When the Bills are on offense
Gettin' Edgy With It
The first thing that jumped out at me when I watched the Dolphins play the Patriots last week was how often Tom Brady attacked the outside of the Miami defense. Even though Rob Gronkowski played, most Patriots passes targeted the Dolphins edge and outside the painted numbers on the field. The statistics not only showed this to be true, but also that Brady was pretty successful in those areas. Especially the short edges.
Out of the 56 passes Brady attempted, 45 of them were to the outside of the defense. Only 11 were thrown towards the middle of the field. Out of those 45 to the edge, Brady was 12-for-16 to the short left area and 9-for-15 to the short right. It?s easy to see why. Fins CBs were playing well off Pats receivers all afternoon, and Brady simply took advantage whenever he could. Quick reads and short drops from him. Quick curls and out-patterns by the wideouts.
the Dolphins are tops in the league after one week in yards per pass play allowed at only 4.04. They gave Patriots receivers a lot of room, didn?t want to get beat deep, and then when the ball was caught in front of them, came up and made the tackle.
This kind of philosophy fits right into Sammy Watkins? wheelhouse. Watkins is excellent with the ball in his hands. He just has to get it. And if Miami is going to play Bills? wide receivers the same way, I?d expect #14 to get a lot of targets, especially quick outs, curls, and screens down the line. Then it will just come down to a one-on-one tackling drill between the DB and Watkins for the chance at good yardage.
Quick, shorter passes may have to be what the Bills do, anyway, given how well Cameron Wake can rush the passer. I doubt Nathaniel Hackett wants EJ Manuel to have to stand deep in the pocket holding onto the ball very long in this one.
Speed It Up
The Bills ran the ball for 193 yards against the Bears. They popped off 5.85 yards per run, 4th best in the NFL after one weekend. The Dolphins allowed 4.45 yards per run last week (18th in NFL) and will most likely now be without ALL THREE starting linebackers against the Bills. Phillip Wheeler and Koa Misi appear to be out, and Dannell Ellerbe was placed on IR, ending his season.
The Bills will most likely want to test that group. In the passing game they can do it by forcing them to cover RBs and TEs. In the run game, the Bills need to get past that solid from-4 and give their backs a chance to play against those linebackers in space.
But they can also test them via philosophy. The Bills clearly slowed down their offense a bit last week, compared to the pace they can - and want to - normally run it. I?m assuming this was mainly to keep the high-powered Bears offense off the field as much as possible. But there was an interesting benefit to doing it. EJ Manuel seemed to play relaxed and able to think through what he wanted to do before each play, instead of going too fast and making hasty decisions. Perfect for what the team needed on the road in a hostile environment. At home this week, with the crowd on his side, it would be more beneficial for the Bills to speed up the offense and make those new Dolphins linebackers have to think quickly about personnel and assignments, and maybe cause them to make some costly mistakes, physically or mentally.
When the Bills are on defense
Be Aggressive. B-E-Aggressive
The Dolphins did a lot of things well on offense against the Patriots. One of those things was not taking care of the football. Wide receiver Mike Wallace and running back Lamar Miller both had costly fumbles and both came as the result of aggressive plays from defenders. The Bills need to put an emphasis on getting to the ball in a mean way and trying to jar it loose whenever they get a chance. If they can get Miami to put the ball on the turf a couple times again, it will go a long way towards a win.
Get Shorty
Ryan Tannehill wasn?t very sharp last week. His own offensive coordinator, Bill Lazor, said as much this week. He missed a lot of passes and several open reads. And that was at home. When he was on target, it was mostly to his left, and short. In fact, out of his 32 pass attempts, 27 of them were short or underneath. 16 of those short passes were to the offensive left (he was 12 for 16). Taking it a step further, the average length of Tannnehill?s completions last week was only 5.67 yards, 20th among all NFL QBs (you can compare that to EJ Manuel, who?s avg length of completion was 10th in the NFL at 7.06 in week one).
A look at how the Dolphins offense was designed for Tannehill to often go short-left. Here, there are three receivers flooding the area (at top, left of QB) for him to choose from:
The inaccuracy of longer passes was an issue for Tannehill last year, too. Of all passes thrown 21 yards or more, Tannehill was only 12 for 58 (20.6%) in 2013.
It will come at a risk, considering Mike Wallace is very dangerous deep, but the Bills need to take away Ryan Tannehill?s bread-and-butter short game and force him to connect on deeper throws.
Finally, Miami ran a ton of play-action last week. Lazor was with Chip Kelly in Philadelphia, so a lot of the play-action is off shotgun, but there is still plenty from I-formation, as well. Bills linebackers have to be disciplined and not bite too hard, too quickly Sunday.
