ESPN: Bills line very underrated...

[MikeInRoch]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/preview06/news/story?page=Bills/06


The metrics show that the Bills' offensive line may be very underrated. Buffalo quarterbacks were sacked 43 times last year, but 10 of those sacks were coverage sacks and two other sacks were not the fault of the offensive line.

This group was also quite strong in run blocking. Willis McGahee ranked 10th in the NFL in rushing yards last year. He also ranked in the top eight in yards per attempt on three of the seven major run types (draw, off tackle and slant plays). Those were not statistical aberrations, either, as McGahee had at least 36 carries on each of those three run types. McGahee could not have gained that many yards if the blocking was poor. If Jim McNally, the Bills' new offensive line coach, can get this unit to block even better, the Bills' offense could be surprisingly good in 2006.

[OpIv37]

ok, did anyone tell ESPN that we have two and possibly 3 new starters so last year's OL is not a good baseline?

[THATHURMANATOR]

Ok did anyone tell ESPN that the two possibly 3 new starters are better players than the ones they replaced?
:rolleyes:

[patmoran2006]

Did anybody read that entire Bills section of the ESPN preview?

Apparently not fans of our QB's

[SABURZFAN]

WTF?????Mike posted some real good info here.if we're replacing half of the OL ,it only means that those numbers may improve a little more.i think willis could be in for a good season.mcnally's hard work is already beginning to show.

[ICE74129]

Ok did anyone tell ESPN that the two possibly 3 new starters are better players than the ones they replaced?
:rolleyes:

Did anyone tell them that other than one play this line has looked like **** run blocking this preseason?

[Bill Brasky]

Of course the Metrics show the line to be underrated... ESPN probably doesn't even know who the starting 5 are. Unless TO or Reggie Bush are starting on the OL.

[HHURRICANE]

Did anyone tell them that JP ran for his life to avoid another 20 sacks and Captain Dumpoff never looked downfield!! This is where stats will kill reality!!

[THATHURMANATOR]

Did anyone tell them that other than one play this line has looked like **** run blocking this preseason?
No :rolleyes: They looked good on at least 7 to 10 running plays.

[ICE74129]

No :rolleyes: They looked good on at least 7 to 10 running plays.

I guess I was watching another team, because our run blocking against other teams starters sucked.

[OpIv37]

Ok did anyone tell ESPN that the two possibly 3 new starters are better players than the ones they replaced?
:rolleyes:

right, but they were using the stats of LAST YEAR's line to predict how THIS YEAR's line will do. Considering 40-60% of the line has changed, what they did LAST YEAR is completely irrelevant. You might as well say the Bills' offense was great in 1992 so they're going to be great this year.

[Bill Brasky]

Anybody who gets their news from ESPN is a buttdart.

What is their url nowadays?

www.weenjoyslobbingourownnob.com/worldwideleader (http://www.weenjoyslobbingourownnobs.com/worldwideleader.html)

[Meathead]

linky no worky

dang

[ublinkwescore]

Anybody who gets their news from ESPN is a buttdart.

What is their url nowadays?

www.weenjoyslobbingourownnob.com/worldwideleader (http://www.weenjoyslobbingourownnobs.com/worldwideleader.html)

uuhhhhmmmm... stupid question, but what is a buttdart?

[Bill Brasky]

Use your imagination.

[ublinkwescore]

My imagination would tell me that it has to do with homos or anal sex...

[Don't Panic]

"What a quarterback mess. J.P. Losman, a 2004 first-rounder, is inching closer and closer to bust status. The tools are nice (especially his arm) but his decision making remains erratic, and he's far from durable. At 33, Kelly Holcomb (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?statsId=3873) is an upper-echelon backup but has too many physical limitations to be an adequate starter. Even if he's an upgrade, there's no sense in rebuilding around him. "

Ouch! Good to see they've been watching a lot of our preseason games! (that would be sarcasm)

[feelthepain]

This group was also quite strong in run blocking. Willis McGahee ranked 10th in the NFL in rushing yards last year.



Uhhh, I thought this wasn't the same group???

[FinFaninBuffalo]

That was some of the worst reporting I've read in a while.


The metrics show that the Bills' offensive line may be very underrated. Buffalo quarterbacks were sacked 43 times last year, but 10 of those sacks were coverage sacks and two other sacks were not the fault of the offensive line.

Don't all teams give up coverage sacks? Why would the Bills have a higher % than other teams. If they don't, it doesn't change where the Bills OL ranks in pass protection.


This group was also quite strong in run blocking. Willis McGahee (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?statsId=6359) ranked 10th in the NFL in rushing yards last year. He also ranked in the top eight in yards per attempt on three of the seven major run types (draw, off tackle and slant plays). Those were not statistical aberrations, either, as McGahee had at least 36 carries on each of those three run types. McGahee could not have gained that many yards if the blocking was poor.

Um, he is an idiot. Doesn't this mean that they weren't in the top eight in yards per attempt in four of seven major run types? What kind of idiot makes the argument that if you take away the bad runs, they were pretty good? If they were that good in three of seven categoriess, how bad must they have been in the other categories to make his average 3.8 YPC?

