The Buffalo Bills’ defense failed too often in one of football’s basic tenets Sunday.
Time after time, a defender was seemingly in position to make a play against the New Orleans Saints, but poor tackling prevented that from happening.
According to analytics website Pro Football Focus, the Bills were charged with 12 missed tackles against the Saints in their 31-19 victory. Heading into the “Monday Night Football” doubleheader, just three teams in the league were charged with more during Week 4 (including the Saints, who had 14).
That number led in part to the Saints piling up 189 rushing yards, keeping what was expected to be a blowout Bills win close deep into the fourth quarter.
“Everything starts with gap integrity in the run game and doing your job and then tackling,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said after the game. “I thought at times we could have tackled better than we did, so we go back and look at that as well and evaluate and try and grow from it. I think that’s the important piece.”
It’s always better to do that after a win. On Monday afternoon, McDermott doubled down on the importance of tacking better after reviewing the game film.
“That’s something that you’re always chasing. A perfect game in terms of tackling, it’s never going to be perfect, but we’ve got to do a better job,” McDermott said.
The coach pointed to the Saints’ first touchdown run as an example of that. Taron Johnson, Taylor Rapp and Tre’Davious White all had an opportunity to bring down Kendre Miller, but none of them could do so on an 18-yard run.
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“That first touchdown run, in fact, was not anywhere near the way we’re capable of and want to tackle,” he said. “That’s a standard that needs to continually be met week in and week out. It’s a base fundamental of playing good defense.”
“That was a clinic on how not to tackle,” defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said Monday.
Middle linebacker Terrel Bernard and edge rusher Joey Bosa were both charged with three missed tackles against the Saints, while Johnson was charged with two. Rapp, White, defensive tackle DaQuan Jones and linebacker Dorian Williams were charged with one each.
“Especially in the run game, that’s something we’ll go back and look at,” Bernard said. “From my perspective, it’s missed tackles, it’s guys staying in their gaps, doing their jobs. That’s correctable. We’ll get back to work and get those things cleaned up.”
For the second time in less than a month, Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane is scouring the free-agent market for a punter.
Through four games, the Bills’ team tackling grade, according to PFF is 46.9 (out of 100), which ranks No. 23 in the league. While there is admittedly some subjectivity in exactly what should be considered a missed tackle, that number shows there is work to do.
“There are going to be missed tackles every game,” linebacker Shaq Thompson said. “We’ve got to take that extra step and put a body on a body like we always talk about — get off blocks and make plays.”
The Bills’ defense was put in some tough situations in terms of field position. The Saints started four drives in Buffalo territory. From that perspective, holding them to 19 points can be considered a win.
“Not our best day of work, I would say, but when they have many opportunities like that, obviously the mindset is field goals and takeaways,” defensive end A.J. Epenesa said. “We were able to do that a little bit today. Whenever you can get that done, that’s a positive for the team.”
The defense also did get the necessary stops at the end of the game to ice the win.
“There’s enough signs of growth, but on the other side of that, there’s plenty of signs that we’ve got a lot more work to do,” McDermott said. “But I’m happy, I’ll celebrate the win, that’s for sure.”
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Jay Skurski
News Sports Reporter
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