Buffalo Bills defensive gameplan in 31-10 win over Dolphins + Josh Allen, James Cook opportunities

I've taken the time to study the all 22 coaches film from the Buffalo Bills week 2 win over the Miami Dolphins and I'm sharing my top takeaways with you today on lock on bills you are locked on bills your daily Buffalo Bills podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what's up bills Mafia is Joe Marino author of go bills and Buffalo's run also the co-host of the lockon NFL scouting podcast and I'm your host of lockon bills want to thank you for making lockon bills your first listen every day and a big welcome and shout out to our every dayers you know who you are those of you who never miss a single episode I appreciate youall being here very very much I'd also like to invite you to subscribe or follow for free on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts we're part of the locked on podcast Network your team Team every day well folks welcome in going to break down what stood out to me in watching the all 22 coaches film from the Bills win over the Miami Dolphins we'll start on the defensive side of the football today we'll do the things that we do I want to kind of get into the game plan on both sides of the ball discuss the snap counts and of course my studs and Duds to close things out but obviously the story of this game was the success the bills had on defense against the Miami Dolphins and so I want to kind of break down how they were able to achieve that success now one thing that has kind of come up in some of the discourse that I've had with people in the locked on Bill subex Community asking questions about the game and kind of bringing up that the bills defense still kind of felt vulnerable at times particularly early in the game certainly the performance was assisted by the turnovers and that's not wrong the turnover still matter the bills made great plays that's all part of the equation but it leans into the style of defense that the bills wanted to play against Miami and I think they had two major keys to their game plan outside of obvious things like you getting off blocks tackling playing fast and physical all those things philosophically always matter but in terms of true X's and O's number one the bills played 75% of the snaps against the pass with two high safeties and middle of the field open coverage and that's a significantly High number that's the fourth highest percentage of two high safety middle of the field open coverage snaps that the bills have played in a game since 2018 and so what does that mean well the bills are playing with two high safeties right on the roof of the defense you have two saf these that are responsible for half the field right and they have to keep everything in front of them and then you space the field underneath and the objective is that you take away vertical shots down the field and you really Force the offense and in this case to in the Miami Dolphins to work the ball between zones underneath it's a situation where you really test their patience and we know Miami is a big play offense they have the speed they want to get throws down the field and the bills pretty much High load all of it had vertical leverage and underneath leverage and said hey if you're going to make throws against us you're going to work the ball in between zones and hey we don't really have that much respect for the arm Talent of your quarterback now we think he's got good touch but if he has to make tight window throws we don't think he can do it and that's what the bills challenged Tua and the Dolphins to do in this game on top of that you test the patience so not only do you kind of make it hard to get completions you test their patience there's not going to be great spacing down the field when you're high low everything and if you're going to chase those big plays and try to force the ball down the field because that's who you are as an offense well you're going to get in trouble and you saw that happen so this idea of 75% too high safety middle of the field open coverage that's what they did to really help slow down the passing attack and that's why you saw when when Miami had success in the passing game it was short passes screens getting the ball on the edges and allowing their guys to get some yards after catch that's what they were able to do and the Bill said fine you can have that we we will give you that we don't want you to beat us over the top and get quick explosive plays and we want you to sustain drives and stack play after play after play and eventually we think you're going to make a mistake whether that's a turnover or you're going to commit a penalty you're going to get behind the sticks and we don't think you can get out of that especially when you have to push the ball down the field and we're not giving that to you that's the bread and butter of what Bobby babit and Shawn mcder had cooked up on defense now with anything that you do in football there's a concession okay and the concession to that style of defense is partly what I talked about like you are susceptible to some quick passes and yards after catch but the big thing is you don't have a lot of players in the box right and that matters in terms of run defense I talk