It's an interesting vid - but I think the success is more simple than it seems. The front 4 are getting to the quarterback. Fast. Anyone can do the other stuff, but it won't work as well if the quarterback has all day.
The Bills front 7 is now as good or better than the Steelers but on top of that the Bills have an ELITE offense unlike the Steelers. As a Steeler fan I know this is the year Bills are winning it they’ve come up short too many times
It's more the other way around. A lot of times dropping more guys and getting good a good coverage going allows the pass rush to get home. Sacks and pressures are almost always generated when coverage is good, not when the pass rush does it's job well.
Von Miller was grabbing O-line players and using them to create the momentum to fly past them like his hands were grappling hooks... I'm confident that it wasn't personal towards his former teammates. 😅
100% that game wouldve looked a lot different with say only a sack or 2 and 10 pressures. Probably 28-31 final or something like that. Not necessarily a bills win either.
I feel like some of those concepts were open enough to work, but in almost all of your clips Stafford was already under severe pressure. Being able to get home with just 4 makes calling a defense a lot easier.
Pressure has always been the key to stopping good QBs. You can have the best coverage in the world but give the QB long enough and they will find someone. Getting there even quicker means your coverage can be that much worse and getting that with 4 rushers is a fucking boon to any defense.
@@grinningchicken I love Alex but it almost seems click baity in nature. Why not just highlight how awesome of a job the coaching staff and GM has done to draft Ed Oliver, Gregory Rousseau, Shaq Lawson, and add Von Miller & Jordan Phillips.
As a defensive player, Lawrence Taylor was good enough to actually change how the game was played in response to what he was doing. These guys, not so much.
Reminds me a lot of the Broncos D a few years ago. The front end and the back end were able to create time for one another. Talib, Harris, Ward, Stewart, and Roby made so much possible. Their front end with Ware and Miller was amazing, and that obscured how amazing the back end was too.
I always prefer 2 high pre-snap, even if you are going to roll to one high. Two high can turn into so much more post-snap than one high and a box safety. With two high, you can play Tampa 2, Cover 5 (man under), cover 3 sky by rotating but not rolling in one direction or the other, cover 3 cloud by rolling the weak safety into the flat to stop the weak run and take away weak dump off plays and hunt the screen, cover 3 cloud by rolling the Strong side safety into Curl Seam Flat, cover 4, and cover 6.
Exactly, so hard for a post safety or somebody to be pre rotated and run back at the snap. I loved what the Bills did, mostly simple stuff, and then on a key 3rd down at times they go with something crazy
YESSS!!! Not only do they have the best coached defense, but they get back ANOTHER superstar defender. Poyer, Hyde, Miller, White, and so many other high profile names, ughh I can't wait! Especially with so many high powered offenses, having the best defense is a huge advantage.
@@JediTiga outside of those two who do the chargers have, with the bills it's about putting fresh bodies in instead of repeatedly putting in the same d-Linemen drive after drive, so from drive to drive you aren't having the same exact people in you're having fresher d-Linemen with similar levels of talent going against the same offensive line that is already getting tired while the players that need rest are getting rest
Man I was shocked. I've said this before but I absolutly love these great defensive game plans. They might not be as exciting as their offensive counter parts but I find them to be more interesting. Awesome video
Thanks TLC! Yeah, I think cause offense is (in ways) easier than defense, seeing a truly great defense game plan that shuts down everything on offense is doing is simply fascinating. I'm right there with you
Before watching, the blueprint for the Bills has been the same since the arrival of Coach McDermott. The team just lack an elite edge rusher like a Von Miller, now players like Edmunds, Milano, Oliver, 2nd year player Rousseau, Lawson, White, Hyde and Poyer can play their part. And their offense is Elite. If the Bills don’t win this year, I will truly be disappointed as a fan.
Nothing new here. Pretty textbook cover 2 just with linebacker play and overall execution that was perfection. Good on the Bills, they are clearly very well coached and dangerous. Id like to see how they adjust to a more dominant running team this week against the titans. I almost expect them to ditch that scheme entirely this week against the Titans. Cant wait to see it
against teams like the titans they play a much more traditional tampa 2 with a traditional 4-3 front, or a variation on Bill belichecks "heavy" safety nickel, depending on the situation (3 linemen, 3 linebackers, 3 safeties). overall I think they're a very good run defense with 3 true linebackers on the field, they just don't like running out 3 real linebackers.
It's already been going that way for awhile, just maybe not this extent. Teams would have linemen or linebackers that are better pass rushers check in for clear passing downs and run stoppers in short yardage situations. Depth is tricky. You can't have it everywhere because of the salary cap. The Bills have 4 guys on rookie contracts on their line, 2 of them starters, and Von Miller whos one of the best to ever do it, getting paid like it too. Gonna be hard to keep investing money there.
Are ya really this dumb? The giants did this to win their two chips….other teams have done this as well throughout the years. Shit the bucs did it the year they won. I don’t understand how people are surprised by this at all
That No look pass from Stafford WAS the right read just let himself get shook. Passes to Kupp are obvious, the Bills running no blitz but still being down his throat was magic can’t believe how well they played
Rlly loved this vid and imma huge bills fan 🔥honestly didn't know of this channle until one of my favorite content creators just reacted to it hope to see more soon for sure
I wanna point out that this style was used by the titans last year to beat both of these teams! Shane Bowen has been using disguised looks that function off of the 4 main rushers and Byard and hooker to trick elite offenses with the looks. I’d recommend looking at the titans defense from last season, you’ll see this trend really starting off there.
@@ryryy1980 Very specific run teams can challenge the Bills. Other teams can't just run at them without great talent in the trenches and a RB whose not gonna make the LB/secondary work.
