The Bills are (literally) changing how defense is played. 

What are the best defenses in the NFL? Gimme the Bills, 49ers, Bucs, Rams, and Packers

Anyone notice that the Steelers defense scored more points in fantasy than the Steelers did in real life?

The Bills' d line is strong and deep. If you can get consistent pressure only rushing 4, that's a good recipe for a deep playoff run

I believe the most important element in this defense is having a DLine that creates constant pressure

Jeez, these deep dives are needed because I would've never known how complex the Bills defense is

I feel like some of those concepts were open enough to work, but in almost all of your clips Stafford was already under severe pressure. Being able to get home with just 4 makes calling a defense a lot easier.

Absolutely love the in depth stuff my man. Don't shy away from it, it's one of the things that sets you apart.

I've been a Bills fan since the 4 Super Bowls, but I never really had a great handle on the "X's and O's" stuff. Videos like this make it a lot easier to understand, and it's really interesting to see how the schemes work. Thanks for enlightening me.

Man I was shocked. I've said this before but I absolutly love these great defensive game plans. They might not be as exciting as their offensive counter parts but I find them to be more interesting. Awesome video

Wouldn't suprise me if this leads to other teams going for more D-line depths to enable more rotation.

This defensive development is so important to the offensive centric league, i love my bills, but i hope that other teams copy this so its not a scorigami every game

Nothing new here. Pretty textbook cover 2 just with linebacker play and overall execution that was perfection. Good on the Bills, they are clearly very well coached and dangerous. Id like to see how they adjust to a more dominant running team this week against the titans. I almost expect them to ditch that scheme entirely this week against the Titans. Cant wait to see it

I wanted a Bills-Chargers playoff match up, but the Bolts would throw 4 yard passes and punt on 4th and inches while the Bills would put up 45 points in 3 quarters.

Good vid. LET’S GO BUFFALO!!!

I wanna point out that this style was used by the titans last year to beat both of these teams! Shane Bowen has been using disguised looks that function off of the 4 main rushers and Byard and hooker to trick elite offenses with the looks. I’d recommend looking at the titans defense from last season, you’ll see this trend really starting off there.

The Giants did this back in 2007 and 2011. Their ability to get pressure with just four enabled them to drop 7 which was key because their secondary was nothing special. Dropping seven also creates all sorts of double teams, bracketing te’s, ect.

If I ever want to be a football coach someday, I will thank your videos because they are one of my technical ingredients. Lol

How did this channel just quietly become the best NFL channel on all of RU-vid???

Von BILLer brings greatness to that front 7.

Once again, I appreciate the fact that you break down your videos to the simplest forms. I look forward to more from you, especially on the #Chiefs.

Born and raised in SoCal, but ever since I saw the Bill's last season, I've been a fan.

NO WAYYY. Favorite content creator making a video on my favorite team!? It feels like my birthday 😭. Appreciate you Alex 💪

Great analysis and film job..... If your 4 up front get to the quarterback it changes everything. Look back at the New York Giants teams that won the super bowl with similar packages. Stafford missed the crossing route several times that were open... he also held the ball to long after missing initial patterns. The 3 receiver in the stubby package should be looking for the over linebacker/under safety play instead of running at the safety.... A lot of room over the middle agains these packages if you react quick. And you are so correct agains the run game, the linebackers/safeties commit so quickly and don't wait deep like so many teams do wrongly. Great stuff here my friend.

If this is the case that teams mostly only rush 4 then wouldn't it be good for guys like lamar jackson to shred defense with their legs

Having 7 guys on the back end who know exactly what their responsibilities are is so valuable. Darius butler did a breakdown of some defenses that blew their assignments and this video was the exact opposite

!Quality stuff my man, truly insightfull analyses, every video. Much appreciation for your time and effort!

Def made it easier on the Bills with the Rams and their porous interior protection along with their suspect left edge protection. But even then Stafford had to stare down the consistent coverage play all night and pick his spots. If his receivers weren't on the same page it was gonna be difficult regardless. The Von Miller effect will be key as rotating the front 4 to keep them fresh and healthy throughout the season will be pivotal. In the playoffs though your best talents have to show up and Miller is the best on the edge that the Bills have this season. That also give reason for Ed Oliver or someone to step up their interior pass rush play to All-NFL level. Otherwise the Bills secondary has been playing this kind of consistent coverage play well for the last 2-3 seasons.

