From: un032221@wvnvms.wvnet.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: Re: How to beat the Bills?
Date: 16 Oct 92 12:33:25 GMT
Organization: West Virginia Network for Educational Telecomputing

In article <1992Oct6.162751.7685@spuddy.uucp>, markl@spuddy.uucp (Mark Liversedge) writes:
> 
> From what I have seen of the Bills on TV (Superbowls and a couple of
> regular games), there are few ways to beat the Bills. 
> 
> Either you hog the ball and give there offense no time ala Giants,
> or you take Thurman Thomas out of the game ala Washington or Miami.
> 
> Whilst neither the Skins or the Fins took Thermal out of the game entirely
> they sure as hell made Kelly think twice before going with the run - they
> made diddly squat in run yardage (anyone got stats?). And by giving good 
> coverage on him downfield you take out Kelly's first emergency stop. All 
> you gotta do then is make sure you cover Reed, Lofton and Beebe or Metzhalaar.

Actually, it wasn't that simple.  The Giants did indeed try to keep the ball
away from the Buffalo offense, but another key to their stopping of them was
defense.  The Giants decided to slam the Bills passing game.  They played with
only three down linemen, and everyone else played zone.  By doing this, they
timed recievers getting the ball, and hit the tremendously when they caught the
ball underneath.  They also took away the big play (or tried to, Lofton had at
least one biggie if I remember correctly), forcing Kelly to throw
conservatively, taking the 4-8 yard crossing patterns and stuff.  By hitting
the WRs when they got the ball, they forced numerous drops, and made the WRs a
little wary of the Giants presence.  That caused the drops to escalate, and by
the end of the game, the Bills Wrs were panic stricken.

	The Redskins decided to to just the opposite.  They rushed one more man
than the Bills kept in to block.  If the Bills Kept their OL plus a TE, the
Skins rushed 7.  This meant that if Thomas went out to catch a pass, they had 1
guy who would (theorretically) come through unblocked.  Worse yet for Kelly, if
Thomas stayed in, it was a RB trying to block either an LB, or DL.  Not a good
matchup.  The result was that even if Kelly got rid of the ball, and completed
the pass, he payed for it.  As far as the WRs were concerned, they again played
hitter, with brad Edwards, and Wilber Marshall laying tremendous hits on the
Wrs, and TEs.  Offensively, the Redskins did nothing different than they
normally do.  Their offense is, by desigen, a tricky and complex one.  This
seemed to slow down Bennett's pass rushing, since he seemed to always read the
play the wrong way.

	The Dolphins did yet another thing.  The Dolphins realised that their
standard defense was always getting exploited by Thurman Thomas, so they took
one of their down lineman, and put in an extra DB, or LB.  This created either
a 2-4-5, or a 2-5-4, depending on whether it was a passing down, or running
one.  This was the other thing Miami did.  They managed to get their subs in on
situation stuff despite the No-huddle/hurry up attack.  Offensively, they
mimicked the Giants, but instead of running the clock with runs, they ran it
with short passes.
> 
> Easy :-)
> 
Yeah, Simple :"(

> One question for Bills officionados:
> 
> Do the Bills ever play with 2 or 3 running backs, if so who is the third
> (assuming Davis would be the second) ?
> 
I assume it would be FB Carwell Gardner, but I have never seen more than a two
RB formation from them.  When you see 3 people in the backfield from most
teams, it's usually a tailback, a blocking back, and an H-back or TE.  This
would, of course be used in short uardage/goaline type stuff.

> ALSO, you MUST be able to get past the Bills defense! Not such a sure
> thing as people reckon... (Dolfans will, of course, disagree)
> -- 
But I won't.  I wonder what happened to Cornelius Bennett.  Last year, he
terrorized people, but this year, that job is back to Bruce Smith.  You would
think that a diminished role would be one reason, but I have seen two Bills
games, and his name was called sparingly, and usually on blitzes.
> 
>  * Meeeow ! Call Spuddy on (0203) 638780/638693 for FREE mail & Usenet access *

	-Skins fan with just one thing to say: "WAY TO GO MONK!!!"