Falcons Overwhelmed Josh Allen, Bills Run Defense STRUGGLES again | Film Room

Falcons Overwhelmed Josh Allen, Bills Run Defense STRUGGLES again | Film Room

[Music] [Music] [Music] What’s good, folks? Welcome to another edition of the Cover One Film Room, the show that gives you the hows and the wise behind both the good and the bad of the Buffalo Bills. I am one of your two hosts, Anthony Broaska, joined as always by Eric Turner and Eric. The Bills suffered another loss this past week in week six against the Atlanta Falcons. Their second loss in a row, 0 and2 the past two weeks. The sky is falling. The world is crumbling. Everything is falling. Yeah. Confirmed. Everything is falling apart around us. I also partially blame myself. We moved. The bills are owing since we’re in this new spot. Now I’m like, uh oh, did I make the wrong decision? Do we need to go back back? So about that, Anthony, you have to go on on leave right now unpaid. You can’t come back to cover one until that’s squared away, right? I mean, just because you had the tree doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t do it justice. All right. You have to get everything squared away. It’s confirmed that these two losses in a row are on you. It’s on me. You know, it’s funny. Don’t Don’t even tempt me with that because part of me was like my daughter has also worn like some Bills stuff the past couple weeks for game weeks and they’re 0 and2 doing that. I said to my wife today, I was like, we got to stop that. I was like, no more like she she can’t keep doing that. Yeah. But whatever the reason, and we’re going to talk about several of them in this game. Yeah. A couple backto-back ugly losses for the Bills. We’re obviously going to diagnose and diagram a bunch of it on both sides of the ball pertaining to this Falcons game, which I think was maybe more of a letown for fans than the previous game against the Pats. But as always, before we do that, how you doing? How you feeling? How’s it going? Good. Good. It was, you know, I when I watched the film back of this game, it it definitely made me feel better, as it typically does, whether they win or lose, you know, you hear Josh say it’s it’s not as, you know, bad as it as it looks or feels at the time. And I feel like after watching the first time, the, you know, first rewatch, I can confirm and and really feel that way about this game. Especially cuz when when you break down football, especially when you you’re watching the film, you can see the reasons why behind things and you know the reasons why Dejan Robinson went off against defense, the reasons why and how the Bills adjusted later in the game. And we’re going to break down a bunch of that film. We’re going to break down uh some of the offensive film. There’s a lot of negative things to talk about from this game, but we’re also going to show you some of those adjustments that the Bills made. And uh obviously with the by-week ahead, we go into self-scouting mode. And I think this episode’s a a good prologue to that self- scouting uh week and by week when we’re talking the Bills offense and defensive film. Yeah, it’ll be really interesting to see how the Bills come out of this by week. You get that first game against Carolina and then you’re right there against the Kansas City Chiefs who all of a sudden are maybe kind of starting to peak a little bit after people kind of wanted to shut the casket on them even though I think a lot of us knew better. And it’ll be nice to see how the Bills come out against those two teams in back-to-back weeks, but also maybe potentially get a little healthier, also get Hoy and Oen Joby back from suspension. And I’m very interested to see how all of that coincides with just what the by-week naturally brings in terms of scout self scouting and course correcting. That’s such a pivotal moment, not just for the Bills, but for really all teams to kind of get into the lab depending on when you get your by-week. I don’t like the early bye, but maybe it’s a blessing in disguise this year for where they are right now as a team. But usually get that an opportunity to kind of reset, change some things, tweak some things, get into the lab, diagnose, you know, really who you are, what’s been going good, what’s been going wrong. And teams usually like to use the by-week as kind of like, yeah, that that launch point going forward to try and make a push and make a run. I’m really interested to see how all these different avenues and offshoots kind of coales into one with them going into and more importantly coming out of the by-week considering some of the vulnerabilities and deficiencies they potentially have or flaws depending on how you want to label it. Um, and what we’ve seen not just these past couple of weeks. Obviously, we’re focusing on the Falcons game in this episode, but a lot of what we’re going to talk about here has has shown to different degrees and different levels throughout, you know, their first six games this year. And as we dive into this game, a 24-4 loss by the Bills in Atlanta. Let’s start with a few of the top down thoughts that we have. I thought the Falcons when their offense was on the field versus the Bills defense. I thought it was fantastic. They had early shades of spread game here. It kind of reminded me of how the Dolphins offense operates. I know Penn is a lefty and then two is a lefty, but how they spread things out, how they use movement, how they use running backs like Bjan and orbit motion all the time, right? Right. And just really if you look at some of the wide receiver and tight end splits when they were wide, they were maxed out. And that really just spread the defense of the Bills out. They used the entire field vertically and widthwise. And that of course creates issues for a defense that has some limitations when we’re talking individuals athletically. And so you’re going to see some of that show up on the film. As far as the defensive side of the ball for the Falcons with the Bills, man, Albrich, the DC for Falcons, someone who’s very familiar with Josh Allen, who has game plans that have styied Josh Allen. I thought he was aggressive as he typically is. He showed that he wasn’t really afraid of the Bills weapons. They played fast. They played downhill. They were aggressive. They blitzed a ton, attacked the protections and ultimately sped him up and that overwhelmed him in this game. Yeah, I you know, I’ll kind of work backwards there from the defense. It’s a great point on, you know, his what three years as defensive coordinator with the Jets under Salah and then took over as interim head coach for Salah when Salah got clipped. Um, yeah, like you said, he’s orchestrated some good game plans against Allen with the Jets in the past and this game I I thought that was really well done. just getting the Bills into those third and longs, especially early on, and getting creative with how they were rushing, how they were attacking. Um, and then from an individual standpoint, the Falcons really showed out up front, starting literally up front. I thought David Anyada had a really good game. You saw some flashes from Jaylen Walker, Zack Harrison’s doing some stuff. Rook, uh, whose last name I could not say even back when he was at Clemson, just going to call him Rook. He flashed a bit like Ebetti made some plays with his athleticism. Then you got Kaden Ellis doing some stuff. Yes, like that whole front was juice and athleticism and they played to it. They took advantage of it. They combined that with aggressiveness on the back end with some man coverage and some match stuff with their blitzes. Like to your point, I think they really played on the front foot and they’ve got several good dudes on that side of the ball, especially in the secondary with AJ Terrell and Jesse Bates and, you know, an emerging Xavier Watts. So, I thought they played to their player strengths. You know, I thought they had the Bills well scouted, well IDed. They also came off their by-week, so kind of really knowing maybe who the Bills were a little bit and then offensively dancing with the guys that brought them. Drake London is sweet. Bean Robinson is sweet. Let’s get those dudes the ball. Let’s lean on our good offensive line. Even, you know, though their tackles got banged up, but they created good movement with their zone schemes. They were creating push displacement. Bejon ran well. Al Gir ran well. You know, you’re getting some good blocking reps from Kyle Pitts. was I probably would have enjoyed the Falcons offensive performance more and their defensive one more if it didn’t come at the expense of the Bills. But on both sides of the ball, they really did uh largely have a good game plan and some good execution even though the Bills were able to to styy them a little bit uh on each side and make it close even though the game kind of felt a little farther than the final score indicated. Right. And so we’re going to start on the Bills defensive side of the ball. the run defense. 32 rushes, 210 yards surrendered. 22 rushes and 180 of those yards came strictly on outside zone run, which has been such a problem for the Bills this year and over the last few years. I mean, first half alone, the the Falcons really put up a lot of their production. 17 rushes, 168 yards, two touchdowns, and it really just highlighted the boomer bust nature of this Bills defense. We’ve talked about havoc plays, making tackles for losses, and and all those stats over the last few years. The Bills have actually been pretty good at at creating those negative plays. And this game was such a microcosm of this defense. Nine plays for the Falcons rush game. Went for zero negative yards. That’s pretty good for the Bills defense. But all it takes is one guy from that 11th mantra to be out of place, to be in the wrong gap, to slightly just get reached enough for Bejan to hit that whole 100 miles an hour. Three rushes over 20 yards, a 21 yard, a 22 y, an 81 yard. And that really those three plays for as many negative three times as negative plays. All you need are two or three of those plays in the run game and they can really hurt the Bills defense and overall the game script for the Bills. Absolutely. Uh you know, I’ve got some fun stats that tie into that as well and it again speaks to the microcosm of who they are. So there were 30 teams that played in week six because you had a couple teams on by the Bills run defense against the Falcons in, you know, this game in that week and they’re ranking 6.6 yards per rush last on the week. four runs allowed of 10 or more yards. 