Jerry Hughes says Bills have different plan to stop Lamar Jackson this time
The Bills and Ravens will meet for the first time in 2020 this Saturday and the stakes couldn’t possibly be higher. It’s the AFC Divisional round… win or go home.
These teams aren’t completely unfamiliar with each other, though.
In 2019, the Ravens’ season was most-known for being quarterback Lamar Jackson‘s MVP year. In that campaign, Jackson topped the Bills 24-17 in Week 14, but he didn’t have his best game. In fact, he had his worst.
Jackson tossed three touchdown passes but only rushed for 40 yards and the Ravens offense was held to a season-low 257 total yards. Can the Bills do that again?
Well if that’s the case, defensive end Jerry Hughes made an interesting remark this week, saying the plan this time around is going to be changed.
“Last year we had a different approach than what we’re taking this year,” Hughes said via video conference. “Last year a lot of it was a lot more read-based instead of us being physical, attack the line type of defense that we are normally.”
Certainly noteworthy.
In a year a lot can change in the NFL. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Evidently not for the Bills defense. The biggest case to be made for keeping the defensive plan vs. Jackson the same would be that the reason the Bills lost that game a year ago was probably because of their offense playing poorly.
In 2020, Buffalo’s offense has been firing on all cylinders. So putting two and two together, the Bills (13-3) should have a good look in this one, no? We’ll see if the changes pay dividends because regardless of new or old plan, Jackson’s going to be a handful.
Hughes mentioned that the Ravens (11-5) quarterback’s mobility still stands out above anyone in the NFL.
“Just his quickness, his agility… he’s a little more agile than your Kyler Murray and probably has a little more speed as well,” Hughes said. “That’s what’s toughest for us… just his vision as a ball-carrier, his ability to him of use all three of those assets, speed, agility, vision.”
Safety Micah Hyde added that no matter what the plan is, Jackson is only quick shake away from shredding it.
“With this guy you can try to blitz guys at him, you can sit back and cover, it doesn’t matter. Any scheme that you throw at him, he’s able to maybe make one guy miss and take it to the house,” Hyde said.
In regard to exactly what the change in plan will be we don’t exactly know. Hughes only provided minimal insight, smartly so. Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds did give a good look into the Bills’ mindset this week, though. It’s not the individuals, it’s the team vs. Jackson.
“It’s not just one guy out there trying to make every play. You’ve got everybody doing their job. That’s, most of the time, when defenses play their best defense. When everybody is doing their job and not trying to do somebody else’s,” Edmunds said.
