Game strategy continues to elude McD

[LabattBlue]

4 hours ago, boater said:

This place is dreck after a loss.

The defense has been criticized(rightfully) through all 5 games.  It just gets magnified after a loss. 

[The Firebaugh Kid]

4 hours ago, boater said:

Boatless at the moment, I had a Finnsailor motorsailer. She was too much boat for me to single hand, so off she went. Too bad, she was quite comfortable.

 

 

Gorgeous 👏

[NoSaint]

9 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

This seems like a reach to me. The Bills defense did force a longer field goal and the Bills defense shouldn't have been in that situation had the offense not turned the ball over 3 times. 

Hell I’d like to be up 14 at the end but sometimes it’s a close game 

[billvernsays]

9 hours ago, ngbills said:

McD has never been able to "stop" people. They rely on either the O makes a mistake and you get a turnover. They will give up a few first downs but at some point there will be penalty and will stall a drive. There will be a drop or other mistake that kills a drive. Very rarely have we seen them be aggressive and just own the offense. That is not McD style. Its the they can dop whatever they want but at some point are gonna mess up. 

I live in Eagles county, this is what they’ve been telling me since we got him. There’s no teeth to his defense. 

[Jalan81]

9 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

This seems like a reach to me. The Bills defense did force a longer field goal and the Bills defense shouldn't have been in that situation had the offense not turned the ball over 3 times. 

It didn’t matter at that point what the offense did previously, stopping the field goal attempt was job one, and they failed. 

8 hours ago, MJS said:

Stop with the "soft zone" complaints. You're just showing that you aren't actually watching what the defense is doing.

The offense turned the ball over three times. The best QB in the NFL directly contributed to throwing this game away. Yes, the defense wasn't good in the 2nd half, but Allen shares in the blame and is at least an equal party to it.

That doesn’t address the play and strategy on the game winning drive and that’s what’s being discussed. 

[billvernsays]

We have a smaller defense, that’s fine.
 

What we are asking for is for McDermott to use their athletic ability when we need them and for them to play aggressive. 
 

It would surprise them, that’s for sure. 

[Thurman#1]

12 hours ago, boater said:

This place is dreck after a loss.

 

 

Not the whole place, but certainly large swathes of it. Certainly including this dumb thread.

[LABILLBACKER]

I stopped believing in McDermott's ability to out-coach / out-scheme his opponent a long time ago.  And nothing over the last 5 years has changed that. We win because of Josh Allen....period!

[reddogblitz]

13 hours ago, BananaB said:

Gave up points right before half and gave up points at the end that resulted in an L.

 

I always want to strangle Coach McDermott when he starts calling defensive time outs with less than a minute left in the 1st half. It gives the QB time to talk to the coach.  Guys get a blow and a drink of water.  And what happens is they score with 10 seconds left and we don't have time to do anything anyway.  This is not the 1st time this has happened.

 

I'd prefer for the other team to feel the pressure of the clock. Have to run up and spike it. Make them call their own timeouts. Especially with a young QB.  Seems like we're helping them by calling timeouts.

[Since1981]

I’ve asked for a couple yrs and nobody has come up with anything. 
 

Snow angels aside…Has McD put any uniqueness or any positive fingerprint on any part of this team? Serious ask. 

Edited 12 hours ago by Since1981

[Not at the table Karlos]

17 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

This seems like a reach to me. The Bills defense did force a longer field goal and the Bills defense shouldn't have been in that situation had the offense not turned the ball over 3 times. 

A 52 yard FG isn’t really that long anymore. That kick would have been good from 70. 
 

You can say the situation would have been different if things happened differently earlier in the game all you want. You still have to make the correct decisions in the moment and evaluate the current situation and react accordingly. Crying about earlier mistakes isn’t going to force a 3 and out now. 

[Not at the table Karlos]

16 hours ago, Brand J said:

I’d really like to dumb down the defense, have the CBs play “man up,” physical and close to the line of scrimmage, challenge the receivers. If they get beat physically, so be it, but force the QB to make a good throw and the receiver to make a contested catch. They’re getting beat anyway right now by giving up too much space, receivers are constantly running free in zone without a defender to immediately pop them or break up the pass. 