--WGR
Gettin' Edgy With It
The first thing that jumped out at me when I watched the Dolphins play the Patriots last week was how often Tom Brady attacked the outside of the Miami defense. Even though Rob Gronkowski played, most Patriots passes targeted the Dolphins edge and outside the painted numbers on the field. The statistics not only showed this to be true, but also that Brady was pretty successful in those areas. Especially the short edges.
Out of the 56 passes Brady attempted, 45 of them were to the outside of the defense. Only 11 were thrown towards the middle of the field. Out of those 45 to the edge, Brady was 12-for-16 to the short left area and 9-for-15 to the short right. It?s easy to see why. Fins CBs were playing well off Pats receivers all afternoon, and Brady simply took advantage whenever he could. Quick reads and short drops from him. Quick curls and out-patterns by the wideouts.
the Dolphins are tops in the league after one week in yards per pass play allowed at only 4.04. They gave Patriots receivers a lot of room, didn?t want to get beat deep, and then when the ball was caught in front of them, came up and made the tackle.
This kind of philosophy fits right into Sammy Watkins? wheelhouse. Watkins is excellent with the ball in his hands. He just has to get it. And if Miami is going to play Bills? wide receivers the same way, I?d expect #14 to get a lot of targets, especially quick outs, curls, and screens down the line. Then it will just come down to a one-on-one tackling drill between the DB and Watkins for the chance at good yardage.
Quick, shorter passes may have to be what the Bills do, anyway, given how well Cameron Wake can rush the passer. I doubt Nathaniel Hackett wants EJ Manuel to have to stand deep in the pocket holding onto the ball very long in this one.
Speed It Up
The Bills ran the ball for 193 yards against the Bears. They popped off 5.85 yards per run, 4th best in the NFL after one weekend. The Dolphins allowed 4.45 yards per run last week (18th in NFL) and will most likely now be without ALL THREE starting linebackers against the Bills. Phillip Wheeler and Koa Misi appear to be out, and Dannell Ellerbe was placed on IR, ending his season.
The Bills will most likely want to test that group. In the passing game they can do it by forcing them to cover RBs and TEs. In the run game, the Bills need to get past that solid from-4 and give their backs a chance to play against those linebackers in space.
But they can also test them via philosophy. The Bills clearly slowed down their offense a bit last week, compared to the pace they can - and want to - normally run it. I?m assuming this was mainly to keep the high-powered Bears offense off the field as much as possible. But there was an interesting benefit to doing it. EJ Manuel seemed to play relaxed and able to think through what he wanted to do before each play, instead of going too fast and making hasty decisions. Perfect for what the team needed on the road in a hostile environment. At home this week, with the crowd on his side, it would be more beneficial for the Bills to speed up the offense and make those new Dolphins linebackers have to think quickly about personnel and assignments, and maybe cause them to make some costly mistakes, physically or mentally.
When the Bills are on defense
Be Aggressive. B-E-Aggressive
The Dolphins did a lot of things well on offense against the Patriots. One of those things was not taking care of the football. Wide receiver Mike Wallace and running back Lamar Miller both had costly fumbles and both came as the result of aggressive plays from defenders. The Bills need to put an emphasis on getting to the ball in a mean way and trying to jar it loose whenever they get a chance. If they can get Miami to put the ball on the turf a couple times again, it will go a long way towards a win.
Get Shorty
Ryan Tannehill wasn?t very sharp last week. His own offensive coordinator, Bill Lazor, said as much this week. He missed a lot of passes and several open reads. And that was at home. When he was on target, it was mostly to his left, and short. In fact, out of his 32 pass attempts, 27 of them were short or underneath. 16 of those short passes were to the offensive left (he was 12 for 16). Taking it a step further, the average length of Tannnehill?s completions last week was only 5.67 yards, 20th among all NFL QBs (you can compare that to EJ Manuel, who?s avg length of completion was 10th in the NFL at 7.06 in week one).
A look at how the Dolphins offense was designed for Tannehill to often go short-left. Here, there are three receivers flooding the area (at top, left of QB) for him to choose from:
The inaccuracy of longer passes was an issue for Tannehill last year, too. Of all passes thrown 21 yards or more, Tannehill was only 12 for 58 (20.6%) in 2013.
It will come at a risk, considering Mike Wallace is very dangerous deep, but the Bills need to take away Ryan Tannehill?s bread-and-butter short game and force him to connect on deeper throws.
Finally, Miami ran a ton of play-action last week. Lazor was with Chip Kelly in Philadelphia, so a lot of the play-action is off shotgun, but there is still plenty from I-formation, as well. Bills linebackers have to be disciplined and not bite too hard, too quickly Sunday.
--WGR
