Bills Rush Defense #30 overall

[Essex Johnson]

(01-21-2023, 12:18 PM)SHRacerX Wrote: The Bills have the #30 rush defense in the NFL, according to PFF.

Their overall grade for the season in run defense is a 53.9  Why do they rate so low?  Their TACKLING grade is a dismal 38.9.  It appears that their weakness is to run right at them....something the Bengals do quite often, as opposed to outside runs, but they have had a fairly poor success rate.  The Bills grade/weakness has likely been highlighted by their division.  The AFC East is loaded with teams that are pretty successful rushing the ball (the Jets were as well before losing offensive linemen and Breece Hall.  

This leads me to think that a lot of these games, the Bills just got way up and the opposition had to abandon their rushing attack.

Here is the run/pass mix for the Bills' three loses, by their opponent:

9/25 Miami L 19-21.  Miami ran the ball 17 times and passed it 20 times.  The Bills lost the turnover margin as well, 1-0.  

11/6 NYJ L  17-20.  Jets ran the ball a whopping 34 times, and passed it just 25 times.  The Bills lost the turnover margin as well, 2-1.

11/13 Minnesota L 33-30  Minnesota ran the ball just 25 times, compared to 50 throws.  The Bills had 4 tunovers to the Vikins 2.  

Despite that last example, where the turnovers clearly killed the Bills, as Minnesota has no semblance of a defense, you can see that when the opposition stayed dedicated to the rushing attack, or at least had BALANCE, it tended to give Minnesota fits.  

Conversely to all these struggles in rush defense, the Bills actually have some really highly rankced pass rushers, even without Von Miller. PFF has them as the 6th highest rated pass rush in the NFL.  

Now, of COURSE I want to see explosive plays.  I want to attack them downfield, but I also hope the Bengals really dedicate themselves to running the ball and staying balanced.  I think if Mixon/Perine have a big game, this is certainly a win.

The problem with dedicating to the run is it i has rarely been effective this year we are around 29th in ypc.. and now with three oline down, I don;t think we should now increase our running attack.. especially when you have Burrow who has performed well this year with getting the ball out and taking what the defense gives you.. it is one and down, no time to start to change what you have been successful with.. yes you have to run the ball hopefully break a couple good runs but in the end you have to trust Burrow and toss it  in the 35 range  tomorrow to win. In our cancelled game we ran the ball 2 times to Mixon with success and passed 6 times with success.. mix in the run but win with the pass tomorrow