What Is The Bills Offensive Philosophy?

[BillsImpossible]

Special thanks to RedEye.

The offensive philosophy of this Bills team is what?

I'm not sure. Before the season started, we were all reading about a no huddle K-Gun style offense built around giving Spiller the ball until he puked, but that never materialized on the field, not even close. I didn't see Spiller puke once!

The Bills offense is built on consistently running the ball, and hitting the big play with their edge receivers. Problem is when the Bills can't run the ball, they have a hard time passing.

When the Patriots can't run the ball, they just pass all day long. Bills can't do that. So I really have no idea what the philosophy of this offense is.

Teams aren't going to respect Manuel's ability to run much come next year because I think the Bills are going to do everything possible to help keep EJ healthy, which means very few if any read option plays in 2014.

K-Gun? Chandler is a decent player, but he's not Keith McKeller and he's not Pete Metzelaars. He's a white Lonnie Johnson.

Spiller can't block like Thurman Thomas, and that's a big problem if the Bills want to use Spiller as their feature back in that kind of offense.

In retrospect, the idea of starting a rookie quarterback and expecting him to execute a hybrid 2013 version of the K-Gun was more hype than reality.

The, "hi tempo," offense had to be scaled back. Manuel got hurt. The Bills offense still lacks an identity.

Will Hackett modify his, "vision," of what this offense is going to be, or is he going to head into 2014 with the same blueprints?

Is he going to continue trying to fit round pegs into his square hole vision on offense, or will he build his offense around the players he has?

I think Hackett should have a good long conversation with Mike Pettine.

[Night Train]

I had a NY strip steak for dinner. Mashed taters and a really good salad.

[SpikedLemonade]

Hiring inexperienced Hackett was a mistake.

[YardRat]

Most teams have a hard time passing if they can't run the ball.

- - - Updated - - -

And Spiller hobbling all season certainly didn't help the 'run till he pukes' philosophy.

[RedEyE]

I'm not too sure how much clearer things are today then they were when Chris Brown submitted this Marrone blurb on September 14: http://blogs.buffalobills.com/2013/09/14/marrones-vision-for-the-offense/

Clear as mud really.

Thinking about the QB injury carousel and the 1-2 smash mouth from FJ & CJ, most would tend to believe that the Bills were probably run heavy this past season. Truth be told they had a very balanced attack on offense, 546 rushes to 522 passes. Despite the surprising balance of plays, I tend to believe the Bills would prefer to rely more heavily on the legs of their two premier backs and would choose to open the pass effectively with the use of the run. In my opinion, this is proven the way they chose to thrive on the no-huddle, their obvious choice in hybrid QBs, and the plays in which they attempt to pull it altogether, like the read-option. This is precisely why I believe a QB like the kid from LSU wouldn't be a good fit for this offense.

[alohabillsfan]

Run, Run, Pass and punt!

[bleve]

Run, Run, Pass and punt!

R2P2

[Meathead]

looked like a fairly vanilla offense to me with the only wrinkle being the up tempo stuff. thats fine as long as they can execute it well but really they didnt, hamstrung by the super young qb carousel. plus it was massively arrogant for marrone and hackett not to have either a good qb coach or a veteran qb backup or both imo, stunting ejs growth curve

but thats all in the past now, they were gonna get a pass on their first season anyway due to the all new everything nature of the team. starting next season they need to show some pretty remarkable improvement in the offense or their coaching seats are gonna heat up fast. theyd be ahead of the game had they got that good qb coach but they didnt, i hope to god they go out and get one now

[BuffaloRedleg]

This has been a problem that has plagued the team since Bledsoe. No consistent philosophy or identity to give the players a unified purpose.

This starts at the top, where the only indentity the team has had is "same old Bills". That has a demonstrable effect on the field.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Whether it's due to our wideouts or QBs, our offense is clearly based around rushing outside the guards, short conservative throws, and then the occasional bomb over the top for Goodwin or Graham.

[Mace]

looked like a fairly vanilla offense to me with the only wrinkle being the up tempo stuff. thats fine as long as they can execute it well but really they didnt, hamstrung by the super young qb carousel. plus it was massively arrogant for marrone and hackett not to have either a good qb coach or a veteran qb backup or both imo, stunting ejs growth curve

but thats all in the past now, they were gonna get a pass on their first season anyway due to the all new everything nature of the team. starting next season they need to show some pretty remarkable improvement in the offense or their coaching seats are gonna heat up fast. theyd be ahead of the game had they got that good qb coach but they didnt, i hope to god they go out and get one now

All I'd add is that it looked like a fairly vanilla offense not intending to be vanilla but falling back on it. They sort of appeared to me to have some complex routes the new receivers weren't sure about and the new QB's couldn't follow. "looks like spaghetti, check down."

