ESPN Reviews the bills

[justasportsfan]

Bills need Losman to make plays


AFC East
Buffalo Bills With a new untested QB in J.P. Losman, the Bills will likely emphasize a power run game in 2005 with RB Willis McGahee. They will try to run the clock and take pressure off Losman, and when the do throw the ball, they will try to utilize safe passes and a lot of quick outlet routes.
The good thing for Losman is that he has excellent mobility. Offensive coordinator Tom Clements will change the passing game that he had for immobile QB Drew Bledsoe to a lot more roll outs and bootlegs, where Losman can challenge the defensive perimeter. It will also also simplify his reads because he will only really have to look at half the field. Look for Buffalo to also utilize a considerable amount of QB draw plays, where Losman has the opportunity to tuck the ball and run if he doesn't see something open.

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Shutup Ublink

[ublinkwescore]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

?

[Drive 4 Five]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

More genius by ESPN. How can you emphasize the running game with an unproven QB? Every team we play, beginning with the Texans, is going to stack the line, control the the running game and force the Bills to beat them in the passing game. Any fan with reasonable knowledge of the game knows that. Until Losman proves to the league that he can handle himself under immense pressure, and begin to make the defense pay for playing the Bills one-sided, that is the type of defense you can expect week in and week out.

[Mr. Cynical]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

More genius by ESPN. How can you emphasize the running game with an unproven QB? Every team we play, beginning with the Texans, is going to stack the line, control the the running game and force the Bills to beat them in the passing game. Any fan with reasonable knowledge of the game knows that. Until Losman proves to the league that he can handle himself under immense pressure, and begin to make the defense pay for playing the Bills one-sided, that is the type of defense you can expect week in and week out.

That's what we faced all last year with The Statue...he can't move and takes a year to make a decision and throw...but WM still got over 1000 yards in 11 games even with the stacked line. IMO it will be harder to stack with Losman since he can move around causing the D to shift/pursue, thus making it harder to just stack the middle like they did last year and rush with impunity.

I can see him running bootlegs which should cause the D to pursue, and then throwing it back the other way to WM (behind the line) so he (WM) has less D to run through. Or, if they stay put and don't pursue, JP has the wheels to make them pay. Just a scenario I think will play out more than a few times IMO.

[AndreReed83]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

Cynical is exactly right, Bledsoe was mostly to blame for Willis' poor average (3.8 ypc I believe?) The Bills saw a lot of blitzes. Teams knew they could blitz the Bills whether the play would be a run or a pass, because they knew that pressure makes Bledsoe's brain turn into mush. Losman will be able to handle this pressure better because he can scramble for yardage or more time to pass. This difference in QB play is going to allow McGahee to have a much more amazing season then last years. Big things to come.

[Drive 4 Five]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

I sure hope you gents are right because defenses will show Losman far less respect than they did the immobile and undecisive Bledsoe. Regardless of how we feel about Drew, most of the teams we played did fear his ability to go deep. The exceptions being the Patriots, Ravens, and Steelers. Now every team we face will be coming with reckless abandon. Regardless I did not mean to sound as if I had no faith, it is no secret that we have a young but very talented QB, but we also have a great coaching staff and supporting cast who is going to put him in the best position to succeed. I say bring it on.

[mush69]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

Cynical is exactly right, Bledsoe was mostly to blame for Willis' poor average (3.8 ypc I believe?) The Bills saw a lot of blitzes. Teams knew they could blitz the Bills whether the play would be a run or a pass, because they knew that pressure makes Bledsoe's brain turn into mush. Losman will be able to handle this pressure better because he can scramble for yardage or more time to pass. This difference in QB play is going to allow McGahee to have a much more amazing season then last years. Big things to come.

So what are you trying to imply here? I am not Bledsoe and even I can move faster than Drew in the pocket. Then again I know thats not saying much, a snail might be able to get us both in a long run.

[AndreReed83]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

Oh my gosh, I spent all this time writing what I meant in depth, wondering HOW this person couldn't understand what I meant and then (to que John Madden) BAM! It hit me. Guess that's what a college education gets ya these days. Nice, very nice indeed.

