Coming out of the bye, Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard wanted his game plans to lean into more of the attacking style that he envisioned. That included how he envisioned slowing down a potent Ravens offense led by Lamar Jackson.
Buffalo blitzed on the very first defensive snap of the game, a play that would ultimately knock Jackson out of the action with a right thumb injury. The Bills went on the blitz 19 more times Sunday afternoon, posting a 64.5% blitz rate on Ravens QB dropbacks.
While Buffalo never could have imagined it would only face Jackson for a single snap, the Bills DC went into Sunday already planning to turn up the heat regardless of who was at quarterback.
"The game plan was going to be planning on being aggressive," Leonhard said Monday.
Leonhard explained that four-man rushes can be favorable for Jackson because of his ability to extend plays and create extra chances for big plays. Since 2024, Jackson leads the NFL in passer rating and yards per pass when not blitzed or under pressure.
"Sometimes the worst thing you can do is get him off his first read and he starts extending plays and things like that. So there were definitely different elements of the game plan that were going to be aggressive and partly just to change the looks and the coverage around it," Leonhard shared.
So when Jackson exited the game after the first play, Buffalo didn't have to alter its initial strategy too much.
"I thought we did a great job of designing different things to get speed in different areas of the field and create levels to our rush to allow guys to really impact the quarterback," Leonhard said.
For the first time this season, Leonhard called plays from up in the coach's booth, a departure from the first six games of the year when he relayed the play call from the sidelines. The decision was made during the bye week as the first-year defensive coordinator looked for ways he could help the unit improve.
"I just felt like it was going to give me the best opportunity to call a clean game," he said.
With familiarity building over the first month and a half of the season between players and Leonhard's assistant coaches, there was enough trust by Week 8 that Leonhard felt he could be away from the field and it not impact the sideline communication.
"I can sit up there and just kind of get in the lab and get my thoughts rolling, get ahead of things," Leonhard said. "I know what I'm looking for from a substitution standpoint and different areas of the field."
Leonhard said he will continue to call defensive plays from the booth moving forward.
Between self-scouting during the bye, to a strong week of preparation, Leonhard was as pleased with the defense as he has been all season. The Bills allowed season-lows in points, total yards, yards per play and third down conversions, among other areas. They also recorded a season-high in takeaways with three and tied a season-high with four sacks.
"We learned a lot during the bye and kind of said there's going to be some things that changed. And I think guys really bought into what the plan was throughout the week. It was by far the best week we've had from a preparation standpoint," Leonhard said. "You're not guaranteed to get results when that happens, but it happened. So I'm just happy for them."