This style was originally perfected by the 2007 Giants against New England. They advertised how to stop potent offenses with just 4 rushers. Literally the BLUEPRINT
This defensive development is so important to the offensive centric league, i love my bills, but i hope that other teams copy this so its not a scorigami every game
Offense sells tickets unfortunately.No matter how stout your defense is, people aren't lining up to see it like the days of Ray Lewis or even the legion of boom.The Browns had one of the best defenses last year but almost nobody cared.
Great analysis and film job..... If your 4 up front get to the quarterback it changes everything. Look back at the New York Giants teams that won the super bowl with similar packages. Stafford missed the crossing route several times that were open... he also held the ball to long after missing initial patterns. The 3 receiver in the stubby package should be looking for the over linebacker/under safety play instead of running at the safety.... A lot of room over the middle agains these packages if you react quick. And you are so correct agains the run game, the linebackers/safeties commit so quickly and don't wait deep like so many teams do wrongly. Great stuff here my friend.
Great video! This and the Aaron Rodgers one did a great job of explaining how difficult defenses are making reading coverages. I love the set up for the eventual offensive adjustment to this as this is a push/pull league. I know the Chiefs already have but it'll be interesting to see how a teams like the Dolphins or Jets will do against this, or if the Bills will do something different all together.
Isn't this more evident that Stafford for some reason didn't take more chances with any recievers not named Cooper Kupp? There were a decent amount of times Wide receivers were open. Not by a wide margin but it's Matt Stafford. He usually gambles on those plays because he usually knows he can make the throw. And Robinson was more than enough open to move the chains on crucial downs.
I wanted a Bills-Chargers playoff match up, but the Bolts would throw 4 yard passes and punt on 4th and inches while the Bills would put up 45 points in 3 quarters.
@@blakeharris58 No, I don't think you did. I know last year they went for it a ton. Against the chiefs they punted on 4th and inches in the middle of the field. I was shocked considering last year they were 100% going for it on 4th and short pretty much anywhere on the field.
The Giants did this back in 2007 and 2011. Their ability to get pressure with just four enabled them to drop 7 which was key because their secondary was nothing special. Dropping seven also creates all sorts of double teams, bracketing te’s, ect.
I think it's also important to note that developing this strategy plays into the fact that there's just an increasing number of quarterbacks for whom blitzing is just not a very effective counter; there's too many of them out there that are too good at making defenses pay for blitzing that the benefit of the extra rusher isn't worth leaving the void in coverage that starting-caliber quarterbacks increasingly can take advantage of. Pulling from a Ravens example (because I watch them the most) I wasn't all that surprised that last year the Ravens finally managed to beat the Chiefs with arguably the least blitz-heavy defensive strategy we had ever gone after the Mahomes Chiefs with, because in past meetings it always seemed like Martindale's blitz-heavy strategies would result in big chunk plays for the Chiefs that would be too much for the offense to keep pace with, but playing without Marcus Peters arguably forced Martindale to call a more disciplined, restrained defense, and it succeeded in mostly keeping a lid on the Chiefs' offense.
Great points, yes! QBs are becoming more and more advanced (plus the fact that technology has developed to where it's at today) that blitzing Mahomes, Rodgers, Brady, Stafford is pointless
Def made it easier on the Bills with the Rams and their porous interior protection along with their suspect left edge protection. But even then Stafford had to stare down the consistent coverage play all night and pick his spots. If his receivers weren't on the same page it was gonna be difficult regardless. The Von Miller effect will be key as rotating the front 4 to keep them fresh and healthy throughout the season will be pivotal. In the playoffs though your best talents have to show up and Miller is the best on the edge that the Bills have this season. That also give reason for Ed Oliver or someone to step up their interior pass rush play to All-NFL level. Otherwise the Bills secondary has been playing this kind of consistent coverage play well for the last 2-3 seasons.
Leslie Frazier as a DC is perhaps a tad underrated in the league. How many teams woud've crumbled losing a high caliber CB? Frazier just put his 11 in the best place to succeed, scheming them as you've seen here to avoid giving away coverages. Frazier is the rare type to put his players in this place consistently, with opportunities for role players to make significant contributions. I will be surprised if he does not receive a head coaching gig after this year, and don't hold his time in the chair at Minnesota against him. I felt that was a team with no direction and it ended up being such. He still had one of the lesser remembered turnarounds in NFL history from 3-13 to 10-6 with a roster dragged to the postseason by Adrian Peterson. Players seem to love him. Maybe 2nd times the charm?
I feel like 10 years ago all I ever read was how the Tampa 2 was dead because QBs could just shred 2 high coverage with multiple verticals concepts, especially attacking the space between the safeties. I wonder if that area is going to be exposed yet again down the line against the new wave of cover 2.
Amazing video, thankful that the The Algorithm surfaced this up for me. I’m gonna have to watch again to fully understand but that’s because I don’t know jack about X’s and O’s. Super approachable content, thanks for putting the time in to make this!
I haven't watched football in ages, since before the days of Lawrence Taylor, but some of this has got to be the Bills defense being good. If you can get pressure on a QB with just four rushers, that's just superior athletes on defense.
They give too much credit to these so called gurus. In the end it’s the players on the field. The gurus often hurt a team more than they help it. They insist on playing their system when brought in even though they don’t have the right type of players for it. Then maybe after a couple years of dumping quality guys because “they don’t fit the system” they build a team that does and have some success. Those players exit in free agency and the guru can’t adapt his system to what he has left. Or defenses figure out your gimmick and you fail because of that. In the end your highly touted coaching hire departs after five years. You had two bad rebuilding years, two good years where you made the playoffs and the last year where it all fell apart and he was fired. Rinse and repeat. Any real football coach should be given a defense and asked. What can you do with these guys. He should be able to recognize his strengths and weaknesses and determine if he should run a 3-4 or 4-3 or cover 2 or what have you. And it doesn’t matter what the opposing offense is running. If you run a cover two but don’t have the personnel for it you are still getting lit up. If you have the defensive talent to blitz then blitz.
