Bills defense struggles

The Buffalo Bills defense has shown occasional flashes of competency under first-year coordinator Jim Leonhard but those flashes have been too few and far between.

Leonhard's quote

It's time to be good at something, said Leonhard in the wake of a 37-34 road win over the Los Angeles Rams. It's too inconsistent to pretend that we're building and working and making improvements.

“It's time to be good at something," said Leonhard in the wake of a 37-34 road win over the Los Angeles Rams. "It's too inconsistent to pretend that we're building and working and making improvements.”

Bills' defense stats

The Bills are allowing 28.5 points per game to opposing offenses.Their pass defense (285.8) ranks next to last in the NFL.Buffalo has allowed at least 30 points in four of its five wins thus far.

Belief in improvement

For as discouraging as those numbers are, there's a belief that even without any personnel upgrades moving forward, the Bills' defense has realistic potential for improvement.

Orlovsky's analysis

Orlovsky attributed the problems to occasional in-game lapses, saying there are four or five snaps a game where blown coverage occurs because one player does something different than 10.

“There's four or five snaps a game where there's blown coverage, because one guy is doing something different than 10”

Communication issues

Those blown coverages have apparently occurred due to communication issues in the defense's back end.

Brady's comment

Our communication isn't where it needs to be right now, said head coach Joe Brady following the Week 5 win over the Los Angeles Rams.

Leonhard's fix

Leonhard acknowledged the failures heading into the bye week, saying they need to be cleaner on communication to avoid confusion.

“I would say from a coverage standpoint, we need to be cleaner on communication. There's too many times where we look confused when i don't think there's enough options for us to be that confused, so we'll clean that up”

Next game

When the Bills return to action against the Baltimore Ravens on November 1, multiple adjustments are likely to have been made.

Orlovsky's optimism

Orlovsky believes if Leonhard fixes communication, the defense can become a top half defense in the league within two months.

“If they can figure that out over the next two months, i truly believe this defense is good enough, fast enough, schematically diverse enough to be a top half defense in the league”