Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense...

[Deus Irae]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

Sure... though I'm not sure how that addresses anything I said, particularly the part about the Bills having a brand new offense with brand new players in it. What use are stats from last year?

The Bills had 3 offensive linemen who'd never played a game in the NFL. They were missing their #1 running back. They have a quarterback who plays scared. T.O. and Evans were essentially taken out of the game. They won because Meriweather and Woods made a great play on special teams, not because they did anything spectacular on defense.

They won. We're now moving on to looking at the game to read what we can from it. The offense struggled for most of the game. The defensive front seven struggled too. If they don't play much better next week, and much stouter on the lines, they'll get run over by a Jets team that looks as if it plans to play extremely physical.

 

[tombonneau]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

I don't know about everyone else, but the defense pretty much met my expectations. I figured they'd have more trouble than normal stopping the run with the loss of 93 and that the secondary would still be a work in progress.

The corners actually played pretty well as the game plan was clearly not to let TO or Evans beat the secondary for big gains and for the most part neither did.

I was hoping to see a bit more of a pass rush, but it was nice to see the D finish the job at the end.

I'd say the defense gets a C-. The good news is BB defenses usually tend to improve as the year goes on. Heck, even the much maligned D of last year was getting it together down the stretch.

If Mayo is out for any length of time, they could be in trouble, but honestly I wasn't expecting much from the D until mid-Oct anyway.

 

[thewaylifeshouldbe]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

Buffalo
Total Net Yards 276 Time of Possession 22:52

New England
Total Net Yards 441 Time of Possession 37:08

The Bills played no-huddle. Typically equates to less time used during offensive possessions.

 

[DarrylS]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

With the addition of so many new players.. thought they did ok.

The D backfield seems much improved.. and may spend less time chasing receivers after a catch, used a lot of players back there.. McGowan was in on a couple of plays..

The D Line and LB's have been revamped, suspect it will take a couple of games to get their act together..

The penalties against Wilfork and Thomas were BS, and changed the momemtum of the game..

Special teams looked real good.

 

[Lazerlike42]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

As I said in the another thread, I think that after sitting back and thinking about it out of the moment of emotion, the defense performed a lot better than it may seem. Look at the Bills offensive possessions:

1. 0 first downs, punt
2. 3 first downs, TD
3. 1 first down, punt
4. 1 first down, punt
5. 1 first down, punt
6. 1 first down, FG
7. 5 first downs, TD
8. 1 first down, game ends

Now out of these 8 possessions, 4 of them were not only defensive stops, but they were very good defensive stops, allowing only 0 or 1 first downs before stopping the Bills. The 4th quarter drive sticks out like a sore thumb as a black mark, but the rest of the game the defense played well to very well.

 

[MrNathanDrake]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

This is what I noticed:

-Darius Butler had a beautiful pass breakup, and Meriweather followed through with a hit on the reciever. I expect we'll be seeing a lot of this in the next few years.

-Leigh Bodden looked really good tonight. Finally, a decent veteran CB in New England.

-Wilfork is playing for a new contract and it's very noticable lol... he played like a man possessed at times. I loved his pursuit on Fred Jackson, and he absolutely destroyed him with that tackle on the sidelines.

-Guyton brings a lot of excitement to the D, but is really raw. Even when he does make the tackle, the RB still gained a few too many extra yards after contact.

-James Sanders is as average as usual. Chung should be starting by the end of the year if he can master the playbook.

-Tully Banta Cain could have a big breakout year. He looked good in pre-season and looked good again tonight. 2 sacks in limited playing time.

-2 big play WR's on the Bills and both of them got shutdown tonight


Overall it wasnt pretty, but I wasn't disappointed with the D either.

 

[moosekill]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

It is this attitude that loses us playoff games and Super Bowls. We shouldn't be giving up 17 points to an aweful offense who plays three rookies on the OL and plays the no huddle. Buffalo played sandlot football and almost beat the Super Bowl favorites.

