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I am trying to have this discussion with some Bills fans, but I suspect they, like most fans and media, are going to ignore facts to hang onto the hope that our defense is as bad as they were in the past and make that judgement based on the stats of the first couple of games.
I have to agree with people who say that this defense will not finish in the top 10 statistically and will probably finish in the teens/early twenties, but not because of talent or scheme. I think our offense is our defense's biggest enemy.
When you look at traditional power house defenses, they tend to control the ball/clock and limit the other teams opportunities. Our offense is built to score. We score consistently and often. Now that is great because most teams can not keep up with our offense, but it also give opponents offenses a lot of possessions. Against Philly we forced 5 punts and 3 turnovers and they still had enough positions to score 20 points. That is 12 possessions. One of which was created from a turnover. If you give other teams 12 positions, they are going to get stats. However, we have been very good at stopping teams for scoring even with bad field position.
In other words you have to look beyond the stats to gage our defense's performance. Most opposing teams fans and media do a quick glance and make judgments. Heck a lot of our fans do the same. I am not saying we have top 10 talent on our defense, but I do think we are playing as well as the top ten statistic defenses in the league, but our stats will appear contradictory to those stats.
In summary:
1) Offense gets points, but gives other teams possessions.
2) Power house defenses generally benefit from clock controlling offenses
3) I am not sure we will be a statistically top 10 defense, but I think we are playing like one.
I have to agree with people who say that this defense will not finish in the top 10 statistically and will probably finish in the teens/early twenties, but not because of talent or scheme. I think our offense is our defense's biggest enemy.
When you look at traditional power house defenses, they tend to control the ball/clock and limit the other teams opportunities. Our offense is built to score. We score consistently and often. Now that is great because most teams can not keep up with our offense, but it also give opponents offenses a lot of possessions. Against Philly we forced 5 punts and 3 turnovers and they still had enough positions to score 20 points. That is 12 possessions. One of which was created from a turnover. If you give other teams 12 positions, they are going to get stats. However, we have been very good at stopping teams for scoring even with bad field position.
In other words you have to look beyond the stats to gage our defense's performance. Most opposing teams fans and media do a quick glance and make judgments. Heck a lot of our fans do the same. I am not saying we have top 10 talent on our defense, but I do think we are playing as well as the top ten statistic defenses in the league, but our stats will appear contradictory to those stats.
In summary:
1) Offense gets points, but gives other teams possessions.
2) Power house defenses generally benefit from clock controlling offenses
3) I am not sure we will be a statistically top 10 defense, but I think we are playing like one.