To whatever degree you thought about the Buffalo Bills last season, you probably thought more about the offense than the defense. The Bills have an obvious cyborg at quarterback in Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs is on a very short list of the league’s best receivers, and that receiver group is about as deep as any you’ll find in the NFL. Bombs away, but as this team enters the new season, it’s time to talk more about their defense.
And that’s not just because Von Miller is in Buffalo now. That’s a big deal, but in 2021, the Bills ranked first in Defensive DVOA — first against the pass, and 11th against the run. That’s what happens when you have star cornerback Tre’Davious White and an estimable group behind him, and the league’s best safety duo in Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde.
But the addition of Miller was indeed supposed to put this defense over the top. Last season, the Bills ranked sixth in the NFL with 326 total pressures, but they ranked 10th with 46 sacks. Getting to the quarterback, but not getting home, was the problem that Miller weas supposed to fix.
Based on Buffalo’s defensive performance against the Los Angeles Rams in a 31-10 thrashing Thursday night, we’ll go ahead and say that the plan is working. Matthew Stafford was pressured on 19 of his 50 dropbacks, and he was sacked seven times. Stafford threw one of his three interceptions when under pressure, but the real big deal here was the ability of the Bills’ defense to close the deal. Everything else that happened for the Bills defensively worked off of that new factor.
Why? Because the Bills were able to do the most terrifying thing any defense can do — they got all their sacks without having to commit extra defenders to do it.
The Bills sacked Matthew Stafford seven times without blitzing on a single play.
Buffalo's seven sacks with four-or-fewer pass rushers is tied for the 4th-most in a game since 2016.#BUFvsLAR | #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/AX8VoPOyAK
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 9, 2022
So, the Bills, without the injured Tre’Davious White, were able to torment Stafford and everybody else playing in Sean McVay’s offense, making the defending Super Bowl champs look like an expansion team. No team in pro football history had ever recorded at least three interceptions, at least seven sacks, and no punts in the same game, until the Bills on Thursday night.
We’ve already gotten into how Buffalo’s killer offense didn’t have to punt. Here’s how the defense did all that other stuff.
Von Miller was the force multiplier.
At 33, Von Miller is at an age where most edge-rushers start to slow down.
Von Miller is not slowing down.
He had two sacks, a quarterback hit, and a quarterback hurry, but his positive effect on his own defense, and his negative effect on Los Angeles’ offense, went beyond that.
With 1:53 left in the first half, Miller (No. 40) got into the pocket so quickly, Stafford had no choice but to throw the ball to the ground in frustration and move on to the next play. Miller’s closing speed is still terrifying.
This sack with 6:21 left in the first quarter shows one of Miller’s most devastating moves — his ability to long-arm blockers right into the quarterback. Miller can either use that long-arm to drive his poor opponent back, or use it to just stab a tackle right off his feet. Joe Noteboom, the Rams’ unfortunate left tackle, got a full slab of the latter here. It’s always been astonishing to me how Miller, at 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds, can out-leverage guys who outweigh him by 80 pounds. This was one of three sacks Noteboom allowed in this game.
Everybody else met at the quarterback.
No matter which position group you’re talking about, if you have one absolute shark alpha in that group, it creates opportunities for everyone else. The Bills’ defensive line now enjoys this luxury with Miller on board, because you have to tilt your protections his way, or your quarterback is going to get killed.
This showed up over and over against the Rams. Second-year edge-rushers Greg Rousseau and Boogie Basham each had a sack, and third-year man A.J. Epenesa was also in the pocket far more than Stafford would have liked.
Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips led all Buffalo defenders with six total pressures — two sacks, one quarterback hit, and three quarterback hurries. On this sack, Phillips (No. 97) started head up over Noteboom at left tackle, and then devastated left guard David Edwards with this killer spin move. Guys standing 6-foot-6 and weighing 347 pounds are not supposed to be able to do this, and it’s always nice to have at least one “Planet Theory” guy on your defensive line.