Kind of a silly post, the fans attitudes have nothing to do with whether or not the patriots win or lose, and I seriously doubt that BB ever thinks the team has done enough.

 

[moosekill]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

As I said in the another thread, I think that after sitting back and thinking about it out of the moment of emotion, the defense performed a lot better than it may seem. Look at the Bills offensive possessions:

1. 0 first downs, punt
2. 3 first downs, TD
3. 1 first down, punt
4. 1 first down, punt
5. 1 first down, punt
6. 1 first down, FG
7. 5 first downs, TD
8. 1 first down, game ends

Now out of these 8 possessions, 4 of them were not only defensive stops, but they were very good defensive stops, allowing only 0 or 1 first downs before stopping the Bills. The 4th quarter drive sticks out like a sore thumb as a black mark, but the rest of the game the defense played well to very well.

Plus two of those series were extended by horrendously bad roughing the passer calls. Take those two blown calls out of the equation and the game is a bit different.

 

[RayClay]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

Patriots front seven (?) looks like they are dependent on constant substitutions. No huddle, no linebackers oh oh.

Never seen a Patriots defense so dependent on one player.

Secondary looks good, they're going to need to play a lot of safeties this year.

 

[cstjohn17]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

It looked like they are adjusting to the new scheme, the DE/OLBs (Burgess and TBC) are very one dimensional. The rush the passer at 1,000,000 miles an hour, usually running 10 yards past the QB and not being any sort of threat. Versus the run they could not stand up against the Bills. Next week they will play a better more physical offensive line.

Basically it is a much of JAGS, expectations cannot be that high. Hopefully the gel and become solid.

 

[fair catch fryar]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

Overall not a bad defensive effort with all things considered. First game after losing key leadership and veterans and biggest of all IMO was the loss of Mayo. Like you said, I like the way they hit and got after Edwards especially the last drive of the game. Wilfork looked pi$$ed out there tonight and not just about the lame call. He looked angry!

 

[bigcountry75]

Here is my observation from an O-lineman's standpoint......

I hate how the patriots lineup their "4-3" with both OLB's up on the LOS. That makes it EXTREMELY easy to setup blocking assignments and run the ball against. It is almost like them playing a 6-1 and I would froth at the mouth against that formation. It is basically just man on man and you really can't do a whole lot of blitzing or trying to confuse the offense out of that formation. I would rather the Pats play a "normal" 4-3 with the line spread out a little more and the OLB's back a couple of yards with the MLB so at least it keeps the offense thinking and guessing who may be blitzing and what stunts may be coming. I feel like BB ran a pretty vanilla defense out there and didn't run his usual confusing style defense. I didn't mind our DE play as they got push up field and made the QB move but where in the hell was the contain up the middle from the DT's. you can't have all 4 D-lineman rushing to the outside and play man coverage because the QB will rush for 100 yds himself if you continue to do that. I just wasn't pleased with the formations and play calling on defense last night but I do think our speed and athleticism is better on D this year. I also liked the hard hitting from our secondary this year as that will scare a bunch of receivers in the future. Just my .02.

 

[SladeRider]

I still rue the draft where we could of setup our linebacking core for the next 10 years because we could of gotten Clay Matthews and Rey Maualuga to play alongside Mayo and could of learned from Thomas.

And as I've said, the Seymour trade is going to be bad for the next two years because we get nothing in return for those two years, it may technically be just one year with Seymour's contract but at the moment, there is no return from the trade and that's what it will be until the 2011 draft.

 

[chrisfx811]

-I thought the tackling has improved overall.
-I wasn't wowed by the run defense from the front 4, so I sure hope that gets worked out.
-They still don't generate much QB pressure from the front 4 or even 5.
-The 3rd and long defense leaves a lot to be desired. Some painful losses come to mind where the defense gaffes on some important 3rd & longs, and last night was truly frustrating in that dept.
-The secondary is a work in progress, but they seemed to be pretty solid, and didn't give up the deep stuff, then again it was Trent Edwards.
-AdT is SO versatile, but I wish we'd see more of him pressuring the QB.
-One play that was frustrating and inspiring at the same was a big gain by the Bills, that ended with Big Vince tracking the ball carrier down and smashing on the sideline. Amazing to see the big man do that but frustrating to see the other guys get taken out of the play.

