Matt Milano was a heat-seeking weapon in Sunday’s rout of the Miami Dolphins.
The Buffalo Bills’ fifth-year linebacker was utilized as a pass rusher on 11 plays and produced a sack, a hit on the quarterback and five other pressures in the 35-0 victory.
Milano also had five tackles, a fumble recovery and a pass breakup.
The pass-rushing element of Milano’s game is nothing new. Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier has used him throughout his career on blitzes (pass rushes of five or more men) and zone-dogs (in which he’s part of a four-man rush). But his 11 pass-rush chances were more than he had in any regular-season game last season.
Milano was rushing the passer on three of the Bills’ four first-half sacks. His sack helped the Bills shut down a Miami scoring opportunity with the score 14-0 in the second quarter. Milano blitzed around the right tackle edge as part of a seven-man blitz and took down quarterback Jacoby Brissett for a 9-yard loss. Miami turned the ball over on downs two plays later.
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The Bills didn’t actually blitz a high percentage. They rushed five or more men on 15 of 56 dropbacks, according to Buffalo News charts, about the same percentage (26.7%) as in the Week 1 loss to Pittsburgh. The Bills got three sacks on blitzes. Miami netted a mere 22 yards on the 15 blitz pass plays – an average of 1.5 per play.
“The thing about the NFL is there’s a lot of disguises, a lot of hidden things,” said Miami left tackle Austin Jackson. “But, you know, I got to look at the film to see what they did. They definitely did some different stuff than they put on tape.”
Milano’s short-area quickness was on display on pass rushes and in coverage.
He helped collapse the pocket on Micah Hyde’s first-quarter sack and burst up an A-gap (next to the center) on Greg Rousseau’s first-quarter sack.
“It was a lot of fun out there,” Rousseau said. “Even though I might get the sack, really it’s just a testament to the secondary, linebackers, D-line, all of us getting there. It was really like a group effort. Some people might get the numbers, but really it's all 11 of us.”
Milano had a tackle for loss on Miami’s fourth possession and showed his speed in coverage by getting to the sideline for a stop on a pass to running back Myles Gaskin on the fifth possession. He ended Miami’s fifth drive by scooping up a fumble that was caused by Taron Johnson.
Late in the second quarter, Milano was part of a four-man pass rush and beat a block attempt in the backfield by Gaskin to force a desperate throw-away by Brissett. The QB was penalized for intentional grounding on the play.
The threat of the Bills’ pressure clearly was getting to Miami’s offensive line as the game wore on. On a third-and-2 situation in the third quarter, Milano and A.J. Klein both threatened a double A-gap blitz (on either side of the center) before a snap. It caused guard Robert Hunt to false start, drawing a 5-yard penalty. Then the Bills got the stop on the next play.
“It was a rough day for us,” Hunt said. “Everybody saw that. We just have to come back Monday, be better, man.”