about all the time run defense in football is very much a math equation running the ball stopping the run it's a math equation how many blockers do you have versus how many box players do they have if the numbers are on your side you're probably going to be successful whether that's offensively or defensively well the bills gave Miami light box counts all game long they invited they R the Run game they said go ahead run the ball at us we like that we can live with that we'd rather you run the ball then throw the ball to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Wadd down the field what a great defenses do they take away the thing that you do best what is this Miami Dolphins offens about throwing the ball to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Wadd and as you know the receiving output from Wadd and Hill in this game was the lowest ever with Tyreek Hill as a member of the Miami Dolphins so the bills invited the Run let's talk about this a little bit more in depth the Dolphins ran the ball 34 times and remember 34 times in the game that they lost 31 to 10 and trailed by more than two possessions for most of the contest invited the Run they fell right into what the bills wanted them to do 34 rushing attempts 22 of those 34 rushing attempts came out of heavy Personnel what does heavy Personnel mean two backs or two tight ends on the field so big people and the bills played six box Defenders or less 17 of 34 rushing attempts that's half six or less in the Box those are tasty run looks for an offense and the bills said go ahead do it the bills only had four plays where they stacked the box with eight or more Defenders four out of 34 runs let me repeat those numbers again Miami 34 rushing attempts 22 of those 34 rushing attempts with heavy Personnel on the field either two backs or two tight ends the bills played six or less defenders in the Box on 17 or 34 run 17 of 34 runs and only four of 34 rushing attempts from Miami featured the bills having a stack box which means eight or more Defenders you see the philosophy it's pretty clear right pretty clear what the bills wanted to do Miami fell right into it and the bills executed so that's that was the defensive game plan some individual player performances that really stood out to me I want to mention Bale inspectre my narrative with Bay inspectre has always been this I think he's a good football player thought he was a good football player at Clemson I think he's had good flashes in preseason but he's been injured a lot and to his credit he got this he got through this game healthy but what I'll say about bin Spectre is that he met the moment in a really tough spot coming in short week under rept I mean I think Balon Spectre entered this game having logged under 50 snaps for his career from defense came in Green Dot player and he played extremely well fast physical and decisive did he do everything perfect no but he went in there and he brought a level of physicality and urgency to the position and he did make some plays downhill against the run and I think that was big for him and look the bills are going to be without teral Bernard potentially for the next month Spectre is gonna have to go and number one is continue to stay healthy but then also build upon what you're able to do against Miami so I wanted to call that out want to call out Christian Benford and rul Douglas those guys are monsters that's a that's an awesome pair of corners awesome pair and it's not just what they do in coverage I mean I think that speaks for itself with how much the bills have limited the Cardinals receivers and the Dolphins receivers but it's what they do against the run as well you're going to play this style of Defense a lot of Zone your corn got to tackle your Corners got to fit the run and those guys do they're part of that run fit all the time they embrace it they they play hard they strain they compete Christian Benford was targeted in this game nine times he gave up four catches for 25 yards also had an interception that's outstanding he also had two stuffs and the stuff means that you make a tackle that results in offensive failure offensive failure being measured by what the percentage of gain is relative to the first down yardage required Big Time stuff three stuff three stuffs from rul Douglas as well five stuff stuffs from Benford and Douglas meaning they made a tackle that resulted in offensive failure for the Dolphins it's not just the coverage these guys are dogs playing downhill and making tackles such a key piece of this defensive operation I also want to mention that Ed Oliver called game in this football game I think the turning point this game completely hinged when Miami turned the ball over on Downs 17 to seven was the score inside five minutes left in the second quarter and Miami I mean look two of their first three possessions they turned the ball over scored a touchdown on the other this was their fourth possession of the game down 17 to7 inside five minutes left in the second quarter balls at Midfield third and one at Oliver tackle for loss combining with bayin Spectre and Dorian Williams and then fourth and two Ed Oliver destroys Robert Jones and gets a sack gives the ball back to the bills in plus territory and as we know