[ryjam282]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

More genius by ESPN. How can you emphasize the running game with an unproven QB? Every team we play, beginning with the Texans, is going to stack the line, control the the running game and force the Bills to beat them in the passing game. Any fan with reasonable knowledge of the game knows that. Until Losman proves to the league that he can handle himself under immense pressure, and begin to make the defense pay for playing the Bills one-sided, that is the type of defense you can expect week in and week out.

Yano, I have been thinking the same thing as of late too. It will be very much like the Bears saw last season when Grossman went down. Thomas Jones was tearing up the league and fantasy wise, he was a STUD. Then Grossman goes down and the other teams sure weren't scared of Craig Krenzel or Chad Hutchison and they stacked 10 in the box, I know I saw 11 in the box on numerous occasions when I watched some of there games. I don't care if you have Walter Payton, OJ, or Barry Sanders, you can't run with that many people in the box, there isn't enough blockers. That is why Jones really crapped the bed and his value went down. I don't think the Bears should have gone after a RB in the 1st round as Jones didn't get much of a chance. I hope the same doesn't happen to us or Willis could be in for a long painful season. I do hold out hope that JP is much better than those Bears backups though but I envision something like that in the first game against the Texans, at least, till they make us earn it in the passing game.

[ryjam282]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

That's what we faced all last year with The Statue...he can't move and takes a year to make a decision and throw...but WM still got over 1000 yards in 11 games even with the stacked line. IMO it will be harder to stack with Losman since he can move around causing the D to shift/pursue, thus making it harder to just stack the middle like they did last year and rush with impunity.

I can see him running bootlegs which should cause the D to pursue, and then throwing it back the other way to WM (behind the line) so he (WM) has less D to run through. Or, if they stay put and don't pursue, JP has the wheels to make them pay. Just a scenario I think will play out more than a few times IMO.

I disagree here though, they didn't stack the box with Drew, they just blitzed a lot more. From sets where they looked like they were sitting back. They were almost always on passing downs as well. We made teams pay for blitzing with Willis and Drew didn't audible out of 3rd and short plays to throw bombs to the TE as much then either. I think he had more confidence in Willis and the coaching staff had to make sure they didn't put Drew in the "OBVIOUS" passing situations so teams couldn't tee off on him. They mixed it up a lot more as the year went on and when teams blitzed, we had a run play on and made them pay big time. So, the non-stop blitzing slowed down and in turn gave Drew more time and also gave Moulds and Evans more man coverage as teams had to take into account the Willis factor.

[ryjam282]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

I sure hope you gents are right because defenses will show Losman far less respect than they did the immobile and undecisive Bledsoe. Regardless of how we feel about Drew, most of the teams we played did fear his ability to go deep. The exceptions being the Patriots, Ravens, and Steelers. Now every team we face will be coming with reckless abandon. Regardless I did not mean to sound as if I had no faith, it is no secret that we have a young but very talented QB, but we also have a great coaching staff and supporting cast who is going to put him in the best position to succeed. I say bring it on.

Teams definitely respected Drews ability to throw deep but they had to account for Willis as the season went on and thus making Drew face a lot less all out blitz's where he would do something stupid. So, I think JP will have a lot of man coverage on the outside and I really think Moulds will have a very good season this year as Evans and Parrish will push the safeties back and allow E-Mo to work underneath as he did in '02 with Price here. With JP having man coverage to deal with, he definitely has the arm strength to throw the 15-20 yard comeback as well as the deep ball so I do think he will have some success throwing the ball. It will be the more complex defenses that he will see that scares me. As we all know that Bellichick will have something for the rookie he has never seen and will screw with his head.

Also, as far as the teams blitzing him. He had, possibly, one of the worst Olines in NCAA history at Tulane and took tons of hits. So, I think he has some idea of how to through under pressure. But, NFL pressure is different and we shall see how that translates to the big time.

[Yasgur's Farm]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

WM averaged 4.0 YPC... Not 3.8

[Jan Reimers]

Re: ESPN Reviews the bills

I think the article is making the point that we will follow last year's Steelers' model: Power running, dominant D, good special teams, and a simplified passing attack for the young QB.

It worked for them, at least until the playoffs.