21st 25% stuff rate, which was the sixth best. Again, speaking to your ability to get, you know, runs of zero or less. Uh, plus 0.14 EPA per rush, which was 23rd. 89 rush yards over expected, which was last. And then 5.5 yards after contact per rush, which was last on the week. Really? Again, yeah, very much ew. But again, speaking to who they are, they’re going to miss some tackles. You’re going to get some yards after contact. They’re going to get gashed, but they’re also going to get you. I think that was the one the tiniest of all silver linings right prior to this game their stuff rate had been low so it was they were getting gashed and they also weren’t creating those negative plays they started to create some in this game we started to see some stops to go with the gashing especially in the second half so maybe that’s a little positivity to hang your hat on but you know to your point a little positively but largely negative you know this game was a pretty good microcosm of who they were against the run and Eric that’s probably a really good segue to dive right into the film, I guess, if anybody wants to see it and go through the pain together. We got to do it. We got to do it. That’s what everyone’s coming here to the film room to see. So, we’re going to start off early in this game with the touchdown run. 21 yard touchdown. Again, one of those, you know, three explosive runs here. And you got to give kudos to the Falcons. They had two running backs on the field. Lier and Robinson both on the field on this play, which put the Bills in a three linebacker look. But more importantly, look at how the Bills align to it. Shaq Thompson is that overhang player to the bottom of the screen over the tight end. And then as that shift by Bejan happens, here comes Cole Bishop into the box as you’ll see from the end zone angle. And the Falcons do a good job here of running that zone run, that outside zone run. And right here is where I want to pause it because you can see on this run again at Cole Bishop right here at Cole Bishop. But more importantly, I want you to watch these two right here. Jordan Phillips, Dorian Williams. You see Phillips take this backside gap. You see that guard get to the next level. Take Bishop. Epaness is on the edge. So now this is where Dorian needs to be. But where does he go? He doesn’t go there. He gets picked off. And then really nice work by that offensive line working together first level to the second level. And again, you have a linebacker and a safety in the box thanks to personnel, thanks to shifting and motioning, and then a bad angle from Taylor Rap. And he feels the wrath of that bad angle as Algier scores on this 21 yard run. It was such a like a horrible exclamation point on the run. Like Alier was probably going to score anyway, but the fact that he just he he, you know, changes his gate to get wrapped to break down and then just puts him into the dirt was such a insubordinate and cherish way to finish this run. an awesome friend. Yeah. Oh, boom. Gets him kind of offkilter a bit and then buries him. Yeah, you hit it on the head. I don’t have too much to add. This this this was one of the ones again a multitude of them that made me think of kind of what Miami was doing using that motion to change who is in the box. You essentially have two linebackers out. It’s Dorian and it’s Bishop. You attack that B gap bubble. Bishop fits. And then again, even so, even with having a lighter box and who’s pulled in there, if Dorian just gets over that left shoulder of his man and stays more into the gap that he needs to be in, if he plays through that front side shoulder, there’s a chance this gets stopped right here at the 20. If Dorian is just in his gap, even if Al has to cut back, maybe he gets bumped into Phillips a little bit. This would have been a good game. you get the again like you said the Falcons got some good push but getting dictated to a little bit and then not being gap sound and like you alluded to earlier all it takes is one guy in this defense being out in this instance it was Dorian and then you get a missed tackle and a poor angle on the back end from Rap who with his lack of athleticism and foot speed he can’t afford to take bad angles because it’s going to put him in a very disadvantageous spot. Yeah, missed tackles name of the game when it comes to the Bills run defense and defense overall. Here is another example of that on this play. Bjan Robinson out wide. You see that rocket sweep there on this play from Bejon. It’s again it’s it’s old school football really. You’re talking like wing Type stuff. You see him swinging out wide to the top of the screen. And once again you have a missed tackle from Taylor Rap. And this is something that you know has come up a bunch is the Bills inability to bring down runners from the safety position. We’re talking Taylor R. We’re talking Cole Bishop. You’re going to see a few of those plays. But it’s not just when they are in too high and at depth. A lot of these plays are happening from either they’re at post safety by themselves or like this where the Falcons are testing the athleticism and athleticism of Rap on this play to get across the field, but also bring down obviously a very talented runner. And you can see him, he does a good job of getting in position and attacking that near hip, but because of Bean’s contact balance, you know, that two or three yard gain is now an eight- yard gain because he broke that tackle. Just way too many missed tackles in the running game by Taylor Rap and Cole Bishop in this game. Yeah, that’s a great point. You know, you kind of testing those guys, testing the waters a little bit. And Rap gets there. He reads it. He tracks it down, but he gets majority of his body behind Bejon. And then with the pace, the contact balance, the strength that Bean Robinson has, and then the angle that Rap is taking, the angle that Bejon has, you’re just you’re you’re really going to have to clip him on the knee, try to get him to trip up. Like Bejian essentially just treats that like a glancing blow from Rap and just keeps moving through. And this becomes another one of Taylor Rap is a TW at this after this game now is a 25% miss tackle rate on the year, which is crazy. the past couple years he’s been at like four and 3%. Uh just yeah, just another example. And again, Falcons get a hat on a hat a bit, they get some push, but if Rap can make that tackle, this gets stopped for maybe a two to four yard gain depending on where Bejan falls. Instead, it ends up being more of a gash because Rap isn’t able to get there over the top on him and kind of get him into the front and impede him further. It gets on that back hip and his butt and Bejan just powers through. What’s funny is that towards the end of the first half, the Falcons ran it again and Jack Shaq Thompson is in the position that Rap is and he lights the running back up on that play. Um I think it was only like a two or three yard gain on that. So yeah, missed tackles. It’s it’s something that when we get to our scouting next week, you’re going to hear us talk about it a bunch because it does come up a bunch um in the film. I mean, it’s it’s one of their biggest the biggest hurdles that they have to overcome. Yeah. You can’t you can’t watch a play like a watch any Bills defense game and not see a significant amount of missed tackles. Like it’s not it’s not like we’re looking for it and trying to find it. It’s just there all the time which is really unfortunate. Here’s another one of those explosive runs. A touchdown by Bejon and the Bills here as a tight end comes across. You’re going to see Shaq Thompson go with him and then Terrell Bernard is mugging that a gap on the weak side of this run opposite of where they’re actually going to run the ball. Of course, Bills did this a lot, mainly in the second half to get one-on- ones because instead of having these guys up front work combinations to the second level, they’re like, “We’re going to make that decision quicker so that we can get especially to the play side, we can get some one-on- ones.” But as you can see, they mugged the A gap to the three technique side. The Falcons run against it and cut it back up the field for the big play. But again, you do get some missed tackles on this play as well. So, at the point of attack, there’s a combination block on Deion Walker and then that guy is going to go get wrapped. But, as they mugged Terrell Bernard, look at how he gets cut off. And this is where I don’t like the answer that the Bills are using here. You’re putting an undersized linebacker in the A gap, wanting him to stack and shed and hold his point of attack against a zone blocker by the Falcons. And you see he gets worked to the play side and reached. And that gives a cutback lane for Bejon. and all he has to do is hit it and of course run to daylight and daylight is a lot easier when your safety isn’t taking a good angle or attacking the ball in Cole Bishop and now he’s in chase mode and misses the tackle which I will give a lot of credit to be Jan cuz I don’t know how he stayed in bounds while breaking that tackle but bad angle from Cole Bishop bad structure and answer by the Bills up front and it cost them for an 81 yard touchdown. Yeah, this one really frustrating especially with how it starts out initially like when you get that motion from Atlanta and then you see Bernard going to the gap. It’s like okay like they have they’re they’re accounted for there’s six bodies for six gaps. You should be good to go. The Falcons change the math by running that outside zone. Epanessa essentially becomes, you know, not a non-factor and you get five on five. You get a hat on a hat. Dion Walker gets displaced and washed down. Lindstöm 63 climbs to rap. Ed Oliver comes close here on Jake Matthews number 70. And I think Oliver wanted a flag. Yeah. On this after, but Matthews kind of gave him that little slingshot. Yep. A little bit to uh get in front of him and and change that angle a little bit. And then once Bejon’s