackle..It's Not Just the Coaching

[Niagara Dude]

Sorry but this defence sucks and today allowed a bad offence with some no name QB look good today.  This is all about McDermott and his ego, he has never allowed the team to bring in a big name defensive cordinator who actually has game plans and just hires within because he can control them.  Defence stinks and has cost Allen many times in the playoffs .  Too many players that are either too small or too slow and then Mcdermott just plays them with his stupid zone defence,  where he has his corners 10-12 yards off the line of scrimmage.  

[Big Turk]

1 hour ago, DeltaDigital said:

Championship level O with nobody on defense that can change the game

 

Bosa is definitely a game changer

3 minutes ago, Niagara Dude said:

Sorry but this defence sucks and today allowed a bad offence with some no name QB look good today.  This is all about McDermott and his ego, he has never allowed the team to bring in a big name defensive cordinator who actually has game plans and just hires within because he can control them.  Defence stinks and has cost Allen many times in the playoffs .  Too many players that are either too small or too slow and then Mcdermott just plays them with his stupid zone defence,  where he has his corners 10-12 yards off the line of scrimmage.  

 

OK ..and they allowed 19 points and 298 yards.

 

Do people actually watch other games before they come up with this stuff?

 

I'm not saying it was good, but it sure as heck wasn't like the Ravens against the Chiefs either.

[GunnerBill]

38 minutes ago, D. L. Hot-Flamethrower said:

Babich is a huge issue at this point.

 

Agree. I don't know what the answer is. There are three possible solutions I guess if you move on:

 

1. McD does it again like he did in 2023 - but for 2/3rds of that season it meant him doing two jobs poorly. He did find his groove down the stretch run a bit and that was the last time our D looked even somewhat good but feels a risk. 

 

2. Ryan Neilsen - has DC experience but was fired twice in two years before landing here and the Jags D that looked awful with him last year immediately looking decent with the new chap would be a concern. 

 

3. Al Holcomb - was the other finalist when Babich was hired. Had three games as an interim DC in Arizona and a season as DC in Carolina with mediocre results but hard to tell how much that was on him given the talent. 

 

 

I don't love any of those to be honest. But I think the point where they have to try something is coming. Never good news for a coordinator when the first word that comes to mind to describe a defense is "uncoordinated" 😆

[Dr.Sack]

Gang tackling is an always preferred. Bosa missing on the edge multiple times losing containment - not good enough. First TD missed tackles by Taron, Rapp and finally Tre. Too many guys appear to be making business decisions and not going all out. Or it could be all 3 of those guys are 29, 28 and 30 years old and showing signs of aging out.

[Don Otreply]

1 hour ago, DeltaDigital said:

Championship level O with nobody on defense that can change the game

It’s the scheme, and personnel usage, it always has been, both are sub optimal, to put it kindly, 

[DeltaDigital]

Just now, Don Otreply said:

It’s the scheme, and personnel usage, it always has been, both are sub optimal, to put it kindly, 

Careful.. you’ll be a pariah around here for pointing out the cold hard truths. 
 

 

[billybob71]

Damn what this thread is telling me is that its all gonna end badly in playoffs due to the defense, another year of wasting JA. Oh well at least that big comet isn't gonna hit us

[Don Otreply]

4 minutes ago, DeltaDigital said:

Careful.. you’ll be a pariah around here for pointing out the cold hard truths. 
 

 

Even homers like Gunner bill, me and others are less than happy about the defense, the bigger difference is we don’t ride that horse all season long, as crappy as the “D” played the opponent was held to 19 points, and we are scoring 30 or more every game so far, gotta like that😁👍🍸🚬

[GerstAusGosheim]

2 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

The tackling was ATROCIOUS today. 

 

There is plenty to criticise on the coaching. I thought both coordinators had poor days playcalling. But the fundamentals of tackling were just abysmal. 

 

Did I hear correctly on the broadcast that the Bills have allowed the most rushing yards against? That's totally unacceptable.

