What went wrong in 2008

[xXSpIkes5IXx]

I did a full out statistical analysis of the 2008 and 2007 Bills, to find out what we improved on and what went downhill in 2008. I know stats only do so much to indicate how a football team performed, but i found some interesting information

First the good:

Total yards per game increased from 277.1 in 2007 to 305.1 in 2008
Total yards allowed per game decreased from 362.9 to 326.1
Total points scored increased from 252 to 336
Total points allowed decreased from 354 to 342
3rd down conversion percentage increased from 33.3% to 39.9%
3rd down conversion percentage allowed decreased from 45.1% to 36.1%
Total first downs increased from 248 to 287
Total first downs allowed decreased from 322 to 293
Red Zone touchdown percentage increased from .382 to .481
Red Zone touchdown percentage allowed decreased from .446 to .418

It seems unfathomable that with all of these improvements from 2007, that the team would have the same record...

The Bad:

Interceptions decreased from 18 to 10
Total number of sacks decreased from 25 to 23
Total number of sacks allowed increased from 26 to 38
Total number of takeaways decreased from 30 to 22
Total number of giveaways increased from 21 to 30
Total number of fumbles lost increased from 7 to 15

As the numbers indicate, this team could not produce turnovers, and also was much worse at protecting the quarterback and turning the ball over. Its amazing that the strength of the 2007 team, turned in to the weakness of the 2008 team.

[Mitchell55]

Re: What went wrong in 2008

The only thing I care about is the


7-9 to 7-9

[Turbo.GUN.Hawk!]

Re: What went wrong in 2008

One thing is not to let your team be intercepted or fumble the ball that easily but you can never really "create" turnovers. When the oppsing offense (or special teams for that matter) make mistakes it just happens, when they don't you still have to be able to win the game by itself.

So maybe back in 2007 we took advantage of certain situations and in 2008 we were not lucky, but overall both teams were mediocre at best.

Obviously we need to decrease the interceptions number but other than that we just can't simply expect other teams to make that many turnovers everyday.

[Nighthawk]

Re: What went wrong in 2008

The biggest thing that went wrong for the Bills is that they kept Jauron!

[crowder52]

Re: What went wrong in 2008

You want to know what went wrong? Here is an assesment from a Dolphins fan that's not biased or anything like that.

O-line- You giuys have talent on your O-line but struggled i think primarily because of Peter's holdout. He wanted a new contract and got his ass handed to him this season because he missed TC. I still can't believe he made the Pro Bowl. Joey Porter has 4.5 sacks on Peters alone which is two more than Jake Long has allowed all year. He allowed 11.5 all year and he's supposed to be the anchor of the line.

The schedule- You had all of the easier teams in the beginning which gave your team a false sense of security. When you played 3 AFC East opponents back to back to back it took that sense of security away. When that happened it was like "Damn, maybe we're not as good as we thought".

Trent E. getting hurt- That didn't help as a lack of reps for J.P. didn't help him succeed in the least bit. The coaching staff put all their eggs in one basket and it screwed the offense.

Lack of Pass Rush- I think Kelsay or Schoebl got hurt which made it impossible to get any rush at the QB. When the QB has all day to throw it's impossible to make turnovers or ints.

Turnovers- self explanitory.

[jamze132]

Re: What went wrong in 2008

You want to know what went wrong? Here is an assesment from a Dolphins fan that's not biased or anything like that.

O-line- You giuys have talent on your O-line but struggled i think primarily because of Peter's holdout. He wanted a new contract and got his ass handed to him this season because he missed TC. I still can't believe he made the Pro Bowl. Joey Porter has 4.5 sacks on Peters alone which is two more than Jake Long has allowed all year. He allowed 11.5 all year and he's supposed to be the anchor of the line.

The schedule- You had all of the easier teams in the beginning which gave your team a false sense of security. When you played 3 AFC East opponents back to back to back it took that sense of security away. When that happened it was like "Damn, maybe we're not as good as we thought".

Trent E. getting hurt- That didn't help as a lack of reps for J.P. didn't help him succeed in the least bit. The coaching staff put all their eggs in one basket and it screwed the offense.

Lack of Pass Rush- I think Kelsay or Schoebl got hurt which made it impossible to get any rush at the QB. When the QB has all day to throw it's impossible to make turnovers or ints.

Turnovers- self explanitory.

That's a good assessment! But the biggest reason why we suck is because of the coaching and the stupid ass decisions they make on Sundays. I'm not even going to get into all the details as it has been said countless times thus far. Plus my blood pressure is rising...

[Goobylal]

Re: What went wrong in 2008

The difference was that Trent absolutely blew during that 4 game losing streak, and against the 49'ers (before getting injured, again). He was supposed to be the caretaker QB, but ended-up giving the ball away too much and/or missing open receivers.

Despite the lack of a pass rush, which was taken away when Schobel went down, and thus affected the takeaway and sack numbers, the defense played well enough to keep the team in games, while the running game was good and ST's were excellent.

Sure a better coaching staff might have gotten the team a couple more wins, but until Trent or whoever starts at QB elevates their play, the team isn't going to do much better.

[Jan Reimers]

Re: What went wrong in 2008

The one constant I see from 2007 to2008 is lack of a pass rush. Our meager sack total in 2007 simply got a little worse in 2008. And I would think if you looked at things like hurries, QB hits, etc. - i.e., other indicators of QB pressure - we would have fairly pathetic numbers in 2007 and 2008 as well.

I'm convinced that you can't win without a pass rush, despite what any other statistical indicators might show.

[ddaryl]

Re: What went wrong in 2008

The trenches went wrong (the game is won and lost in the trenches)

We gave up more sacks and we sacked the QB less.

If our DL pressures the QB more often the INT's goes up

If our OL doesn't allow more sacks maybe Edwards never gets that nasty concussion and ends up playing better in the mid stretch of games. Also our QB doesn't throw a few of those INT's and our players do not fumble as much.

The Bills need a major talent influx on the DL and the OL. Peters needs to be resigned if that is possible, and a major upgrade at C...

We need to go out and get the best DE we can in FA and the best OLB in FA and then turn around and draft the best DE as well and offload some of our DE dead weight.

Once we have the OL and DL locked in place we should never go into a draft or FA without looking at keeping the OL and DL up at the highest level...

[Tiburon1724]

Re: What went wrong in 2008

We have no backup QB, our starter is captain checkdown, one good WR, no TE, a mediocre line, poor pass rush, the worst coaches in the league, and the worst owner in the league. That about sums it up.

[lukabrossi]

Re: What went wrong in 2008

the team couldn't produce much offense.......or defense........never mind.

[justasportsfan]

Re: What went wrong in 2008

we promoted a qb coach who has never produced any great qb to begin with to OC. He was sooooo qualified that he qwas copying other teams playbook mid season.

Up next . What happened in 09?

We kept the same OC.