through, what’s also to Bean’s credit, when he gets through, he skips a little and he just changes gear, accelerates. It’s so beautiful. He gets through right. Bang. He puts his foot in the ground and he’s gone. And even kudos to Bishop. Bad angle, right? But he adjusted. He’s able to kind of run him down a little bit, but almost similar to rap, you’re chasing down Bejon and you’re getting more on his backside than you are getting in front of his body. And with Bejian’s strength and speed and contact balance, you’re just not going to be able to bring a dude down like that. This angle, as you have highlighted here, really shows Bishop, you know, again, in that single high, you’re coming down trying to banana out a little bit, but he breaks down and kind of gets caught in no man’s land. And then Jammarcus Ingram can’t get off his block. And Bejon’s just able to get up the sideline and out. And again, just bad fits, the math getting changed, guys not getting off their blocks, just frustrating things that we’ve seen for the first six weeks of the season for the Bills defense. And one of the adjustments the Bills went to is playing more man coverage in the second half. And a lot more. And that allows them to account for all the receivers, tight ends, and running backs, but also helps put more guys in their line of scrimmage and stack the box. And so, like on the last play, you saw Bernard uh mugging the A gap to the three-tech side. Now, they’re doing it a little different. You see the B gap mug here by Shaq Thompson and how it makes a difference at the point of attack and allowing guys like Dion Walker and other defensive linemen to get those one-on- ones. You see now the right guard Lstrom can’t work a double team to the next level. And so now Walker has leverage. He has the physical ability to get off the block. And then everyone is there to the ball because they got some one-on- ons thanks to them mugging some of these gaps. Again, it’s not something I like to see, especially when you talk about some of the undersized D linemen. The Bills have some of the undersized type linebackers that they have and really not stack and shed type guys. But you see how that does help others make plays. And so I I want to see structure, you know, changes when it comes to the Bills defense and creating answers. I want to see it sooner, obviously, not when they get down 21 uh 21 points thanks to the run game. But you can see what these little tweaks by the linebackers mugging AB A and B gaps allows others to get one-on- ones to defeat blocks and make plays in the in the back field. Again, one of nine zero or negative plays that the Bills run defense face less yesterday. Yeah, I I liked some of that answer there a little bit. Kind of putting it more to that B that open B gap bubble to kind of like the the weak side of the strength of formation initially. Like they were playing it more towards the strong side and the Falcons kept running it weak and take advantage of the numbers in the space on that side. And you can see right how this plays out. They have a body in every gap. You’ve got Bosa on the outside, Shaq Thompson inside him, who Shaq does a pretty good job here against Lindstöm who’s a really good right guard. And then Walker, it’s going to be tough for someone to be one-on-one with him. He’s in his gap. Yep. Yeah. Oliver penetrates. W shoots and is able to kind of beat that block from Pitts. And there’s nowhere to go. Like everybody is in their gap. There is nowhere for Bejon to go. He is penned in. So, it’s a nice little adjustment uh schematically and then the individual execution. And you know, Walker shows up on the stat sheet for this one, but he really doesn’t have to do much. He just steps forward. He stands there because everybody’s in their position. That’s good defense. Yeah, same type of thing here. And I want you to watch the relationship between DTackles and linebackers. And I think it was Babage that talked about that relationship and how yeah, you know, there were some plays where Deion Walker may have gotten reached or or walled off and you know, a linebacker can make him right and we talk about it all the time and you see that type of stuff week in and week out. So you see a weak zone run here and the Bills don’t make it right on this play. You you see Dion Walker kind of like Jordan Phillips go this way and so you want Shaq to get over the top and he is unable to on that play and and now Dion he’s trying to work and retrace over the top of that block and he’s unable to and misses the arm tackle and then you get another mistackle by Cole Bishop from the post safety position and just another mistackle by Benford. It was just ugly man. It was ugly to see the angles. It was ugly to see how they can’t break down and make tackles from depth in the box. And it’s honestly, it’s surprising how often they miss tackles, even when there are eight guys, seven or eight guys in the box. And and I know offenses do some things to pull guys out of the box, but you’d be surprised at the numbers and missed tackle rate for the Bills defense against the run when they’re in single high, you know, post uh single post safety looks like this. It’s crazy how often they miss tackles altogether. There’s no doubt about it. Yeah, you’re Eve. So, it’s it’s almost got to the point like, okay, we’ll play single high so we can have an extra body in the box. And it’s like, but it almost doesn’t matter because they’re missing tackles with those extra bodies in the box. So, you’re not really gaining that benefit too often. And this play in particular, this one bothered me a decent chunk because I don’t know why Shaq is playing more for the backside there unless he’s really playing cut back. But why would you considering Yeah. the bodies that you have flowing from there like get over there because he’s in position like he lets Lindstrom yes a thousand% if he shoots right there he’s there he lets Lindstöm reach him again kudos to Lindstöm he moves well he’s a good guard but Shaq gives him that like he plays into it and allows himself to get reached and sealed yeah there’s no doubt about it man you see the hesitation again I don’t know where his eyes are and why he’s doing that but that allows Lstrom who’s an athletic guard to get up on him and then you know Bejian making Bishop miss and Benford miss just more missed tackles more bad angles and bad run defense from the Bills and later in the game second half same type of thing you get Dorian Williams though mugging that B gap and what do they do they run at him and now look at again what it does to the front Deion Walker Russo Ed Oliver from the backside doing a good job of containing this run, defeating blocks, defeating one-on- ons, and making tackles on the running back. Yeah, just again changing that math, especially on the front side of it, and changing the impact point with those blockers and being able to stay in gaps. You see, you see 63, Lindstöm, and then 65, Matthew Berseron each climb to the second level to pick up. Well, Berson climbs to the second level. Lindstöm kind of just drives Dory Williams there. But it doesn’t matter because of who you highlighted there. Rouso and Oliver and Walker. Ed Oliver had a really good game uh here. Or maybe not a really good game, but a good game, especially his first game back. And he works down and squeezes. Walker stays in position. You’ve got Groot up front. Those three really work in conjunction with one another to hem Alier in and really stem anything that he can do. Like there’s nowhere to go. Where is Where’s Alier going to try and fit? He sees the one little bit of daylight. Walker keeps working across face and Oliver keeps working down the line. Rouso gets his head inside, wags the little finger a little bit. That’s good work. Again, highlighted by putting Dorian Williams inside, you know, in that little B gap and changing that kind of point of attack. Yeah. Again, it was one of those games where there were some negative plays for us in the run game by the defense. Yeah. But it was almost too late when it came to those changes of bringing a guy up to line of scrimmage. I would like to see the Bills realize, hey, they’re running weak zone or they’re running zone to the strong side. Let’s change the defensive structure. Let’s, you know, make it a 4-3 under versus an over because they’re so content with just playing their game, playing their defense. It’s why, you know, they get gashed early in games because everyone knows they’re going to be in a 4-3 or nickel over defense. And so then they have their game plan and script for those plays and they’re hitting big runs early and then the Bills come up with some ideas to tweak it, but it’s rarely, hey, let’s change a defensive structure. Instead, you see little things like that. And don’t get me wrong, it worked. But those are just band-aids in my opinion, you know, cuz again, you’re not really maximizing your linebackers if they are undersized. They’re not stack and shed guys. They’re more of play from the shoulders up type guys by putting them on the line of scrimmage. Aside from Dorian, I think Dorian has enough size and length to do it. But putting Bernard in that a gap, I didn’t like that. It’s not his game and I don’t think it’s the best strategy to have, especially if we’re talking long term. To me, that’s a band-aid. Yeah, that’s a fair point. And just there I think this ties into also like the larger conversation of the roster construction and the personnel that they built and then how they’re playing to it or how they how they have to play to it versus how they can’t. And it’s almost kind of like, you know, a dog chasing its tail or, you know, that the snake, you know, kind of just a chicken egg scenario when it comes to how they play the run and what their adjustments look like and what the source point is for the struggles and the pain versus what they’re able to do kind of proactively to counter that. And I think it you made a great point too and I’m not going to drill too home on it, but we talked about this a lot last year of how the Bills, we showed metrics, we talked about we showed the tape, the Bills would come out just kind of, hey, this is who we are and then they would adjust. That’s why their second half numbers in second half of games were