This is the second of three stories analyzing the 2008 Buffalo Bills. Today's installment deals with the defense.
Improved Bills D lacked big plays
Bills breakdown: NFL's 14th-ranked defense came up short in sacks and takeaways
Big plays were the big shortcoming of the Buffalo Bills' defense in 2008.
If the Bills had made a few more quarterback sacks or taken the ball away a little more, they easily could have been a top 12-defense in the NFL.
The Bills finished 14th in the NFL in both yards allowed and points allowed. That was a big improvement from 2007, when the Bills were 31st in yards allowed and 18th in points allowed.
However, the No. 14 ranking does not tell the whole story.
The Bills were not truly a top-half-of-the-league defense, because they tied for 28th in sacks and tied for 20th in takeaways.
"I'd say our run front is shored up to a degree," said defensive end Chris Kelsay. "Obviously one thing we need is to generate more pressure on the quarterback. I'm sure we'll take steps this offseason to get that accomplished, whether it's the draft or free agency, or with the guys we have here."
Dominant defenses make big plays. The Bills combined for 46 sacks and takeaways. That ranked tied for 29th — third from the bottom.
Nine of the 12 teams that made the playoffs ranked among the top 12 in defensive "big plays." Pittsburgh combined for 80 sacks and takeaways, Philadelphia 77 and Tennessee 75.
The Bills need more pass rush from the defensive line and more ball-hawking from the secondary.
Obviously, the loss of sack leader Aaron Schobel for the last 11 games was a huge blow. His replacement, Ryan Denney, shared the team sack lead with linebacker Kawika Mitchell. Both had four sacks. It was the Bills' lowest team-leading sack total since sacks became an official statistic in 1982. Kelsay had just two sacks.
Of the Bills' 24 sacks, 17 came on plays in which they blitzed, according to Buffalo News figures. There were just seven sacks with a straight, four-man rush.
The Bills were not a big blitzing team, preferring sound coverage over all-out gambling, and that strategy probably was validated by the fact they finished in the top half (14th) in scoring defense. The Bills blitzed on 32 percent of pass plays, by News count. The teams they blitzed the most were Cleveland with young starter Brady Quinn (51 percent of pass plays), San Diego (45 percent) and St. Louis (42 percent). The games they blitzed the least were at the New York Jets (13 percent), Oakland (15 percent) and at New England (20 percent). (The Raiders barely threw in the game at Buffalo.)
Too few hurries and hits on the quarterback were a big factor in the Bills getting just 10 interceptions, eight fewer than last season. Safeties Donte Whitner, Ko Simpson and Bryan Scott were shut out in the pickoff department. It was only the third time in team history that the Bills did not get one interception from a safety. (The others were in 2002 and 2003.)
The Bills needed their free safety, usually Simpson and occasionally Whitner, to get his hands on more balls.
So how did the Bills' defense manage to drop its yards allowed by 37 a game? Good team defense in two key departments:
• Third downs. The Bills improved from 29th to ninth on third-down defense, holding foes to 36-percent success in those situations.
The Bills got excellent seasons out of cornerbacks Terrence McGee and Jabari Greer, and rookie Leodis McKelvin did fairly well in relief of Greer the last six games.
McGee rebounded from the knee injury that hindered him in the seventh game and played outstanding football the rest of the way. He frequently was matched up with the opponent's best receiver.
"As a cornerback you always want to have more interceptions," McGee said. "But as far as going out there competing and playing hard, when I was put in those matchup-type of situations for the most part I played OK."
Mitchell's experience in coverage helped, too. He had game-saving interceptions against San Diego and Denver. The Bills made more extensive use of Scott, effectively matching him up on some bigger tight ends.
The fact the Bills bulked up their defensive tackle rotation — with Marcus Stroud, Kyle Williams and Spencer Johnson — made them stouter against the run and helped put them in better third-down situations. Third-and-long situations (of 6 yards to go or more) comprised 15 percent more of their third downs than last year.
• Red-zone defense. For the second straight year the Bills ranked fourth in the NFL in preventing teams from scoring touchdowns once they got inside the Buffalo 20-yard line.
It was a good thing, too, because opponents were pretty good at moving the ball down the field inside scoring territory. They got inside the Bills' 20 55 times, seventh most.
The Bills bent but they didn't break.
"I think our guys lock in more when they get in the red zone from an assignment standpoint and from a concept standpoint," said defensive coordinator Perry Fewell. "You try to emphasize that in every phase. They play together. There's not a lot of busts in assignments in that area."
NEXT: Special teams
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