It helps a lot when the Rams OL gets bullied and they still can't run block. This is a natural and great strategic evolution by the defense in a pass happy, "spread" offense era. Let's see if offenses respond by becoming more smash mouth. Should be interesting.

I think it's also important to note that developing this strategy plays into the fact that there's just an increasing number of quarterbacks for whom blitzing is just not a very effective counter; there's too many of them out there that are too good at making defenses pay for blitzing that the benefit of the extra rusher isn't worth leaving the void in coverage that starting-caliber quarterbacks increasingly can take advantage of. Pulling from a Ravens example (because I watch them the most) I wasn't all that surprised that last year the Ravens finally managed to beat the Chiefs with arguably the least blitz-heavy defensive strategy we had ever gone after the Mahomes Chiefs with, because in past meetings it always seemed like Martindale's blitz-heavy strategies would result in big chunk plays for the Chiefs that would be too much for the offense to keep pace with, but playing without Marcus Peters arguably forced Martindale to call a more disciplined, restrained defense, and it succeeded in mostly keeping a lid on the Chiefs' offense.

This video was very helpful for someone who is new to nfl and wants to know more about the game. Thanks

Your vids are exactly what I always hoped the NFL Network would be.

Amazing video, thankful that the The Algorithm surfaced this up for me. I’m gonna have to watch again to fully understand but that’s because I don’t know jack about X’s and O’s. Super approachable content, thanks for putting the time in to make this!

Thank you for explaining these concepts in a way a layperson like me can understand. Very interesting

The bills defense has been great for 4 straight seasons! Very underrated defense. Dynasty defense.

Be careful. Last year Brett Kollman was singing the praises of Carolina's run defense, saying it had a chance to shatter the record. Week 4 they gave up 245 yards on the ground to the Cowboys and proceeded to go 2-12 the rest of the year. Hope this video holds up.

Love this video, Alex! Pretty interesting that 2 high looks are coming back since Tampa made it popular in late 90s/early 2000s.

Well, it would take a few years. But, QB mobile players would bring RPO concepts that will make NFL defenses be honest, at a risk of injuring the QB and shorter lifespan. But, this 2 deep shell defense is quite amazing.

i remember a video like this being made last year about the dolphins defense changing the game, should be a good matchup tomorrow 👀

I really enjoyed the in depth analysis, you know your stuff! Keep up the great work!

Before watching, the blueprint for the Bills has been the same since the arrival of Coach McDermott. The team just lack an elite edge rusher like a Von Miller, now players like Edmunds, Milano, Oliver, 2nd year player Rousseau, Lawson, White, Hyde and Poyer can play their part. And their offense is Elite. If the Bills don’t win this year, I will truly be disappointed as a fan.

A deep defensive line and when u add the best fearmomger in von Miller it creates chaos

And my fantasy opponents laughed at me taking Bills Defense early... joke's on them!

I haven't watched football in ages, since before the days of Lawrence Taylor, but some of this has got to be the Bills defense being good. If you can get pressure on a QB with just four rushers, that's just superior athletes on defense.

I've been saying that cover 2 and Tampa 2 defensive schemes will be making a come back since everyone was using cover 1

To me, this just drives home one of the most consistently true concepts in football: Games are won and lost in the trenches. Without the talent that the Bills have on the D-Line, deep threat plays get more time to develop and holes in coverage are much more easily found and exploited.

Can't you counter the cover 2 with heavy run packages since the box isn't stacked? Also last year almost every team the Bills played went with cover 2.

I grew up watching a pretty obismal Bills team, vaugley remembering the streak of super bowl runs in the early 90's. After a while you almost take pride in being a fan of a shitty team. Buffalo is full of ride or die fans for this reason. Seeing this break-down shows just how good the coaches and players have been working. They deserve every good thing that comes to them for putting their trust in Buffalo. A team that seemed to be just a way to get into the league and then trade up to a better team, for so long.

Beautiful breakdown. Thanks!