much better than their first half. They I feel like they got it. And I don’t know if it’s a sample size thing or if it’s a halftime thing or something, but it just feels like they wait to kind of get into those adjustments. Like that week, that zone week, Falcons were hitting that non-stop. And the Bills finally got an answer to it like we showed, but they could have gotten that answer like in the the second quarter or like at the end of the first. Like the Falcons just kept doing it. They kept showing that orbit motion or that jet, whatever you wanted to do to pull a defender from the box. Here comes Okay, we’re going to 4-3 over. We just pulled Wap into the box or Bishop into the box and the two linebackers are out and here we go zone week to that B gap bubble. It felt like they could have gotten to there um a little earlier. So, a little bit of some frustration and some pain points there. Another frustration and pain point for this Bills team. And we showed uh these guys a little bit in that first segment with the run defense. The Bills safeties, Taylor Rap, Cole Bishop. I said it uh I said it earlier this off seasonason or no maybe earlier in the year and uh I said it again yesterday feel like because of having Heiden Puyer at the top of their game for so long it angered the football gods and now the Bills are paying in karma for having that tandem for so long. another game where I think Bishop and Rap are in the sights of a lot of the fan base and not in a positive way. And it’s understandable considering what you’re seeing even just on the broadcast with some of the mistakes that they’re making in their angles, the lack of plays that they’re making and the overall struggles individually and as a duo. And for weeks I was, you know, kind of pushing that narrative off and not really agreeing with it. After this game, it makes it very difficult for me to say either of these guys are solidified as starters because Rap has eight missed tackles. That’s tied for first on the team. Cole Bishop, six missed tackles, that’s third on the team. Five missed tackles versus the run as we showed you some of those by Taylor Rap overall. Four versus the rush from Bishop. Missing tackles, especially if we’re talking guys that are not all that athletic. Taylor rep that was his saving grace really last year and he made some big plays for the Bills saving tackles him and even Demar Hamlin at times. Yeah. But we’re not seeing that this year and the other thing we’re not seeing is the cohesiveness or consistency when it comes to rap and communicating and getting everyone lined up and being on the same page. There’s been some weird and odd reasons for some broken coverages and guys not being in position and spacing being off. And so the two things that really we stood up for when it came to rap that we could always come back to was his tackling, especially if we’re talking from depth and communication prior to the snap. And I’m sorry those things haven’t been there consistently enough for me to say he deserved to stay as a starting safety. So, I am now listening and and and hearing a lot of things of what you guys say and I agree because you saw in this game when this they have athletes in space against the Bills defense, guys like Rap were struggling, guys like Bishop were struggling and whether they were coming from the post safety or two high safety structures or even in the box having to go widthwise like Rap, they straight up struggled. And so, I got I’m with you guys. I need to see more from the safety position, especially when it comes to being that safety net and making tackles and not missing tackles. Yeah, I I’m very frustrated with a lot of the defense, but especially the safeties. I you know, your linebackers are one of your big things. Safeties are mine, secondary play, coverage play in general. And I spoke all off season about not really liking the tandem and duo of Rap and Bishops. I didn’t think they complemented each other tremendously, but you know to your point about the saving grace I was like you know what at the end of the day okay Bishop has some athleticism rap is a high floor because of his you know how he can play from the shoulders up and how good he is tackling from depth. Yeah. And I feel like I jinx the hell out of him cuz the only two things I like for him have completely gone away. Yeah. There’s there’s almost overcommunication to the point that it looks like confusion on the defense in general, but especially when it comes to rap. And then, yeah, all the missed tackles in and it’s not like, oh, okay, well, it’s Derrick Henry. What are you going to do? It’s coming against everybody. It’s coming in the past. It’s coming in the run. It’s from two high structures. It’s from single high. And he didn’t miss a beat last year as a tackler just like he didn’t miss a beat the year before. He was so sure and so sound in and around the box coming from depth. single high, two high, whatever, was so good in that regard. He’s completely fallen off. Bishop is still a guy that needs time on task because of how he was used at Utah versus the type of safety that he has to play here. So now you’ve got the veteran calming presence in rap who is mercurial and towards the low end of of the spectrum when it comes to his play. and he’s the guy that’s supposed to be the calming influence for essentially a rookie because Bishop was so hurt last year who’s still learning how to play that position at the NFL level in this defense and it’s it’s it’s just really frustrating to see and it plays out regularly against the run but also in coverage and very frustrating. Speaking of coverage, this next segment’s going to crush my soul. Dude, I don’t know what’s going on with him, man. Oh, no. But we’re I didn’t want to mention it too much cuz I I didn’t want to We’re hurt. I know how you feel and I knew it would. I’m so sorry. The Bills have struggled overall against cover three in this game. They were annihilated in cover three. Six passing explosives. And the man at the center of a bunch of these is my guy Terrell Bernard. So, we’re going to talk about it. And again, some of the miscommunication, some of the spacing, there’s something going on here. Yes. And the spacing is so bad. You had brought up the conversation about some have being issues in the secondary and coverage. I know YPP yards per pass on on X also said that there was something going on. I agree. I don’t know if it’s a technique thing. I don’t know if there’s some miscommunication happening. Um what as far as like how complex the coverage is or I don’t know there’s something going on because the Bill shouldn’t be this bad against cover three and especially if we’re talking Terrell Bernard. Watch this play. This is one of from early in the game. Bills drop into cover three and one. Just look at the spacing. Of course, you have the flats defender Shaq Thompson out wide. He’s again typically this is what they do. They hinge, right? Usually it’s Johnson or the linebacker Matt Milano are hinging to keep the running back in the flats and the peripheral, but also look out for here for any out routes or cell concepts. Kind of what the Falcons run here. So the spacing is massive between Trell Bernard and Shaq Thompson. And then the eye discipline. I don’t know why Trell Bernard’s looking to his left. What the hell was he looking at? I don’t know. And so again, cover three. The the Bills saw this last week against the Patriots. A three-level passing concept. Drake London sneaks in behind Terrell Bernard and behind Shaq Thompson. And again, the eye discipline. I don’t know what he’s looking at. Very good eye discipline from the quarterback that held Terrell Bernard enough for Drake London to sneak behind him for the completion and big play. One of the six explosives against the Bills cover three defense. And as I said, the Bills saw this same exact play, albeit in cover two Tampa 2 type defense last week against the Patriots and Stefon Diggs. So I don’t know what’s going on when it comes to, you know, their their coverage, especially Trell Bernard. Something’s going on here. I can’t tell you exactly what that is yet, but these type of plays have happened in back-to-back weeks against different coverages nonetheless. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s been poor spacing at the second level. It’s been poor spacing between the second and third level, especially with, you know, sometimes like their safeties are like off the screen on the sideline angle for all 22 because of how deep they are. And yeah, I don’t first I’m I’m trying I’m not trying to play the benefit of the doubt game. And you know, I know Bernard got hurt in this game, but he he doesn’t look good in his movement. Like he looks stiff, hampered. Yeah. Or hobbled. Like he just he doesn’t have he’s not this athletic marble. Like he’s not Fred Warner, but he’s not unathletic. And even the the quick one you showed from the Patriots game, you can see how it looks like he’s running in cement shoes trying to get after Diggs. And this game he had several reps where he just looked really hampered and limited in space with his movement. And then yeah, his eyes like multiple times in this game I don’t know what he’s looking at or I don’t know what he’s doing or he looks and he’ll see someone breaking behind him and instead of like sticking to him or getting to him, he turns back around to just cover grass and not do anything. And I it’s just so frustrating to see their spot drop coverage is the big one for me. They so often are just covering grass and there’s and this is a good like look at him move like he looks like he’s really trying to kick it up into gear and he can’t and I don’t know if he was hurt before the Atlanta game or he’s hurt here but I you pair that up with the spacing and poor eye discipline and just other questions and it’s he’s really been at the center of a lot of issues with their spot drop coverage and it’s been frustrating to see and also sincere ly perplexing like I don’t know what’s going on. Yeah. And and I think that as I said the Bills is something we’re going to study more in by week is again their cover three is getting eaten up and so I don’t know if they are are playing some new techniques or having their eyes in different places but I feel like there’s