I agree that the run blocking was better than the pass blocking, it doesn't mean it was good.

[Carlton Bailey]

"What a quarterback mess. J.P. Losman, a 2004 first-rounder, is inching closer and closer to bust status. The tools are nice (especially his arm) but his decision making remains erratic, and he's far from durable. At 33, Kelly Holcomb (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?statsId=3873) is an upper-echelon backup but has too many physical limitations to be an adequate starter. Even if he's an upgrade, there's no sense in rebuilding around him. "

Ouch! Good to see they've been watching a lot of our preseason games! (that would be sarcasm)

Wow, what the hell is wrong with ESPN? "Inching closer to bust status." He's played in eight games! They didn't give that kind of crap to Eli Manning when he struggled in his first half season. And by the way, mighty Eli's completion percentage was barely above 50 percent last season.

This is why I stopped caring about ESPN back when the team fired TD and they kept praising the job he did. They know nothing about football.

[Tatonka]

the whole "less than durable" thing ****ing kills me..

he got his leg broke in year one and was back quickly.. and last year he just got benched.. period.. he got hurt ONE TIME and he is less than durable???

[jmb1099]

It really is insane. I can't believe how many of these guys want him to fail, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

the whole "less than durable" thing ****ing kills me..

he got his leg broke in year one and was back quickly.. and last year he just got benched.. period.. he got hurt ONE TIME and he is less than durable???

The line now--and I don't know where it started, but I've seen it in a number of articles recently--is that JP missed the last couple of games of the season because he had a shoulder injury. I suspect this may come from Mularkey--you all know how much the national media love anyone associated with Miami, which he now is--trying to excuse the fact that he didn't start JP at the end of the season when he and TD were desperately trying to win games to save their jobs. I seem to recall that JP did get dinged up a little in his last start, but that he said that he was ready enough to play the last 3 games of the season and I think that is why most of us Bills fans talk about Mularkey benching JP at the end of the season rather than him being injured.

I agree that the national media seems to be dying to see JP fail. Yes, I know that he has had some turnovers this preseason, but, while those articles that are based on anything that has happened this preseason highlight that negative, they all seem to ignore the positives that we have noted in him this preseason. Other than Connor Byrne, I have yet to see an article that has pointed out the dramatic increase in Losman's accuracy over last year. Losman's completion percentage has gone up by 15% and is just under 65%, but you wouldn't know if from the national media which constantly points out that his completion percentage last season was under 50%, as if he has shown no signs of improvement at all this preseason.

After listening to the Democrat and Chronicle's podcasts, the only explanation that I can think of for this is that JP must have really hacked off a lot of the national writers with his immature behavior when they were interviewing him last year and, since a lot of them have already written off the Bills this season and haven't spent much time with the Bills, they are letting their resentment show in their articles about him this year without considering the possibility that he may now be a year older, wiser and more mature than he was then.

Personally, I don't think JP is going to get any respect from the national media folks until he leads the Bills to a come-from-behind, last minute upset victory over one of their favorite teams with a length of the field drive in the last two minutes. If he does that against Miami or New England or one of the other teams that they fall all over all of the time, then they will start to pay attention to him and will have to give him some props, but, until then....

[HAMMER]

It really is insane. I can't believe how many of these guys want him to fail, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

I agree, it is ridiculous to make judgements on JP this early. 20 games is about where we should start judging, no sooner.

[~CHIEF~]

This means nothing!

[Captain gameboy]

I think ESPN is little more than a fraternity now.
Too much incest there for me.

If I wanted to know how many times in the last 45 years a guy with only one vowel in his last name averaged over 3.79 yds/carry, or what nail clippers TO uses, I'd care about ESPN.

But I don't.

They are momentum/bandwagon guys.

[Ickybaluky]

KC Joyner's sabermetrics-like approach to football isn't something to put a lot of weight in, IMO. It provides a different look, but some strange results.

[Saratoga Slim]

the whole "less than durable" thing ****ing kills me..

he got his leg broke in year one and was back quickly.. and last year he just got benched.. period.. he got hurt ONE TIME and he is less than durable???

that's what got me too. when he got yanked at the end of the season there were some rumblings about a sore shoulder, but I think it was pretty obvious that JP was ready and wanted to play.

So now Carson Palmer isn't durable? Drew Brees? One freak injury and we're calling a guy injury-prone?

save the "less than durable" label for guys like Grossman who've gotten hurt more than once. Idiots.

[Bill Brasky]

Personally, I don't think JP is going to get any respect from the national media folks until he leads the Bills to a come-from-behind, last minute upset victory over one of their favorite teams with a length of the field drive in the last two minutes.
even if he does that, they will show his 1 interception and 14 pass incompletions... and then at the end say "somehow the bills win despite losman throwing 4tds and for 320 yards"

i haven't seen one positive highlight from the guy the entire preseason on any national media outlets... even when he was throwing bombs to Evans and Price, they opted to show his 1 or 2 mistakes. it's ridiculous.