Buffalo Bills Offense Overview

Rex Ryan said in the offseason that he would love to run the ball fifty times a game if he could. While the Bills don’t run it that often, this team loves to run the ball out of many different looks. Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman has brought with him the power running system he ran in San Francisco with a heavy dose of traditional man blocking schemes and a sprinkle of read option. The passing game feeds off a strong running game with plenty of play action pass that try to take advantage of an aggressive defense trying to stop the run. The Bills love to attack defenses vertically in the passing attack but will come back to the quick route game to pick up small chunks of yards from time to time. This is not the most complicated system in the world but for the first three games it has been extremely effective.

Offensive Scheme

Stats:

San Francisco 49ers @ New York Giants Week 11 2014 (Last Time Roman Faced Giants)

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Buffalo Bills @ Miami Dolphins Week 3 2015

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Overall Stats

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Running Game

Greg Roman ran a mix of zone and power run when he was in San Francisco. He has ditched the zone running game in Buffalo though and has turned to the traditional man/combo blocking scheme to go with the power running game. The power running game is all about getting an extra blocker to the point of attack to overwhelm the defense and open up an alley for the RB. Below is an example of a “stereotypical” power run play:

Power Running Game

Situation: 2nd and 7 at MIA 41

Description: Q4- (6:54) Karlos Williams Off Tackle for 41 Yards, TD

On this play, all the linemen outside of the pulling guard executed a down block. A down block is when an offensive linemen takes a 45 degree step in their intended direction and turn their shoulders at an angle to the line of scrimmage. This is one of the easier blocks to execute on the offensive line as the goal isn’t to push the defender downfield but rather laterally away from the play. The pulling guard wraps around this down blocking action and acts either as a kick out block or a lead blocker for the RB depending on the play. A FB or TE can also execute a kick out or lead block on power running plays as well depending on the formation and direction of the play. The combination of the down block action and the kick out block when executed correctly will create an alley for the RB. To stop this play, the edge force defender (the defender responsible for contain) needs to “fit” onto the down blocking lineman’s hip and put his shoulder into the pulling linemen to prevent the kick out block from working. This closes down the alley and clogs up the play. On this play, the DE takes himself out of the play by jumping inside of the TE. MarQueis Grey makes the easy down block and FB Jerome Felton does a kick out blocks the CB. The CB is knocked down and the combination of these two blocks forms the alley. The LB makes the mistake of trying to take on LG Richie Incognito flat footed and RB Karlos Williams doesn’t get touched before he scores the TD.

The Bills run a variation of the power run that the Giants have not seen all year. The trap run is an interior power run that tries to “trap” the DT and open up and inside running lane for the RB . Below is an example of the trap run:

Trap Run

Situation: 3rd and 9 MIA 39

Description: Q3- (9:41) Bobbie Dixon Right Guard for 2 Yards.



On the trap run, the DT is not blocked on purpose and the guard will go to the second level and block the LB instead. The goal is to get the DT to go too far upfield and get cleaned up by the pulling guard. The rest of the offensive line will usually down block away from the hole. If the trap block by the pulling guard is successful, a hole should open in the interior of the offensive line (on this play between the RG and RT) for the RB to run through. To stop this play, the DT who isn’t getting blocked has to put on the breaks and look inside for the pulling guard. Once he sees the pulling guard, he needs to stand up the guard and force the RB to cutback into the defense. On this play, the DT does a good job of not flying upfield and recognizes the trap block is coming. The DT gets greedy though and tries to loop around the pull block of Incognito instead of taking it on. The DT is very lucky that RB Bobbie Dixon trips over Incognito because RG Craig Urbik has the LB sealed to the left and the safety doesn’t have the angle to make the play.

The second part of the running attack for the bills is the man/combo blocking scheme. Unlike the power running game which takes advantages of angles and extra blockers to open up running lanes, the man/combo blocking scheme relies on the offensive line to bully and push around the front seven of the defense. The play associated with the man/combo run schemes the most is the Iso run and the Bills ran that play multiple times.

