Game week thread - Pats at Bills SNF

[The Firebaugh Kid]

3 minutes ago, BBills said:

Looking forward to having Ed and Matt back this week. They will provide much needed reinforcements for our last ranked rushing defense. 

This defense desperately needs them. And Hoecht and Larry O

[Rockinon]

I agree. At home in prime time, the Bills will be up for this game. Have a hunch some of the guys held out with injuries were just a matter of being cautious and they'll be ready to do battle against NE. Ed and Matt back would be huge. Spencer too. Going to be a good game. I'm sure NE is going to be bringing their A game. Is that going to be enough though? Not sure it is for a full 60 minutes. The pressure is on them. The Bills though, all they have to do is handle their business. Pretty much a business as usual game. They have some things to clean up and I think that is what's going to happen. The Bills are all ready scoring on their opening drive at a high clip. Now, they just need to extend that into the second and 3rd qtrs. Defense to me seems like they are trying to figure some things out and I believe they will get better as the season progresses. They've all ready shown that they can make plays at opportune times in the game. Plenty of things to build on. Just part of the business. NE may be improving. Problem is, so is Buffalo. 

[strive_for_five_guy]

24 minutes ago, Rockinon said:

I agree. At home in prime time, the Bills will be up for this game. Have a hunch some of the guys held out with injuries were just a matter of being cautious and they'll be ready to do battle against NE. Ed and Matt back would be huge. Spencer too. Going to be a good game. I'm sure NE is going to be bringing their A game. Is that going to be enough though? Not sure it is for a full 60 minutes. The pressure is on them. The Bills though, all they have to do is handle their business. Pretty much a business as usual game. They have some things to clean up and I think that is what's going to happen. The Bills are all ready scoring on their opening drive at a high clip. Now, they just need to extend that into the second and 3rd qtrs. Defense to me seems like they are trying to figure some things out and I believe they will get better as the season progresses. They've all ready shown that they can make plays at opportune times in the game. Plenty of things to build on. Just part of the business. NE may be improving. Problem is, so is Buffalo. 

SNF is just another day in the office for Josh.  Playing in Buffalo on SNF is a huge step up for Drake Maye.  Josh should win this game 8 to 9 times out of 10.

[Success]

Are Ed and Milano definitely back for the Pats?

 

Any chance we see Hairston?

 

[rjbbills]

McDermy and the Babich posse will be out coached in this one. Here's some additional data to support our sorry run defense. Henry had 169 on the Billls Babich run defense. The next three games Henry was held under 60 yards per game. Saints had 189 yards on the ground. I believe the Bills D is giving up an average of roughly 140 a game. Look for Pats to run the ball up our sorry A D and quick passes. McDermy and Babich will react at some point in the 4th quarter. Stay the course, stay the process, review the film. Pats not scared of our D. We'll be burning our storm front jerseys after this one. Hope I'm wrong but McDermy and Babich have not shown me anything to change my thoughts. On the positive side, we're not worse than the Ravens D. 

[Fleezoid]

 

14 minutes ago, rjbbills said:

McDermy and the Babich posse will be out coached in this one. Here's some additional data to support our sorry run defense. Henry had 169 on the Billls Babich run defense. The next three games Henry was held under 60 yards per game. Saints had 189 yards on the ground. I believe the Bills D is giving up an average of roughly 140 a game. Look for Pats to run the ball up our sorry A D and quick passes. McDermy and Babich will react at some point in the 4th quarter. Stay the course, stay the process, review the film. Pats not scared of our D. We'll be burning our storm front jerseys after this one. Hope I'm wrong but McDermy and Babich have not shown me anything to change my thoughts. On the positive side, we're not worse than the Ravens D. 

 

Bills are 2nd worst in the league at rushing yards allowed. 657 with 164.3 / gm. Second worst to the Bears at 658; 164.5 / gm. 

 

 

[billsfan89]

20 minutes ago, Success said:

Are Ed and Milano definitely back for the Pats?

 

Any chance we see Hairston?

 

 

I think the earliest this team is going to see Hairston is likely after the bye, they haven't even activated his 21 day practice window. I think they aren't in a rush to get him back they really need him for a stretch run. Ed and Milano seem like they will have a shot to be back which should be a needed shot in the arm.

Just now, Fleezoid said:

 

 

Bills are 2nd worst in the league at rushing yards allowed. 657 with 164.3 / gm. Second worst to the Bears at 658; 164.5 / gm. 

 

 

 

I wonder if any people who are very knowledgeable on this can explain why? Is it the D-line getting blown back consistently? Is it poor LB play? Is it poor secondary tackling? You obviously don't get that level of bad without there being issues with all 3 levels of defense but there's obviously some levels that could be worse than the other. 

