Bills call play-action less often than any other team

[YardRat]

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/press-coverage/2012/06/bills-call-play-action-less-often-than-any-other-team.html

No team used play-action less than the Buffalo Bills last season, and that's OK.


Football Outsiders data shows the Bills called play-action 11 percent of the time, or more than twice as much as Ryan Fitzpatrick would have guessed.


Football Outsiders assistant editor Rivers McCown broke down the numbers, showing the Bills trailed the NFL and came in well under the league average of 19 percent.


Fitzpatrick figured the Bills' number would be around 5 percent in Chan Gailey's spread system. The Bills gave up the fewest sacks in the NFL last year mostly because of the quick-read offense.


"We're more of a spread team, a shotgun team," Fitzpatrick said after today's voluntary workout in Orchard Park. "Play-action limits the amount of things you can do protection-wise and scheme-wise to go play action and throw it down the field.


"The other thing is our running backs are more involved in a lot of the routes and things. To us, that's more important than all the different play fakes and the quarterback turning his back on the defense."


The Houston Texans led the NFL in play-action reliance at 33 percent, followed by the Minnesota Vikings at 29 percent, Philadelphia Eagles at 25 percent, St. Louis Rams at 24 percent, and New Orleans Saints and Denver Broncos at 23 percent.


Football Outsiders' review showed the Bills averaged 7.0 yards when they called play-action (NFL average 7.5 yards) and 6.5 yards when they didn't (NFL average 6.2 yards).

[stuckincincy]

Re: Bills call play-action less often than any other team

Thanks - interesting read !

Not quite sure I totally buy into the explanation by Fitz, though.

[OpIv37]

Re: Bills call play-action less often than any other team

yeah, why would a team with two good RB's think they could fool the opponent with a play action?

This is where schemes drive me nuts. 80% of teams in the league will be able to make something work with a reasonable degree of success, but then there's always 5 or 6 teams who won't do it because it's not part of the "scheme."

I'm not saying that schemes are entirely useless, but sticking to the scheme for the sake of sticking to the scheme is stupid, especially when a unit is struggling.

[PTI]

Re: Bills call play-action less often than any other team

Well, scheme is part, and Fitz can't make the downfield throws either is another part.

[stuckincincy]

Re: Bills call play-action less often than any other team

yeah, why would a team with two good RB's think they could fool the opponent with a play action?
This is where schemes drive me nuts. 80% of teams in the league will be able to make something work with a reasonable degree of success, but then there's always 5 or 6 teams who won't do it because it's not part of the "scheme."
I'm not saying that schemes are entirely useless, but sticking to the scheme for the sake of sticking to the scheme is stupid, especially when a unit is struggling.

I recall Fitz in '08, when he played 12 games in place of Palmer (4-11-1 record, Fitz was 4-7-1). CIN was riddled with injuries that season. But Fitz made the most of it that he could - 60 scoots for 304 yards, some of that off of play action. He was ok at it IMO - but as you say - the scheme thing in BUF...

[madness]

Re: Bills call play-action less often than any other team

Here's the exact quote:

The team that ran play-action the least last year? That'd be the Buffalo Bills. Not really a surprise given Chan Gailey's pre-disposition towards the spread offense -- faking a handoff does require a little bit of time, after all.

I wonder if they included bootlegs in their numbers since I'd consider that the 'play-action' of the average spread offense. In order to run successful play-action you must sellout a bit meaning you're pulling an OL. After all, it's not the fake hand-off that sells the play-action. In order to pull a guard, the rest of the lineman have to use gap protection and most of the time a WR and/or a TE must stay in to block. That pretty much kills the advantage you are creating with a quick-read spread offense. Fortunately, how often you do or don't use play-action doesn't dictate how successful your offense is going to be.

[Philagape]

Re: Bills call play-action less often than any other team

The play-action bootleg may just be my favorite play ever.