the next play is James Cook 49 yard touchdown run Miami wasn't going to be able to win the game by converting that first down in that particular moment but they could have lost it and they did and in the game reaction show I talked about the maturity level of the bills and how they played that game dolphins didn't have that same level of maturity and I think that's been one of the biggest limiting factors for Miami under Mike McDaniel specifically against the bills but also at times against other teams where there's a game script that he's chasing and he doesn't stay patient enough that was a great opportunity for Miami to punt the ball like I'm for being aggressive but not in that situation again you are not going to win the game by converting that fourth down you sure as heck could lose it and you did blinked it was 24 to7 and the bills get the ball first coming out of the half kind of silly kind of silly by Mike McDaniel I think that was the the that sequence for them lost it but then on the other side of it Ed Oliver was the guy that made the plays and again shout out to Dorian Williams and Bale inspector for collaborating on that third down stop to set up the fourth and two defensive snap counts I want to give these to you as a percentage of snaps I don't know why I haven't done that in the past I think that's a lot better than saying this guy played 20 of 50 snaps I want to tell you overall percentage of snaps I think that gives you a better understanding at defensive end Greg rouso 68% AJ epinesa 66% Von Miller 38% Casey two Hill 30% Kingsley Jonathan 9% want to comment on Miller and twohill Miller's playing really well and I think part of that is the bills are using him very effectively right he's not a starter he comes in situationally against the pass and I think he's played such a high percentage of his snap so far this year on passing Downs it's exactly what we talked about in the offseason you want to get the most out of V play him situationally not sparingly but situationally pick your spots with him the bills are doing that phenomenally well so far and I I want to give some flowers to Casey T Hill I wasn't his biggest supporter coming into the season but in this game against Miami I thought he played very well had some big Time moments where his effort um really mattered a lot on some of these outside plays Casey T Hill fought hard to maintain leverage and funnel runs back inside and had two big moments in this game where he was able to really limit the a play that felt like it was going to be a big one but because two Hill was able to compete and strain and and leverage his block and string it out horizontally he turned it back inside and made a play and I thought those were huge moments at Oliver 61 % of snaps dayquon Jones 46% Austin Johnson 49% Dwayne Carter 33% so you saw a lot more rotation with the defensive tackles in this game at linebacker Bayon Spectre 82% Dorian Williams 70% darell Bernard 18% Nicholas Morrow 8% coming in late in the game at corner Christian Benford 100% Russ Douglas 92% cam Lewis 92% Kye elim 8% he came in late in the game at safety raping Hamlin 92% Jamarcus SRAM 23% shout out two picks Cole Bishop 8% shout out uh pass Break Up In The End Zone late in the game that was fun Mike Edwards 8% as well so there's the defense on the other side of it folks we're talking offense as well as my studs and Duds so be sure to stick with me when you're hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role that's why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs LinkedIn jobs has tools to help you find the right Professionals for your team faster and for free LinkedIn isn't just under the job board LinkedIn helps you hire professionals that you can't find anywhere else even those who aren't actively searching for a new job but might be open to the perfect role in a given month over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading jobsites so if you're not looking on LinkedIn you're looking in the wrong place on LinkedIn 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours so hire professionals like a professional on LinkedIn post your job for free at linkedin.com lockon NFL that's linkedin.com lockon NFL to post your job for free terms and conditions apply you've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel America's number one Sportsbook well we got a little something different for you now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV then with a YouTube TV base plan you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market game all that you need is a Google account and a current form of payment you can cancel at any time and if that's not enough be sure to check out fanduel's profit boost in the app and use it for fanduel's double your winnings for all Sunday September 15th pregame moneyline bets that profit boost will be live right now you can literally go right now up until kickoff and take advantage view your account page now to learn more about your Boost just visit fanduel.com to download America's number one Sportsbook all right folks let's talk about the bills on offense and obviously not a ton of production they only ran 45 plays this was a unique game script with the turnovers and some short fields and not