something something going on with the spacing of their their cover three and or the tell. I don’t know if the predisnap picture is just too obvious or if teams opposing offenses picked up on tells and I do know Terrell Bernard was working through an injury earlier in the year. Um but that was at this point I don’t know three weeks ago. I was going to say his uh his calf was wrapped in camp if I remember something on his leg or his knee was wrapped a little bit. Yeah. And he was still working through that mid to late September. So again just his fluidity is not what it is. And you see him get tore up on that play again. Kind of sail, but then this one kills me. This one drives me insane. Yeah, it’s the same thing. Again, they make it look the same that London is going to go out wide, but he runs that dagger over the middle. But I don’t know what he’s doing here. I don’t know where his eyes are and what he’s doing. He sits right there. And again, he usually doesn’t even have to turn like that. He has that he used to have that innate sense of there’s a route coming in behind me. I can slide to my right uh from the end zone angle and make a play on this ball. And again, I know it’s it looks awfully similar to what the Falcons ran earlier in the game, but it these are the type of plays that Bernard usually just senses. Doesn’t even have to see with his eyes. But again, I don’t know if he’s being asked to do something different now because I feel like week in and week out and underneath coverage, he’s getting stressed and his eyes are not in the right right places consistently like they typically are, especially for talking just simple cover three. Yeah. And he’s this game. There were a couple of them where you would get those chunk plays and he’d make the tackle and it would kind of be on him a little bit and he was showing visible frustration to the point that it wasn’t like oh I’m screwing up. It seemed like he was frustrated at something. Yes. Or bigger picture, something that And I again, this is a complete me surmising and speculating, but it just seemed like one of those type of frustrations where it’s kind of like, dude, what are we doing? Or, dude, why are we doing this? More so than it was like, oh, I can’t believe I got beat on that one. And again, this this he he robots. He turns and he sees London and then he turns again and he can see everything here. He sees that there’s nothing. He He gets a full 360 view. He sees that there’s nothing really threatening him. Then he turns and he sees London. Get to him. And I know you’re playing more spot here, but get to him. Match him. Stick to him. Instead, he turns back around again, keeps widening. Yeah. And then Pennix just fits in right between him and Dorian for another chunk play. And it’s And then you pair that with how he looks from a movement perspective. And it his eyes and his movement, he just he looks lost out there. And that’s not the type of coverage player that he is. He Leslie Frasier said it day one with him as a rookie. He’s so smart and he’s so cerebral and he looks like a guy that’s lost out there, which to to me and a little bit of what you said as well, like I’m not putting words in your mouth, but some of the things you said of maybe what it is, I feel like it’s got to be something more that’s being taught or being coached or what’s being called because it just doesn’t make sense and this isn’t how we’ve seen him play linebacker in coverage. And I know McDermott on this play, he admitted that Shaq Thompson didn’t quite communicate this cover three call. Half the defense to the top of the screen is playing cover three. Trey White, Taylor Rap to the bottom aren’t playing that. You see Trey White on the bottom kind of curl in with the in route by Pitts there. And that leaves the the little rail or wheel up the sideline by Bejon wide open. Man, these are the type of things that we haven’t seen in years past in simple coverages. This is not and this is why I when I if it was you or yards per pass I said it was too complex. This isn’t complex. Yeah. Yards per pass said that. Yeah. Oh yeah. Cuz I said I wanted to see more match coverages and he said he thinks it might be too complex for them to handle. I’m sorry. I can’t say this is complex. This is simple like you said spot drop cover three. Now there are a multitude of ways to run cover three. There are multiatch and just technique-wise where their eyes are and everything like that. So I I wouldn’t say this is complex. This even McDermott confirmed was just a miscommunication that one side of the defense was playing one coverage, the other was playing another. And it led to another explosive play again what against a cover three or what was supposed to be a cover three call with Trey White in that deep third. Yeah, I this one was so and I’ve had this happen a couple times this year with the Bills. Like usually you’ll see these type of coverage errors when you’re watching college tape. So when I’m trying to evaluate like safeties or corners, I’ll see things go sideways and it’s like what the hell coverage are they playing here. It’s like, oh, okay, someone screwed up or this side happened to do this yada yada. But here, you don’t really see that a lot in the NFL or with the Bills. And I’ve seen that a couple times this year and this one. Yeah. Like there there’s just no one in in the curl flats at all. Like it was like what is Dorian doing? What’s rap doing? You see what Trey White is doing? And then I was like, okay, maybe did like did Trey think Bejon was going to settle because of how he slow played his release and then when Bejian kicks it into gear, but no, he’s still going towards that deep third and I know Trey is trying to get his eyes across the field, maybe trying to pick something else up. It’s just these are the type of errors you don’t see in this defense where you have complete coverage bus and areas of the field left completely open. It’s it’s just uncharacteristic of this team. And when you have other areas that you need to improve on like the run defense, you can’t afford to have those. And again, that’s another one too, that pass one, another example, the disconnect between rush and coverage because that’s a great rush from Joey Bosa and he gets in there right away and Pennix has an easy answer because there’s a coverage bust. Yep. Here’s another cover three play where the Bills I liked this call. I love the disguise. I love the pressure. Yes. Uh you see Bejian go to flats. Taran Johnson again usually I talked about you know how those guys Taran Milano Shaq Thompson you saw early hinge with their eyes and you know chest and numbers showing to the middle of the field. Look at what Taran Johnson does on this. He has almost like he’s playing man coverage against Bejon but really it’s cover three matching it. Yeah. And so he’s matching that. Well Bernard has to carry the the route up the middle. This is that snag concept, flat uh snag route and then a corner route, three-level passing concept that the Bills have seen. In fact, Bernard won a game essentially for the Bills against the Dolphins on this concept. But you see the spacing here because of this vertical because of the the horizontal stretch here. And there’s a window for Drake London and Bernard’s not able to get there. Really nice throw from PennX as well. High pointing it for London. And they have another big play against cover three. Yep. And this one is another one like you you hit it on the head the way Taran plays the out from Bejon. It plays out like man, but obviously like he’s not going to be a man there with the rest of the M. So it’s like they’re playing match and he’s like, “Okay, he’s matching that route, but Bernard isn’t really matching 82’s vertical and Benford isn’t then matching London.” So, it’s like two of them are playing spot drop, but Taran is playing something else and it leaves that huge gap in Chasm. Bernard has to carry 82 and be there. So, he can’t just sell out and go right to London. So, he’s kind of put in hell. There’s a huge space and gap for London around the 40 because of the spacing and gap between those three defenders as that triangle. And it’s just another like it looks like Teran’s playing something completely different than what Bernard and Benford are playing with respect to cover three. Even though it plays out like cover three, which it is, but Teran’s playing more match and it seems like the other two are just playing regular spot drop zone. And normally, especially if we’re talking like big down and distances, high leverage situations normally the no cover zone. Like yes, normally you’re not seeing Taran just buzz out to the flats there. Normally he’s undercutting Drake London first, waiting for that confirmation that the ball’s going out to the flats, then getting out. He’s playing curl to flat rather than just buzzing to the flat. And and here he’s just getting out to the flats. I don’t I don’t know what’s happening here. They’re they’re doing some different things. Again, I need to put it under a microscope microscope a little more because things like this are happening far too often. And again, it’s not complex things. As my mouse goes haywire, it happened last week, too. We’re f everything’s falling apart. Uh, and so it’s not complex things. And to me, that screams there’s a disconnect between what is being asked of them, what is being communicated to them, the communication that’s happening on the field. There is something occurring differently this year than years past because like I said, these coverages aren’t complex. how the things they may, you know, stuff that we can’t necessarily talk to or speak to. Maybe that stuff is the complex part of it. And maybe they’re trying to reprogram the way they’ve always done it. Think about the coaching staff changes that we lauded, Elgro, Neielson, guys like that, Jodana. There’s some flux there that and changes that are happening there from those guys coming in. And I think we’re seeing some of those pains being worked out and some of those kinks being ironed out when we’re talking the coverage side of things for the Bills defense. Yeah, I completely agree. It’s you’re just seeing them be I think for for a lot of times when fans would always refer to like the soft zone stuff from the Bills, it was