Iso Run

Situation: 2nd and 5 MIA 42

Description: Q1- (0:33) Karlos Williams Up the Middle for 12 Yards.



The iso run’s goal is to isolate the LB on the FB and let the FBs momentum root the LB out of the hole. To open up this hole for the FB to run though, the offensive linemen combo blocks. A combo block starts like a double team on a defensive linemen. Once the double team gets the defensive linemen moving backwards, one of the linemen will slip off of the block and block the LB on the second level. When done effectively, the combo block will seal the defensive linemen and LB away from the play and open up a hole for the RB to run through. The combo block is one of the hardest blocks in my experience (I played LT in high school at 170 lbs, guess how big my high school was) because there were so many places where it could fail. It can fail by not being able to move the defensive linemen, by not being able to pick up the LB once one of the offensive linemen slip off, or losing control of the defensive linemen once the double team has ended. When any of these failures happen, the defense will have a free defender at the point of attack and the play will usually fail. The defense can defeat a combo block by either having the defensive linemen eat the block and free up the LB or the LB can be very aggressive and beat the linemen to the spot. I prefer the first option based on my own defensive philosophy but either method can work. On this play, the combo block on the right is really bad as the DT splits Urbik and RT Seantrel Henderson easily. I’m not even sure it is a combo block with how bad it looks but based on the technique its my best guess. The DT gets too far upfield though and misses the tackle on Williams. The combo block on the left by Incognito and C Eric Wood doesn’t get much movement on the DT but the LB basically runs into Incognito making the block successful. Felton’s block on the LB is excellent t as it opens up the hole for Williams to stumble through and get the big gain.

The Bills also run a sprinkle of the read option play. Note that I did not call it zone read option. The Bills do not block the read option play with zone technique like the Eagles do,. Instead they block it with man/combo concepts more familiar to an old school veer option look:

Read Option

Situation: 1st and 10 MIA 15

Description: Q1- (7:14)LeSean McCoy Up the Middle for 5 Yards.



The read option purposefully leaves a defender unblocked for the QB to read at the mesh point (where the hand off happens). Usually it is the DE but depending on the play call and defensive formation it can be various other defenders. If the DE crashes down to take away the RB, the QB will pull the ball out of the mesh point and run to the outside around the DE. If the DE stays home, the QB will press the ball into the RBs belly which indicates to the RB to grab the ball and run with it. On this play, QB Tyrod Taylor makes the correct read on this play to give it to RB LeSean McCoy as the DE is staying home on the play. The blocking on this play is generally good but the leftmost combo block had a mess up on who should of come off of the double team. LT Cordy Glenn has no chance to seal the LB to the outside from his angle. Instead the combo block should of tried to get Incognito up the LB and Glenn to stay on the DT. The middle combo block is textbook and is what all combo blocks aim to be.

Passing Game:

The Bills subscribe to the philosophy to running the ball to set up the pass as almost a third of their passes were play action. The most common play action pass concept they used was the flood route concept seen below:

Play Action Flood

Situation: 2nd and 1 BUF 32

Description: Q1- (13:36) Tyrod Taylor Pass Short Right to Charles Clay for 24 Yard

The goal of the flood concept is to “flood” the zone coverage and make the defenders in zone coverage pick a receiver to cover. The offense will run a short, intermediate, and deep routes to the same side of the field and in zone defense there will usually be two defenders to defend the three routes. This forces the two defenders to allow a route to be open for an easy completion. The run action opposite of the flood is meant to draw the defense away from the routes and to keep reinforcements from covering the open route. Man coverage is the best defense against the flood concept because it prevents the overload from overwhelming the defense. A bootleg is commonly seen with the play action flood as it allows the QB to scramble for a gain if the defense covers all three receivers. On this play, the two CBs cover the two WRs who go deep and short. The MLB doesn’t find the TE Charles Clay and gets no depth in his zone drop, opening up the deep dig from Clay from the backside. Taylor patiently waits for Clay to open up and throws a great pass at the last minute for a big gain.

