My thoughts on these numbers.

[Tatonka]

BILLS TEAM RANK:

Rushing Offense - 63.7 yards per game (31st) - we have got to get this corrected.. just pathetic.. i dont know and dont care if it is Henry or the Oline.. whichever it is.. fix it.

Passing Offense - 206.7 ypg (16th) - not real concerned about this.. run to set up the pass. we have all the components we need to be as good a passing team as anyone in the league.

Total Offense - 270.3 ypg (26th) - the horid rushing totals are dragging this down, but the rushing aspect of the offense should be the focus obviously.



Rushing Defense - 122.0 ypg (23rd) - for all the talk of a good defense, the pats dont have a RB, but faulk did ok, tayor got 90 on us, and ricky got 150.. the run defense is NOT where it needs to be.

Passing Defense - 157.7 ypg (6th) - looking very strong in this area. probably the strongest part of the team.

Total Defense - 279.7 ypg (8th) - over all numbers look good, but we still need to really shut down the opposing teams RBs.

[stuckincincy]

Just a guess here, but I think that the multiple formations used in a zone blitz scheme present a heady QB with some favorable check-off oportunities, especially on the road where the crowd noise factor, well, favors the home team. I'm not a real big fan of blitzing.

I only get to see a few Bills games a year, but I wonder how many total plays were run with Gash on the field YTD. I did see the Titans preseason game, he looked supurb. I tend to think that currently fashionable trend across the league of situational substitutions of offense ends up with a lot of third-and-long stuff.

Regarding run D: Dunno if it's a defensive erosion, or that it's just in the progression (Faulk/Smith then Taylor then Williams) the quality of the opposition's RB's have increased.

Stats thru the years very strongly indicate that when teams run the ball 30 or so times they have a high win percentage. Heck, if my RB was 30 for 3 yards and 3 td's I'd be a' smilin.

[Jan Reimers]

Certainly, in the Miami game, their running game and our complete lack of one, were the major factors in our loss. If we are to run, we will need Sam Gash on the field, along with an O line that is more dedicated to run blocking. Travis should be good when healthy, but he'll never be a Ricky or a Priest Holmes.

Defensively, we have the personnel to limit the other teams' running attack. Some of our schemes, however, work against us against the run.

[mush69]

I agree Tonk we definatly need to get the running game up to speed. I have been wondering myself why most of our running plays haven't included S. Gash. These draw plays that they have Travis running are not producing, but when Sam is in there to be the lead blocker and TH is running striaght up the middle he has had his best runs. Save the draw plays for the audible's and run striaght at them, this also helps the O-line because instead of some strange blocking scheme they can just hit the first guy that steps in front of them.

As far as the run D, what's the average YPC? I know Ricky had 42 attempts for 150+ yards and a 3.4 something average. But didn't NE and Jacksonville also have alot of attempts. I just may have to do some stat searching myself, I'm curious now!

[MDFINFAN]

Hey Tonk, it's almost as if you guys have taken the Marino type O we had and brought it here. I'm still puzzle by the lack of run, since all off season long, this was suppose to be the focus, I had picked TH to be the monster running in the NFL this year. But last year you guys kind of did the same thing, then TH broke out the last 10 games of the year, maybe it's just the way your O starts off. But against a team like KC, Denver and couple of others, you do need a running game to counter theirs, plus they throw better than Miami, so if they get their running game going, plus throw in the pass that can really hurt the Bills in the areas they playing good and bad in now. Your run D is puzzling, I'm not sure of why people have been able to run, yes I don't like Adams, stop historially he's usually solid at the begining of the season, maybe he will buck his trend and get better as the year goes on..But he's kind of slow and sometimes react to slow as runners go by. I still expect TH to pick it up as the year goes on. This will be fixed. I expect TH to approach last year's numbers when all is say and done.

[mush69]

So I did the some searching and found this:

total rushing attempts on our D- 87
total rushing yrds on our D- 366
total avg per carry- 4.2
longest run given up by our D- 28 yrds
2 rushing TD's given up
Ranked #11 in the league for rushing D.

Not to bad considering 1 runner had almost half the yards we have given up this year and that same runner had 42 attempts, just shy of half the total attempts. I dare say that said runner is in the top 3 RB's of the league.

[stuckincincy]

I'm leery of these early-season rankings. Here in Cincy they are touting that they are #4 in pass def. In their 1st game, Plummer was putrid (Portis however was not). Loss #1. At Oakland, Gannon was in a deep fog plus the Raiders exibited a pretty poor game plan. Loss#2. At home against Pittsburgh, Maddox did ok; the Steelers shortened their passing game, and Zeroue and Bettis pounded them. Loss #3. :violin:

The Bengal's DB's (Jeff Burris, Tory James, Artrell Hawkins, Marques Manual and Kevin Kaesvaharn) remain a sorry bunch...although James, coming over from Oakland, is adequate.

Their run def, on the otherhand is I guess around 28th...Portis lit 'em up, the Raiders finally wised up and started using Gardner, and Phg woke up. The Bengals didn't want their PD tested so they paid for it.

My 2 cents.

[TedMock]

We ran the ball more than we passed the first two games. I know that we didn't do well statistically but not giving up on the run allowed us to pass effectively. Plus we got first downs and TD's via the run when we needed it. So while the "stats" weren't there, we were actually running effectively. I was perfectly confident that the "stats" would come around. Then there was Sunday night. Only down by 1 TD and we abandoned the run a la last year, all year. Travis is a good back, we have a good WR corps and Drew is a good QB. The players don't scare me, Gilbride does. I actually like GW, it's KG that scares the hell out of me and I think GW has to step in now and shorten the leash a little. Also, getting TKO for Peerless (which is really what happened) was well worth it. Problem is we now do not have the burner that defenses have to respect. Moulds can play that role but he's our #1 guy so why? I like Reed and Shaw but when Moulds is doubled, they can't keep the corners back. Peerless dropped a lot of ball last season but he also had big play ability. Corners had to respect his speed so it opened things up underneath as well. I think Reed and Shaw can be #2 and #3 but maybe bringing Brown and his 4.18 speed in the game now and then to keep D's honest could help open up the running game.

[stuckincincy]

Yep. I'd like to see Brown speed down the field also.

[The_Philster]

Originally posted by stuckincincy
Regarding run D: Dunno if it's a defensive erosion, or that it's just in the progression (Faulk/Smith then Taylor then Williams) the quality of the opposition's RB's have increased.

I'd say it was a progression for the most part and it shows the obvious...that our run defense isn't what it should be by a long shot.