Two disciples of late, great Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson go head to head this Sunday when the Bills visit the Kansas City Chiefs.
Sean McDermott and Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo worked together in Philadelphia in the early 2000s under then-Eagles head coach Andy Reid and Johnson, who led a dominant Eagles defense for a decade.
If you look at defensive rankings overall – points and yards allowed – McDermott’s defenses have outperformed Spagnuolo’s on almost every count since the latter arrived in Kansas City in 2019.
Nevertheless, it would be good to see McDermott take a few more pages from Spagnuolo’s defensive playbook as the Bills try to solve their problems down the stretch of the season.
The obvious issue for the Bills’ defense: closing.
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Spagnuolo dictates to the offense a little more than McDermott when it comes to pressuring with back-seven defenders – linebackers and defensive backs. This isn’t necessarily about blitzing more.
Spagnuolo sends four rushers from unconventional spots. He threatens pressure so that the running back stays in the backfield to block but then drops out and rushes only four, leaving the offense with one less receiver in the pass pattern. Everybody, including McDermott, does this. Spagnuolo just does it exceptionally well. Perhaps the Bills could benefit from more zone pressures by their defensive backs. More varied four-man pressures.
From an eyeball test this year and the past few seasons, it looks like Spagnuolo’s defense causes a little more stress on the offense because of its effectiveness of rushers coming from depth.
Spagnuolo loves to have his slot cornerback join the rush – either as part of a four-man pressure or a five-man pressure. Bills cornerbacks have rushed the passer 34 times this season, with slot corner Taron Johnson rushing 23 times, according to Pro Football Focus. Chiefs cornerbacks have rushed double that, 67, with slot corner Trent McDuffie rushing 47 times.
Ditto for linebackers. The Bills have rushed Terrell Bernard 45 times so far this year. He’s on pace for just about the same number of pass rushes as Matt Milano had in 16 games last season (58). The Bills have 93 pass rushes by linebackers, the Chiefs have 145.
The Bills have had better edge rushing than the Chiefs this year, so Spagnuolo has had to manufacture pressure a bit more than McDermott during his KC tenure. That accounts for some of the disparity. Still, Spagnuolo does a great job of predicting how offensive lines are going to adjust their blocking to account for star defensive tackle Chris Jones and then plotting his overload pressures accordingly.
The Bills no doubt spent time over the bye week assessing their late-game collapses. The defense has failed to get stops with the game on the line against Jacksonville, New England, Denver and Philadelphia.
“A lot of games in the NFL come down to the last drive,” said Eric Washington, Bills assistant head coach and defensive line coach. “That’s why we work in practice what we call gotta-have-it situations every week. That could be fourth down, that could be a final play, whatever it is. It’s everybody on defense executing at the highest level.
“It comes down to us really being as aware, our pass rushers working, our coverage concepts are working,” Washington said. “If we choose to engage in pressure, just making sure we’re getting the absolute best out of those calls and that individually we’re making plays in those situations, which the guys have done this year and we will do as we move forward throughout the last five weeks.”
Spagnuolo has a few more levers at his disposal this year than McDermott. Kansas City has a little more defensive talent than it has had in the recent past. The Bills have less, due to injuries. Because McDuffie is so good, the Chiefs can play more man coverage than the Bills. Kansas City, in fact, has the highest blitz rate of Spagnuolo’s Chiefs tenure (37.2%, according to Chiefs analyst Joseph Hefner.) With no Tre’Davious White on the field, McDermott has not wanted to play much man against teams with elite receivers.
McDermott has made adjustments. Without Milano, the Bills have played dime personnel – six defensive backs – on almost 10% of their snaps, up from 1% last season. It has been a good strategy.
Overall, the Bills’ defense rolls as its four-man rush rolls, as usual. Last year, the Bills blitzed (rushed five or more) on 17.3% of drop backs, according to Buffalo News charting. This year they’re at 18.8%.
Pro Football Focus says the Bills stand 24th on blitz rate. Last season, the Bills were 26th. Fine. If you can get pressure with four men, covering with seven is better than covering with six.
The Bills’ defense enters this do-or-die stretch needing something a little extra.
We’ll see whose defensive approach works better on Sunday.