a whole lot of necessity for the bills offense to do a lot of things right only 45 plays but still some good things along the way and what I really wanted to focus in on was gauging this passing game and what opportunities exist existed for Josh Allen you I think there's a lot of I don't know if questions is the right words but curiosity in terms of all right well what what um what does this passing offense want to be what is it going to look like what does it mean when they have to um rely on it late in the football game what what's on the menu and I'll I'll tell you this that was the intent of what I wanted to find offensively and I I showcased A A lot of plays to our subex community you know part of what I do for the lockdown Bill subex Community which you can join by there's a link in today's show notes that you can be part of it is I uh go through and I give them a bunch of plays all 22 clips and I talk through uh different things and I I really wanted to emphasize what was on the menu for Josh Allen in the passing game and I I came away very satisfied with it you know the bills only had 20 dropbacks 19 passing attempts Josh Allen had 13 completions but there were some really good looks down the field um the wheel to Curtis Samuel that's a great matchup uh the bills were able to kind of play with a wider split with that running back they did that quite a bit so normally in shotgun that running back is pretty close to the quarterback and the bills would line up their running back I mean almost I mean maybe even Outside The Tackle Box it was it was a very wide split for that running back and they were able to isolate some matchups that they like with that one of them being Curtis Samuel on Jordan Brooks uh one of the Dolphins linebackers down the field a wheel R route and I'll tell you what good coverage by Jordan Brooks he's an extremely athletic linebacker and he cut off that route he got in the hit pocket of Curtis Samuel and was able to force an incompletion there I will say that the ball was a little short if Josh Allen has a little bit more air on that ball I think Curtis is gonna have a chance to make a catch there but that was a good look that's the point that I'm making even the the shot to Marquez Val is scantling um I thought it was a great opportunity the bills uh Josh Allen read the defense very effectively knew where that that one-on-one was going to be there and Marquez valdis scaning won down the field he had vertical leverage the problem was the Dolphins ran a stunt with their defensive line Josh wasn't able to get his feet set and so the throw really wasn't able to get there but good good opportunities down the field and overall I would say that josh Allen is playing really good quarterback right now some of my favorite that I've seen from him I think he's doing more with his brain than I've ever seen a lot of eyee manipulation a lot of pre-nap processing and saying hey I'm going to hold that safety right there to create a little bit more space for my guy one of those plays being the over the-middle field over the middle of the field throw to sh Kos Shakir that you know that dime down the middle of the field tight window throw Josh is holding Jordan puyer with his eyes to create that space for kosir to to make himself avable and drills it in there with a lot of velocity I think Josh did that probably three different times in this game where he's holding Defenders with his eyes and then helping that receiver separate and getting him the football Josh Allen's doing that at a high level right now I think his the where where he's starting his eyes and where his understanding of where the defense has leverage and where the offense has leverage he gets it right now I'm telling you he's seeing this really really clean his pocket management about as good as I've seen from him his mechanic super clean this is some of the most clean quarterbacking I've seen from Josh Allen and so I I have a lot of confidence in the direction of this passing offense how Josh Allen's playing how he's seeing the field and the decisions that he's making it just hasn't been a situation yet where Josh has had to complete 25 30 passes for the bills to win a game but I feel good about it when that opportunities there it's a little bit like how I felt felt about the bills run offense last year if you've been an everyday or for extended period of time you heard me talk early in the season last year about hey I think this run game is really close some timing stuff and once that kind of comes together I think this is going to explode and then that happened I feel that way about this passing offense and I would say two really unique dynamics of of this game plan or I guess three first of all you have to acknowledge like I said 20 dropbacks 19 passing attempt the bills spent probably 35% of this game maybe more just trying to get to the end it right like that's that's an important uh distinguishment to make as you're trying to to assess the overall operation that's a it's important context but two other things here with the passing game in particular if you remember in part of my conversations about Joe Brady dating back to the moment he was named interim is if you go back to that time at LSU really what it leaned