they were getting beat like underneath and it was the you know those no cover zone spots like the little hitches and you know the short uh snags and things like that. But now they’re getting gashed like on digs and deep like deep hooks and stuff where they really don’t and it’s again poor spacing seems like poor communication and poor understanding and also something I noted too um I forot I was talking I think I saw I think I said it in response to um yards per pass when you commented on on something there we we talk all the time about the communication from the Bills and you know the air traffic controller that Bernard is for me this year and this is a complete speculation by me there almost seems seems like there’s too much communication happening or too much happening like right up until the snap and it doesn’t seem very like hey yep we’re doing this yep we’re doing that it seems more like alarm bells and a lot of it and it’s happening a lot and I don’t know if there’s new checks if there’s new rules if there’s things to your point that we can’t speak to but they they’re screwing up basic stuff and especially the ones that we show here this isn’t like they’re not playing match coverage here where it’s like Okay, it’s a rulesbased coverage that has a little more complexity. Teams can kind of nitpick at that and manipulate you. They’re just playing regular spot drop zone stuff and they’re still screwing that up. That’s like the simp that’s whiteboard install day one. Yeah. Spot drop coverage stuff and it’s it’s really frustrating. Um but you know what’s not frustrating? Some of the splash plays that Deion Walker makes. It’s really nice to see some of those. It’s really nice to see that. Even though I do think some people are hyping him up a little too much, it is nice to see the progress that he’s made and uh he’s already surpassed my expectations for this year, which is nice to see. And so it’s not just going to be one play. And actually, you’ve seen a couple of them already. Deion Walker is our easy loan auto sales, making it look easy, player of the game, and there weren’t many options this week. And so as much as a lot of us are hyping him up maybe over the top, I want to nominate him for uh the making it look easy player of the game. Five tackles in this game, one pressure, four stops. You saw a couple of them already. I thought he did a great job most of the time dominating one-on-one blocks up in the air and and 50-50 when it comes to some of the combination blocks, but his ability to defeat blocks with his size, his length, his quickness, uh you’re seeing it overall this year against the run, 12.4% run stop percentage, that is third overall among D tackles. 13 solo run tackles, that’s tied for seventh. And his average depth of tackle is.5 yards. He’s making a lot of plays on the ball against the run. We’re still waiting to see it in the pass game, but there were, as I said, there weren’t many plays or players in this game to choose from. But I will say he did deserve this award this week against the Falcons. Yeah. And he stepped up in the second half, especially in that the the the spurts of drives where the defense kept getting stops and kept getting stops and finding a way. I think what was the the one drive where he literally had like the stop on second and one and then the stop on third and one uh to force Atlanta off. like he’s yeah he’s made some nice splash plays um throughout I think really these first six weeks and even in this game and that’s been the most encouraging thing for me it’s you know you’ll see him get washed down a bit you’ll see him get displaced but then he’s almost kind of balancing I think he’s a good microcosm for the Bills defense you’ll see him get washed and blown up and then yes havoc tackle for a loss stuff or a quick penetration and then he follows it up with he’s stuck at the line and he’s you know stuck and neutral and washed and all that and then bang penetration havoc. But that’s nice to see and I what I’m encouraged about most with him is adding him to an ideally healthy defensive tackle room when you get Larry Oen Joby and you get Daquin Jones and you get TJ Sanders and you can be kind of full tilt on the interior. Um, you know, all these injuries and suspensions up front have been unfortunate, but he’s gotten a lot of playing time and I think he’s starting to adjust a little bit better with each week and like I said, he’s ahead of schedule for me. So, shout out uh to Mr. Dion Walker. He read a bunch of good stats for him. We showed some fun tape that he had in this game against the Falcons and all of those things in conjunction are why he is our easy loan auto sales making it look easy player of the game against the Atlanta Falcons. This segment of course sponsored by our friends at Easylan Auto Sales. Easelone Auto Sales is Western New York’s premier buy here, pay here car dealership with locations in Buffalo and Lockport. Regardless of your credit history, they offer the fastest car buying experience around. Get approved and reserve your vehicle all from your phone. Start your approval at easyloneauto.com and you could be driving today. Yeah, good stuff from him. Uh, want to see him, like you said, uh, figure out a rotation. I I think sounds like Daycoin Jones is going to be week to week. He I agree like Mcderman said has been the most consistent defensive tackle for them. Um so it sucks to see or hear that his calf popped. Yeah, I’m like week to week I’m actually kind of happy about cuz when I heard popped his calf I was like oh he’s done. like I you can pop pop this calf is such a horrible phrasing and I was like oh he’s done and the fact that it happened in warm-ups like right before the g it just sucks to a position group where they can’t afford to have any more guys miss this time. No, especially you’re seeing you broke down and we broke down some of the film with the run defense and they need consistency there and so to not have him there. Jordan Phillips should not be playing. Oh my gosh. At all, let alone let alone being defensive tackle three because you had four going into the game and Daquin’s out. Like you cannot afford to have any more injuries at that spot. And Daycoin, I think we’ve said it on social, we’ve said it uh on the show, he’s having like a sneaky really good year that I don’t think a lot of fans are realizing. They are. He’s penetrating. He’s playing the run well. He’s doing stuff at three tech. Like he’s he’s looked good. And that’s with Sanders being hurt. Oliver being hurt, Dion trying to learn and have time on task. He’s been the stabilizing force there and he’s played really well, wearing a lot of hats on the interior, which has been really awesome to see because he’s a good dude and uh a good player. Eric, let’s pivot, I guess, to the offensive side of the ball. Not that it’s going to be much more fun, but yeah, we got to do it. Let’s talk about it. I I frustrated. I’m frustrated cuz everyone knew that the Falcons were a blitzing team. Everyone knew that. Fans, staff, scouts, everybody knew that. Falcons weeks one through five, their blitz percentage 47.2%. First overall. Crazy high. Versus the Bills, they said, “Let’s up that a little bit to 54.3%.” Weeks one through five. as far as sacks go for the Falcons defense. Six sacks when they blitzed in weeks one through five, fourth overall. So, we knew that blitzing was going to be a problem. We knew that they were undersized athletic, you know, type defensive uh personnel. We knew that Jeff has done some really good things schematically to frustrate and to terrorize Alen in years past with the Jets. It didn’t seem like Joe Brady and this staff and the players were prepared for any of what I just said. And it showed up on the film. It showed up in pictures like I have over here of Josh Allen. It showed up in his presser and he admitted it that he has to be better. And he’s not the only one to blame. But we’re going to show you some of where that blame should be placed because in my opinion, this was a rough game plan. This was terrible execution and there were just some plays that were just head scratchers from Josh Allen and a lot of the guys on the Bills offense. Absolutely. You know, and concaid being out for this game hurts. Palmer going down in this game hurts. Not having Curtis Samuel for that game, you know, potentially hurts as well. But it was, you know, we you texted me last night. You’re like, “Oh, what do you think for the offense?” And I was like, “Allen decision-m and the pass rush stuff and blitzing.” And you were like, “Same.” Like that’s just where you got to go. And it’s it really is crazy to see how much they struggled against like or how much the Falcons blitzing and rush gave them issues considering what the Falcons are. You know, you hit some of the numbers like the Falcons right now after 6 weeks lead the league in blitz rate at 44.9%. The Vikings are second at 35.8. Brian Flores, all he wants to do is blitz with the Vikings. And the Falcons have them beat by over 9 percentage points when it comes to blitz rate. That is crazy high. And between that and the athleticism and the juice, they had the Bills in hell for a lot of this game. And it led to confusions up front and it led to some skittishness for Allen and some missed opportunities on his part. It really was, you know, a little bit of everything when it came to Allen. The O line, the scheme, the ideas, the design, the the the setup, and the sequencing. really was a just a multitude of I don’t want to say dysfunction, but frustration when it came to having to watch this. And it it really started with how prepared that defense was. You can see the the formation shifts and changing. You could see the Falcons changing their coverages, having auditions, and they really took it to the Bills from a pass rush and blitz sense. And so, I want to analyze a bunch of these plays because it’s something we’ve talked about in the past. something we talked about briefly last week with the load front and how opposing defenses are overloading one side of the protection and then having two to the other. So three to one side, two to the other and how the Bills handle these load fronts is something that we broke down with Conor McGovern last year when they played the Rams. So you have a load