Like everyone, I hope Mayo's ok, but I wonder if this has any effect going forward as to whom BB may add to the defensive depth chart to fortify the LB corps. We know Chicago will be looking to add someone as well.

 

[BelichickFan]

Re: Everyone's thoughts on ONLY the defense.....

T.O. and Evans were essentially taken out of the game.

And you don't think the above is a large part of the reason all the soft stuff was open ? Yes that is usually the weakness of our defense but doubling Owens impacts that. Edwards didn't play scared and I think you're wrong about their best RB missing the game.

 

[oldskool138]

I think the "D" got jobbed on two of the worst roughing the passer calls I've ever seen.

 

[BSR]

Here is my observation from an O-lineman's standpoint......

I hate how the patriots lineup their "4-3" with both OLB's up on the LOS. That makes it EXTREMELY easy to setup blocking assignments and run the ball against. It is almost like them playing a 6-1 and I would froth at the mouth against that formation. It is basically just man on man and you really can't do a whole lot of blitzing or trying to confuse the offense out of that formation. I would rather the Pats play a "normal" 4-3 with the line spread out a little more and the OLB's back a couple of yards with the MLB so at least it keeps the offense thinking and guessing who may be blitzing and what stunts may be coming. I feel like BB ran a pretty vanilla defense out there and didn't run his usual confusing style defense. I didn't mind our DE play as they got push up field and made the QB move but where in the hell was the contain up the middle from the DT's. you can't have all 4 D-lineman rushing to the outside and play man coverage because the QB will rush for 100 yds himself if you continue to do that. I just wasn't pleased with the formations and play calling on defense last night but I do think our speed and athleticism is better on D this year. I also liked the hard hitting from our secondary this year as that will scare a bunch of receivers in the future. Just my .02.

I would expect you are going to see a lot of vanilla formations in the early part of the season. BB is going to keep it simple until he is sure everyone knows where they are supposed to be, especially if Mayo is out.

 

[The_Riddler]

James Sanders is a 3rd safety and should be replaced by Patrick Chung as soon as possible. How in the world is James starting ?

James and being around the football are like oil and water, for some reason, they never come together.

A non play maker if I have ever seen one.

 

[Metaphors]

I thought the defense was fine. The gameplan was totally wrong for how the game ended up going. They wanted to take Owens and Evans out of the game. They did that. Unfortunately, this doesn't take into account 3 basic facts:

1) Trent Edwards has never thrown for 300 yards in a game.
2) Trent Edwards career high passing yards for a game is 289 yards.
3) Trent Edwards next 300 yard game will be his first.

If Edwards is only going to throw for 200-250 yards, why make them easy, first-read throws? To be fair, if the Pats offense had been true to form, the gameplan probably would have been much more effective. Edwards would have felt more and more pressure to go downfield and turnovers would have followed. Based on that, I'm willing to give the Pats a mulligan.

If the Pats try the same thing this week and Leon Washington gets 150 combined yards, I won't be as generous.

 

[BelichickFan]

I thought the defense was fine. The gameplan was totally wrong for how the game ended up going. They wanted to take Owens and Evans out of the game. They did that. Unfortunately, this doesn't take into account 3 basic facts:

1) Trent Edwards has never thrown for 300 yards in a game.
2) Trent Edwards career high passing yards for a game is 289 yards.
3) Trent Edwards next 300 yard game will be his first.

Agreed, I'd have been more aggressive defending the short stuff and dared them to beat us downfield with a questionable QB and our improved secondary. We made it easy for Edwards to play well with all the dumpoffs. You're also right, though, they probably expected to be playing with more of a lead.