Old friend Leslie Frazier appears to be getting smarter and more defensively guru-esque by the shutout.
Zeroes add early momentum in Leslie Frazier's second chance to be an NFL head coach
On The NFL: The former Vikings leader has the Buffalo Bills defense the talk of the league.
October 5, 2021 at 10:32PM
While his buddy Joe Woods was earning praise for taking a sledgehammer to the Vikings' vaunted offense as Browns defensive coordinator on Sunday, Frazier was in Buffalo posting something only two other defensive coordinators can boast of doing during the Super Bowl era.
"Anytime your shut out a team in the NFL, that encourages you," Frazier said Monday, the day after a 40-0 blanking of a Texans team that came close to hiring him as head coach a year ago. "When you do it twice in a four-week span?"
As Leslie would so often say, "Mmm, that's a big deal."
After a season-opening home hiccup against a bad Steelers team, Buffalo has outscored Miami, Washington and Houston 118-21. They beat the Dolphins 35-0 in Week 2 and have joined 1991 Super Bowl champion Washington and 2000 Super Bowl champion Baltimore as the only teams with two shutouts through four weeks since 1966.
Granted, Leslie has had the incredibly good and rare fortune of facing three consecutive backup NFL quarterbacks in Jacoby Brissett, Taylor Heinicke and rookie Davis Mills. A Marshmallow's Row of front-line signal-callers, to be sure.
But let's give Buffalo the benefit of the doubt for now and reserve the right to reconsider Leslie's guruship after the Bills defense travels to Kansas City to face one of the greatest of all non-backups in Patrick Mahomes on Sunday.
For now, Frazier's defense stands alone, leading the league in 11 categories.
Points per game allowed (11.0)? Yep. Yards (216.8), passing yards (148.8), interception rate (5.79), first downs (12.0), red-zone percentage (33.3), point differential (22.5) and takeaways (11)?
You betcha.
Not a bad start for a nice guy who finished last in the NFC North and in NFL scoring defense (30.0) when he was fired as Vikings head coach after the 2013 season.
Themes like this — perceived dunderheads resurrecting résumés in new locales — are a common story line in NFL circles.
Let's look at a few on defense:
- Woods, a Vikings defensive backs coach from 2006-13, was fired as part of Vance Joseph's Denver staff three years ago. Today, he's rolling with a Browns team that's given up 13 points and 302 total yards while spanking half the NFC North the past two weeks.
- Dan Quinn, who went from genius coordinator in Seattle to supposedly dunderheaded head coach in Atlanta, is trending toward genius coordinator once again in Dallas. With perhaps the NFL's best mulligan of the offseason, Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy unloaded Mike Nolan for Quinn. Sunday, cornerback Trevon Diggs had his fourth and fifth interceptions of the season, leading to 10 points in a 36-28 victory over a Panthers team that was 3-0.
There were other outstanding defensive efforts in a league mostly dominated by offenses with great quarterbacks.
- The lowly Jets started Sunday with six sacks. Then they dropped Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill seven times to win their first game.
- The Bears kept the Lions in their dark hole with red-zone dominance that featured two fourth-down stops and two takeaways.
- Facing an undefeated Raiders offense that had posted eight consecutive 400-yard games, the Chargers held Las Vegas to 213 yards in their 28-14 victory on "Monday Night Football."
Getting back to Buffalo, the Texans posted 109 yards of offense and 100 yards in penalties. Mills threw four interceptions as the Bills became the seventh team of the Super Bowl era to post two shutout wins of 35 points or more.
One of the other six teams was the legendary '85 Bears. Frazier was a starting cornerback on that team.
The Bills, of course, lost to the Chiefs twice last year, including a 38-24 defeat in the AFC Championship Game at Kansas City. Mahomes threw for 325 yards, three touchdowns, no turnovers and a 127.6 passer rating that day.
"We're not the same team and defense we were a year ago," Frazier said. "I think we've improved in certain areas. Our goal is to slow them down because I don't think anybody can stop them."
Frazier is hoping takeaways tell the story. In the Chiefs' two losses, Mahomes threw two interceptions against the Chargers and one against the Ravens.
"Oh, man," Frazier said. "We will be talking takeaways all week. They have turned it over a few times this year. That may end up being the determining factor in the game."
And whether Frazier keeps the early momentum going in his quest for a second chance at being an NFL head coach.
Mike Conley was in Minneapolis, where he sounded the Gjallarhorn at the Vikings game, on Sunday during the robbery.