[julian]

3 hours ago, 50yrpatsfan said:

NE is better everywhere. They should be 3-1 but blew the Steelers game with 5 turnovers, two of which were inside the Pittsburgh 3 yard line. Outgained them 400 to 200 and lost 21-14.

 

The defense has been getting after the QB with Barmore, Milton Williams, and Landry, and the Pats' top corner Gonzalez is back after missing the first 3 games. The offense is playing good football for the first time in years. OL is solid so far with 4 new faces. The run game hasn't been great but better the past 2 weeks.  Weapons are better all the way around, not great but effective. Diggs has been making plays and being a solid citizen. Love what Hollins brings. But the main thing is Maye and Josh McDaniels got it going. Maye is very comparable to Justin Herbert, and extremely similar playing style.

 

The Patriots look about ready for a game of this magnitude.   

[Simon]

24 minutes ago, billsfan89 said:

I wonder if any people who are very knowledgeable on this can explain why? Is it the D-line getting blown back consistently? Is it poor LB play? Is it poor secondary tackling? You obviously don't get that level of bad without there being issues with all 3 levels of defense but there's obviously some levels that could be worse than the other.

 

From my couch the problems would appear to be, in order: LB (particularly the stunningly lost DWilliams), inconsistent rookie DT's and then safety (especially Rapp, who has been gawdawful while Bishops is getting somewhat better).

[DaBillsFanSince1973]

[Success]

19 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

From my couch the problems would appear to be, in order: LB (particularly the stunningly lost DWilliams), inconsistent rookie DT's and then safety (especially Rapp, who has been gawdawful while Bishops is getting somewhat better).

 

Rapp is a backup.  

 

We should have picked up Peppers, imo.

 

Edited Monday at 11:10 PM by Success

[PromoTheRobot]

On 9/28/2025 at 9:55 PM, PromoTheRobot said:

 

It would be great if the Cold Front jersey I ordered on Sept. 10 arrives in time for the Cold Front game Oct. 5.

 

Update: package due to arrive on Oct 2. I'm leaving for Buffalo Oct 3. Fingers crossed.

Edited Tuesday at 11:36 AM by PromoTheRobot

[Rockinon]

34 minutes ago, billsfan89 said:

 

I think the earliest this team is going to see Hairston is likely after the bye, they haven't even activated his 21 day practice window. I think they aren't in a rush to get him back they really need him for a stretch run. Ed and Milano seem like they will have a shot to be back which should be a needed shot in the arm.

 

I wonder if any people who are very knowledgeable on this can explain why? Is it the D-line getting blown back consistently? Is it poor LB play? Is it poor secondary tackling? You obviously don't get that level of bad without there being issues with all 3 levels of defense but there's obviously some levels that could be worse than the other. 

The defense is aligned to stop the pass and prevent big plays. It requires very stringent gap discipline when facing a running play, though. Historically the Bills have been able to stop the run when they really want to but that has been with players who know and understand their role within the defense. We have a lot of new faces on defense and key cogs like Milano and Oliver out with injury isn't helping. The defense is still a little green IMHO. I think with each game, we're going to see the defense improve at stopping the run. This style of defense is not the best alignment for stopping the run because the main focus is to prevent big pass plays. Stopping the run is secondary to the core objective of preventing downfield passes but it's still important. What we've witnessed so far this season is a lot of new faces on defense getting some hard lessons on what their gap responsibility is. It's not as easy as simply knowing what gap you are responsible for either. You must also know  the responsibility of the guy next to you and be able to communicate with them. 

 

Stopping the run is fixable. These guys just need to keep working at it and gel with their supporting cast. It takes the whole defense to stop the run and with so many new faces, it doesn't just happen over night. I am really not that worried because I've seen this kind of defense stop the run before. It does work. The players just have to work harder at it. They'll come around.

[notpolian]

Patriots have a young and sometimes very effective QB.  Need to put him in duress or at least play from behind.  Lots of noise in the stadium and the pressure of a night game is good for the Bills.  Definitely a big game that I hope all will be up for.

 

And definitely try to avoid punting to their returner if possible!

[RunTheBall]

The guys just have to tackle. So many times guys are in the correct position and just whiff.

 

the D-line isn’t getting as washed as it was against the Ravens. Bosa needs to set the edge better though. The LBs, Tauron, and the safeties are missing tackles and/or taking bad angles.

 

Dorian Williams will be replaced by Shaq Thompson if Glass Milano can’t go. Williams was abysmal in the Saints game. Year 3 (?) and the guy still bites on every play action, gets fooled by every misdirection, and makes Klein look like a healthy Milano when he has to cover in space.

[MasterStrategist]

1 hour ago, Simon said:

 

From my couch the problems would appear to be, in order: LB (particularly the stunningly lost DWilliams), inconsistent rookie DT's and then safety (especially Rapp, who has been gawdawful while Bishops is getting somewhat better).

