Bills Central

This one play encapsulates Bills CB Christian Benford's stellar start to 2024 season

The Buffalo Bills are known for having a well-designed and managed defense, but success so often comes down to execution.

Chris Seth

Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
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This article was produced in conjunction with Cover 1, a leading voice in making the intricacies of Buffalo Bills football digestible. Be sure to subscribe to their YouTube channel and podcast feeds.

The Buffalo Bills are coming off their second consecutive disheartening loss in a row, this time at the hands of the Houston Texans. Even without running back Joe Mixon, the Texans have one of the better skill position groups in the NFL with all-world wideout Nico Collins, speedster Tank Dell, a solid tight end in Dalton Schlutz, and still-a-Pro Bowler Stefon Diggs.

Although the first quarter of play intimated that the depleted Buffalo defense could not hang with quarterback C.J. Stoud and his weapons, the Bills rebounded in quarters two through four to surrender only nine more points. The turnaround was possible because of outstanding efforts from players like Christian Benford (yes, it also helped that Collins left the game due to injury, but it would have been nice if the Bills’ defense were at full strength, too).

Benford is a player Buffalo fans need to recognize and appreciate more. He’s not a starter because fellow 2022 draftee Kaiir Elam failed -- he’s the starter because he earned it.

Related: AFC Analytical Power Rankings: Numbers still love the Bills entering Week 6

The Play: Q2 09:11 2nd & 9 HOU On BUF 24

Pre-Snap

Bills vs Texans
Bills vs Texans / NFL

The Texans are in 12-personnel with one running back (Cam Akers) and two tight ends (Dalton Schlutz and Cade Stover). Akers and Schultz begin aligned as split backs on either side of C.J. Stroud, who is in shotgun. The wide receivers are aligned close with Robert Woods on the strong side to the field and Tank Dell on the weak to the boundary. Schultz motions to H-back.

The Bills are in their typical nickel. The defensive line is in an over front with defensive tackle Zion Logue shaded to the weak side of the center, and Dewayne Carter as the three-tech to the strong side. Both defensive ends, A.J. Epenesa and Casey Toohill, are in wide 9s. The Bills are showing Cover 1 with one deep safety, Damar Hamlin, and what appears to be press-man by cornerbacks Christian Benford and Rasul Douglas. When Schultz motions, nickel defender Cam Lewis prepares to motion wide with him, but settles essentially back where he was next to linebacker Terrel Bernard when Schultz stops at H-back.

Post-Snap

Bills vs Texans
Bills vs Texans / NFL

At the snap, the action of the play indicates everything is going to the right, but Epenesa and Benford keep their eyes in the backfield, reading through the keys of the quarterback and running back. In the diagram above, you can see how their field of vision overlaps as they work to decipher what the Texans are doing.

As viewers watching games on television or even cutting through clips of the all-22, we can forget the players’ on-field perspective and how much more difficult it is to interpret all of the moving parts of a modern offense. Imagine being at Benford’s eye level for this play. His receiver, Robert Woods, initially comes at him and then steps to the inside, while Stover (87) slides around Epenesa. He has to see around and through no less than four bodies, who are moving, just to get to his keys, but in the next image, he shows he caught the reverse motion by Dell on the complete opposite side of the play. Just a flash of movement in the wrong direction at the far end of the formation. Benford keeps his hips open to the play, but he is ready to attack the reverse. All of these moving parts have to be evaluated in split seconds, and Benford diagnosed this perfectly from across the field.

Bills vs Texans
Bills vs Texans / NFL

The original action of the play went to the right with the left guard Kenyon Green and Schultz pulling that way. Green continues on to kick out Toohill, but Schultz return motions to act as lead blocker for Dell. Epenesa, like Benford, saw the reverse coming because he stayed on his keys and forces Schutlz, and therefore Dell, to stay deeper from the line of scrimmage than they intended. 

After he confirmed the reverse, Benford has committed his hips up field to stopping Dell.

Related: Bills RB James Cook joins lengthy injury report alongside several key starters

At the second and third levels of the defense, linebacker Dorian Williams has dipped his right shoulder under to avoid the block from right tackle Blake Fisher, who went immediately to the second level to seal him off. From his deep safety position, Hamlin has begun closing downhill on the play. The other safety, rookie Cole Bishop, rotated down from the box into a two-high structure at the snap.

In what must be a miscommunication or missed assignment, neither Woods nor Stover move to block Benford. It is possible they are leaving him for Schultz as the lead blocker, but Epenesa has him fully engaged.

Bills vs Texans
Bills vs Texans / NFL

As Benford comes up to make the tackle, around the 27-yard line, he begins to shuffle step toward the boundary, leaving turning back to the inside as Dell’s only option. Benford squares up and makes a form tackle on the speedy wideout. Even if Dell had managed to escape Benford, with Epenesa chasing, Williams in close pursuit, and Bernard and Hamlin closing in, this play would not have reached the first down marker at the 15 because the Bills have them out-leveraged.

The margins in the NFL are microscopic. The busted coverage that led to Nico Collins' big first-quarter touchdown that broke the game open for Houston happened because of a split-second signal that got missed between two players who have extremely limited time playing together. Check out what Cover 1’s Anthony Prohaska found:

Benford’s vision, technique, and decision-making kept him within those razor-thin margins. There was no schematic trickery here for Benford, simply solid execution to take advantage of an opponent’s mistake. The Bills and Sean McDermott are well-known for defensive disguises and shifts, but on many plays, execution is the real difference. Player performance, good and bad, stood out for both teams in this one play.

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Chris Seth
CHRIS SETH

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