Buffalo is ranked 18th against the pass and 22nd against the rush.
Packers ranked 26th against the pass and 5th against the rush.
HRE, not sure how you consider Buffalo to have a better defense then ours???? We KILL them in defense vs the run.
Because I've watched all of both teams' games. And the Bills have been without Byrd. I did not look at the stats when I made that assessment. Call it an eye test.
So, since you asked, lets take a closer look at the stats:
Packers D (4 games) - 375 total yds. surrendered per game, 5 take aways, 11 sacks, 41.8% third down conversion rate
Buffalo D (5 games)- 377 total yds. surrendered per game, 11 take aways, 15 sacks, 39.8% third down conversion rate
The edge goes to the Bills on the strength of take aways.
Then there's the underrated stat of yds. surrendered
per play.
GB had defended 94 rushes and 147 passes in 4 games...that's 60 plays against per game, which is probably a little below the league average which typically runs about 62 or 63.
Buffalo has defended 148 rushes and 197 passes in 5 games...that's a whopping 69 offensive plays against per game, or 15% more than GB, which equates to approximately 15% fewer yards surrendered by Buffalo per play, a significant difference and a big edge to Buffalo as a more efficient defense.
There's the cliche, "a good defense is a good a offense". The converse..."a good offense is a good defense"...is equally valid. An O that keeps the D off the field reduces opponent opportunities. GB's time of possession is 29.31. Buffalo's is 27.41 despite all the rushing they do. 2 minutes might not seem like a lot, but it is...it separates the #4 team from the #16 team, for example.
I'm not even going to look at the typical "points against" stat that is quoted everywhere. It's useless unless you sift out the opponents' defensive and special team scores when measuring a defense. If anybody has a regular source for
that adjusted stat I'd like to see it. I'm not going to go through the box scores to create it myself...this time. As an example, the standard stats charge Houston's D for Schaub's 4 pick-sixes...that's just not right.
I will say this about the GB/Buffalo comparison...Buffalo seems to have a lot of guys who take a lot of snaps, with some set nickel substitutions. The Packers use more guys off the bench in rotation and situational substitutions. So, the Pack might have a better bench, or at least a bench that plays more. Buffalo's front line guys, however, are outperforming.
As noted previously I would swap our entire roster, with the exception of the QB position, for Buffalo's.