They get beat in man as well. They’ve been running a decent amount of it. 

[T master]

21 hours ago, WIDE LEFT said:

As it so often does. Pats final drive, only needing a field goal to take the lead. Given that making a field goal from 50-60 yards is routine these days, your D has to defend first down markers, NOT the end zone. But the soft, prevent zones allow Pats to methodically move the ball downfield, chewing up all the time. On the play where Maye was almost sacked, with Jones draped all over him, Diggs is wide open for a short pass, as our linebacker has to come up from his deep position to make the tackle. That’s terrible defensive strategy. Man up, take the short stuff away, blitz , whatever but u need to prevent first downs - not touchdowns. If a long TD happens, so be it, Allen gets back on the field with time to operate. KC faced similar situation in our playoff game last year. Our final drive - they threw the kitchen sink at Allen, knowing that if a long scoring play happens, at least Mahomes has a chance to comeback. But the slow death of dropping D back, bend don’t break, results in the slow death of a methodical drive that chews up all the clock. God awful strategy. 
 

As was the incredible decision to have Samuel field & return the final kickoff, with just 15 seconds left. Let the ball go into end zone, take it at the 20, and let Allen take 2 or 3 shots downfield. Long shot I know, but far better than a kickoff return that leaves virtually no time to do anything. It’s this consistent mismanagement of game strategy which will once again haunt this team in the playoffs 
 

 

Have you put in your application yet for a HC ing position in the NFL ? Sounds like you have much more experience & are smarter than those in that position you never know maybe some one in the NFL will see how smart you are and you could have a dream job and take a team to the big game . Just saying !!

[Livinginthepast]

3 hours ago, Not at the table Karlos said:

They get beat in man as well. They’ve been running a decent amount of it. 

This is true but at least in man there's a chance that one of our slow or hesitant dbs will be within  5 yards of their receiver and therefore "theoretically" in position to break up the play. I dont expect them to intercept the pass but they can at least make a quick tackle. With the zone that we have been playing on key plays throughout the McD era, the opposing players are not only open, they catch the pass unopposed and in space, so the YAC is better. Our D doesnt seem to be the best at tackling and I think one of the reasons is we are so far off the receivers that when they catch it we dont have the angle for a tackle.

[JP51]

12 hours ago, billvernsays said:

We have a smaller defense, that’s fine.
 

What we are asking for is for McDermott to use their athletic ability when we need them and for them to play aggressive. 
 

It would surprise them, that’s for sure. 

Very interesting point... our defense is smaller... why... speed, pursuit, in stead of holding space... problem is one of the biggest flaws of this defense is the inablility to shed blocks, pursue and tackle... so its like you have a small defense that cant do what small defenses are supposed to do...  then there is the secondary... 

[JimmyNoodles]

22 hours ago, Low Positive said:

I agree with this 99%, because the Bills don't really play a "soft zone" very often anymore. They play a lot of zone, but almost every NFL team does that. But contrary to TBD rage posts, the Tampa-2 left Buffalo with Leslie Frazier. Any look at the All-22 will tell you that. In fact, they didn't play cover-2 on the play that the OP rages about. But they did play cover-2 two plays later and let Maye end the game with an easy pass for 19. But the only way to know this is to watch the overhead views,  but most people refuse to pay $15 a month to see what actually happens in games. 

 

Lets put some data to this. Like everything sports these days, there is data. There is not a single team in the NFL who plays more man than zone, but the Browns are close to 50/50. I think I might start a thread with this table so that people can stop acting like the Bills are the only team that plays a zone defense. But in the meantime, here ya go: https://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/stats-nfl/nfl-coverage-schemes/

Thanks for that info.  The decision of when to go zone or man is another part of the issue, though.  It seems to me that the BIlls are reluctant to go press man coverage in shorter yardage siutations.