"High Powered Offense?"

[WG]

Obviously there is something amiss w/ this offense that we've heard is so high-powered.

The only games that we've passed for over 300 yards and any significant scoring, were teams that have passing Ds ranked as such:

Minnesota 31st
Chicago 24th
Oakland 23rd
Detroit 29th
and N.E. but only on the merits of an 80-yard passing drive against a prevent D in the last two minutes that went 98 yards but could not produce a TD on three tries from within the 4 YL. 222 yards otherwise.

Why is this? Are we still viewing things thru rose-colored glasses? Or does anyone else here see some issues w/ our offense both passing and rushing. Actually, I happen to think that our rushing game is now stronger than our passing game. Henry has really addressed his fumbling problem and demonstrated to me that he's got some large potential in this league. It's just too bad that Gilbride doesn't know how to properly utilize an RB.

Thoughts?

[Pride]

I agree

[JayWood]

With this offense who the hell cares about the running back, even though he averages more than 4 yards per carry and will reach 1000 plus yeards for the season, with 10+ touchdowns. Why does KG not see how to win a game with the running back and not always through the arm of Bledsoe??

[Ingtar33]

I don't know... I think you're seeing the evolution of the Bills O right now. K.Gilbride still hasn't implemented the whole thing yet, and right now it looks like he still trying to feel out what works and what doesn't. It can take a while for the whole thing to get on track, as he has been trying different things in both the running game and passing game to get a better feel for his players. Gilbride is an accomplished OC, and in general I think he does a masterful job putting the D into untenable situations. He also believes (as do many OCs) that the key to success is repeatability. He wants the O to function like a machine, with predictable results for every play against every defensive scheme. We just aren't there yet.

About the lack of short yardage running...
This is the result of two things; One, Gilbride still doesn't have confidence in our O-line to gain even 1 yard in short yardage situations... and after watching this team week after week, I really can't blame him as it looks like the line gets too jacked up, and forgets their technique and just tries to bowl over the guy ahead of them... this tends to happen with a unit that lacks confidence in themselves as they just feel the need to force it too much... Bill Parcells usually had some great run blocking short yardage offenses, and this was the result of him psychologically manipulating the O... the Lineman knew that he would run, the other team would know they were going to run, and Parcells would run 10 or 15 time in third and short or fourth and short and be content to fail every time until the line finally started to calm down and believe that they could do it... the result is he got tremendous performance out of FA castoffs by isolating them in front of their team and letting them know that if they lost, it would because they couldn't get the RB one yard; Two, Drew Bledsoe tends to audiblize to a pass when he sees 8 or 9 men stacked in the box, he's right to do so, I'd just like to see him convert a few of those occasionally (like he did earlier in the year).

[Ingtar33]

BTW: its becoming more and more obvious that Henry is becoming an everydown back... we're seeing Gilbride lean on him more and more, give it some time folks Rome wasn't built in a day.

[colin]

Gilbride needs to run more in the Red Zone, we did it pretty well early in the season and we got away from it when Williams went down. Other than that I will take him.

He makes me nervous as a fan of the Bills, I wonder if he is gonna do something crazy on every play, it must really freak out opposing coordinators.

[WG]

Originally posted by JayWood
With this offense who the hell cares about the running back, even though he averages more than 4 yards per carry and will reach 1000 plus yeards for the season, with 10+ touchdowns. Why does KG not see how to win a game with the running back and not always through the arm of Bledsoe??

I think that's a great question! Especially since the 'arm of Bledsoe' isn't winning us any significant games.

[WG]

Originally posted by Ingtar33
BTW: its becoming more and more obvious that Henry is becoming an everydown back... we're seeing Gilbride lean on him more and more, give it some time folks Rome wasn't built in a day.

I agree. But on your prior post, Gilbride went to a passing game that hadn't even been effective over a rushing game that had been. Henry was averaging well over 5 YPC. I can see the point if Bledsoe & Co. had played well. But they hadn't. They only had 214 passing yards and 1 TD up until that point. The rushing game had been far more effective.

Besides, we not only needed either to score TD or FG, but also to take as much of that 4:45 off the clock as well. Gilbride has been in this league for how long now? Even someone new to watching NFL football would quickly realize that passing 4 times in 30 seconds ain't gonna take a bunch of time off the clock. Especially when 3 are incompletions.

Rome wasn't built in a day. But I'm sure it wasn't built by idiots either.

We must keep in mind that no one in this league has passed for more attempts over the past 10 seasons as either an O.C. or head coach than Gilbride. If Manning, Griese, Favre, Warner, or Garcia had been his QBs, then fine. That would be one thing. But he's had Stewart, Leaf, and some other fine QBs leading his teams.

I don't think Gilbride is good for us. He's doesn't put together a balanced game plan. Unfortunately, I think it's gonna be a few seasons before people realize this since everyone "oohs and awes" at all the yards that Drew throws for while completely disregarding any notion that it simply isn't resulting in a lot of points on the boards.

[THATHURMANATOR]

Its funny how quickly people can turn on a player. Three weeks ago people were talking division title and Bledsoe for MVP. A couple of games later its Bledsoe stinks and so do the Bills. Don't get me wrong some of the play calling have been horrible of late and the penalties are a joke, but talk about what have you done for me lately!!!!

[THATHURMANATOR]

I personnally still think Bledsoe is playing well. The O needs to start converting their redzone attempts. 1st and goal on the 5 yard line and we pass 3 straight times??? Especially when they couldn't stop Henry at all! That was pretty bad.