front and the Falcons did this in a lot of high lever situations and they didn’t just bring five, they brought six at times and really sold out. So you have the three guys, center, left guard, left tackle, sliding left. You saw Torrance, the right guard, tapping his hat, which means he has zero. And then Spencer Brown has the wide edge rusher. So they’re not expecting right here, this guy, to come at all on this play. And so that is how they are blocking this up. But as the ball is snapped, you’re going to see what you’d expect the running back to come over and pick up that rusher if he comes. But his eyes are over here to Bates who I think is actually in man coverage. They’re playing man coverage on this side with Bates on Johnson. So he’s watching Bates come who’s only adding on because Johnson’s staying in to block. So instead of Johnson getting across to block this guy, you see him stay with Bates. So now Bates inserts and now you have a free rusher free and clear to Josh Allen. Josh does his best to try to get the Shakir, but again that load front and five or sixman pressures and blitzes are what caused the Bills offense to struggle and Josh Allen to be overwhelmed at times in high leverage situations like you see here. That throw was crazy and the fact that it was almost complete is still nuts. Um but yeah, you hit it on the head like you’re and it’s also annoying from this angle like you’re seeing Tai Johnson look right at Kate Ellis. Yeah. And you see the slide to the left and they have it covered. Jaylen Walker 11 drops out into the low hole and then Bates comes. So you have essentially threeon three even with Bates coming or adding on but that free rusher on that right side. You get nobody going to that side and it’s just a simple we’re sliding to the left on this side. We’ve got man protection. We’re getting gamed up. there’s a free runner coming through and like you said we I mean they they did that a bunch in this game just their ability to get free runners with it with different games and what they were doing but we’ve seen that happen to the Bills a couple times this year where their protection rules are getting scouted and ided and gamed up a little bit and you’re getting some free runners. It’s not just guys are losing up front. it’s guys are missing assignments or guys are not getting IDed pre- snap and Allen and this offense are paying for it with having to deal with free runners and in the presser after the game Josh like yeah we saw a lot of man coverage they only saw man coverage 13% in this game but you can see it’s kind of this play especially is kind of a combo coverage you have man coverage here likely man coverage baits on the running back but then they’re playing box which is more of a cover six type look four over three which we tal about versus that trips look you see them drop out again exotic hybrid type coverage. And 11 Walker there has the first in, 20 has the first out. And then these two guys are kind of comboing in and out over the top of that vertical route on top of the pressure. Very, very good schemed up play from Jeff, the DC of the Falcons. And you saw it several times in this game. Initially for strong look, you see the Bills try to disguise it, to ID it, to uncover it. you base. You see him. He’s checking right with Josh at the line of scrimmage. Another three by one look. And once again, this time the Bills are prepared. So there’s that box look again. There’s that box coverage, man coverage on the backside. They have a nice little answer on this play. And that answer is Shakir making it look like he’s breaking inside. So Watts right here kind of drops him because again, he’s got first out. He would have first out. So he drops Shakir and then Shakir catches it in between those two guys underneath and then he does what he does best after the catch on third down to move the chains for the Bills offense. So a nice adjustment here from a route concept perspective but also up front Anthony. So again load front. There’s Torrance calling out that Michael Hoy who when he comes back he’s going to be doing this for the Bills and running that load front. You see the slide from the center, left guard, left tackle, and the Falcons do a good job of creating a variation rush here where they drop out a bunch of guys and they bring another defender off the edge. They run a little twist inside, but the Bills do just enough to pick it up to get it to Shakira underneath. Just get the ball out of Josh’s hands, give him an answer underneath, and then allow guys like Shakir, James Cook, preferably Don Kate when he’s healthy to do stuff after the catch. That is their bread and butter. Josh is going deep too often in these blitz situations. This is one you just got it out and they’re able to get a first down. Yeah. Just do what you can to gum it up. Slow some guys down. And if teams aren’t blitzing you like that, there’s going to be more space behind them. And when you have a guy like Khalil Shakir who’s this good when he gets the ball in his hands. Also for context, this is a third and 10. Khalil Shakir catches this ball at about five yards and then he earns that first down by stiff arming Jaylen Walker 11. Watch the jump cut on Watts after he makes the whoop. That is so filthy. So filthy. The stiff arm transitions right into the jump cut. Leaves Watts essentially grasping at air. Gets forward. Puts a little move on Hughes. Puts his head down. Gets that first down. Um so really nice finish by Shakir. to your point, it starts with the protection, a little bit of a better plan on the back end and then how it pairs with what the Falcons are trying to do from a box perspective. It ends up leaving Walker trying to chase down Shakir. Shakir makes him miss, makes Watts miss, takes advantage. Just wad it up a little bit, gum it up a little bit, and give your guys a chance. and getting it the ball out of your hands in these blitz situations has to be key because you’ll see the secondary the Falcons here essentially just play off and soft and say you know what you want to run that mesh you want to ma maj all right we’re going to send you know a bunch of guys at you from that load front you have guys open underneath but because you’re under duress and you didn’t ID it properly and you didn’t find your hot route now guess what third down turns into fourth down you get a punt and so look at it from the end zone angle same thing load front to the right side this There’s the ID. You see Anderson in the game at this time because Conor McGovern got leg whipped there and was out for this play. And so you have a lot of things going against you when it comes to injuries. Concaid McGovern and the load front which you’ve been up and down with this year. We’ll talk about at the end of the segment. And it’s the same protection. And the Falcons do a great job on this one of again of running the load front but bringing a different blitz and pressure and different guys. And it really just caught Allen off guard. So you see them them spike these two guys and then Loop Diablo. They’re sending Hughes off the edge here and dropping out these guys off the left side. Again, pretty nasty exotic blitz. And that just leads, you know, to so many issues because there’s free runners on the Bills. Josh is trying to work to his hot. He’s trying to work through his progressions. There’s guys open underneath, but he can’t get to it because of the pressure. And then he’s running out of the back of the pocket, which if he does that in a game, the Bills are in trouble. We should know that as fans. And he did it here and it cost them. Yeah, I love this pressure look from the Falcons just what they’re showing. And then Kaden Ellis 55 and Abeki number 17. Both just drop off. Spencer Brown gets into his set and essentially has no one to block. And then you highlighted this track perfectly. Spike inside from Rook number 98. Spike inside from Jaylen Walker. Diablo loops. Alford is coming from the slot as Pierce gets up field. You essentially get two free runners. And then Allen, his eyes, they’re going mesh rail. So his one is Ty Johnson. His two is that underneath drag coming from the other side of the field. Exactly right, Keon Coleman. His three is that over the ball route from Dawson Knox. And then his four is to Tyrell Shavers. Shavers is going to come open, but because of those two free runners, there is no shot for that. And then five, yeah, Shir wide open on the outside. And if you if they could have IDed this potentially pre- snap cuz Shakir when he sees the rush, he looks immediately. He sees Alford and Pierce shooting side, he gets his eyes back like, “Okay, like I’m hot. Spit it to me.” But I don’t know if it’s something they didn’t have baked in or Allen didn’t see it. So he’s reading mesh rail out through his normal progressions. And even if they gummed it up a little bit, he could hit shavers and probably get the first down, but the pressure gets him off the spot. He has to do that, you know, 360 or half turn to try and roll and make something happen and just dead to rights. It’s just they struggle, you know, this and it started again, this is something we’re going to talk in depth more in the by-week scouting self scouting session, but these load fronts have given the Bills issues. Here’s later in the game where uh another pressure and they blocked it up differently. They had Dawson Knox and the running back stay in, but that puts less guys out into a route and there’s no one open. And you see the guy you’d like to get it to, Shakira. He’s got a bracket coverage over the middle on the same read. So now you’re just playing one-on-one isolation type routes outside. So you can see they kept more guys in the block and pick it up. But that didn’t work either. So here it is from the end zone angle. There they are iding the load front. David Edwards, he’s going to jump that guy. He has him. Dawkins, man, uh on on his man as well. There’s your slide. And now you’re adding in Knox and Johnson. And on the snap here, I can’t tell you exactly who they’re supposed to be blocking, who they’re supposed to be identifying and working to. I just know they both kind of creep inside right here to Diablo. Now you have a free rusher coming off the right side here. And again, that is speeding up Josh that’s right in