To whatever degree you thought about the Buffalo Bills last season, you probably thought more about the offense than the defense. The Bills have an obvious cyborg at quarterback in Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs is on a very short list of the league’s best receivers, and that receiver group is about as deep as any you’ll find in the NFL. Bombs away, but as this team enters the new season, it’s time to talk more about their defense.
And that’s not just because Von Miller is in Buffalo now. That’s a big deal, but in 2021, the Bills ranked first in Defensive DVOA — first against the pass, and 11th against the run. That’s what happens when you have star cornerback Tre’Davious White and an estimable group behind him, and the league’s best safety duo in Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde.
But the addition of Miller was indeed supposed to put this defense over the top. Last season, the Bills ranked sixth in the NFL with 326 total pressures, but they ranked 10th with 46 sacks. Getting to the quarterback, but not getting home, was the problem that Miller weas supposed to fix.
Based on Buffalo’s defensive performance against the Los Angeles Rams in a 31-10 thrashing Thursday night, we’ll go ahead and say that the plan is working. Matthew Stafford was pressured on 19 of his 50 dropbacks, and he was sacked seven times. Stafford threw one of his three interceptions when under pressure, but the real big deal here was the ability of the Bills’ defense to close the deal. Everything else that happened for the Bills defensively worked off of that new factor.
Why? Because the Bills were able to do the most terrifying thing any defense can do — they got all their sacks without having to commit extra defenders to do it.
The Bills sacked Matthew Stafford seven times without blitzing on a single play.
Buffalo's seven sacks with four-or-fewer pass rushers is tied for the 4th-most in a game since 2016.#BUFvsLAR | #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/AX8VoPOyAK
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 9, 2022
So, the Bills, without the injured Tre’Davious White, were able to torment Stafford and everybody else playing in Sean McVay’s offense, making the defending Super Bowl champs look like an expansion team. No team in pro football history had ever recorded at least three interceptions, at least seven sacks, and no punts in the same game, until the Bills on Thursday night.
We’ve already gotten into how Buffalo’s killer offense didn’t have to punt. Here’s how the defense did all that other stuff.