Football Film Room Weekly Newsletter

Week of October 2nd

This week at Football Film Room…

How the Bills slowed down the Dolphins offense

A key part of the Bills’ approach centered around their coverage choices. They played zone on roughly 75% of Miami’s pass plays (according to PFF data), which is roughly in line with what they’ve done all season. Most of that was with a 2-safety shell. The goal was to keep the passing game in front of them.

More importantly, however, they used lots of disguise and mixed their coverages to disrupt the timing and rhythm of the passing game. Sometimes this would lead to Tua throwing the ball to covered receivers, which limited yards after the catch or led to incompletions. Sometimes, it would force indecision, which made Tua hold onto the ball longer. The longer he has to hold the ball the less special this passing game is and the more impactful the pass rush can be. This approach helped Buffalo get to Tua for 4 sacks on Sunday after he’d been sacked just once in his first 3 games… [Click here to read the rest]

How They Match Up - Week 5

Check out how every team matches up in Week 5:

[Click here to see the rest of the Week 5 games]

The Lions defense took away Green Bay's play-action passing game

The Lions beat the Packers convincingly on both sides of the ball last Thursday night. On defense, they combined a pass rush that dominated in the trenches with a smart coverage scheme that took away what the Packers like to do on early downs. That kept Green Bay behind the chains and made Jordan Love uncomfortable for much of the night… [Click here to read the rest]

14 thoughts from Sunday's Week 4 Games

The Rams almost blew a 23-0 lead but ended up finishing the job on a Puka Nacua touchdown reception in overtime. Non-controversial opinion: Matthew Stafford has always been better than Jared Goff. Controversial opinion that shouldn’t be controversial at all: He still is… [Click here to read the rest]