The other common play action they will do is a deep in breaking route (Post or deep dig) from one side of the field with a dig or crossing route coming underneath it. They scored a TD on this play on their first drive

Play Action Post-Crossing Concept

Situation: 1st and 10 MIA 25

Description: Q1- (12:03) Tyrod Taylor Pass Short Left to Charles Clay for 25 Yards and TD



The goal of this play is for one of the two routes to drag the defender in zone coverage out of their assigned area. This opens up a hole in the coverage for the other route to exploit. For example, if the crossing/dig route draws the defender in the middle of the field to the outside, it opens up the deep route behind the dig. On this play, it is man coverage so it is more about the receiver beating the defender. Clay is able to beat the LB with his crossing route and really poor tackling allows Clay to get a TD on the play.

When the Bills line up with two receivers offset of the offensive line, they like to run deep routes on the outside with flare routes underneath if it is a pass play. The also scored a TD on this play as seen below:

Deep Outside with Flare Underneath

Situation: 3rd and 9 MIA 38

Description: Q4- (15:00) Tyrod Taylor Pass Deep Left to Chris Hogan for 38 Yards and TD



The outside deep routes will drag flat defenders deeper in their zone drop. This opens up the flare routes underneath for an easy completion. The deep routes on the outside for this play tended to be stop and go routes with the occasional corner and go route. Good man coverage is effective against this (Though hard as a LB usually has to cover the flare route) but the stop and go can be very effective against man coverage because if the CB bites on the stop fake, the WR can blow by the CB for a big gain. That’s what happens on this play as the CB settles down thinking WR Chris Hogan is running the curl route. Hogan gets behind the CB and is wide open for a TD on the play as the safety can’t get over from his deep middle zone to break up the pass.

Roman also brings elements of the west coast passing game with him and it is seen with the multiple hitch route concepts and quick breaking routes that he called during the Dolphins game. Below is one of the examples of the quick hitch play that was run against the Dolphins.

Multiple Hitch Routes

Situation: 2nd and 3 BUF 27

Description: Q3- (14:40) Tyrod Taylor Pass Short Left to Percey Harvin for 8 Yards



What the QB is looking for on this play is off coverage. If the CB is playing off of the WR, it is likely that a quick hitch or curl route will be open. WRs Percy Harvin and Sammy Watkins (Who is out this week) are such a dangerous deep threat that a lot of CBs will give them space in coverage to not get burned. The Bills take advantage of this with the quick curl routes to pick up small chunks of yards for a first down or set up a 2nd or 3rd and short. Press man coverage should take these routes away but that leaves the CBs vulnerable to the aforementioned stop and go route. On this play, the CB is giving Harvin a big cushion in his deep third drop, leaving open the hitch because the LB can’t get out to the flat on time. Taylor throws a good pass to Harvin to beat the LB and get enough yards for the first down.

Multiple Quick Breaking Routes

Situation: 2nd and 11 50

Description: Q2- (0:33) Tyrod Taylor Pass Short Left to to Charles Clay for 12 Yards



Quick breaking routes are very hard to cover in man coverage for two reasons. The first is if the defender is playing off coverage it is very hard to rally down and cover the receiver before the QB throws the ball. The second reason is that man coverage is very reactive and when the receiver breaks on his route, the defender has to react to the break and unless the WR gives a tell or the CB reacts very well the WR has a head start on break and will be open for at least for second or two. Against zone coverage, the QB needs to find holes in the zone and throw into the windows of the coverage because defenders can sit on routes and pass receivers off to the next zone. On this play, the Dolphins are bringing a blitz which leaves the MLB having to cover the TE. The LB has no chance to cover the quick out by Clay and Clay makes him miss the tackle to pick up 12 yards on the play.

For the Defensive Overview, please continue to the next page