Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles stuck to his reputation in Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills.
He blitzed a lot – 28 times in 62 dropbacks, the most blitzes Josh Allen has seen all season, according to Buffalo News charting.
There actually were more Buccaneers’ blitzes in the second half when the Bills were making their big comeback than in the first half (19 vs. 9 in the first 30 minutes).
The Bills handled it better in the second half. All three Bucs sacks came off blitzes in the first half, when Allen was 3 of 6 passing vs. rushes of five men or more. In the second half against blitzes, Allen was 12 of 18 for 77 yards, with one touchdown and no sacks.
“We had a few sacks there early on in the game, whether that be physical or mental, that put us behind the chains, so you're sitting there at third-and-17 against that group,” said Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. “We didn't have many third downs in terms of third and longers in the second half, and the ones that we did, we went for it on fourth down and converted 2 of 2 on fourth down. ... That's a very good defense. We just tried to take it one play at a time. Unfortunately we just came up a little short.”
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The Bills used a lot of quick passing to help out the protection. Allen was 29 of 35 on throws within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
Bowles’ defenses have ranked among the top 10 in blitz rate each of the past nine seasons. Tampa’s blitz rate Sunday (45%) was second highest vs. Allen this season. Miami blitzed 25 of 48 times (52%) in the Bills’ 26-11 win on Oct. 31.
Quarterback (5.0): Allen once again demonstrated his grit, talent and leadership. He became just the fourth player in NFL history with 300 yards passing and 100 rushing in a game, joining Seattle’s Russell Wilson (who did it in 2014), Carolina’s Cam Newton (2015) and Baltimore's Lamar Jackson (2020). It was his 13th 300-yard passing game in the past two seasons. The Bills had just one 300-yard passing game in the five seasons from 2015 through 2019.
Allen missed an open Gabriel Davis in the end zone on the third drive, but the Bucs dropped 6-foot-7 Anthony Nelson into coverage and rushed a cornerback off the edge. It was a good defensive call. The first sack was on Allen for not seeing the overload cornerback blitz off right tackle.
Offensive line (2.5): The game plan was built around the Bucs’ defensive line. The Bills had no interest in running at mammoth defensive tackles Vita Vea and Ndamukong Suh. Right tackle Spencer Brown had a rough first half. He was beaten for a sack wide by Shaq Barrett, had an illegal shift and got caught leaning forward and was beaten by Barrett on the interception play. It’s a learning experience for the rookie. He did OK in the second half. Dion Dawkins was very good in pass protection, consistently blocking up Jason Pierre-Paul. He gave up only two hurries. Daryl Williams gave up a hurry to Barrett on a stunt. But he blocked Lavonte David on Allen’s TD run. Williams, Mitch Morse and Ike Boettger held Suh and Vea to just one hurry apiece. Morse missed David on one stuffed QB sweep but did a good job pulling. Boettger gave up a hurry to Vea on the first sack. Still, the lack of RB runs was a statement on the lack of confidence in the run blocking.
Receivers (3.0): Stefon Diggs had seven catches on 13 targets, with three controversial no-calls, all with handsy Carlton Davis in coverage. The last two were the Bills’ final third-down incompletions. Dawson Knox rebounded from a shaky New England showing with a big game. He leads all NFL tight ends in TD catches with eight. Cole Beasley was in sync with Allen on two key RPO completions late. Davis didn’t recognize a blitz and failed to adjust to the back-shoulder throw early, but he made up for it with a string of good plays. His 21-yard catch down the sideline early was a great play design by Daboll, with a fake swing pass, fake QB draw.
Running back (2.0): Bills defeated defensive back run dogs by running to the outside on both the 29- and 18-yard runs by Devin Singletary. Good for the Bills for adjusting. It might have been nice to use one or two of those in the first half. Singletary missed a blitz pickup on David on the interception. Otherwise, Singletary’s blitz pickups were good. Matt Breida couldn’t get a piece of Devin White on an early sack but it likely was more on Morse.
Defensive line (2.0): It has become a bad joke. If you take away the 47-yard touchdown run, the Bills held Leonard Fournette to 66 yards on 18 carries, a paltry 3.6 a carry. Greg Rousseau was beaten at the point of attack by Rob Gronkowski, which set a big alley that Fournette barreled through. It’s hard to sack Tom Brady, and he got rid of the ball quickly. He had 46 pass attempts and was 26 of 31 for 265 yards on throws within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
The Bills blitzed Brady a lot more than they ever did when he played with New England. Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier sent five or more rushers at him 16 times (29%). It generally worked in speeding up the QB. Brady was 7 of 13 for 121 yards on the blitz plays (including the 58-yard TD on overtime).
Harrison Phillips and Ed Oliver played well on the interior. Oliver split a double team to hurry Brady into a key third-down incompletion with 8:17 left.
A.J. Epenesa was generally stout, too. Rousseau set the edge well on the key, third-and-1 run.
Linebacker (2.5): The spotlight was on Tremaine Edmunds. Two big minuses: He took on pulling guard Ali Marpet on the 47-yard TD run when he might have gone straight for the ball carrier; and he was in the hole and with a clean shot on Fournette and didn’t make the stop on the third-and-1 run in overtime. That one hurt. Edmunds also stumbled in coverage on an 18-yard pass to Gronkowski and couldn’t catch Fournette on a 21-yard run. It wasn’t all bad. He made a lot of sure tackles. He was in on five run-stuffs. He had a bat-down on a blitz that almost was intercepted. The winning TD wasn't Edmunds' fault. Matt Milano was more of a playmaker than Edmunds. Milano rushed the passer 14 times and had a sack with 3:16 left. The Bucs hit two successful plays on his blitzes, the 20-yard loft throw to Evans and the final TD. Milano stuffed Fournette at the 5 to help force a field goal. Edmunds rushed the QB 11 times.
Defensive back (3.0): The coverage mix-up on the winning TD spoiled a pretty strong effort across the board. Yes, Brady passed for 305 yards before the final 58-yard score. But this is a great Tampa offense. On the Breshad Perriman score, either the cornerbacks should have passed off the crossers or stayed with them. The Bills played a fair amount of zone coverage, and Brady took advantage with some over-the-middle intermediate completions. But they weren’t beaten deep. The only two completions that traveled more than 20 air yards were the Hall of Fame throw-and-catch to Evans (over Micah Hyde) and Brady’s amazing high lob to Evans for 20 yards (over Taron Johnson).
Jordan Poyer was sensational. He had 10 tackles, a pass breakup vs. Gronkowski in the end zone, another one vs. Gronk in the third quarter and a 7-yard tackle for loss. Dane Jackson had an encouraging game. He tackled well. He had a pass breakup on the goal line vs. Cameron Brate and a near INT vs. Gronkowski. Ditto for Levi Wallace, victimized by Evans on the controversial pass interference in overtime.
Special teams (4.0): Too bad Matt Haack’s best punt of the year, a 63-yarder with a 4.8 hang time in overtime, went for naught. Clutch. He also had an Aussie punt downed at the 10 in the second half. ... The fake punt was an aggressive play, but the Bucs were on guard. They weren’t retreating in punt coverage, and had too many defenders flowing to the ball. In hindsight, the Bills would have been better off leaving the offense on the field on fourth-and-3. Tyler Bass had big hang time on the two kickoffs the Bucs returned.
