I've been paying close attention to the Patriots, because the road to the Super Bowl goes through New England. During the Pittsburgh game, the announcers showed a stat about how QBs did when they faced Belichick twice in the same year. The average QB did a LOT worse the second time around.
Take Peyton Manning. In his first 2004 meeting with the Patriots, he nearly led his team to victory. In the second meeting, the Indy offense scored just three points. Rothlisberger is another example: he had a good game against the Patriots during the regular season, but played like a rookie in that playoff game. The point here is that it's really going to be hard to win the year's second game against the Patriots by relying on the passing game. By the same token, it would be really tough to beat them in the playoffs by using our passing game.
That's why we need a strong running game as the foundation for our offense. We have the beginning of a strong running game in the form of Willis McGahee. But one man is not a running game. I once saw Barry Sanders get held to -3 yards for the entire day, because his offensive line got outplayed by the other team's front 8. The other team was playing against the run; and daring the Lions to pass. In the second meeting between the Bills and the Patriots; the Patriots also respected the run a lot more than the pass; resulting in a poor day for McGahee. I don't blame McGahee: his line gave him less daylight to run to than you'd typically see at a vampire convention.
In the game between the Steelers and the Patriots, the Patriots put a lot of men into the box to stop the run. The Steelers had success running the ball anyway; and used their running game to put up a lot of points. Had it not been for all those turnovers, the Steelers might well have won that game. Even as it was, the Steelers with their run-oriented offense put up a lot more points than the Colt's pass-oriented offense did the previous week.
The Steelers were only successful in running the ball because they combined a dominant running back with possibly the best run-blocking offensive line in the league. With that kind of brute force at the Steelers' disposal; it didn't matter as much how smart Belichick was. You're not going to beat Belichick by outsmarting him, so you may as well beat him by ramming the ball down his throat.
That's why the Bills need to use their first day picks, plus whatever they get from Travis Henry, on their offensive line. The Bills need to get a LT, LG, and a dominant, run-blocking C. One NFL personnel man said this could be the deepest and best draft ever for centers, so it would be foolish to let that opportunity pass us by. Assuming the Bills use the first day picks and the Henry picks on offensive linemen, our line might become as good as that of the Steelers. TD has only found two permanent offensive line starters via the Bills' draft. Both came on the first day.
With a dominant offensive line in place, the Bills could ram the ball down the Patriots' throats with McGahee. Every so often, Losman could attempt a 40 yard pass to Evans. Even if the pass gets picked off, it's no worse than a 40-yard punt. But only by putting ALL the big three picks (the first day picks and the Henry pick/player) will the Bills be able to take control of the game with their running attack. They must ignore TE on the first day of the draft. They must ignore DL. And they CERTAINLY must ignore the kicker position on the draft's first day.