It was indeed hugely inexplicable to not have a QB coach or a vet helping.

My thought, and I sure don't know it's right, is that Manuel and Lewis got valuable exp from film and games in what plays were meant to do, and how they might develop. Up to their careers what they can do with it. I don't really include Tuel, because if Manuel was raw QB meat, Meat, Tuel was the steer being chased with someone trying to bite a mouthful of beef off his leg.

What I "think" it's meant to be, is a high speed up tempo west coast ball control looking offense, with initial long ball options built into every play to use the theoretical speed of the receivers, and meant to be defined at the line by the QB who hasn't risen yet.

They NEED a QB coach for The Three, and I don't know Manuel, Lewis and Tuel won't pay off like they think. Surprised myself in thinking Lewis may well be the gem of the bunch.

If this round of building again fails, in 3 years I'll look back not at the QB's as players, but at the point of ruin being that they failed to anticipate needing a QB coach, with Marrone failing to mend his offense in the same way Gailey failed to ever mend his defense.

Last thought, the Bills 90's Blitzkrieg offense, had an experienced rookie in Kelly to start with, a very experienced Marchibroda to guide him, and a very capable Marchibroda who had worked with Bill Kilmer, Bert Jones, Vince Evans, Eric Hipple, Gary Danielson, and Ron Jaworski over 15 years of working with offense and QB's to know what worked and didn't. Some of those guys are not real good, but you don't learn well if you learn at all via nothing but the best or in Hackett's apparent dual purpose case, coordnating/coaching no one but Ryan Nassib against a college schedule.

[trapezeus]

offensive philosophy: let's let the defense help us out.

[justasportsfan]

The coaches are still learning about the players they inherited. This includes Spiller and most especially EJ.

You would have to go back to what they did in Syracuse. In their last year they has to tweak their offense based on their players. I just hope they don't tweak it to what EJ can do or we're going to dink and dunk all day long. If EJ can't do what they want to do then I hope they find another qb.

[Beebe's Kid]

The Bills' philosophy is very offensive.

[Beebe's Kid]

The coaches are still learning about the players they inherited. This includes Spiller and most especially EJ.

You would have to go back to what they did in Syracuse. In their last year they has to tweak their offense based on their players. I just hope they don't tweak it to what EJ can do or we're going to dink and dunk all day long. If EJ can't do what they want to do then I hope they find another qb.

It will be nice when they have a little practice time before the season to get to know the players. Also, I have heard that some teams will be experimenting with actual recorded footage of previously played football games...I don't know if I want the Bills to invest in this crazy new technology or not, because I root for Ralph to make as much money as possible. Imagine if they had a group of people that were to watch these moving picture shows of old football games...they would have an understanding of the players they had.

How can you seriously act like they don't know what they have? If they don't know what they have, they are in the wrong business. This excuse works every year. They always have new people to have to "figure out," yet they never seem to have a plan that utilizes these players' strengths. Is it the wrong players, or the wrong system? Or are we just hoping that people that get it all wrong one day show up and get it all right? I mean, once they finish their detective work and figure out what they have...

Sometimes things that sound so reasonable don't make much sense at all. Like the developing of players. Sounds great. Now I want to actually see it.

[DraftBoy]

Spread WCO with a high tempo and ZBS run blocking schemes.

Not all that complicated but designed to keep the D off balance and not know what's coming next.

Now our execution of it is a completely different story.

[Buffalogic]

Philosophy was run directly up the centers ass every run play...And do it from the shotgun!!

[Historian]

Try not to score a safety for the other team...

[Generalissimus Gibby]

Run, Run, Pass and punt!

Close, but its more like Run, Pass, Sack, punt

[stuckincincy]

Sell tickets.

[OpIv37]

Close, but its more like Run, Pass, Sack, punt

Sometimes they change it up with incomplete pass, run, run punt or incomplete pass, run, sack punt to keep the D on their toes.

[Mace]

Sometimes they change it up with incomplete pass, run, run punt or incomplete pass, run, sack punt to keep the D on their toes.

That's an integral part of the philosophy. Good eye.

[Mace]

Sometimes they change it up with incomplete pass, run, run punt or incomplete pass, run, sack punt to keep the D on their toes.

Thinking about it, in re-signing Moorman they have added the pooch punt and expert shank into it. He gives them the option of throwing a bad fake pass or running ineffectively on the fake.

I want to see the punter that can shank, pooch, pass better or worse, run more woefully or better, than the 75 year old Moorman I have come to love and appreciate, because after the game he might be at your house and get you another beer while washing your dishes, signing your paper towels, and making sure the seat is down for your gf or wife.