Buffalo Bills vs. Detroit Lions: Breaking Down Detroit's Game Plan

A familiar face returns to the Motor City when the Buffalo Bills come to town to face the Detroit Lions.

What: Buffalo Bills (2-2) at Detroit Lions (3-1)

When: Sunday, October 5, 1 p.m. ET 

Watch: FOX, Sam Rosen and Ronde Barber with the call

Former Lions coach Jim Schwartz is now the defensive coordinator for the Bills. He was fired after his Lions collapsed from a 6-3 start to finish 7-9 in 2013, ending his Detroit tenure with a 29-51 overall record in his five seasons.

Schwartz was difficult for Lions fans to embrace with his often combative demeanor and volatility. The Ford Field faithful are likely to derisively roar as he trots onto the field with his Bills defense.

Paul Sancya/Associated Press

During his time in Detroit, his defenses were frequently criticized for being undisciplined and lacking creativity. They seldom blitzed and were often bland in zone coverage. He's been far more liberal in blitzing and mixing coverages with his new squad.

Ironically, his newfound creativity leaves some major weaknesses the Lions can exploit. Here are a couple of examples where being more aggressive and unconventional leaves huge holes for a savvy offense.

The first is from Buffalo's 22-10 Week 3 loss to San Diego. It's easy to see the practical application for Detroit on a play like this.

The Chargers are in a single-back set, with the receivers bunched in pairs on either side of the formation. Buffalo responds by jamming nine defenders tight to the line.

NFL Game Rewind

While Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers can't tell which defender is coming on the blitz, he knows that his players running forward have an advantage on the Bills who wind up chasing them in coverage.

NFL Game Rewind

The line picks up the pressure, giving Rivers enough time to survey his options. Buffalo's coverage does a good job in marking the receivers to his left, but they lose track of the running back flaring out. The corner is going backwards in his zone assignment.

NFL Game Rewind

Running back Donald Brown (circled in yellow) is supposed to be covered by the right cornerback. When Brown catches the ball, the corner (circled in blue) is exactly 20 yards away from him. 

This is easy pickings for a patient quarterback given time by a line picking up the blitz. Detroit's line had some issues with that last week against the Jets, but getting starting right tackle LaAdrian Waddle back from injury should help mitigate those issues. 

"

RT LaAdrian Waddle was a full participant in practice. Good news he'll play Sun. Don Carey also practiced in full.

— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) October 1, 2014"

The Lions will need him to be sharp. Buffalo ranks 12th in sack percentage thanks to a strong defensive front featuring Mario Williams, Jerry Hughes and Marcell Dareus. 

They're also good at forcing turnovers on the back end. The Bills rank fourth (tied with several teams) with their eight takeaways in four games, including five interceptions. 

Matthew Stafford will have to continue to show the poise he demonstrated last week in New York. Just as Rivers did in besting Buffalo, a composed and savvy Stafford will have opportunities to make hay. 

Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Texans found a lot of success attacking the short middle of the field. In fact, almost half of Houston's 35 "aimed" pass attempts as charted by Pro Football Focus (subscription required) were over the middle between 1-19 yards. 

	Attempts	Completions	Yards
0-9 yards	13	11	86
10-19 yards	4	3	35
Total	17	14	121

Here's one of those shorter routes, a play where the quarterback reads the zone expertly and moves the chains.

NFL Game Rewind

With two tight ends to the right, the Bills' linebackers make no pre-snap adjustment. It's a dead giveaway of zone coverage, and the first move for all three backers will be backwards. This happens on almost every play I watched in Buffalo's first four games when aligned this way. 

NFL Game Rewind

Fitzpatrick gets good protection and finds running back Arian Foster releasing between the left guard and tackle. The middle backer and right outside backer have both dropped well away from the line, giving Foster an easy eight yards on the pitch-and-catch play. 

On this play, the Bills don't even bother to hide where the hole is going to be. There is a 10-yard empty chasm in the middle of the defense.

NFL Game Rewind

The Bills try some chicanery by having the defender at the right side of the line drop into that area, but he's not close enough to prevent a quick pass to the tight end releasing from the opposite side.

NFL Game Rewind

Fitzpatrick actually makes this play less successful by holding the ball too long, which allows that backer (Nigel Bradham) to arrive at receiver Garrett Graham just after the ball to make the quick tackle. Nevertheless, it's a seven-yard gain that moves the chains on 2nd-and-4. 

Detroit figures to have an advantage here as well. With Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate demanding significant attention from the safeties, this range will be ripe for the picking for Eric Ebron, Ryan Broyles and the guys coming out of the backfield. 

On the other side of the ball, it's difficult to predict what the Buffalo offense will look like. The Bills have made a quarterback change, benching erratic E.J. Manuel for erstwhile retired veteran journeyman Kyle Orton. 

Getting pressure on Orton will be critical, because his wideouts have already noticed the difference:

"

Robert Woods on difference of Kyle Orton over EJ Manuel: "He's doing the same things. The ball's just coming out a little bit quicker."

— Tim Graham (@ByTimGraham) October 1, 2014"

There figures to be issues with timing and chemistry between the new quarterback and his receivers. After all, Orton was still enjoying retirement when these two teams met to close out the preseason back in August. 

Adding pressure will only exacerbate the lack of synchronicity. Fortunately the Lions rank third in sack percentage, helping pave the way to leading the league in fewest yards allowed per game by a fairly wide margin. 

As always, winning the battles of turnovers and penalties will only help facilitate a Lions victory as well. The Lions have done a good job here in three of their four games. Of course when they did not the outcome was Carolina 24, Detroit 7. 

The Lions stand a good chance of improving to 4-1. Detroit is favored by between seven and nine points, according to Odds Shark. 

All statistical rankings are from Team Rankings. All other stats are from NFL.com unless otherwise noted.