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Glaring early-season problem indicated Bills’ Week 4 defensive meltdown was coming

The Buffalo Bills were dominated by the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football. The whole team struggled, but there's one prominent area of concern.

Ronnie Eastham

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Running back Derrick Henry made the Buffalo Bills' defense look like a pee wee football team in the club's miserable 35-10 beat down at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night. It was embarrassing and, by the end of the night, simply not worth watching. The most frustrating part of the loss is that a defensive implosion of this magnitude has looked possible since Week 1, but few were talking about it because the Bills were dominating on the scoreboard, forcing teams to air the ball out more than they probably would have liked.

We're referencing Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones, and more broadly in the interior of Buffalo's defensive line. Oliver and Jones posted abysmal Pro Football Focus grades in Week 4, scoring run-defense grades of 50.2 and 51.2, respectively. It's not as though PFF grades are the end-all-be-all with regard to player performance, but the consistency with which the outlet has graded the two poorly this season is concerning; the best grade either of them has earned since the start of the season was Oliver in Week 2 against the Dolphins with a grade of 64.1. This is the only grade greater than 60 earned by either player. Both have run-defense grades of 47.2 on the season.

Related: Bills’ Week 4 defensive snap counts open questions regarding player usage

Buffalo has allowed yards per carry averages of 5.0, 4.1, 5.4, and 8.0 yards against the Cardinals, Dolphins, Jaguars, and Ravens, respectively; some of these averages are better than others, but none are particularly promising. On the season, they've given up 626 yards and a whopping 5.7 yards per rush. Opposing teams aren't dumb; they will see this trend and attack the Bills with their rushing game. Even the Jaguars had an impressive per-carry average, but the game got out of hand quickly, and they could only run the ball 17 times. This has to change or Josh Allen and the Bills' offense will be pressured to carry the team and play mistake-free ball, which did not happen against the Ravens.

Neither Oliver nor Jones recorded a tackle in the ugly Week 4 loss, not even appearing in the box score of a game in which they played on over 50% of the team's snaps. Advanced stats weren't kind to them, either; per PFF, neither recorded a single run stop in the game, while Oliver was the only player of the two to record a pressure. They simply aren't producing this season, and it's becoming a concerning trend.

Ed Oliver
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

According to PFF, Oliver's season numbers are six tackles, one sack, and nine pressures. It's worse for Jones with three tackles, no sacks, and only five pressures. In defense of Jones, his role isn't primarily to pressure quarterbacks, but rather to occupy blockers and assist in congesting the middle. The problem is that this isn't happening consistently, as is evident by his run-defense grade.

At this point, there isn't much that can be done, other than maybe a heavier rotation of DeWayne Carter and Austin Johnson. Get those two in the game more and see what they can do. Carter is a rookie and has struggled in his limited snaps, but it's a small sample size, and he had a huge tackle for loss against Henry close to the goalline late in Week 4. Either way, Oliver and Jones are not playing to the level they did in 2023 and have to step up their game, or it could be a very long season for the interior of the Bills' defense.

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Ronnie Eastham
RONNIE EASTHAM

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