ORCHARD PARK — There is a price to be paid for the way the Buffalo Bills play defense.
Five defensive backs combat the increased usage in three wide receiver sets. Split safeties prevent long passes downfield.
It’s been a successful strategy for Sean McDermott’s teams over the last five years, as no team has played with a stacked box less often than the Bills. They have allowed the fewest 40-yard passes in the NFL since he became head coach in 2017 and the Bills have only allowed one 30-yard pass through four games this season, coming on a 36-yard Zay Flowers catch after a missed assignment against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 1.
The Bills also don’t use a big, block-eating nose tackle. Yes, they don’t get much bigger than Deone Walker at 6-foot-7, 330 pounds, but he’s best when penetrating. That’s what the Bills want all their defensive linemen to do.
But playing lighter means being exposed to teams willing to run the ball. Penetrating linemen sometimes leave their smaller linebackers exposed to offensive linemen getting to the second level and that leads to being gashed on occasion.
McDermott’s defenses have always been vulnerable to the occasional off day against the run. But it’s starting to become a more frequent occurrence.
The Bills rank 31st in overall run defense (164.3) and 30th in yards per carry (6.0). And although the Bills held the New Orleans Saints to 19 points in a 31-19 win, the Saints, averaging 3.9 yards per carry coming in, ran for 189 yards on 5.6 yards per carry.
“From my perspective, it’s missed tackles, it’s guys not staying in their gaps, doing their jobs,” Bills linebacker Terrel Bernard said. “But … that’s correctable. We’ll get back to work and get those things cleaned up.”
McDermott felt there were times the Bills played well defensively, particularly to close out the game. The Saints started four drives in Buffalo territory and were held to six points total on those possessions.
While the Bills are consistently in the bottom half of the league in yards before contact (they are 29th this year), they are usually much better in yards after contact. But this season, the Bills are last in the league in allowing 4.4 yards after first contact, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
But tackling issues didn’t escape his eyes nor defensive coordinator Bobby Babich’s. New Orleans’ first touchdown of the game, an 18-yard run by Kendre Miller, was the play both mentioned as being unacceptable.
Not only did Miller break three tackles on his way to the end zone, but there wasn’t a defender in the hole he initially ran through. The Bills have talked extensively about gap integrity breakdowns through the first quarter of the season.
The aggressive nature of Buffalo’s scheme promotes an attacking style. That can sometimes lead to chasing big plays. It’s also sometimes a struggle to sit in an assigned hole when a player thinks he has a clear path to the ball.
“There’s a gap you’re responsible for,” Babich said. “There’s different philosophies out there and your job is to own your gap. … Not that the guys aren’t buying into it, but we’ve got to start abiding by that and that’s every time we have a run issue.”
Beyond fundamentals, the Bills simply haven’t been as explosive as they have been in the past. Even though they haven’t been considered a premier run-defending team under McDermott, the Bills have been able to balance deficiencies by making a lot of plays in the backfield.
Since NFL Next Gen began tracking run stuff percentage — run plays stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage — in 2018, the Bills have ranked in the top 10 every year but one, 2020, when they were 11th.
The Bills have been in the top four five times during that span, leading the league three times. That includes last season. The Bills were 15th in yards before contact, 18th in yards after contact and 19th in yards per carry, but they led the league in stuffing 23.7% of their runs.
This season their stuff percentage is 13.8, ranked 24th in the league. Getting back defensive tackle Ed Oliver — who had three against the Ravens in Week 1 — and linebacker Matt Milano will help that category, but some of it is also schematics.
Babich acknowledged players are sometimes responsible for covering two gaps when they play with lighter personnel. That means defensive linemen are being asked to hold blocks rather than penetrate.
“Some of that’s in our structures and how we’re playing things compared to last,” McDermott said. “But it’s also early in the season. I thought (against the Saints) there were times we played really good run defense and then there were times when we didn’t. And that usually starts with being in our gaps.”