Aside from rules changes protecting the QB more, I think we’re seeing fewer and fewer blitzes because of the prevalence of mobile QB’s who can sling side-arm bombs and just dump the ball off for 15-20 yard plays over the top of a rush. Even Brady who isn’t mobile *wants* you to all-out rush him. He’ll just dump the ball off to an RB or TE for a quick easy 12 yards. New set of downs and keeps the defense honest. The Bills time has truly come. Their depth is nuts, Josh Allen is a triple threat beast, and their defensive schemes would make even Belichick proud. I’m making sure I watch every single Bills game this season

Fun to see a defensive focused video

great breakdown. the only wrinkle i look to see for this type of defense is against a very mobile QB like mahomes who can do damage in open space. For that, defense has to make another change and even then it still leaves one on one and it is a 50 50 on what happens.

This is a great educational video. Fantastic work.

It’s this simple: Put Von on defense, have good defense.

Great video!!

When I watch football I’m so used to the offense disguising their play that I never noticed the defense did it as well. Good breakdown I learned a lot

Play actionn screens and aggressive power running will slow that defense down

Good analysis

Absolutely fantastic channel, perfect production, great script, good ideas and concepts. A true football fans place for information and entertainment. I’ve been watching you for awhile but I didn’t even know I wasn’t subscribed because you come up in my recommended so much 😂

Everything that happens in a football game is a trickle down from what happens at the line.

Hey Alex it seems like everyone is going back to the 2 high safety look to stop all the down field explosive plays. In ur last video about mahomes you talked about 2000 thru 2010 Andy Reid destroying 2 high safety looks. Would u do a video showing how Andy would beat the 2 high look? Thanks in advance if u do.

it really comes down to the front 4 on defense. if you can rush 4 and consistently pressure the QB, then your DB's are going to be able to handle just about anything the offense throws at them. rushing the throws into 7 DB's is going to lead to a lot of bad throws or interceptions

Looks like the Dolphin defense showed the Bills how defense is played.

Great breakdown! Learned a lot

Played against #21 Poyer in High School. That man is next level fast and smart.

Tampa Bay rushed 4 in the SB, kept KC out of the end zone. But this scheme is next level and exactly how they tricked Mahomes to throw the last pick on Sunday. Great video.

Ya that defense the Pats ran all over for a win and Mahomes passed all over for a win also. The Bills division had 3 rookie QBs in it last year and all 3 are rebuilding. It’s easy to inflate your defense and offensive numbers in those 6 games.

So Stafford missed the backside dig THREE TIMES against zone lol. Yuck

Great analysis!

I thought the general idea was that: 1. Blitzing a good quarterback with a hot/alert read was generally bad. 2. Practice what works, not what doesn't. 3. Surprise/rare blitzing might still work. So we *shouldn't* see a lot of blitzes against, say, the top half of teams. Or teams with good O-Lines and/or good quarterbacks (which...kinda the same). Edit (this paragraph): And, again obviously, if you *can* work it with 4 rushers, why would you want to use a fifth? Though...wasn't the Bear front designed to stop the run because they *didn't* have the guys to do it otherwise? Wonder if we'll see something like that... I think Michael Vick once said that putting a QB Spy on him was a *bad* idea, as that was one less guy in coverage. Same general concept; you might stop a deep throw, but...that's what the under routes are for. That isn't particularly new.

The NFL moved back to two high because they’re trying to replicate Vic Fangios defense. The Godfather of the modern NFL Defense.

ALEX THE GOAT

4 rushers is simply called a rush Pressure is a five man rush blitz is 6 or more 5 creates 1on1 or big on big 6 creates a mismatch in numbers forcing a back or tight end to stay in the protection scheme

This looks like late 80s defense.

Everything old is new again. I had a discussion years ago with Ted Johnson, a two-down inside linebacker with the Patriots during their three out of four wins in the SB from 2001-04. This was 2013, and the one thing that sticks out to this day was his standard call for the defensive alignment on 1st- and 2nd-down: "4-down, Cover 2," the 4-down signaling the strongside DE, often Willie McGinest, to prepare for pulling guards, adjust to inside or outside shoulder on the RT, or look for play action, etc. Teams were still primarily running the ball on those downs, with the TE right. Belichick didn't disguise man vs. zone much because their safeties, either Milloy and Jones, then Harrison and Wilson, knew they could count on the front seven regardless whether there was a called blitz or not, and rotate into second-level support on the run if necessary. I don't know how many teams were relying on single-high defenses back then, only that centerfielder Earl Thomas was the key to the Legion of Boom moreso than CBs Sherman, Browner, Maxwell, and SS Chancellor. I stopped writing about the NFL in 2015 and haven't paid close attention to trends until I noticed YT gurus such as Rollins and others. Without an All-22 subscription, or whatever it's called now, it's almost impossible keep track of pre-snap safety positioning by watching TV. Luckily, the gurus can carry the load for us in that regard. Thank you.

