50 Rushing Yards? Against the Bungles!

[WG]

That ain't right!

Henry didn't even average 1.5 ypc.

This is gonna be a LOOOONNG season if that doesn't improve very quickly.

I was gonna ask who saw the game and whether it was that bad. But 50 yards rushing, there's no explaining that.

[casdhf]

Actually, the Bengals have one of the better rushing defenses in the league

[RedEyE]

The Bills coaching staff was obviously focusing on timing between the QB and the WRs in the first and part of the 2nd. Once Henry was pulled out, GW started running the ball more. I think that Huntley and Bryson were fighting for 2nd slot. Bryson won the battle.

[WG]

cas,

It's nowhere near bad enough to have justified shutting Henry completely down w/ our first unit OL.

Oliver Gibson and Tony Williams are their starting DTs. They were 11th last year against the run, but the reason is that they only played a couple of games vs. teams that had running games.

They're not good. We should have been able to run on them. If we can't run on them, we're gonna have some problems vs. teams that really do have tough Ds. The strength of our offense is gonna have to be our rushing game if Drew is gonna have a good year. If teams tee-off on Drew b/c they can contain the rushing game, it's gonna be a disaster.

If I were GW, I'd work primarily on our rushing game until we meet the Jets in the home-opener.

[WG]

More disturbing is their 181 rush yards by two guys who might not even be playing this year and certainly won't be starting no matter how you slice it.

[Novacane]

I would not get to worked up over it. We did not even try and establish the run. On a few of Henry's carries he had guys on him as he got the ball. Having Rueben back and Teague getting used to center will improve that. As for their running. The first defense looked bad on the first drive but shut them down the other two possessions they were out there. The majority of their yards came against guys who will not even be on our team.
Overall I saw more positives than negatives!

[John Doe]

Well, let's see:

1. Jonas Jennings - spent most of the pre-season practicing at center. It just may take him a little while to adjust.

2. Michael Early - enough said.

3. Trey Teague - spent most of the pre-season practicing at left tackle. It just may take him a little while to adjust.

4. Sullivan - second year man subbing for a starter

5. Mike Williams - rookie

It just may take a few weeks for the line to come together.

[Rude American]

With only 16 weeks in the schedule, I want to see a guy adjust in 7 days.

[The_Philster]

Great job pointing that out, John Doe.
I wasn't happy with the overall performance of the O-Line either but with Ruben and JerryO out, it hurt. And maybe Jonas and Trey should move back to where there were in the minicamps if this keeps up.

[kgun12]

The OL is the hardest position to play because you need to know what the guy next to you is thinking as well as doing, with all the musicial chairs and injuries so far it could take several game into the regular season for these guys to gel! The defense is what is worring the hell out of me. FIND AN EXPERIENCED LINEMAN TD!!!!!

[Butch]

Let's get this straight. Anybody who is worried needs to calm down about the running game. Just look at our OL

1. Mike Williams' first NFL game.
2. Trey Teague is playing center for the first time since college.
3. Marques Sullivan is in his second year, playing a position he didn't play in college.
4. Jonas Jennings is a second year player playing in a different position than was intended going into camp.
5. Reuben Brown wasn't even playing.

Give these guys more time to gel. It isn't like these guys have been playing together for 3 or more seasons. And on top of that, we got 2 second year players and a ROOKIE on our OL! Our running game will come, just because their first preseason game wasn't great doesn't give us reason to panic.

[DraftBoy]

First off about the excuses for the Oline only 3 of them have excuses:
1. Micheal Early- He hardly plays
2. Trey Teague- got switched a week or so ago to C
3. Mike Williams-Rookie

As for the others: Jennings, and Sullivan. In my mind they nave no excuse. Jennings played LT in College, Sullivan played some guard in college, and has been practicing there.

BTW where did the sack come from?

[HenryRules]

JJ gave up a sack, but after that he looked pretty solid. Winfield, IMO, they all have one excuse that you forgot to include - its the first game of the preseason. If everyone could play at midseason form as soon as the preseason started, there'd be absolutely no need for the preseason and you'd never see teams progress throughout training camp.

[Butch]

Originally posted by Winfield_26
First off about the excuses for the Oline only 3 of them have excuses:
1. Micheal Early- He hardly plays
2. Trey Teague- got switched a week or so ago to C
3. Mike Williams-Rookie

As for the others: Jennings, and Sullivan. In my mind they nave no excuse. Jennings played LT in College, Sullivan played some guard in college, and has been practicing there.

BTW where did the sack come from?

When did Sullivan last play guard on a regular basis? Freshman or Sophmore year of college? Come on now, that's over 4 years ago! He was a full time LT his junior and senior years.

[WG]

Nice commentary Butch. It's appreciated.

As to time however, keep in mind that we only have a couple of weeks left. If we go into the season taking a few weeks to adjust, it could be the difference of several wins. The Jets at home in Buffalo are beatable. Same w/ @ Minnesota. If we lose those two games b/c we're adjusting, we're wasting a couple of wins. After that we play Denver on the road, followed by Chicago and Oakland at home. If we're still "adjusting" then, we'll likely be 1-4 or 0-5.

I did forget that Brown wasn't playing however. Still, the fact that the Cincy O was able to move the ball against our first team D at all w/o Dillon and only Warrick as any other player who's worth a crap to me was disturbing. What's gonna happen against Rice, Brown, and Gannon? Or Denver's O? Or w/ Anthony Thomas and a revamped Chicago passing game? Curtis Martin, Chrebet, Coles, and Moss? The Minnesota O? We'll give up 40 ppg.