Be careful. Last year Brett Kollman was singing the praises of Carolina's run defense, saying it had a chance to shatter the record. Week 4 they gave up 245 yards on the ground to the Cowboys and proceeded to go 2-12 the rest of the year. Hope this video holds up.
To be fair Brett was trying to hype up Carolina after stopping some cupcake run offenses. The Cowboys run offense were the first major test and they flunked. Vikings with Dalvin Cook came to town and went on a rampage. Rhule and Phil Snow also were very insistent on playing light boxes vs these proficient run offenses. With the case of the Bills their D-line/Edge rotation strategy was very sound last season along with coverage play. They only got taken for a ride vs specific teams that are harder to bully at the trenches who had physical runners.
@@t4d0W What you say is true. But my point is that nobody knows anything after one week. One injury, maybe two, could turn an awesome Bills team into an average Bills team. And it's not like the two high safety shell is the silver bullet, even with the disguises of man and rolls to single high safeties, and the lack of blitzing. OCs all over the NFL are working on how to beat it now. Innovations in the NFL have a short shelf life. It's great that the Bills are good when they have this opportunity to play innovative defense. But that will not last forever.
A blitz is sending a 2nd or 3rd level defender to rush the qb, it is not rushing more than 4 guys, because you can have a zone blitz, where a LB rush and a DL drops in coverage
Having 7 guys on the back end who know exactly what their responsibilities are is so valuable. Darius butler did a breakdown of some defenses that blew their assignments and this video was the exact opposite
It helps a lot when the Rams OL gets bullied and they still can't run block. This is a natural and great strategic evolution by the defense in a pass happy, "spread" offense era. Let's see if offenses respond by becoming more smash mouth. Should be interesting.
This is why Pete Carrol is the way he is. Even if you play to stop the run you’ll get 2-3 yards, but if you get pass happy, and change the team, the defense will adjust too, and they can stop a pass with much less effort and consistency. His own defense was that premise. Stop the pass, make them grind out yards when they don’t want to.
I thought the general idea was that: 1. Blitzing a good quarterback with a hot/alert read was generally bad. 2. Practice what works, not what doesn't. 3. Surprise/rare blitzing might still work. So we *shouldn't* see a lot of blitzes against, say, the top half of teams. Or teams with good O-Lines and/or good quarterbacks (which...kinda the same). Edit (this paragraph): And, again obviously, if you *can* work it with 4 rushers, why would you want to use a fifth? Though...wasn't the Bear front designed to stop the run because they *didn't* have the guys to do it otherwise? Wonder if we'll see something like that... I think Michael Vick once said that putting a QB Spy on him was a *bad* idea, as that was one less guy in coverage. Same general concept; you might stop a deep throw, but...that's what the under routes are for. That isn't particularly new.
Great comment, yes you are right! I did a recent video on how teams stopped blitzing Mahomes almost completely. This video was centered around the fact the Bills blitz 0 times, which hasn't been done in a super long time.
This has been the goal a lot of defenses. If you can pressure with the front 4, more guys can play coverage. It's how McDermott operated when he was the D-coordinator for my beloved, yet struggling Panthers. Blitzes were very rare, but the D-line had the talent to affect the pass and break up running lanes on their own
Its more 2 high/versatile 3 safety looks than 'Tampa' shells. In the Belichick/Graham/MacDonald (under Harbaugh) defenses as solid examples, the safeties rotate out for the linebackers in late passing downs and provide more versatility for coverage or stopping short pass gains. The safeties aren't splitting the field anymore than being an additional role defender given the situation to cover for positional weaknesses.
Alex your videos are stellar mate - thanks for your effort and analysis. Any chance you could do a series of ‘NFL for foreigners’ or something, explaining the basics of strategy, position responsibilities etc? Just to help those of us who didn’t grow up with the game to better understand it and your analysis?
Thanks brother! Where are you from? I've considered it, but it's a little bit outside of what I do on the channel generally. If you want to dm me on twitter @Alexrollinsnfl I can share some resources with you, and some other YT channels that do that kind of thing better than I would have anyway
@@AlexRollinsNFL thanks for responding - I’m in Australia. I don’t have twitter sorry. The way you explain concepts and your analysis, as well as using graphics, is a massive help, which is why I was wondering if you could do a dumbed-down video for people like me, but I completely get that you’re more into the deeper analysis (and I’ll absolutely keep watching!). If you or anyone knows of any good resources I’d really appreciate it. Keep at it mate!
The Bills front 7 is now as good or better than the Steelers but on top of that the Bills have an ELITE offense unlike the Steelers. As a Steeler fan I know this is the year Bills are winning it they’ve come up short too many times
@@AlexRollinsNFL I do appreciate getting an answer. As a long time subscriber of game pass I can tell that is not what YOU are using. Last year was my last with the service because the NFL ruined it in too many ways to count, which I why I asked. Anyway I've watched more of your videos and I really like your content. Keep up the great work.
@@mikewiebel Thanks Mike. Yeah, I didn't mean to be untruthful, I have a connection for all 22 and they said if I shared it the whole operation could get shut down. I haven't used gamepass in quite some time, sorry it's still unusable
Aside from rules changes protecting the QB more, I think we’re seeing fewer and fewer blitzes because of the prevalence of mobile QB’s who can sling side-arm bombs and just dump the ball off for 15-20 yard plays over the top of a rush. Even Brady who isn’t mobile *wants* you to all-out rush him. He’ll just dump the ball off to an RB or TE for a quick easy 12 yards. New set of downs and keeps the defense honest. The Bills time has truly come. Their depth is nuts, Josh Allen is a triple threat beast, and their defensive schemes would make even Belichick proud. I’m making sure I watch every single Bills game this season
Even without Von the Bills are the deepest D-Unit in the league. The defensive scheme still would hold up as a top-10 unit without any of the all-pro’s on it. Plug any backup in and theyd still hold stafford to 21 points.
great breakdown. the only wrinkle i look to see for this type of defense is against a very mobile QB like mahomes who can do damage in open space. For that, defense has to make another change and even then it still leaves one on one and it is a 50 50 on what happens.