Funny enough this would probably work against the Bills offense

Thanks, Alex. What is the best way to attack the new Bills defensive scheme?

It’s so good to see the so-called genius get out-coached

I recall the Bills doing the exact same thing against the Packers in 2014 to hold Rodgers to 17-42, 185 YDS, 2 INT in one of his best seasons ever

I'm sure realizing your opponents Super Bowl victory was fixed ( just rewatch the end of the game ) makes a team salivate at the opportunity to put them in their place.

Who knew that getting consistent pressure without blitzing could work? Who knew?!?!

4:38 Yeah man. My brain hurts now

If you’ve got a two-deep defensive line, you can win a lot of games. The Bills defensive line is insane.

Their talented front 4 manages to act like a blitz. If this becomes the norm, offenses gonna evolve back to the boring constant west coast style bleed 'em out with short quick tosses where those 2 safeties being deeper becomes a relative liability. He had lots of short to medium opportunities he wasn't looking for, holding the ball a second too long and down.

I would imagine that better offensive line blocking (or less ability for defenders to challenge/tie up double team with success) would make this a lot more difficult to execute and force teams to cheat predictably. Similarly, QB run threats that involve read option or RPO should make life pretty hard on a front 7 using 2-high unless the defensive personnel outclasses the offensive personnel. That isn't Stafford's game, but there are quite a few teams these days that can utilize it. There's also just the prediction game. Disguised or not, coverages have calls that beat them unless outmatched (if QB reads post-snap correctly). Some weeks, the offensive or defensive play caller will guess the counter-call more frequently than average, and influence the outcome. Similar deal for line matchups; having more time means QB gets more time to identify post-snap and beat disguises, more time for WR to beat press etc and makes the offense win more frequently. When DL is in QB's face quickly while rushing 4, it's hard to do anything. Even all-time greats like Brady etc struggle when DL is hitting them before some routes can develop while not committing extra bodies to open up quick passing game. With more teams willing to use their QB in the run game, I wonder how defenses will try to adjust while still using 2 high against teams like Kansas City (or even with lesser passers, like Jalen Hurts, who is a run threat with enough skill as a passer that you can't just disregard it). I don't think a basic scrape will suffice. I expect much more varied gameplans against these.

Your analysis is fantastic. Where are you getting your all 22 video?

Leslie Frazier is a great defensive coordinator!

It certainly helps to have Von Miller as one of your four rushers, he is one of the most dominant pass rushers I have seen in my 50 years of watching the NFL

We need people to not get injured on defense especially before tre gets back, which he better get back soon

It was like our defense didn't exist against KC

The Steelers played a don’t blitz game week1 vs Buffalo last year and also had success.

The chargers has been doing this for years, it’s why the Chiefs offense consistently struggles against the chargers. It requires having some elite pass rushers and an athletic and deep secondary. It’s not like anyone can get away with it. The main difference for the bills this year is they actually have guys who can get pressure rushing 4

These are things Phil Parker has been doing at Iowa for years. Which could be part of the reason the Bills like Hawkeyes on their roster.

It sure helps when you have four great defensive linemen.

Bills defense remind me of the mid 80s Chicago Bears and NY Giants defenses 🏈

The only way any of this works, is if your defensive line dominates. They know their defensive line dominates, and so they can build this crazy cover defense around it. Brilliant

With the amount of fouls that can be easily committed when attacking the quarterback, I can see the lack of blitzing being potentially helpful in that regard too.

Denver has ben doing this as well last year

Great breakdown, as always! Could you please tell where you get these sequences of player close-ups, slow-motions, etc. of? Would love to add some like these into my next video!

I’d love to see a breakdown of Kyle Pitts’ situation. Is it Mariota’s fault, the scheme, or is Pitts to blame? He was so dominant in college.

The truly scary thing for these defenses is when they have to go against a Josh Allen. You have to protect every level of the field in some capacity or you're going to get beat. If they want to play that two high shell, then Josh is going to make them pay with his legs. He's going to work that short to intermediate and take advantage running when he sees a good Lane. And that's how defenses will play. If they don't, then he's going to burn them deep. Every defense you play is going to have to hope that Josh has an off day.