[SoCalBillsFan]

IMO, Bledsoe has done an awesome job this year. THe guy played well yesterday, yeahhe threw the late pick, but he still is a hell of a QB.

THat being said, he cant win games on his own. KG has issues with playcalling. Henry needs the ball more. Yes, there are improvements needed, maybe the offense is still evolving, but Bledsoe is certainly a QB who can take us to the Super Bowl. We cant expect him to win games on his own.

[WCoastFin]

Originally posted by Wys Guy
Obviously there is something amiss w/ this offense that we've heard is so high-powered.

The only games that we've passed for over 300 yards and any significant scoring, were teams that have passing Ds ranked as such:

Minnesota 31st
Chicago 24th
Oakland 23rd
Detroit 29th
and N.E. but only on the merits of an 80-yard passing drive against a prevent D in the last two minutes that went 98 yards but could not produce a TD on three tries from within the 4 YL. 222 yards otherwise.

Why is this? Are we still viewing things thru rose-colored glasses? Or does anyone else here see some issues w/ our offense both passing and rushing. Actually, I happen to think that our rushing game is now stronger than our passing game. Henry has really addressed his fumbling problem and demonstrated to me that he's got some large potential in this league. It's just too bad that Gilbride doesn't know how to properly utilize an RB.

Thoughts?

Whoa! well said Wys! your on the right page!....Although thats what Ive been saying from the beggining of the year....and no one would listen, heck, I even read a post that made me LMAO that stated something like "Wow, now I know what Rams fans felt like, this is the beggining of a powerfull offense" and I started LMAO! that person mustve been and you guys are a loooooong ways to being like the Rams offense, not to mention Henry being a Looooooooooooooooooooooooooong ways from M.Faulk....but IMO, the only reason your Running game is getting better is becuase these defenses still fear that Powerful ofense that you never had....thats what happened against Miami...why do you think Henry didnt touch the endzone? Becuase when it came down to the redzone we knew that the Long Passing game that Bledsoe loves to play, was no longer available.

[WG]

TT,

Don't go readin' into things right now. But I gotta tell ya, the expectations for Bledsoe were high when he came here. Everyone argued that he didn't have any tools in N.E. and that he finally has them here. I fully agree.

He has the RB now. He has an OL that gives him plenty of time usually. He has the aura that we're always in the game. He's got WRs such as he's never had before. He's got two very good receiving TEs. He's got an O.C. who allows him to throw even when it makes no sense for the team. He's got everything that he needs to shine.

So I think it stands to reason that if he doesn't at least match his career best while "he had no tools", then it's considered a subpar season. At this rate, he isn't even going to match his three best seasons from a TD perspective this season.

Having said that, I will also say that I still think that Drew is playing the best ball of his career now. He's not making a lot of dumb choices and throwing costly INTs. I realize that can change over the next few weeks as we'll likely be trying to come-from-behind in most games at some point, but for now, he's playing his best ball. IMO.

But I will also say that it is exactly these decisions to put the ball into Drew's hands that may be making him look less effective. If it makes more sense to run the ball, then it simply makes more sense to run the ball. That's just the way it is. By forcing Drew to try and do things, it only puts unnecessary pressure and expectations on him that if they do not work out, as yesterday, they simply make Drew look more inadequate that the situation merits.

That's where all this focus on yards is hurting us. We have to start looking at things realistically. If we can score more by running the ball, then why even put it "in Drew's hands"? Let's run the daggoned thing! I would much rather see our team be 12-4 w/ Drew only having 3,500 passing yards and 20 TDs while Henry has 1,500 and 18 TDs, than to be where we are and have Drew set all kinds of records that seem awesome. Right now I think we're more focused on Drew and him getting lots and lots of yards than we are in winning games. Certainly we're playing like we are.

I blame that on Gilbride. Gilbride simply needs to learn what should have been learned a decade ago by him, that often you must run the ball in order to give you team the best chance to win the game. That hasn't happened. Gilbride is not doing Drew any favors by "putting the ball in Drew's hands" at every single opportunity when the game's close at the end of the game.

[THATHURMANATOR]

I agree with that. Gilbride's playcalling has been very suspect lately.

[THATHURMANATOR]

What is Gilbride's obsession with constantly passing the ball anyways?? Henry was unstoppable yesterday but yet he only got 24 carries. What is with that?

[Earthquake Enyart]

Buddy Ryan was right all along.

[WG]

Originally posted by THATHURMANATOR
What is Gilbride's obsession with constantly passing the ball anyways?? Henry was unstoppable yesterday but yet he only got 24 carries. What is with that?

AMEN!

IMO if we run Henry in that last 4:45 we win. The clock gets largely used up, and I see us getting into the endzone by a balanced attack. Go for 2, ..., voilah!

Win! 6-4.

I think you were being facetious, but the running game was working, while the passing game was struggling on barely over 200 for the game. The Chiefs did a good job of preparing for us but wouldn't have succeeded had we not played into their hands.

[Dozerdog]

Just curious Wys, where would those teams rank if they didn't play the Bills?


We toss 475 yards at the Vikes, of course their numbers were low. Take out our game vs them and then rank them vs the rest of the league.

Overall, Ingtar has far more insight, objectivity, and knowledge on these matters than the resyt of us put together. You master the "Rookie" level of John Madden Playstation football an everyone becomes an expert.


I agree with him. It's a work in process that will take a season to work out the kinks.

[Earthquake Enyart]

C'mon Dozer. Everyone knows that if you take the big runs away, the numbers tell quite a different story.

[THATHURMANATOR]

LOL EE