To me, this just drives home one of the most consistently true concepts in football: Games are won and lost in the trenches. Without the talent that the Bills have on the D-Line, deep threat plays get more time to develop and holes in coverage are much more easily found and exploited.
Blitzing will always be relevant. What you mean is it'll be less effective. It's just part of the arms race between offense and defense. Teams might have to get home in three seconds or less to even get a hit. The Aaron Donalds and Von Millers of the league might become rarer and more valuable of chess pieces. Scheming and motion might become the end-all, be-all. Who knows? I'm excited to see the game evolve.
I grew up watching a pretty obismal Bills team, vaugley remembering the streak of super bowl runs in the early 90's. After a while you almost take pride in being a fan of a shitty team. Buffalo is full of ride or die fans for this reason. Seeing this break-down shows just how good the coaches and players have been working. They deserve every good thing that comes to them for putting their trust in Buffalo. A team that seemed to be just a way to get into the league and then trade up to a better team, for so long.
What are the best defenses in the NFL? Gimme the Bills, 49ers, Bucs, Rams, and Packers
49ers 😈😈😈😈😈
What happened with the Packers last week? Why was it so easy for the vikings to get lbs/mismatches on justin jefferson? Would love a vid on it
I really like the Saints defense on paper, but I was concerned about the pass rush in Week 1
Cowboys
Bills
Jeez, these deep dives are needed because I would've never known how complex the Bills defense is
Oh man if you think this is complex you should learn about mid aughts Belichick defenses, he'd come up with completely absurd looks and schemes
It's an interesting vid - but I think the success is more simple than it seems. The front 4 are getting to the quarterback. Fast. Anyone can do the other stuff, but it won't work as well if the quarterback has all day.
Anyone notice that the Steelers defense scored more points in fantasy than the Steelers did in real life?
I started tampa over the steelers week one... trust me I noticed
@@dkoda840 oof I’m sorry bud that’s a rough one
@@dkoda840 why in gods name do you have two defenses?!!
@@dkoda840 you have two defenses on your roster??
Yeah because fantasy is completely different you merkin
The Bills' d line is strong and deep. If you can get consistent pressure only rushing 4, that's a good recipe for a deep playoff run
The bills have already gone “deep” in the playoffs and they keep hitting their heads on the arrowhead wall
The Bills front 7 is now as good or better than the Steelers but on top of that the Bills have an ELITE offense unlike the Steelers. As a Steeler fan I know this is the year Bills are winning it they’ve come up short too many times
It's more the other way around. A lot of times dropping more guys and getting good a good coverage going allows the pass rush to get home. Sacks and pressures are almost always generated when coverage is good, not when the pass rush does it's job well.
Von Miller was grabbing O-line players and using them to create the momentum to fly past them like his hands were grappling hooks... I'm confident that it wasn't personal towards his former teammates. 😅
@@myco9253 yep exactly right bro a lot of them were coverage sacks from Stafford having no where to go
I believe the most important element in this defense is having a DLine that creates constant pressure
100% that game wouldve looked a lot different with say only a sack or 2 and 10 pressures. Probably 28-31 final or something like that. Not necessarily a bills win either.
@@azanocegrog748 the Rams would have still took that L. The Rams have no real offensive threats outside of Cooper Kupp. Allen Robinson ain't it lmao
Rams O-Line played pretty poorly as well
Yeaaah that’s been the 49ers D line since 2019
every single clip the rams offensive line is just melting under these guys haha
I feel like some of those concepts were open enough to work, but in almost all of your clips Stafford was already under severe pressure. Being able to get home with just 4 makes calling a defense a lot easier.
Pressure has always been the key to stopping good QBs. You can have the best coverage in the world but give the QB long enough and they will find someone. Getting there even quicker means your coverage can be that much worse and getting that with 4 rushers is a fucking boon to any defense.
You are right it’s not really ground breaking to rush 4 disguise the coverage and play a team W/0 a real deep threat by bumping the guys off the line.
@@grinningchicken I love Alex but it almost seems click baity in nature. Why not just highlight how awesome of a job the coaching staff and GM has done to draft Ed Oliver, Gregory Rousseau, Shaq Lawson, and add Von Miller & Jordan Phillips.
As a defensive player, Lawrence Taylor was good enough to actually change how the game was played in response to what he was doing. These guys, not so much.
Just wanted to say I invented this defense in madden. Rushed 4, always got pressure and sacks
Absolutely love the in depth stuff my man. Don't shy away from it, it's one of the things that sets you apart.
Good to know Vanadyan, thanks brother!
Reminds me a lot of the Broncos D a few years ago. The front end and the back end were able to create time for one another. Talib, Harris, Ward, Stewart, and Roby made so much possible. Their front end with Ware and Miller was amazing, and that obscured how amazing the back end was too.
I always prefer 2 high pre-snap, even if you are going to roll to one high. Two high can turn into so much more post-snap than one high and a box safety. With two high, you can play Tampa 2, Cover 5 (man under), cover 3 sky by rotating but not rolling in one direction or the other, cover 3 cloud by rolling the weak safety into the flat to stop the weak run and take away weak dump off plays and hunt the screen, cover 3 cloud by rolling the Strong side safety into Curl Seam Flat, cover 4, and cover 6.
Exactly, so hard for a post safety or somebody to be pre rotated and run back at the snap. I loved what the Bills did, mostly simple stuff, and then on a key 3rd down at times they go with something crazy
This defense will be even more elite when Tre White is healthy again
YESSS!!! Not only do they have the best coached defense, but they get back ANOTHER superstar defender. Poyer, Hyde, Miller, White, and so many other high profile names, ughh I can't wait! Especially with so many high powered offenses, having the best defense is a huge advantage.