💯 

 

Our Lbs, including Bernard, have been slow to "fire"/see and react fast to the hole.  Bernard getting better, Dorian has been super slow reading things IMO - this past week, the threat of bootlegs just had Dorian lost.

 

Deone has been inconsistent, but had his best game this past week at staying with his leverage/technique and playing the correct gap control.  Phillips was awful Sunday.  Daquan has been slightly below.average for over a year, I fully expect his playing time to decrease when Ed is at full health and Oji returns.  TJ hasn't been good at controlling his gap in the run game --- the combo of him and Phillips was so bad that 1st drive, that they split up the Deone and Daqaun combo.

 

IMO, our biggest issue this past week was Phillips.  His poor play directly led to us needing to switch DT pairings.  We absolutely need Ed back healthy, and the 4 man rotation goes back to being a solid group. 

 

Next on list to me has been our DE play.  We are being outleveraged on any zone reads/jet sweeps.  Luckily this week, I dont see alot of zone reads.  But the horizontal jet sweep motion/fakes, are holding our DEs and LBs.  We need to "fire" faster at DE as well as LB.

 

So quick response its mostly DL in totality, IMO.  Then LB.  Rapp has been below avg, but hes the least of our concern --- we are getting gashed up front

[HappyDays]

1 hour ago, Simon said:

LB (particularly the stunningly lost DWilliams),

 

It's no coincidence that our run defense looked great against NJ, then Milano got injured and we suddenly became a league-worst run defense. The DTs getting washed out of the play is responsible for some of the short yardage conversions, and I can live with that, but the chunk yardage runs are primarily happening because the 2nd and 3rd levels are out of position IMO. Given the level of experience at those position groups that's the more disappointing problem.

[HappyDays]

1 hour ago, Rockinon said:

The defense is aligned to stop the pass and prevent big plays.

 

Yeah and more specifically it is built to play with a lead. An underrated problem the past two games is that the offense has stalled out after early success. When we have an opportunity to force the opponent into chase mode, we aren't delivering. I don't mean that as an excuse for the defense but our offense is too good to have a sequence where 4 out of 5 consecutive drives end with no points, especially against a bottom tier defense like New Orleans. And when you let an inferior opponent hang around for too long they can continue to use their whole playbook and eventually cracks will start to show in the defense.

[Simon]

10 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

It's no coincidence that our run defense looked great against NJ, then Milano got injured and we suddenly became a league-worst run defense. The DTs getting washed out of the play is responsible for some of the short yardage conversions, and I can live with that, but the chunk yardage runs are primarily happening because the 2nd and 3rd levels are out of position IMO. Given the level of experience at those position groups that's the more disappointing problem.

 

They've looked out of sorts since they stepped on the field to start Week 1.

I'm beginning to suspect that Babich was hired more for his personality than his ability.

His lack of attention to detail makes me want to take a turn as a fire everybody sort of guy.

[boyst]

21 minutes ago, MasterStrategist said:

💯

 

Our Lbs, including Bernard, have been slow to "fire"/see and react fast to the hole.  Bernard getting better, Dorian has been super slow reading things IMO - this past week, the threat of bootlegs just had Dorian lost.

 

Deone has been inconsistent, but had his best game this past week at staying with his leverage/technique and playing the correct gap control.  Phillips was awful Sunday.  Daquan has been slightly below.average for over a year, I fully expect his playing time to decrease when Ed is at full health and Oji returns.  TJ hasn't been good at controlling his gap in the run game --- the combo of him and Phillips was so bad that 1st drive, that they split up the Deone and Daqaun combo.

 

IMO, our biggest issue this past week was Phillips.  His poor play directly led to us needing to switch DT pairings.  We absolutely need Ed back healthy, and the 4 man rotation goes back to being a solid group. 

 

Next on list to me has been our DE play.  We are being outleveraged on any zone reads/jet sweeps.  Luckily this week, I dont see alot of zone reads.  But the horizontal jet sweep motion/fakes, are holding our DEs and LBs.  We need to "fire" faster at DE as well as LB.

 

So quick response its mostly DL in totality, IMO.  Then LB.  Rapp has been below avg, but hes the least of our concern --- we are getting gashed up front

Dorian Williams is the damar Hamlin of linebacker

7 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

They've looked out of sorts since they stepped on the field to start Week 1.

I'm beginning to suspect that Babich was hired more for his personality than his ability.

His lack of attention to detail makes me want to take a turn as a fire everybody sort of guy.

 It is amazing to me, and this is something you have noticed yourself.... Our defense can't tackle worth beans. But opposing defense is can touch your middle toe and drop a guy at full speed. 

 

We're taking decent angles, we're keeping the play in front of us but we don't execute on the last two or three steps to make a consistent tackle, or even get there when it matters. There's a lot of space when we're getting all these guys to the ball.