[RobbRiddicksTDLeap]

Shaq Thompson brings a different mentality to the field, and it shows when he’s out there. I’m sure there is a logical reason that he’s not out there, but the run defense looked tougher with him on the field. 

[Buffalo716]

Just now, GerstAusGosheim said:

 

Did I hear correctly on the broadcast that the Bills have allowed the most rushing yards against? That's totally unacceptable.

But we're allowing 130 yards passing 

 

McDermott is clearly willing to let people take a long time running down the field.. between the 25s.. and then he clamps it

 

Even when we needed to tighten up against Baltimore we stopped the run the last three drives 

 

he's playing a long game... And we're still top 10 in points against 

 

And they're getting good players back so there's still optimism

 

 

[BillsFanForever19]

It's a good thing we have the following coming in and coming back soon:

 

Ed Oliver

Matt Milano

Maxwell Hairston

Michael Hoecht

Larry Ogunjobi

[GerstAusGosheim]

43 minutes ago, Niagara Dude said:

Sorry but this defence sucks...This is all about McDermott and his ego, he has never allowed the team to bring in a big name defensive cordinator who actually has game plans. 

 

Leslie was a pretty big name when we hired him. And he had the #1 and #2 ranked D in his final 2 years. 

[SoCal Deek]

I was just about to say our Linebackers are too small, but then I see this skinny kid make an impressive tackle for the Packers on third down. Maybe scrawny is the new stout! 🤷🏼‍♂️

[mjt328]

One-quarter into the season, this is the worst Defense the Bills have fielded since Josh Allen's breakout year.

So much is going wrong, it's almost impossible to know where to point the finger.  Sean McDermott?  Bobby Babich?  The secondary?  The pass rush?  

 

The pass rush gets no consistent pressure, despite it being the #1 priority in the offseason.  Every QB has at least 3-4 seconds to scan the field.  Groot has been completely invisible since signing his big contract.  For every great play Joey Bosa has made, he's also had twice as many times losing outside contain and allowing an even bigger play. 

 

This may be the worst tackling unit in football.  Half the time our guys completely whiff.  When they do actually make contact, they immediately fall off or get dragged for an additional 3-4 yards.  If the problem is us being undersized, then why are we also slow to get into position?  

 

The secondary is an absolute joke.  They give every receiver 7-8 yards of space, and still leave guys wide open.  Nobody can make a play to knock the ball away, including Christian Benford.

 

I would like to believe that things will change when guys get healthy.  But this defense is never fully healthy.  One guy comes back, another two go down.  Are we really counting on Matt Milano?  And a rookie cornerback?  And Ed Oliver, who is notoriously huge in one game and then disappears for the next 3-4?  

[TBBills Fan]

17 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

It's a good thing we have the following coming in and coming back soon:

 

Ed Oliver

Matt Milano

Maxwell Hairston

Michael Hoecht

Larry Ogunjobi

 

Exactly 

[colin]

I'm not happy with the d, and the offense is much much better, but I think after the first quarter the o was worse than the d for quite a bit.  The pick and the turnover on downs was awful.

 

Also, and this is not to defend the d, our special teams is really trash.  For some reason teams never miss hard kicks against us, and our average start today felt awful.  That holding on us vs them late in the game moved the ball from the 30 to the 50, and we had the ball deep in our own end way too much.

 

I hated the refs and their calls today 

[Livinginthepast]

Forget the bad tackling, that was bad enough but the Bills had 4-5 straight up whiffs where the defensive players were grabbing at air today.

[JP51]

1 hour ago, D. L. Hot-Flamethrower said:

Babich is a huge issue at this point.

He is an embarrassment bottom line he needs to be fired today. If McD won't fire him then fire McD his unit is horrific the regression of Rousseau is nothing short of epic... the angles and tackling are an abomination almost no one disrupts and they get gashed on the ground on a weekly basis and this is after playing only 1 team with any hope of making the playoffs 

[billsfan_34]

1 hour ago, Peace Frog said:

#27 is a liability (sorry, Tre)

I don’t think Tre was the problem today. Bosa was brutal against the run. Don’t get me started on Dorian Williams and Cole Bishop.