If they can put him one on one and push these c2/c4 looks to the passing strength, man....
Really enjoy this kind of x's and o's breakdown. Reminds of me of Ron Jaworski's work 20 plus years ago. Don't dumb it down, this is your thing.
Thanks Kyle! Good advice man, thank you. Always worried I'm going too far deep, but you're right
As a bills fan my entire life and watching the Kelly era I’m so happy to see buffalo back on their game ❤
This is the key for them finally beating the chiefs. Put pressure on Mahomes without blitzing, and have enough guys in coverage to take away options
That, and have the road to the Super Bowl run through Orchard Park.
They've already done that for the past two years.
@@JediTiga they didn’t have Von Miller before to make it successful
@@dereklasker5350 I just watched Mahomes somehow pull out a win against a better defense and better pass rush in Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa though.
@@JediTiga outside of those two who do the chargers have, with the bills it's about putting fresh bodies in instead of repeatedly putting in the same d-Linemen drive after drive, so from drive to drive you aren't having the same exact people in you're having fresher d-Linemen with similar levels of talent going against the same offensive line that is already getting tired while the players that need rest are getting rest
Bills gotta beat the chiefs when it matters. That’s all I’m looking at for them now. We know they’ll be good this year.
True
Yep...and the main priority this year is securing the 1 seed, getting a little tired of heading down to the great atmosphere in Arrowhead haha
Both of their defense looking good as hell right now
Have to blow them out so coaching can't blow it.
No one cares. People want to see relevant teams with generational QB's like Justin Herbert, not over-hyped teams.
Man I was shocked. I've said this before but I absolutly love these great defensive game plans. They might not be as exciting as their offensive counter parts but I find them to be more interesting. Awesome video
Thanks TLC! Yeah, I think cause offense is (in ways) easier than defense, seeing a truly great defense game plan that shuts down everything on offense is doing is simply fascinating. I'm right there with you
Once again, I appreciate the fact that you break down your videos to the simplest forms. I look forward to more from you, especially on the #Chiefs.
Thank you! Glad you like it
Good vid.
LET’S GO BUFFALO!!!
Thanks Blablabla!
If I ever want to be a football coach someday, I will thank your videos because they are one of my technical ingredients. Lol
Before watching, the blueprint for the Bills has been the same since the arrival of Coach McDermott. The team just lack an elite edge rusher like a Von Miller, now players like Edmunds, Milano, Oliver, 2nd year player Rousseau, Lawson, White, Hyde and Poyer can play their part. And their offense is Elite. If the Bills don’t win this year, I will truly be disappointed as a fan.
How did this channel just quietly become the best NFL channel on all of TH-cam???
I think we may be on the verge (1-2 seasons away) of the game coming full circle back to workhorse backs pounding smaller, faster defenses.
You're spot on Ralph, I can't wait. Bigger OLs too
Nothing new here. Pretty textbook cover 2 just with linebacker play and overall execution that was perfection. Good on the Bills, they are clearly very well coached and dangerous. Id like to see how they adjust to a more dominant running team this week against the titans. I almost expect them to ditch that scheme entirely this week against the Titans. Cant wait to see it
against teams like the titans they play a much more traditional tampa 2 with a traditional 4-3 front, or a variation on Bill belichecks "heavy" safety nickel, depending on the situation (3 linemen, 3 linebackers, 3 safeties). overall I think they're a very good run defense with 3 true linebackers on the field, they just don't like running out 3 real linebackers.
Wouldn't suprise me if this leads to other teams going for more D-line depths to enable more rotation.
It's already been going that way for awhile, just maybe not this extent. Teams would have linemen or linebackers that are better pass rushers check in for clear passing downs and run stoppers in short yardage situations.
Depth is tricky. You can't have it everywhere because of the salary cap. The Bills have 4 guys on rookie contracts on their line, 2 of them starters, and Von Miller whos one of the best to ever do it, getting paid like it too. Gonna be hard to keep investing money there.
Are ya really this dumb? The giants did this to win their two chips….other teams have done this as well throughout the years. Shit the bucs did it the year they won. I don’t understand how people are surprised by this at all
Its been like that
Yea SF been doing it for years
@@bonesdoe Ty. It’s like people forget how many defenses actually do this
!Quality stuff my man, truly insightfull analyses, every video. Much appreciation for your time and effort!
Thanks Sean
Great video!!
Thanks David!
Thank you for explaining these concepts in a way a layperson like me can understand. Very interesting
Glad you like it!
I really enjoyed the in depth analysis, you know your stuff!
Keep up the great work!
Thank you MFGary!
That No look pass from Stafford WAS the right read just let himself get shook. Passes to Kupp are obvious, the Bills running no blitz but still being down his throat was magic can’t believe how well they played
Yeah he was reading it out well, just kept getting flustered. Those DL flashing in his face right away makes it so hard
Rlly loved this vid and imma huge bills fan 🔥honestly didn't know of this channle until one of my favorite content creators just reacted to it hope to see more soon for sure
Thank you!! Glad you like it!
Thanks for this video. I learned a lot in just a little time. Nice work!
I wanna point out that this style was used by the titans last year to beat both of these teams! Shane Bowen has been using disguised looks that function off of the 4 main rushers and Byard and hooker to trick elite offenses with the looks. I’d recommend looking at the titans defense from last season, you’ll see this trend really starting off there.
Titans can also run the ball. The style of defense the Bills play leave then susceptible to the run...
@@ryryy1980 Very specific run teams can challenge the Bills. Other teams can't just run at them without great talent in the trenches and a RB whose not gonna make the LB/secondary work.
@@t4d0W You're saying exactly what I'm saying just more detailed
This style was originally perfected by the 2007 Giants against New England. They advertised how to stop potent offenses with just 4 rushers. Literally the BLUEPRINT
This defensive development is so important to the offensive centric league, i love my bills, but i hope that other teams copy this so its not a scorigami every game
Offense sells tickets unfortunately.No matter how stout your defense is, people aren't lining up to see it like the days of Ray Lewis or even the legion of boom.The Browns had one of the best defenses last year but almost nobody cared.
