New York Giants Week 6: Examining the Buffalo Bills Offense

Can the Bills offense be slowed down?

Author:
Brandon Olsen
Publish date:
Oct 12, 2023 8:00 AM EDT

In this story:

The Buffalo Bills offense is quite different from New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll's offense when he was their offensive coordinator. Still, this unit is consistently explosive and effective, so let's look.

Personnel

This is a Bills offense that doesn’t have many playmakers. The issue that defenses run into is that the playmakers they do have are dominant in what they’re asked to do. Josh Allen is one of the elite quarterbacks in the game right now, paired with Stefon Diggs, and is arguably the best wide receiver on the planet, but the surrounding talent is where the roles are played exceptionally.

Allen has the physical tools that every franchise dreams of. He can make every throw that an offense can ask of him with the mobility to extend plays and be a legitimate rushing threat consistently.

Diggs has been an elite route runner, but since he joined the Bills with Allen, he’s found another gear as a more consistent deep threat and a yards-after-the-catch threat.

Opposite Diggs is Gabe Davis, who may not be a ten-target kind of receiver, but he’s got the trust of Allen to come up when the team needs a big play. Davis, on the season, has two games with more than 75 yards so far, most of which coming in times when the team needed a big play, and he’s scored a touchdown in four straight.

At tight end, both Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox get significant playing time and targets. When drafting Kincaid this past offseason, the plan was to play 12 personnel heavy and force defenses to go heavy in the box and then be attacked at linebacker. However, defenses have shown to not respect Kincaid as a blocker and still line up in nickel and neutralize him that way.

In the rushing game, James Cook is the primary back who occasionally rotates with Damien Harris and Latavius Murray - but Cook sees the huge majority of the snaps. On the season, Cook has been making the most out of nothing with just under five yards per carry and over three yards per carry after contact alone.

Jan 22, 2023; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs (14) during warmups before an AFC divisional round game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals at Highmark Stadium.

Scheme

The Bills run game is primarily power-based, targeting specific rushing lanes and trying to create explosive plays there. Off the left end is where they like to send James Cook, which allows Dion Dawkins to pave the way and create explosives that force defenses to bring extra defenders into the box.

The Bills tend to mix in the RPO to their offensive game plan. The RPO is the run-pass option that usually includes one or two reads, depending on whether the quarterback has the option to keep the ball himself or not.

If Allen has the green light to keep the ball, he’ll usually have to read the backside defensive edge player that will determine if he hands it off. Then there would likely be either a linebacker or defensive back that he reads to decide if he runs the ball himself or throws to a receiver or tight end. A solid way to disrupt the passing part of the RPO is to play physical press coverage at the line of scrimmage to either force a QB keeper or to mess with the timing of the play.

Outside of Patrick Mahomes, there might not be a quarterback in the league who likes to throw deep as much as Allen does. Defenses have done a good job removing those deep shot opportunities as often as possible, but this Bills passing attack still relies on taking those shots when available.

With Gabe Davis in the mix, Allen has his jump ball winner that needs to be covered and pinched to the sideline as often as possible. There’s no easy way to defend this Bills offense, but there are things that a defensive coordinator can do to TRY and minimize the impact some of these playmakers can have.

What This Means for the Giants

Wink Martindale has shown through the games against the Seattle Seahawks and Miami Dolphins that he’s willing to shy away from his tendencies to put the defense in the best position possible to succeed. Over the past two games, we’ve seen this Giants defense shift from an overly aggressive pass-rush plan with man coverage on the back end to a more conservative approach featuring four-man rushes with seven defenders in zone coverage.

Throughout his career, Allen has struggled when he’s forced to work through his progressions long enough to be pressured. The thing that the Giants need to focus on defensively is playing tight enough coverage on receivers to make Allen either force a bad ball or try to take off running. With zone coverages, though, there should be defenders in the vicinity to slow down Allen and limit his rushing ability.

The reason to avoid sending blitzers is that far too often, that leaves defensive backs in one one-on-one coverage where Allen could look to either throw up a jump ball to Knox or Davis. The alternative for the Bills offense there, too, is that they can keep an extra player in to pass protect, allowing more time for Diggs to find open space.

I would recommend quarters and Cover 3 out of nickel as the primary coverages. It allows the defense to have defensive backs protecting the deep parts of the field as well as keeping bodies and eyes underneath to make plays on short passes or Allen scrambling.

Final Thoughts

This Bills offense relies heavily on superstar play with role players coming up in big moments. It’s no easy task to neutralize this offense, but over time, they’ve shown weaknesses relatively consistently that the Giants actually can slow down.