Things That Make You Go HMMMMMMM...

[venis2k1]

i was just thinking...how important turn overs are in a football game. nothing can turn the tide of a game like picking someone off and running it back deep into their territory. The croud gets pumped, the players get pumped, and Tom Brady hangs his head in shame. is there a better moment to be a Bills fan? Then I started thinking about how no one in our secondary is considered a "ball hawk" at all. in fact, outside of McGee, our secondary has only 3 CAREER nfl interceptions. McGee has 9 Career picks, however it is interesting to note, None sense this team switched to the tampa 2 defense last year.

Career INTS:

Ko Simpson-2
Dante Witner-1
Jim Leonhard-0
Jabari Greer-0
Kiwaukee Thomas-0(7 year vet)
Ashton Youbooty-0

Take it for what its worth.

[justasportsfan]

it's hard to get INTs when teams would rather run at your D. If we grab an awsome run stuffer, those INT's will go up IMO.

[Ed]

Kiwaukee Thomas has never had an INT in his 7 years in the league? Wow. I know he came close a couple times last season, but I didn't realize he was 0 for life.

[Pinkerton Security]

i was just thinking...how important turn overs are in a football game. nothing can turn the tide of a game like picking someone off and running it back deep into their territory. The croud gets pumped, the players get pumped, and Tom Brady hangs his head in shame. is there a better moment to be a Bills fan? Then I started thinking about how no one in our secondary is considered a "ball hawk" at all. in fact, outside of McGee, our secondary has only 3 CAREER nfl interceptions. McGee has 9 Career picks, however it is interesting to note, None sense this team switched to the tampa 2 defense last year.

Career INTS:

Ko Simpson-2
Dante Witner-1
Jim Leonhard-0
Jabari Greer-0
Kiwaukee Thomas-0(7 year vet)
Ashton Youbooty-0

Take it for what its worth.

i agree with justasportsfan, they may go up if we actually force someone to throw the ball on 3rd and 9, whereas last year they could run a draw and ZOOM first down. Also, Ko was supposed to be a ball-hawking athlete coming out of college, or at least I thought he was supposed to be. I am gonna give these guys, at least Whitner, KO and ashton, another year.

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

It is a very good point. The teams that take the ball away usually win games. Of the playoff teams last year, here are the +/- in the AFC/NFC:

1. Baltimore +15
2. San Diego +13
3. Indianapolis +7
4. Kansas City +6
5. Cincinnati +5
New England +5
Tennessee +5
8 Denver +2
Miami +2
10. Jacksonville -1
11. Buffalo -3
NY Jets -3
13. Houston -5
14. Pittsburgh -6
15. Cleveland -13
16. Oakland -20

Playoff teams in red. Only the jets were minus. However it is more than just interceptions like jasf stated.

(on a side note, the crowd was loud.)

[Ickybaluky]

it's hard to get INTs when teams would rather run at your D. If we grab an awsome run stuffer, those INT's will go up IMO.

Clements managed to get 3, matching the output of the rest of the secondary together. Clements and London Fletcher accounted for 7 of the Bills 13 interceptions as a team.

I think what is more damning is looking at passes defensed last year:

McGee - 11
Simpson - 2
Whitner - 4
Leonhard - 0
Greer - 1
Thomas - 5
Youboty - 0

That is a total of 23 passes defensed last year for all those players. Nate Clements had 16 on his own.

[ublinkwescore]

it's hard to get INTs when teams would rather run at your D. If we grab an awsome run stuffer, those INT's will go up IMO.

How many times do I have to say this?

the Bills Defense last season faced more passing plays than they did running plays.

[ublinkwescore]

Kiwaukee Thomas has never had an INT in his 7 years in the league? Wow. I know he came close a couple times last season, but I didn't realize he was 0 for life.

I will guarantee you right now that he gets at least 2 next year.

[venis2k1]

I will guarantee you right now that he gets at least 2 next year.

im gonna go ahead and write that one down.

[ZacGriffi~82]

I think Ko will be that ballhawk. Last year he was still very raw and adjusting to the league. This year he'll be able to make more plays.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

It is a very good point. The teams that take the ball away usually win games. Of the playoff teams last year, here are the +/- in the AFC/NFC:

1. Baltimore +15
2. San Diego +13
3. Indianapolis +7
4. Kansas City +6
5. Cincinnati +5
New England +5
Tennessee +5
8 Denver +2
Miami +2
10. Jacksonville -1
11. Buffalo -3
NY Jets -3
13. Houston -5
14. Pittsburgh -6
15. Cleveland -13
16. Oakland -20

Playoff teams in red. Only the jets were minus. However it is more than just interceptions like jasf stated.

(on a side note, the crowd was loud.)

Good post.

Anyone who was paying attention last year knows that this was a point that D.Jauron made repeatedly: turnovers are the greatest predictor of victory of all of the stats in the NFL. It has been that way for years and this was something that he tried to drum into the heads of his players and the media last season.

As last season progressed, the offense did a better job of limiting its turnovers as JP Losman got better protection from the offensive line following the break. Still, part of the reason that S.Fairchild limited his playbook and the number of passing plays that he called last season was an effort on his part to limit the number of turnovers committed by the Bills offense. That's not my opinion, it is something that Jauron and Fairchild talked about in several interviews that appeared on BB.com and in the Buffalo and Rochester papers.

While the Bills did a fairly good job of generating sacks last season, they did not do nearly as good a job--or the kind of job that they need to do to be a good Tampa 2 defense--at generating turnovers. Still, if you go back and read what Jauron and P.Fewell said in some of their interviews last season, they placed a lot of emphasis on trying to create turnovers on defense. One of the reasons that the team didn't do very well in that regard was the fact that this was a new defense for all of the players and there were 4-5 rookies playing significant minutes while still adjusting to the NFL. Another reason, as has already been stated, was the fact that the Bills' run defense was so bad last season that the opposition rarely found itself in 3rd and long situations--where offensive teams are most likely to turn the ball over.

Obviously, the Bills, on both sides of the ball, are going to have to do a better job in this area if the team is going to be successful this season. That's a no-brainer. Having lost Clements and Fletcher-Baker, the young players on the defense are going to have to step up and start making plays this season. That's what young teams have to do as they develop to get better. We're just going to have to see if they can do that. Hopefully, they will add some personnel on draft day and, perhaps also, before the beginning of training camp that will help to shore up their run defense. If they do and they can get better at stopping the run this season, there should be more opportunities for the defense to create turnovers. On offense, JP Losman and the rest of the offense will have to continue to improve in order to limit the number of turnovers they commit as S.Fairchild opens up his playbook more. That will be a real challenge and something that the offense will have to prove that it can do if the Bills are going to have a successful season.

But, we're not going to know what this Bills team is going to be able to do until the season starts and the games begin to unfold. You have to remember that this is still a very young, inexperienced team that is still learning how to play the game properly and growing. So, the stats from last year or previous seasons are not nearly as relevant as they would be if this was a team composed primarily of seasoned veterans at the height of their careers with a track record. Wringing our hands and worrying about how these young Bills will play based on stats from last season when almost half of the players on this year's defense were barely getting their feet wet in the NFL is waste of time and an exercise in futility at this point in time. As Bills fans, we need to give these kids a chance to establish themselves and show what they can do--something that they are just beginning to do--before we start worrying and trying to predict what they will do this coming season. This team is still a work in progress and will continue to be through this coming season.

[X-Era]

Kiwaukee Thomas has never had an INT in his 7 years in the league? Wow. I know he came close a couple times last season, but I didn't realize he was 0 for life.

His hands are like feet, they stink