NO WAYYY. Favorite content creator making a video on my favorite team!? It feels like my birthday 😭. Appreciate you Alex 💪
Appreciate YOU bro, love chopping it up every week
Looks like the Dolphin defense showed the Bills how defense is played.
Great analysis and film job..... If your 4 up front get to the quarterback it changes everything. Look back at the New York Giants teams that won the super bowl with similar packages. Stafford missed the crossing route several times that were open... he also held the ball to long after missing initial patterns. The 3 receiver in the stubby package should be looking for the over linebacker/under safety play instead of running at the safety.... A lot of room over the middle agains these packages if you react quick. And you are so correct agains the run game, the linebackers/safeties commit so quickly and don't wait deep like so many teams do wrongly. Great stuff here my friend.
Front four pressuring and sacking like that is scary.
Great video! This and the Aaron Rodgers one did a great job of explaining how difficult defenses are making reading coverages. I love the set up for the eventual offensive adjustment to this as this is a push/pull league. I know the Chiefs already have but it'll be interesting to see how a teams like the Dolphins or Jets will do against this, or if the Bills will do something different all together.
Thank you!
Isn't this more evident that Stafford for some reason didn't take more chances with any recievers not named Cooper Kupp? There were a decent amount of times Wide receivers were open. Not by a wide margin but it's Matt Stafford. He usually gambles on those plays because he usually knows he can make the throw.
And Robinson was more than enough open to move the chains on crucial downs.
His elbow is toast. He doesn't trust himself on as many throws as before.
The windows were supperrr tight, just a great defensive performance. Stafford could have played better, but this was just Bills dominance tbh
This video was very helpful for someone who is new to nfl and wants to know more about the game. Thanks
Glad youl ike it Seb!
Good analysis
Thank you!
Bills D-line is dominating Rams O-line. No blitzing but still Stafford has little time.
Rams gotta hit that weight room
I wanted a Bills-Chargers playoff match up, but the Bolts would throw 4 yard passes and punt on 4th and inches while the Bills would put up 45 points in 3 quarters.
I don’t think you watch the Chargers.
@@blakeharris58 No, I don't think you did. I know last year they went for it a ton. Against the chiefs they punted on 4th and inches in the middle of the field. I was shocked considering last year they were 100% going for it on 4th and short pretty much anywhere on the field.
@@blakeharris58 you must have either a low iq, poor memory, or you don't watch NFL football.
Hahaha pathetic
The Bills changed defense..?! I swore The Saints did this last year. This looks like the game plan The Saints used against Brady last year
I don't think I emphasized this enough, but the video is about how the Bills didn't blitz a single time
Love this video, Alex! Pretty interesting that 2 high looks are coming back since Tampa made it popular in late 90s/early 2000s.
Thanks Gatien! And the lack of blitzing against elite QB!
Man you are really REALLY good at breaking this down
Thanks Termigast!
The Giants did this back in 2007 and 2011. Their ability to get pressure with just four enabled them to drop 7 which was key because their secondary was nothing special. Dropping seven also creates all sorts of double teams, bracketing te’s, ect.
Your vids are exactly what I always hoped the NFL Network would be.
Thanks Jason! Honestly I feel the same, so I just decided to start making it myself since there wasn't any
Thanks my dude!
I think it's also important to note that developing this strategy plays into the fact that there's just an increasing number of quarterbacks for whom blitzing is just not a very effective counter; there's too many of them out there that are too good at making defenses pay for blitzing that the benefit of the extra rusher isn't worth leaving the void in coverage that starting-caliber quarterbacks increasingly can take advantage of.
Pulling from a Ravens example (because I watch them the most) I wasn't all that surprised that last year the Ravens finally managed to beat the Chiefs with arguably the least blitz-heavy defensive strategy we had ever gone after the Mahomes Chiefs with, because in past meetings it always seemed like Martindale's blitz-heavy strategies would result in big chunk plays for the Chiefs that would be too much for the offense to keep pace with, but playing without Marcus Peters arguably forced Martindale to call a more disciplined, restrained defense, and it succeeded in mostly keeping a lid on the Chiefs' offense.
Great points, yes! QBs are becoming more and more advanced (plus the fact that technology has developed to where it's at today) that blitzing Mahomes, Rodgers, Brady, Stafford is pointless
Great coverage and disguise... revolutionary. What no one though of that
The bills defense has been great for 4 straight seasons! Very underrated defense. Dynasty defense.
Def made it easier on the Bills with the Rams and their porous interior protection along with their suspect left edge protection. But even then Stafford had to stare down the consistent coverage play all night and pick his spots. If his receivers weren't on the same page it was gonna be difficult regardless. The Von Miller effect will be key as rotating the front 4 to keep them fresh and healthy throughout the season will be pivotal. In the playoffs though your best talents have to show up and Miller is the best on the edge that the Bills have this season. That also give reason for Ed Oliver or someone to step up their interior pass rush play to All-NFL level. Otherwise the Bills secondary has been playing this kind of consistent coverage play well for the last 2-3 seasons.
Leslie Frazier as a DC is perhaps a tad underrated in the league. How many teams woud've crumbled losing a high caliber CB? Frazier just put his 11 in the best place to succeed, scheming them as you've seen here to avoid giving away coverages. Frazier is the rare type to put his players in this place consistently, with opportunities for role players to make significant contributions. I will be surprised if he does not receive a head coaching gig after this year, and don't hold his time in the chair at Minnesota against him. I felt that was a team with no direction and it ended up being such. He still had one of the lesser remembered turnarounds in NFL history from 3-13 to 10-6 with a roster dragged to the postseason by Adrian Peterson. Players seem to love him. Maybe 2nd times the charm?
