ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Jim Leonhard leaned back to loosen his shoulders and let out a big yawn upon approaching the podium for his weekly news conference before addressing the first question of whether he got any sleep.
“Not much,” the Buffalo Bills' first-year defensive coordinator said.
The lack of rest was the combination of the team’s late-night return home following a 33-30 win at Las Vegas on Sunday and whatever restlessness Leonhard is experiencing
in attempting to plug a leaky defense that's among the NFL’s worst in yards and points allowed.
Tired as the first-year coordinator felt, the one thing Leonhard wouldn’t give into was frustration.
“Me being frustrated, it doesn’t help us get there,” Leonhard added, while looking ahead to Buffalo entering its bye week off with an AFC East-leading 5-1 record. “It’s going to be a couple of days in the office for us re-evaluating everything. If 75% of the problem is me, then we’ll fix that. But what’s the rest of it that we can clean up for these guys?”
His to-do list is vast.
Though pleased with Buffalo's pass rush, Leonhard conceded his secondary has been a weak spot while allowing 15 touchdown passes, tied for the second most in the NFL entering Week 7. On-field communication continues to be a problem even though Leonhard worked on simplifying the game plan last week.
“There’s too many times we look confused,” he said.
And then there are disciplinary issues, beyond safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson's ejection and one-game suspension for spitting in the direction of Raiders players.
A week after allowing the Rams to convert four first downs as a result of penalties in a 37-34 overtime win at LA, five more flags led to Raiders first downs. Overall, the Bills rank last in the NFL with 151 first downs allowed and 21 by penalties. And that has contributed to Buffalo ranking 28th in the league in allowing opponents to convert 45% of their third-down opportunities.
The problems reflect a defense that opened the season working in four new starters while also transitioning to a 3-4 system.
Leonhard has focused on addressing the issues with the players on his roster, though he has cautioned changes might be necessary. One reinforcement is already on the way with Buffalo bringing back Tre’Davious White, signing the veteran cornerback to the practice squad this week.
First-year coach Joe Brady refuses to fix blame on one unit by saying each of the team’s three phases needs to improve. That’s despite a sizzling Josh Allen-led offense that's tied for the league lead with Detroit in averaging 32.8 points per outing, and scoring points on 36 of 58 possessions not ending in a kneel-down.
“It’s never offense versus defense or anything like that with us. We’re going to win as a team,” Brady said. “There’s going to be games where we might try to find a way to win 10-7. And there’s going to be games like (the Raiders) where we got to go find a way to win in the 30s.”
More often than not, it has been the latter this season with Buffalo winning all four outings when allowing 30 or more points. The defense’s best showing was a 24-16 win over the Chargers in Week 3 in which Buffalo overcame committing five turnovers.
It was left to Leonhard to play the so-called bad cop in blaming the defense and praising the offense.
“It's great to have Superman as your quarterback,” he said following the win against the Rams, in which Allen had 210 yards passing and 121 yards rushing. “But we can't wait until it's our turn to go save the day.”
That wasn't the case in Las Vegas, with Buffalo squandering a 10-point lead by allowing the Raiders to score 17 points in the fourth quarter.
“It’s consistency. It’s finish,” Leonhard said this week. “And the ultimate job that we have is keeping points off the board, and we’re not doing that right now. And that’s a big problem.”
___
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
