Tag: Joe Brady Bills

How the Bills changed their entire offense and ran all over the Cowboys

The Buffalo Bills did what nobody expected and ran all over the Dallas Cowboys’ defense. Here’s how offensive coordinator Joe Brady schemed it up.

Generally speaking, when Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen completes seven of 15 passes for 94 yards and a touchdown against a team like the Dallas Cowboys, you don’t expect a 31-10 win in Buffalo’s favor. But that’s exactly what happened last Sunday, and the Bills’ run game is worthy of our attention. 

New offensive coordinator Joe Brady, who’s been in that position since mid-November following the firing of Ken Dorsey, had already put some new much-needed wrinkles in the passing game. But what Brady did against the Cowboys was a different level of sea-change in philosophy. Brady and the Bills went into this game with a clear vision of how to disrupt Dallas’ defense with the run game, which was unusual for a number of reasons.

Coming into this game, the Cowboys had allowed an EPA per rushing attempt of -0.11, sixth-best in the NFL. Their 4.1 yards per carry allowed, 2.2 yards after contact allowed, and 10 rushing touchdowns allowed were all among the NFL’s best. Now, the Bills’ EPA per rushing attempt of 0.04 was already the NFL’s best, but they had managed just 2.2 yards after contact per attempt, and while their 15 rushing touchdowns was a nice figure, 11 came from quarterback Josh Allen, so it wasn’t as if Buffalo’s rushing attack with James Cook as the lead dog was scaring anybody.

Where Brady and his staff may have seen their openings was in the Cowboys’ fronts and overall defensive philosophy. Through the first 14 weeks of the season, Dallas had faced just 337 rushing attempts this season, because their offense has been so explosive. And under Dan Quinn, the Cowboys aren’t focusing on the run in an old-school sense. They had put eight or more defenders in the box against 142 rushing attempts this season through Week 14, fifth-highest in the league, but it’s not a heavy run defense, and that’s especially true since defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins suffered a high ankle sprain in Week 14 against the Philadelphia Eagles. Without Hankins on the field this season, the Cowboys have allowed 5.3 yards per carry. With Hankins on the field? 4.2.

Moreover, per Sports Info Solutions, the Cowboys have had six defensive backs on the field for 221 opponent rushing attempts, which is wildly out of whack with the rest of the NFL. The New England Patriots rank second with 43. The number is a bit skewed because most advanced metrics sites have misclassified Markquese Bell as a safety when he’s more of a linebacker, but even so… Bell is a 6-foot-3, 205-pound player, so it’s not as if he’s thumping down on run fits at a Mike Singletary level.

Factoring all that in, Brady’s decision to completely turn his team’s offensive philosophy on its head was still quite revolutionary. Through Week 14, the Bills ran the ball on 37.9% of their offensive snaps. Against the Cowboys, they ran by design on 71% of their plays, the highest rate for any team in any game this season. The aforementioned James Cook ran 25 times for 179 yards, 7.2 yards per attempt, 3.52 yards after contact per attempt, one touchdown, seven runs of 10 or more yards, and eight forced missed tackles.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell,” the guys got into this difference in approach, and all the reasons it worked so well.

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You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Now, let’s get into the thick of this new Bills run game.

How Joe Brady has started to turn the Buffalo Bills’ offense around

New Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady has already made a difference, and it starts with pre-snap motion and four-strong.

You never know what will happen when you replace a play-caller in season. You hope for the best, but there isn’t a lot of time to create the changes you want. But in the case of the Buffalo Bills, who fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey on November 14 and replaced him with former quarterbacks coach Joe Brady, there are clear changes and improvements to the structure of an offense that wasn’t really working under Dorsey.

Perhaps the most obvious case of Brady’s offensive mindset showing up on the field happened last Sunday in the Bills’ 20-17 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. While everybody was focused on the now-infamous Kadarius Toney offside scandal, there was Josh Allen’s 25-yard touchdown to running back James Cook with 3:48 left in the first quarter,

Trent Sherfield motioned left to right, which put four to the left side. And it was a cool design. Cook ran a vertical route from the backfield in slot position, Gabe Davis ran a comeback from the boundary, Danton Kincaid ran a seam crosser, and Sherfield had the flat route to that side.

It looked like the Chiefs were in Quarters, and you can see safety Justin Reid telling safety Mike Edwards to jump from the middle third to the offensive left side of the field. So maybe that was a check off the motion. Edwards drove down on Cook, who ran right past him, and that was easy button all the way. The Chiefs had a five-man blitz with safety Chamarri Conner moving up, but the line handled it, and that was that. 

As ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky pointed out, this was an example of “four-strong,” which placed a burden on Kansas City’s defense by putting four potential receivers to one side.

I went back and looked at each of Allen’s 25 touchdown passes this season, and the only other example of four-strong this season came on this five-yard touchdown pass to Cook against the New York Jets in Week 11. This was Brady’s first game as offensive coordinator, which tells you that Dorsey was not on board with the concept. Too bad for Dorsey, because this example of four-strong, in which Cook flared out to accentuate the bunch right design, was wide open. Especially when all three receivers charged to the middle of the field. The increase in pre-snap motion is cool, but it’s a lot cooler when it means something, and it can displace a defense for the betterment of the quarterback.

It’s not the only new wrinkle Brady has sewed into Buffalo’s offense, but it might be the most important as the Bills look for new ways to make the most of their receivers, and Allen’s otherworldly potential.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys got into the Bills’ offense at a deeper level — starting with the theories behind four-strong.

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You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os,” featuring all of Week 15’s biggest NFL matchups (including Bills-Cowboys) right here:

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You can listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing Week 15’s biggest NFL matchups

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into Week 15’s most important NFL matchups.

It’s time for Week 15 of the 2023 NFL season, and Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, are here to get you ready for the most important games and interesting matchups:

Minnesota Vikings at Cincinnati Bengals — How Zac Taylor and his staff have made things easier for Jake Browning, and how Brian Flores’ defense can make life much more difficult.

Chicago Bears at Cleveland Browns — The trade acquisition and under-the-radar consultant who could be the keys to the Bears’ defensive improvement.

Dallas Cowboys at Buffalo Bills — Buffalo offensive coordinator Joe Brady has a great new wrinkle, but can the Bills’ defense hang with Dak Prescott and all his targets?

Baltimore Ravens at Jacksonville Jaguars — The Jags have been underperforming on offense and defense of late, which makes it a bad time to have to deal with the Ravens.

Philadelphia Eagles at Seattle Seahawks — The keys to Pete Carroll’s unhappiness with his defense, and why the Eagles had better get things together before they travel to the Emerald City.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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You can listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Report: Chargers request to interview Joe Brady for offensive coordinator vacancy

The Chargers’ offensive coordinator interview list is now up to six.

The Chargers continue their search to find their next offensive coordinator, as they have requested to interview Bills quarterbacks coach Joe Brady, according to NFL Media’s Mike Garafolo.

Brady brings plenty of offensive firepower to the table, having worked under Sean Payton in New Orleans as an offensive assistant in 2017 and 2018.

Brady brought that knowledge to Baton Rouge as LSU’s passing-game coordinator. He helped Joe Burrow become the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL draft and was one of the masterminds behind the 2019 LSU offense, considered one of the greatest offenses in college football history.

He was rewarded by making the leap to the NFL, where he became the offensive coordinator for the Panthers briefly in 2020 before an apparent falling out with then-head coach Matt Rhule in his second season.