I feel like 10 years ago all I ever read was how the Tampa 2 was dead because QBs could just shred 2 high coverage with multiple verticals concepts, especially attacking the space between the safeties. I wonder if that area is going to be exposed yet again down the line against the new wave of cover 2.
Amazing video, thankful that the The Algorithm surfaced this up for me. I’m gonna have to watch again to fully understand but that’s because I don’t know jack about X’s and O’s. Super approachable content, thanks for putting the time in to make this!
Thank you! If you have any questions, hit my DMs on Twitter
Von BILLer brings greatness to that front 7.
I would have loved if Van Miller will still with us to both comment on Von Miller during the game and then interview him afterwards.
Von 🅱️iller
Fun to see a defensive focused video
I haven't watched football in ages, since before the days of Lawrence Taylor, but some of this has got to be the Bills defense being good. If you can get pressure on a QB with just four rushers, that's just superior athletes on defense.
They give too much credit to these so called gurus. In the end it’s the players on the field. The gurus often hurt a team more than they help it. They insist on playing their system when brought in even though they don’t have the right type of players for it. Then maybe after a couple years of dumping quality guys because “they don’t fit the system” they build a team that does and have some success. Those players exit in free agency and the guru can’t adapt his system to what he has left. Or defenses figure out your gimmick and you fail because of that. In the end your highly touted coaching hire departs after five years. You had two bad rebuilding years, two good years where you made the playoffs and the last year where it all fell apart and he was fired. Rinse and repeat.
Any real football coach should be given a defense and asked. What can you do with these guys. He should be able to recognize his strengths and weaknesses and determine if he should run a 3-4 or 4-3 or cover 2 or what have you. And it doesn’t matter what the opposing offense is running. If you run a cover two but don’t have the personnel for it you are still getting lit up. If you have the defensive talent to blitz then blitz.
Born and raised in SoCal, but ever since I saw the Bill's last season, I've been a fan.
Beautiful breakdown. Thanks!
Thanks Bthron
This is a great educational video. Fantastic work.
Thanks Andrew!
Great breakdown! Learned a lot
Thank you Rage
Wow this is such a great knowledgeable easy to understand video with graphics.
Thanks Edik!
When I watch football I’m so used to the offense disguising their play that I never noticed the defense did it as well. Good breakdown I learned a lot
Thank you!
Be careful. Last year Brett Kollman was singing the praises of Carolina's run defense, saying it had a chance to shatter the record.
Week 4 they gave up 245 yards on the ground to the Cowboys and proceeded to go 2-12 the rest of the year.
Hope this video holds up.
To be fair Brett was trying to hype up Carolina after stopping some cupcake run offenses. The Cowboys run offense were the first major test and they flunked. Vikings with Dalvin Cook came to town and went on a rampage. Rhule and Phil Snow also were very insistent on playing light boxes vs these proficient run offenses. With the case of the Bills their D-line/Edge rotation strategy was very sound last season along with coverage play. They only got taken for a ride vs specific teams that are harder to bully at the trenches who had physical runners.
@@t4d0W What you say is true. But my point is that nobody knows anything after one week. One injury, maybe two, could turn an awesome Bills team into an average Bills team.
And it's not like the two high safety shell is the silver bullet, even with the disguises of man and rolls to single high safeties, and the lack of blitzing. OCs all over the NFL are working on how to beat it now. Innovations in the NFL have a short shelf life. It's great that the Bills are good when they have this opportunity to play innovative defense. But that will not last forever.
A blitz is sending a 2nd or 3rd level defender to rush the qb, it is not rushing more than 4 guys, because you can have a zone blitz, where a LB rush and a DL drops in coverage
No, a blitz is literally defined as sending 5 or more pass rushers.
Great video! Subbed
Having 7 guys on the back end who know exactly what their responsibilities are is so valuable. Darius butler did a breakdown of some defenses that blew their assignments and this video was the exact opposite
ALEX THE GOAT
Great analysis!
Thanks Grant!
A deep defensive line and when u add the best fearmomger in von Miller it creates chaos
The NFL moved back to two high because they’re trying to replicate Vic Fangios defense. The Godfather of the modern NFL Defense.
It’s so good to see the so-called genius get out-coached
The true key is 8 defensive linemen in The rotation! Keeps the 4 man front fresh* every. Single. Play.
It helps a lot when the Rams OL gets bullied and they still can't run block. This is a natural and great strategic evolution by the defense in a pass happy, "spread" offense era. Let's see if offenses respond by becoming more smash mouth. Should be interesting.
This is why Pete Carrol is the way he is. Even if you play to stop the run you’ll get 2-3 yards, but if you get pass happy, and change the team, the defense will adjust too, and they can stop a pass with much less effort and consistency. His own defense was that premise. Stop the pass, make them grind out yards when they don’t want to.
Everything that happens in a football game is a trickle down from what happens at the line.
And the dolphins are literally changing the offense of the NFL hahaha
If this is the case that teams mostly only rush 4 then wouldn't it be good for guys like lamar jackson to shred defense with their legs
please make a video on alabamas defence
Someone else asked about this, such a great idea. It's an offseason project fersure, but I promise you you'll see it
I thought the general idea was that:
1. Blitzing a good quarterback with a hot/alert read was generally bad.
2. Practice what works, not what doesn't.
3. Surprise/rare blitzing might still work.
So we *shouldn't* see a lot of blitzes against, say, the top half of teams. Or teams with good O-Lines and/or good quarterbacks (which...kinda the same).
Edit (this paragraph): And, again obviously, if you *can* work it with 4 rushers, why would you want to use a fifth? Though...wasn't the Bear front designed to stop the run because they *didn't* have the guys to do it otherwise? Wonder if we'll see something like that...
I think Michael Vick once said that putting a QB Spy on him was a *bad* idea, as that was one less guy in coverage. Same general concept; you might stop a deep throw, but...that's what the under routes are for.