his face. Does he get the ball off? Yes. I don’t know. It almost looked like the guy Deion Dawkins is blocking almost got a piece of it, but you see how the strategy changed had Dawson and Ty Johnson in there to block, which hurts how many guys are going out into routes. And so they need to start figuring out how they want to attack these load fronts because too often they’re they’re getting dictated and they’re not dictating as an offense. Absolutely. This one’s frustrating because you keep seven in to block. So you’ve got your five offensive linemen, you’ve got Tai, and you’ve got Knox. So with Allen, you know that’s So the five offensive linemen, three behind and that’s eight. You only get three eligibles out into the route and you have enough bodies for how many the Falcons rush. The Falcons bring six. One, two, three, four, five, six. You’ve got seven in protection, so you can handle that. Edwards takes Ellis, but you’ve still got six on six. But because of what the Falcons brought, they end up bringing a free runner. So, you essentially wasted an a potentially eligible receiver in either Knox or Johnson to keep them in to block and you still didn’t even get the job done. So, you wasted an eligible, didn’t create good protection. Pressure still happened. Allen got heated up and yet I think he I don’t know if he hit his elbow or what, but that ball came out weird. I don’t think it was just a miscommunication. Maybe it was, but it looked like Ebetti got around Dawkins and got a piece of it there. But again, another example of just gaming up their protections a little bit and they’re using this time to kind of make the Bills waste potential eligibles. Yeah, it was it was tough to watch those load fronts and how Not if you’re a Falcons fan. Yeah, for real. Seriously. Oh man, it it just and it started against the Saints. The Saints ran it, got a sack. Josh tried to climb in the pocket, got a sack. The Patriots ran it, got a sack last week. And then I mean, you saw the Falcons plays there. There was four plays there where that load front was an issue. One, the ball was out and thankfully it was because there were there were linemen beat on that play to Shakir. But it’s something that when we go into self scouting and this team more importantly goes into self scouting, Chromemer and that staff need to figure out how they want to block this up because I thought when we broke down film with McGovern, he broke down these rules to us and he showed us exactly what how they like to do it. Maybe maybe all Brooks watch watch I was going to say it’s our fault. Yeah, maybe maybe the fans are right sometimes, but I I I just think that they typically have blocked that up really well. McGovern told us that when they play teams and fronts like that that play some of those exotic, you know, rushes and stunts and games, they practice it on Thursdays. He told us exactly what day they practice it. And so I think they need to get start looking at that again because it’s a copycat league and much like the run, you know, concepts that they’ve seen on defense, the offensive line has struggled to deal with that load front and some of those exotic blitzes and blitzes overall and having answers to not just the protections, but the pressure and getting the ball out of Josh’s hands because right now he is headunting. He is trying to big play hunt down the field when it comes to blitzes. I mean, it’s it’s drastically different than we’ve seen in years past. And you know, you get Carolina coming out of the buy, but who’s up right after that? Steve Spagnola and the Kansas City Chiefs. Do you think Do you think Spags likes to blitz? Cuz he does. And do you think they’re going to run some low fronts? And they’re they keep getting got another time in this game from uh you know, a corner blitz from the short side. AJ Terrell heated up Allen. You know who loves those corner those those cap blitzes from the boundary? Steve Spagnolo. Just you better they better get that sorted out quick because Spags is gonna blitz the hell out of you. And all of a sudden that Bills Chiefs game looks even more important with the Chiefs sitting at three losses and the Bills only sitting at two and we know what’s happened uh going forward. Eric, this is some nice uh stats here with Allen, you know, maybe pressing a little bit going against the Blitz. Yeah. And this so these are blitz situations against Allen minus play action. All right. And so the the numbers I want you to pay attention to are the sack percentage 2024 when he’s he was blitzed. Sack percentage 4.1 that was eighth overall. Are yards per attempt 6.7 that was 39th overall. And this is among quarterbacks with at least 25 pass attempts in 20 2024 and 2025 against the blitz. So are yards per attempt 6.7. Are yards to the sticks minus 1.8. So he was throwing short of the sticks much like Shakir on that play. negative play rate 4.7% when blitzed last year third overall. But now if you look at the numbers from this year when he’s blitzed sack percentage 11.9% 22nd overall area yards per attempt 11.1 damn near almost double area yards per attempt this year versus last year. That’s first area yards to the sticks plus 3.2. So he’s thrown over three yards past the sticks in these blitz situations. And then finally, the big one, negative play rate, 15.2% against the Blitz, minus play action, 22nd overall. So you can see those stats compared side by side that Josh is pressing a little more when the Blitz comes and you’re it’s leading to negative plays or we’re talking sacks, whether we’re talking turnovers and that that is where they need to focus on getting back to their game. They’re a Yak team. I know everyone wants the big ball down the field. They want those boundary receivers. on vertical routes. This is the offense and that’s the way Brady has its scheme and designed. Josh just needs to get back into rhythm, back on track to making the right decision and having the correct answers against the Blitz. Yeah, this is not a team for for as much as I think they need to be able to win deep at times to have that available and keep defenses holistically honest, but this is not a push the ball downfield type of offense. They are not built to chuck it downfield. They’re not built to chuck it 30 to 40 times a game. You want to get the ball into Khlo Shakir’s hands to James Cook’s hands to Daltton Concadence, right? Especially what they have going on defense, especially with what they got going on defense. So, absolutely, they need to course correct some things there on the offensive side of the ball. They need to course correct some things on the defensive side of the ball. And we will have all of that uh detailed in that self scouting episode that we come out with next week. Coming out of so much tape to go through, so much fun. Eric, uh, as we start to wind down here and say goodbye, any parting words, any final thoughts, uh, as we say goodbye to the people? No, I appreciate everyone joining us. I know it’s difficult to listen to some of the stuff we talked about in this episode, but we appreciate you guys tuning in. We appreciate you having the some of that humble pie that the Bills are going through when it comes to being a fan or player for that team. And so, uh, I do think it comes the buy comes at a good time. um not just for us creators, but also for this team to kind of get back to some of the basics and fundamentals of things that are plaguing the Bills so far through the first six games. Absolutely. And uh yeah, we’ll see what the Bills look like coming out of this buy. I don’t I think it’s very fair to be concerned. There are some vulnerabilities or deficiencies or flaws depending on what you attribute to each one of those words, but they got some stuff they have to clean up just like everybody does in the NFL. I’m not trying to explain that away, but they’ve got some things to clean up just like a lot of teams do. We’ll see if they can clean it up and we’ll see what that means. And whether they can or not, we will have you covered here in the film room every single week following that journey. Starting with that self- scouting episode next week and then moving forward. Apologies for not being live today. We had to make this episode work with our schedule because the Bills decided they want to be good now and play on Monday nights and be prime time and all that stuff. Yeah, freaking selfish selfish team. But uh we appreciate you folks tuning in to this episode. If you’re watching on YouTube, please drop a like on this video. Turn on notifications for the Cover One film room playlist. Subscribe to the Cover One channel as a whole. If you’re listening on one of the audio platforms, that’s very much appreciated as well. Please rate and review and subscribe to the film room on the audio platform of your choice. Thank you very much as always to Joe D. Rosa, our man behind the scenes. Thank you very much to Easy Loan Auto Sales. And that will do it for us here on this episode of the Cover One Film Room. We hope you and your family and friends and loved ones are all doing well and staying safe. Be kind to one another. Take care of one another. Enjoy the by-week. Don’t panic. Don’t burn the world down. We’ll see what happens coming out of the buy. For myself, Anthony Prohaska, for the godfather and founder of Cover One, Mr. Eric Turner. That’ll do it for us here. We will see you when we see you. Godspeed and as always, go Bills.

The Buffalo Bills’ offense struggled for the second week in a row, and a large part of it was due to an Atlanta Falcons defense that put a lot of pressure on Josh Allen, amongst other factors.

Erik and Ant break down where things went wrong, and how the Falcons’ defense was able to create success against Josh Allen and the Bills’ offense.

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0:00 – Intro, Bills vs. Falcons Reaction
10:51 – Film Review: The Bills’ Run Defense struggling, adjustments
34:03 – Film Review: Terrel Bernard, Bills defense’s coverage struggles
50:00 – E-Z Loan Auto Sales Play of the Game: Deone Walker’s Disruptive Run Stuffs
54:40 – Film Review: The Bills’ offense lacking preparation against the Falcons’ pressure
1:12:07 – Josh Allen vs. the Blitz stat read and discussion, sign-off

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