into was fiveman blocking surfaces in pass protection right you're pretty much just blocking with your offensive line not a lot of help from tight ends or chippers or running backs and that was the case against Miami the bills used fiveman protections on 19 of 20 dropbacks only one play One play Dawson Knox stayed in as an extra as a sixth man in the blocking surface and so there's some tradeoff with that like I talked about at the beginning there's always trade-off with what you choose to do in football the advantage is you use 100% of your eligible receivers on every play to go out in routes so the menu is is full for Josh Allen um in terms of you can you can only have five eligible receivers and he had five eligible receivers on all but one play the downside is well you have less players in pass block and what you do you put a lot in your quarterback right because if there's Free Runners Josh Allen has to account for that player and he's done a great job of it I mean the uh the throw down the field to Tai Johnson was an example of him handling a free runner getting outside the pocket and making a play right he's done that multiple times this year and that's certainly within his skill set but I want you to understand the trade-off in doing so and now the bills didn't use as many fiveman blocking surfaces against Arizona but they still used a lot I'm very curious to see how this plays out throughout the course of the year and so it's funny I talked all about well do the bills have a running back that can pass block well the bills said we're not going to use run running backs to pass block I'm sure there will be times when they do but the fiveman blocking surfaces that were a foundational piece of what Joe Brady did at LSU uh appear to be creeping up here uh with the Buffalo Bills the other thing that I've noticed about the bills passing offense and I would say that this is now through two games is I feel like the interior three McGovern Torrence Edwards they have had some challenges dealing with stunts from the defense Loopers coming back inside situations where the defense is threatening some overload pressures and they're stressing that communication and they're getting you know they're getting Free Runners and it's not because the bills don't have enough players to block them so I think probably one of the most critical things right now for the bills on offense to sort out is those middle three players and being able to handle uh the different pressure looks and stunts that come their way because I feel like that's where the passing offenses look the most vulnerable to me at this point in time so some thoughts there on the passing game real quick on the Run scheme um I feel like this has been true for the bills for a number of years but they're their best running Gap runs and I think there's no such thing in the NFL as a true hey we are a gap scheme we are a Zone scheme every scheme is Blended but they will skew towards Gap or Zone and this bills run scheme is very very I mean it's not particularly close they're much better when they run Gap and I think this Miami Dolphins game was an example of that 62% of the run plays were Gap the bills average 6.31 yards per carry had a success UC rate of 50% when the bills run Zone which they did 19% of the time against Miami one yard per carry 20% sex success rate and I know that 62 plus 19 doesn't mean 100 but that's because there's um there's kneel Downs there's scrambles that factor into those numbers there's that kilos Shakir Run play bottom line here is you got to be Blended I don't think you can just be one thing but this this offense is just so much better when they run Gap and I think that just leans in to the strengths of the players um physical run blockers great pollers right torren excuse me not torren brown Dawkins very good pollers you want to get them into gaps you want to run Gap schemes with that but also your your power at the point of attacking Edwards and Torrance allows that to be effective as well um and the bills their run success out of 12 Personnel is just really good so I think they they understand they should understand how they're at their best running the football and I want to see them lean into those Concepts and in addition I think like Ray Davis to me watching him at Kentucky just a much better much better player when it's gaps and the tracks are predetermined and there's not as much decision decision- making with him and I think where you've seen some of the Zone runs really not work out for the bills is Zone run horizontal right you're you're walking to a Zone and the whole point is at the running back presses and finds a lane and gets gets downhill well again the other side of that is the linebackers are doing the same thing and as those gaps open they just shoot them the linebackers shoot them and so I feel like you're seeing just a lot of um a lot of failed runs because the the second level for the opposing defenses are seeing it just like James Cook and or whatever ball carrier and um they're able to shoot those gaps and make some plays so lean into those Gap runs if I'm Joe Brady offensive snap counts Josh Allen 91% Mitch trabis 9% at running back James Cook 47% Ray Davis 31% Tai Johnson 16% Reggie Gillum 11% at tight