That isn't particularly new.
Great comment, yes you are right! I did a recent video on how teams stopped blitzing Mahomes almost completely. This video was centered around the fact the Bills blitz 0 times, which hasn't been done in a super long time.
Brilliant breakdown.
Thank you!
This has been the goal a lot of defenses. If you can pressure with the front 4, more guys can play coverage. It's how McDermott operated when he was the D-coordinator for my beloved, yet struggling Panthers. Blitzes were very rare, but the D-line had the talent to affect the pass and break up running lanes on their own
It’s been one game my guy
Wait I thought i was here for the nerdy stuffs!!! Give me the detailed nerdy stuffs 😍
😂😂 bro we could be going sooo much deeper. Don't want to lose the non sickos like us though 😂
I've been saying that cover 2 and Tampa 2 defensive schemes will be making a come back since everyone was using cover 1
Its more 2 high/versatile 3 safety looks than 'Tampa' shells. In the Belichick/Graham/MacDonald (under Harbaugh) defenses as solid examples, the safeties rotate out for the linebackers in late passing downs and provide more versatility for coverage or stopping short pass gains. The safeties aren't splitting the field anymore than being an additional role defender given the situation to cover for positional weaknesses.
Bruh they’re doing a cover version of the legion of boom and now it’s revolutionary. TH-camrs have short term memory.
And my fantasy opponents laughed at me taking Bills Defense early... joke's on them!
It’s this simple: Put Von on defense, have good defense.
Brandon Beane that u
Facts
@@maxhypolite5388 you know it. Von the Don! 58 will always be a God in Denver. Hope he tears up the league, except when Denver plays Buff ;)
Alex your videos are stellar mate - thanks for your effort and analysis. Any chance you could do a series of ‘NFL for foreigners’ or something, explaining the basics of strategy, position responsibilities etc? Just to help those of us who didn’t grow up with the game to better understand it and your analysis?
Thanks brother! Where are you from? I've considered it, but it's a little bit outside of what I do on the channel generally. If you want to dm me on twitter @Alexrollinsnfl I can share some resources with you, and some other YT channels that do that kind of thing better than I would have anyway
@@AlexRollinsNFL thanks for responding - I’m in Australia. I don’t have twitter sorry. The way you explain concepts and your analysis, as well as using graphics, is a massive help, which is why I was wondering if you could do a dumbed-down video for people like me, but I completely get that you’re more into the deeper analysis (and I’ll absolutely keep watching!). If you or anyone knows of any good resources I’d really appreciate it. Keep at it mate!
@@sittopee Thanks brother! shoot me an email oaknflanalysis@gmail.com
The Bills front 7 is now as good or better than the Steelers but on top of that the Bills have an ELITE offense unlike the Steelers. As a Steeler fan I know this is the year Bills are winning it they’ve come up short too many times
Your analysis is fantastic. Where are you getting your all 22 video?
Thanks Mike! Check out nfl game pass or nfl+, whatever they call it now
@@AlexRollinsNFL I do appreciate getting an answer. As a long time subscriber of game pass I can tell that is not what YOU are using. Last year was my last with the service because the NFL ruined it in too many ways to count, which I why I asked. Anyway I've watched more of your videos and I really like your content. Keep up the great work.
@@mikewiebel Thanks Mike. Yeah, I didn't mean to be untruthful, I have a connection for all 22 and they said if I shared it the whole operation could get shut down. I haven't used gamepass in quite some time, sorry it's still unusable
@@AlexRollinsNFL I completely understand. Keep cranking out the content for those of who can no longer do independent study. Thanks again.
@@mikewiebel Appreciate it Mike!
Aside from rules changes protecting the QB more, I think we’re seeing fewer and fewer blitzes because of the prevalence of mobile QB’s who can sling side-arm bombs and just dump the ball off for 15-20 yard plays over the top of a rush. Even Brady who isn’t mobile *wants* you to all-out rush him. He’ll just dump the ball off to an RB or TE for a quick easy 12 yards. New set of downs and keeps the defense honest.
The Bills time has truly come. Their depth is nuts, Josh Allen is a triple threat beast, and their defensive schemes would make even Belichick proud. I’m making sure I watch every single Bills game this season
i remember a video like this being made last year about the dolphins defense changing the game, should be a good matchup tomorrow 👀
Even without Von the Bills are the deepest D-Unit in the league. The defensive scheme still would hold up as a top-10 unit without any of the all-pro’s on it. Plug any backup in and theyd still hold stafford to 21 points.
Excellent video
Thanks Ben!
great breakdown. the only wrinkle i look to see for this type of defense is against a very mobile QB like mahomes who can do damage in open space. For that, defense has to make another change and even then it still leaves one on one and it is a 50 50 on what happens.
To me, this just drives home one of the most consistently true concepts in football:
Games are won and lost in the trenches.
Without the talent that the Bills have on the D-Line, deep threat plays get more time to develop and holes in coverage are much more easily found and exploited.
Funny enough this would probably work against the Bills offense
As receivers get faster and can separate easier due to experience and physical abilities, the notion of blitzing will inherently be less valuable.
Blitzing will always be relevant. What you mean is it'll be less effective. It's just part of the arms race between offense and defense. Teams might have to get home in three seconds or less to even get a hit. The Aaron Donalds and Von Millers of the league might become rarer and more valuable of chess pieces. Scheming and motion might become the end-all, be-all. Who knows? I'm excited to see the game evolve.
This looks like late 80s defense.
I grew up watching a pretty obismal Bills team, vaugley remembering the streak of super bowl runs in the early 90's. After a while you almost take pride in being a fan of a shitty team. Buffalo is full of ride or die fans for this reason. Seeing this break-down shows just how good the coaches and players have been working. They deserve every good thing that comes to them for putting their trust in Buffalo. A team that seemed to be just a way to get into the league and then trade up to a better team, for so long.