Tag: Buffalo Bills vs. Green Bay Packers

Bills’ Tim Settle predicted first sack would come vs. Packers

#Bills’ Tim Settle predicted first sack would come vs. #Packers:

One of this season’s newest editions to the Bills defense had a bold prediction going into Sunday’s clash with the Packers.

DT tackle Tim Settle, who signed with Buffalo during free agency, caught QB Aaron Rodgers double-checking his discount receiving corps during Green Bay’s opening drive, sacking him for a seven-yard loss to put their offense at third-and-15. They would punt two plays later.

Settle’s sack was his first as a Bill and first since Week 12 of the 2020 season, during which he’d have a career-best five total while playing for Washington.

What’s more, Settle predicted the sack, something teammate Von Miller shared after the game.

“We came in on Wednesday, he was like, ‘Man, I’m gonna go crazy, I’m gonna get a sack, I’m gonna pop it off this week,'” Miller noted during his media availability. “He (Settle) said, ‘I’m gonna be the one that get a sack.'”

Settle made good on the guarantee, turning in his best game as a Bill to date.

He would also tip the Rodgers pass later in the game that LB Matt Milano intercepted.

“So those are two big-time factor plays we call them,” head coach Sean McDermott said, commending the DT during his postgame press conference. “Obviously the sack, and then the tipped pass getting your hands up on the ball that came out low or came out quick.”

Settle broke down the play a bit, noting after the game “I was just keeping it tight, just rushing tight,” he said per Katherine Fitzgerald of The Buffalo News. “They had turned the protection, and I ended up getting a guard one-on-one, and I just took him inside, and I was able to get my hands up.”

As Settle had been feeling a sense of urgency about ending his cold spell, he noted that getting the sack was “relieving”, adding “I didn’t want my dad talking about me getting no sacks.”

“Plays are hard to come by,” he shared. “(You) gotta eat a little greedy on this line. But stay at it. If I can make some big plays, it’s going to help contribute to what we’ve already been doing. Everybody has a game where they have a (big) game, but I’m happy I was able to get my sack today.”

The effort, both on gamedays as well as in practice, has caught the eye of his teammates as well.

“It’s been great,” DE Rousseau said. “The energy he brings to the room and the personality, and obviously with the big plays he made tonight. I mean, he’s a great dude, great player.”

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Even Von Miller asked Aaron Rodgers why the Packers weren’t passing the ball

Even Von Miller had to ask Aaron Rodgers what was up with the #Packers not passing the ball much against the #Bills:

The Buffalo Bills beat the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football thanks to a lead they kept adding to throughout the game, leading to a 27-17 final at home in Orchard Park.

The final points were due in part to the Packers offense continuing to chip away at the Bills defense on the ground.

Prior to catching up a bit on the scoreboard, the repeated ground effort was a confusing strategy to Buffalo OLB Von Miller when Green Bay was opting to run down as many as 17 points in the second half.

“I was taken aback a little bit because I’m like, ‘Hey, y’all got to pass the ball, don’t y’all?’ That’s just me,” Miller said postgame. “Of course, I want to get sacks and I want to rush the passer, and I want to do all this stuff. So I was like, ‘OK, they’ve got to start passing the ball. They’ve got to start passing the ball.’ But nope, they just kept on running. I even asked Aaron Rodgers on that fourth-and-1, I was like, ‘Hey, you’re not going to drop back and pass the ball?’ I’m not going to tell you what he said because that’s my guy. I don’t want to get anything started. I was just … it was a shocker for me personally.”

The strategy seemed to work to an extent for the short-handed Packers offense in that it kept Miller more at bay while maximizing their pass rush in light of a depleted receiver corps.

RBs Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon went for a combined 197 yards on 30 carries, and Rodgers added an 11-yard scramble to round out a 208-yard ground game performance.
“I was shocked that they ran the ball so much,” Miller added. “They have Aaron Rodgers and with previous bouts (against him), I was just expecting him to have a little bit more control. So, I was kind of anticipating him passing the ball a little bit more, and they just kept running and running and running. I think, for me personally, it just caught me off guard. I had some lanes open where they could run the ball and stuff because I was just playing the pass.
“I’m looking at the scoreboard and I’m seeing it went by 17 points, it’s two minutes left in the third quarter and I’m thinking that they got to start passing the ball soon. But nope, they just kept running it. They ran the ball well, it was just a weird feeling because you want to go out there and you want to blow teams out and we’re so used to blowing teams out. But, a win is a win and I’m grateful for each and every win that we get.”
For Green Bay, giving their offense more time of possession by running the ball and giving Josh Allen and the Bills offense less time on the field makes sense.
But they appear to have not been alone in seeing rushing as a strategy, as a game plan to run off time on the game clock may have been in effect on both sidelines.
The Bills came into the game as the No. 1 rush defense in the NFL, after teams ran all over them last season. Buffalo sometimes gives up more in one area to opposing offenses while limiting more dangerous ones, however. So while it may appear the Bills struggled to stop the run, a closer look indicates a strategy may have been in play.
Leslie Frazier’s defense played a nickel package and last week’s hero, slot CB Taron Johnson, on all 66 defensive snaps throughout the game, including when Green Bay would run 2 RB and 2 TE packages on offense. By sticking with Johnson to limit the passing game instead of adding a third LB, signaling that they were allowing Green Bay’s ground gain in favor of limiting Aaron Rodgers’ air attack.
“I was expecting them to throw the ball earlier, but I think they were trying to manage the game and keep the ball out of our offense’s hands a little bit so they stuck with the run,” LB Matt Milano said per Jay Shurski of The Buffalo News. “It was working for them, but they were down 17 at that point, so didn’t work out for them.”
For the Bills, running down the clock with a lead in the second half would have made sense. Often when teams are down in the second half they abandon the run in favor of passing plays to try and score and climb back into the game while teams with the lead might run the ball more to run the game clock down toward a victory. In this case, if Buffalo’s strategy was counting on the Packers taking what the defense gave them to help them run the clock down while their offense kept attacking and scoring, it worked.
Ahead of next week’s matchup with the Jets, and back-to-back games against the Vikings with Dalvin Cook, and the Browns with Nick Chubb, head coach Sean McDermott still acknowledged the need to improve on run defense when asked during his press availability.
“We’ve got to make some adjustments, that’s for sure.”
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