end Dawson Knox 53% dton concade 42% Quinton Morris 133% at receiver Keon Coleman 91% M Holland 71% Shakir 69% Curtis Samuel 27% you can tell they're still kind of sorting out that role mvs 9% offensive line Spencer Brown and David Edwards 100% Dawkins torren McGovern 91% so Osiris torren for the first time in his career uh didn't play every snap in the game Alec Anderson 29% he had nine snaps as as a jumbo tight end four as a guard and then uh tyen grael Cedric vanran Granger 9% of snaps that that jumbo tight end role is a is an important one for the bills and Alec Anderson's coming in and doing a great job last year that was David Edwards who did a phenomenal job in the past it's been Tommy Doyle or Bobby Hart this is an important role for this offense and Alec Anderson is is up for the task I mean he's an athletic dude that has an edge to him and uh he's moving some bodies out of the way right now is that big tight end studs and Duds I'll tell you what I don't have any Duds 31-1 win did anybody play to the level that you say man that was he was really killing the team I don't have any I'm not going to force it I do have some studs James Cook three touchdowns 12 touches 95 yards stud Alec Anderson stud I think his I just talked about it his role is that jumbo tight end matters a ton khil Shakir um he's a stud and not that it was like this massive performance where he had five catches for a little over 50 yards but when Josh Allen needed it he went to Kos Shakir and Kos Shakir got open and they have some really good chemistry a lot of those against Zone coverage a lot of those over the middle of the field where you know exactly what I was talking about with Josh holding Defenders KH Shakir getting the spots accurate throws good catches it's beautiful Von Miller you're a stud fully back Von's fully back folks I mean in terms of his impact as a pass rusher it's real it's not fluky it's real Austin Jackson's you know a paid right tackle they like him and Von Miller took his lunch Ed Oliver talked about it that sequence gamechanging stud Christian Benford rul Douglas studs Jamarcus Ingram two picks stud he also he Also may Ed up Tyreek Hill in the Red Zone on one play as well I think that was actually Von Miller sack Jamarcus is one-on-one with Tyreek Hill and Bale inspector big spot for him he's a stud so real quick James Cook Alec Anderson khil Shakir Von Miller Ed Oliver Christian Benford R Douglas Jamarcus Ingram Bale inspector all my studs this week all right folks hope you enjoyed all 22 review in the books um would encourage you to check out the lockdown Bill subex Community uh like I said you get all the film clips I sent a big file I think there's almost 30 plays in there that I went and broke down for everybody plus you get my first reaction to all Bills news you get my ingame texts so be part of that we're having fun and also get you into our Discord Channel and our Discord channel is blowing up it is so fun we're almost at 1100 members in there and obviously it's a it's a chat app right so you get to discuss and and interact with a community of Bills fans that you know it's really fun but also we have so many cool things going on like Discord exclusive content doing a live stream on Wednesday that's only for the Discord Community I have different things that are coming up that are really fun we have a great mod team in place uh we have just different things that are happening all the time uh in that Discord channel that are designed to build community around this podcast and I'll be honest with you it's been it's been a really fun piece of where this podcast has gone for me um obviously I love doing the show and that's never going to change I'm always going to do this show it's always going to be right here for you it's it's the passion of my life outside of being a dad and a and a and a husband but the the community that we've been able to build around this C this podcast with with Bill's fans uh Bills fans that enjoy listening to lock on bills and I think that um maybe that's a particular type of Bills fan that you know you can interact with these people in the Discord and so whether it's through the subtext Community or the substack where I'm writing articles I'm writing at least three articles a week my post game column A Josh Allen weekly plus a scouting matchup preview for the upcoming game we've been able to to get people in this Discord Channel and the community is just growing be part of it you get part of it through either a substack subscription or a sub text subscription either there's a link in today's show note so you can check out what that's all about all right folks enjoy your weekend we got two weekends of stress-free football watching because the bills already won this week Monday night football next week so enjoy that and I'll be back again for you on Monday we got herd mentality coming early in the week we got a conversation with Bruce Nolan early in the week obviously then we got to start getting ready for the Jacksonville Jaguars so plenty coming your way don't miss it make sure that you're subscribed would love it if you took a second to rate review and share the podcast have a great rest your day go bills and I look forward to catching up with you again real soon