Perhaps the most frightening part of this play is that Miller wasn’t even on the field. The Bills did a great job of rotating their edge guys in and out, keeping them fresh and ready to attack.
A hidden set of really relevant stats from last night …
• DE Greg Rousseau: 45 snaps (67%).
• DE AJ Epenesa: 36 snaps (54%).
• OLB Von Miller: 35 snaps (52%).
• DE Boogie Basham: 26 snaps (39%).Bills pass rush was fierce, and relied on a full rotation of edge guys.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) September 9, 2022
That’s one reason it all worked so well. There was one other reason.
Coverage.
Buffalo's coverages were diverse and effective.
The Rams tried to throw a bunch of different coverages at the Bills’ offense, and most of them didn’t work. When you have Jalen Ramsey saying after the game that his coaches should have called more man coverage against Josh Allen… well, that’s just not great.
The Bills were just as diverse in coverage, and far more effective.
BUF coverage/blitz rates last night…
Cover 2 — 38.8%
Cover 3 — 34.7%
2-Man — 10.2%
Cover 4 — 8.2%
Cover 1 — 6.1%Blitz rate = 2.0%
Disciplined zone defense — with front four pressure/disruption.
— Matt Bowen (@MattBowen41) September 9, 2022
Obviously, when you can get this much pressure with four, you can also do all the stuff in your playbook at the second and third levels. Let’s go back to that Jordan Phillips sack, and watch how linebackers Matt Milano and Tremaine Edmunds perfected the quarters coverage by flowing into the alleys, taking away Stafford’s reads to either side. The Rams tried to counter the Bills’ rush with an empty formation, and that makes sense — last season, the Rams had 223 dropbacks out of empty, leading the league. The Bengals ranked second with 169. When you run empty, you’re sacrificing protection at the altar of the idea that somebody’s going to be open with five targets out there. Not when Milano and Edmunds are on lock. This was as much a coverage sack as it was Phillips going thermonuclear.
This is the Phillips "spin move sack"
But look at that coverage on the back end
The 2 LBs eat up anything inside, coverage monsters pic.twitter.com/OxDFMCdzrW
— YardsPerPass (@YardsPerPass) September 9, 2022
So, if coverage helps pressure, can pressure help coverage? Sure, and there were few better one-man examples than this interception from the aforementioned Boogie Basham. Ordinarily an edge-rusher, Basham (No. 55) was double-teamed inside on this play with 7:06 left in the game. Basham took the double-team, knew he wasn’t going to get to Stafford, and instead backed off for the deflection/interception.
Is this sustainable over a full season?
It’s a very important question to pose, because if the Bills can play defense at this level all season, and they’re putting THAT offense on the field as well… outside of a clunky “burn the tape” game or two, it’s hard to know how anybody’s going to beat them.
Unfortunately for the rest of the league, the answer is affirmative, because this is not a fluke. The Bills have been building to this for years. It’s why they went out and got Von Miller as the finisher for a productive line that couldn’t quite close. It’s why they prioritize linebackers who can excel in coverage — because they play more nickel snaps than any other defense.
And it’s why they can bring a sixth-round rookie in cornerback Christian Benford in to start against the defending champs, and Benford can play like he’s been on this team for five seasons. Last night, the Villanova alum allowed three catches on five targets for 55 yards, 36 yards after the catch, and a pass breakup. Take Benford and first-round rookie Kaiir Elam (we wrote about both of them before the game), give them real reps while Tre’Davious White gets healthy, and then, you’ll see all kinds of hell raining down on opposing offenses.
“Our front four was absolutely just eating,” Poyer said after the game. “We knew on the back end if we just gave them an extra half second and get Stafford to blink, they were going to get there, so they did a hell of a job. Obviously, the addition of Von just makes that group so much better. Greg [Rousseau], Tim [Settle], Jordan Phillips, all those men, they just work extremely hard at their craft, and it makes our job easier on the back end.”
Again, this was the NFL’s best defense by DVOA last season. Now, the Bills have filled in a few cracks, and while no defense is perfect, this may be about as close to the ideal as you’ll see this season from any team.
