Let’s talk D

[Avisan]

2 minutes ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

Yeah we got it. You’re the only guy left. Our defense is probably good we’re all just missing it. Or no, they were good. 13 seconds, the other playoff losses they were really good the whole time. I feel ya. Don’t trust what we are seeing somehow they are good still 

They're average, not good.

 

But average =/= terrible.

[CEN-CAL17]

On 11/16/2025 at 7:37 PM, RyanC883 said:

I mean this is a great question.  Not really sure how the D improves.  Really poor personnel acquisition on the DL/LBs by Bean.   Perhaps some disguised/delayed blitzes with different guys coming from different spots.  Bishop has been in great position this season, so that frees up the ability to blitz more.  

The defense is what it is…

 

Only thing to do is disguise the looks, move people around, bring 5 up to the line, shifts etc… but we can only hope this defense gels a little more and execute on a higher level as we go

 

I brought up LB prior to the trade deadline and got bashed. 
 

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by CEN-CAL17

[Nihilarian]

 Shaq Thompson should be back to help! I don't get how this crew can be so bad against the run?

[GunnerBill]

24 minutes ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

Yeah we got it. You’re the only guy left. Our defense is probably good we’re all just missing it. Or no, they were good. 13 seconds, the other playoff losses they were really good the whole time. I feel ya. Don’t trust what we are seeing somehow they are good still 

 

No. Trust what you were seeing. They were good. That is what you saw. They are bad now. That is also what you are seeing.

[kkim0904]

2 minutes ago, Nihilarian said:

 Shaq Thompson should be back to help! I don't get how this crew can be so bad against the run?

Bernard and Milano will get most of snaps.  Last week Bernard played 100%of snaps.  I don't think McD will share Bernard's snaps with Shaq 

[Shaw66]

3 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Tackling has definitely been a huge issue. That's no secret.

 

Which is CRAZY to me since it is the basic foundation these guys would have learned since they were 10 years old. And I refuse to believe all these players made it from highly rated High School recruits through D1 College Programs and drafted to the NFL without knowing how to tackle previously.

 

Something in the coaching or scheme has these guys twisted up. Whether they are being coached to be too aggressive and not break down, or the scheme is confusing and they are just out of place and therefore taking bad angles, or what...

 

When an entire defense of players who made it to the pro ranks cant seem to tackle, I look up the ladder.

 

But it's all of them. And we know that McD runs some of the lightest contact practices/camps. So I can't absolve the coaching of anything.

 

If it was 1 or even 2 guys blowing all the tackles then maybe. But when it's seemingly everyone, everywhere...

But the stats are that the Bills are 23rd (10th best) in missed tackles.  https://sports.betmgm.com/en/blog/nfl/nfl-teams-with-most-missed-tackles-this-season-bm10/#:~:text=One of the biggest keys to having,the most missed tackles during the 2025

 

The Bills tackle well.

 

Yards after contact is a different stat.  Not every contact is a missed tackle.

[colin]

philosophically mcd lives in fear of the deep pass, will allow teams to run, and wants to generate run stuffs, tfl, sacks, and most of all turnovers.  if we were to make an infinite game out of all of his seasons where, where opponents gain points and yards over time and we gain points and yards over time, the D has been actually quite good.  if we look at average game performance, it has also been quite good.  where it has failed is that it simply does not provide a high degree of difficulty vs specific teams in high leverage games (every kc playoff game, this year i'll say miami only, new england was lost by turning the ball over this season, atlanta was one of the worst d performances ever for a half, then mcd took the family business back from his wretched fail son babybabich).

 

i think the d roster is a mess with the injuries, but there is an element of mcd being stubborn and sticking to hard to his guns wrt his philosophical goals (putting in less mental mistakes but crippled AJ klien over mistake prone but athletic phenom rookie dorian williams vs kc in 2023, only punt forced in the game came from williams just being a baller and making plays).  he will keep an obvious bad athlete like damar on the roster because he likes the steadiness rather than shake it up and put in someone with higher variance guy who can actually make plays.

 

while i respect his bent towards conservatism when it comes to deep passes, we get trucked so hard with explosive runs, and in selling out to just not allow teams to attempt the at best hard passes down the field, sort of make it easy mode for them to just line up and run to move the chains and get explosive scores.  it puts us in a bind sometimes where missing one LB or one pass rusher creates too obvious of a hole that the opponents can exploit over and over again.

 

my fear is that he will play a hobbled 7 and 8 (i will admit, bernard did look a lot better vs tampa) and the injuries up front will be too much for our second line to overcome, but if we can get ed back and be healthier upfront, and have more burn for williams and thompson, and have a back 4 of poy/hancock, bishop, max, and christian we might be able to make 4 stops/turnovers in each of our playoff games which is enough to win convincingly based on how allen and cook and co perform in the bright lights.