The Buffalo Bills are tied for the NFL lead in takeaways with 16 through seven weeks of the season.
Is it sustainable?
It may not be realistic to stay at the top of the league all season, but the defense built by Sean McDermott and Leslie Frazier has an impressive, long track record of creating turnovers.
Buffalo leads the NFL since the start of the 2017 campaign with 117 takeaways.
The Bills have been consistent year to year, too. They ranked tied for 10th in takeaways in both 2020 and 2019. They were tied for eighth in 2018 and tied for ninth in 2017.
Here’s the list of the top 10 teams in takeaways since the start of 2017:
1. Buffalo, 117. 2. Los Angeles Rams, 116. 3. New England, 115. 4. Seattle, 112. 5. Tampa Bay, 110. 5. Indianapolis, 110. 7. New Orleans, 108. 8. Pittsburgh, 107. 9. Baltimore, 105. 9. Kansas City, 105.
Notice a trend? Good teams.
Every coaching staff talks about creating turnovers. Every team drills it. Every team talks about how the second man in on a gang tackle should go after the ball. Good teams with good players that play with a lead more often get more turnovers.
Nevertheless, a fanatical emphasis on creating turnovers is an important part of the equation.
“Just every day, just emphasizing it,” safety Jordan Poyer said. “Every day, from the meetings, from the practice, just continuing of emphasizing and putting it in our heads, 'Get the ball.' ”
Poyer described a ball attached to a flexible door stop in one of the Bills’ meeting rooms.
“And it's, like, little habits in some of the meeting rooms,” he said. “There's a ball on the wall with kind of like, I don't know one of those, you know those little doorknob things, which you hit. So it's just mental habits. It's building the mental habits, and that really carries over to the game. Guys punching at the ball, guys stripping at the ball. So it's just a lot of habits that we've created through our time here.”
When the Bills reconvened Monday after their bye week, Frazier showed his defenders a list of the NFL takeaway leaders showing the Bills tied for the top. He had a message for his players:
“It’s not enough!”
| Most Takeaways Since 2017 | ||
| Rk | Team | Total |
| 1 | Bills | 117 |
| 2 | Rams | 116 |
| 3 | Patriots | 115 |
| 4 | Seahawks | 112 |
| 5 | Buccaneers | 110 |
| 5 | Colts | 110 |
| Fewest Takeaways Since 2017 | ||
| Rk | Team | Total |
| 28 | Lions | 83 |
| 29 | Falcons | 81 |
| 30 | Niners | 78 |
| 31 | Bengals | 71 |
| 32 | Raiders | 70 |
With that in mind, the players continue to try to hone their skills.
Tre’Davious White, Tremaine Edmunds and Rashad Wildgoose were the last three defensive players off the practice field Thursday after getting in some extra work trying to catch “tough” balls fired at them from a Juggs machine.
The Bills have benefitted from playing young quarterbacks. They won the turnover battle 3-0 and 5-1, respectively, against Washington and Houston. They also got two interceptions off Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes. Buffalo has a three more inexperienced QBs coming up against the Dolphins, Jaguars and Jets.
The 30,000-foot view. The Bills have won six straight against Miami. A win Sunday would give the Bills their longest win streak in the series. Buffalo has won 13 of the last 17 vs. Miami dating to the 2013 season. Miami still leads the series 61-53-1, due to the 0-for-the-70s streak, but this is the closest to even in the series the Bills have been since 1974. The Bills were 18-4 vs. Miami during the bulk of the Jim Kelly era. That’s amazing, considering Miami had both Don Shula and Dan Marino that entire time. It’s one of the most impressive accomplishments of the Super Bowl era Bills.
Mano a mano? The Dolphins prefer to play man coverage. They played man to man 43% last season, third most in the NFL, according to Football Outsiders. They blitzed the heck out of Allen in the regular-season finale in Buffalo and it didn’t go well. Allen shredded them en route to a 28-6 halftime lead.
In the Week 2 game in Miami six weeks ago, the Dolphins didn’t man up as much early. They blitzed on only three of Allen’s first 24 dropbacks through the first drive of the third quarter. At that point, the Bills led 21-0. Then, they started calling more blitzes. Cornerbacks Xavien Howard and Byron Jones have been dealing with minor soft-tissue ailments. We’ll see if coach Brian Flores sticks with his attacking personality.
Stefon Diggs was expecting plenty of man coverage.
“It’s going to be a man-to-man game,” he said. “I watched the game from the second game of the season, and they’re definitely a man-to-man team. They play single high and they play bump and run. It’s definitely going to be a challenge for us. They’re some of the best corners and some of the most athletic. Speed. Strong. It’s definitely going to be a test for us and something I look forward to. ... You get to play them twice, so you get another opportunity to play guys. I feel like, offensively, we didn’t play our best ball and we get another opportunity to go out there this weekend.”
“They get up in your face, and they press, and that’s what they do, and that’s what they stick to,” Emmanuel Sanders said. “I was watching film earlier this morning and I was like, let me get my body right to battle. Every time somebody’s in your face for four quarters of football, that’s when fatigue can happen.”
More 10 personnel? With tight end Dawson Knox producing so well, the Bills have used their four-wide receiver package (10 personnel) only 7% of their plays the past five weeks. Last year, the Bills ran four wideouts or five wideouts on 14.5% of their snaps. Watch to see if Gabriel Davis gets more snaps with Knox out due to a broken hand. The Bills haven’t shown Miami much two-back offense, unless they’ve been in the red zone. Knox has been effective out of the slot. He leads NFL tight ends in yards per target (14.5) and yards per reception (20) from the slot, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. We’ll see if the coaches think Tommy Sweeney can be effective flexed out, something we haven’t seen him do much.
Stats for the road. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the Bills’ win probability was 63% when they went for it on fourth down at the end of the Titans’ game. It was 42% if they kicked the field goal. ... Miami has allowed an NFL-worst 37 passes of 20-plus yards. The Bills’ defense has allowed only nine, fewest in the league. ... Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki had only three catches in the first meeting, but he’s more involved now. He has had 34 catches the last five games.
