With six games in the books, the numbers are ugly.

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.

"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."

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.

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.

Sharing his hot takes on One Bills Live during the bye week, ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky attributed the problems to occasional in-game lapses.

“There's four or five snaps a game where there's blown coverage, because one guy is doing something different than 10," said Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback. "If and when they fix that, I think this has got a chance to be a Top 15 defense. They will not be a Top 15 defense until they fix that. There's not a rhyme or reason to exactly all the time why it's happening.”

Communication is key

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

"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.

Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, who spent 10 seasons as a NFL safety, acknowledged the failures heading into the bye.

"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," said Leonhard.

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

"That's the biggest thing in the bye week. How do I help the coverage just play with more confidence, play faster, play more aggressive, allow them to get vision on the quarterback and break," said Leonhard.

Dan Orlovsky's reason for optimism

The Bills' defensive front has shown ability to disrupt the opposing passer while staying true against the run.

“[Deone] Walker, once again, outstanding. I thought [Dorian] Williams was great. [Bradley] Chubb was really good," said Orlovsky. "The next step is cleaning up those four to five snaps a game that right now are killing this defense. And if they don't, you'll come on here every week and people will, all week, continue to make fun of this defense."

If Leonhard can get his defense to communicate adequately, then it can become more of an asset rather than a liability down the stretch.

"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," said Orlovsky.