Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills took down the Baltimore Ravens in one of the most thrilling comeback games of all time. Allowing 40 points to your opponent doesn’t scream “great defensive performance” exactly but defensive tackle Ed Oliver had an overall excellent game.
Let’s take a look at what the veteran defender did in front of the Sunday Night Football audience.
Ed Oliver and Matt Milano attacked the line and stunted by quickly shifting their attack points. This left Oliver one-on-one against Daniel Faalele. Faalele slowed down Oliver but only a little as the stunt had left him off balance and unable to anchor. Oliver took full advantage of the situation and brought down Lamar Jackson.
One of my favorite things about analysis after a game is seeing things from a more-focused lens. For most of us, the game exists in more of a macro level where the overall results dictate how things went. There’s nothing wrong with that, but at the micro level we can see times where the whole failed, but within it there still exists points of excellence. Oliver removed a lane like he should, but other failure points in the defense created an opportunity for a big gain.
Do you want an idea about just how much the star power of the quarterback position skews things? One of the most glorified results in all of football is a sack. Tackles for a loss have the exact same outcome and are essentially a throwaway metric. Not on my watch! A TFL is just as good as a sack. Arguably they can be more impressive. “Coverage sack” is a term meant to demonstrate that the sack came as a result of the back end buying them more time. You don’t hear too much about “coverage TFLs” because a tackle for a loss is far more frequently a quick win from the defense.
Let’s be candid for a second here. There are full-timers doing the analysis thing that can get their claws on the coaches’ film way faster than I can. So how do I stand out? By telling you what I see, which sometimes has an extra wrinkle others might not focus on. This play could have been a back-breaker for the Bills who needed every second of the game to get the win. If Oliver had been just a little less restrained, this goes from incomplete to a free 15 yards.
Last but not least, the defensive play of the game. Oliver was the first to Derrick Henry but was being blocked from the side and eventually taken to the ground. While falling, he was getting his hands near the ball, which forced the fumble.
Go for it. Talk poorly about the defense. You’ll have a good case for...
