This O-line is why the Bills won’t win it all this year.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

1 minute ago, Joe Ferguson said:

Was o line the problem on every game?

The interior linemen struggle against elite big guys in the middle, esp when there Are two really good DT’s. Today, it was Raekwon Davis and Christian Wilkins— who are elite. They also had a hard time against Cam Hayward in the Steelers game. They did meh against the Titans, who are pretty good inside. They otherwise have done pretty well against everyone else.

 

They are going to be up and down, and probably struggle against the bigger, athletic bull rushers. 

[TtownBillsFan]

Man, I was pulling for us to get Cody Ford,  as he was a stud at OU.  He's really,  REALLY,  disappointed.   I hope he gets it figured out,  but won't likely be in Buffalo.   Shame. 

[aristocrat]

How do we get brandon scherff from Washington 

[Solomon Grundy]

1 hour ago, JoPoy88 said:

People said the same thing about the OL early last year and they figured it out enough to get all the way to the AFC championship game. Why don’t you calm down.

He did say "win it all"? 

[bbillyfootballcoach]

1 hour ago, Joe Ferguson said:

Was o line the problem on every game?

"on" every game ??? no but when the oponent is crap it doesnt matter as much, more so when you play tampa bay or the titans...whats your point?

[billsbackto81]

Every team, and I mean every team has weaknesses. 

Pick one in the league and I'll gladly point out their short comings.

This is why game planning and coaching are so important. You plan to exploit other teams weaknesses while preventing them from doing it to you. Ever play chess?

We have an elite QB and a stellar receiving corps. Defenders with great coverage skills and a D front that gets decent pressure and a kicker with a rocket launcher for a leg. 

While I can appreciate your concern it's nothing others teams aren't dealing with as well.

 

 

[Solomon Grundy]

50 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Yea you give him 200 million to win these exact games and he did…there aren’t just dozens of great well rounded offensive linemen hitting free agency every year.  the dolphins have had a ton of draft capital to build a team to beat us specifically and josh is a Charles clay drop away from beating them 8 times in a row. Division games are always slugfests

I believe there are options on the roster currently. Why they won't give Ryan Bates a try is beyond mind boggling. 

[billybrew1]

1 hour ago, JY422 said:

Man I love this team.

Big 2nd half today. 
The heart.

The passion. 

Even the anger we saw today is a welcome sight. 

Tyler Bass is a stud. 
Coverage teams are great. 
This secondary is arguably the best in Bills history.
Same with the WR Corp. (some may prefer Reed, Lofton, and Beebe. Flip a coin as far as I am concerned)

Edmunds has finally started to play like the ProBowler he is and Milano is stud. 
The D-Line is more than serviceable and so are the RBs, Punting and Return game. 
Lastly, JA17 is in a hierarchy even Jimbo wasn’t in during his playing days. While I agree that it is too early to say the totality of Josh’s career will be hall-of-fame-worthy the way Kelly’s was I will point out that, at this moment of his career, JA17 is regularly discussed by national media as a “top 10 player in the NFL” and Jim’s name was never really involved in those discussions back in the day. (Those debates regularly included Rice, Montana, Marino, Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, Neon Deon, LT, Reggie White and maybe even Thurman and Bruce at times). 
 

All that leads me to my main point…

This O-line is the one weakness this Bills team has and they are the reason I believe the Bills cannot win the SB this year outside of some kind of other-worldly string of performances by Josh and the Defense. 

Morse is the only consistent performer and even he is only slightly above average. 
I really thought this group was going to come off the bye with a “pissed-off-us-against-the-world” mentality against a 1-6 phins squad with the 31st ranked defense in the league. Instead, it took JA17 putting the entire offense on his back and willing them to victory all while taking far too much punishment along the way. 
Mongo and Dawkins are great teammates and no doubt they give their all for the team and ALWAY have Josh’s back but they just aren’t good enough. Williams is serviceable and it is admirable that he can swing between tackle and guard on a weekly basis. Ideally he would be a high level backup swing player. If healthy, Spencer Brown is likely going to be the best OLineman by the end of the season but that isn’t saying much and he’s still a rookie.

Ike is serviceable and Ford is just a warm body occupying a roster spot.  
Playoff teams are almost always evenly matched and the games are usually won in the trenches. This Oline has yet to show anyone that they can be the reason the Bills are able to run out the clock during a tight game in the fourth quarter of a playoff game. 
Best case scenario?

Dawkins rounds into the best version of himself going into the second half of the season. Brown comes back healthy and continues to improve. Williams and Mongo play above their ability as the line gels together as a complete unit. 
I just don’t see it happening. Which will be a shame because this is such a tight knit team and it would be such an amazing story to see this be the collection of players and coaches that finally bring a championship to WNY!

 

Please, someone convince me I am wrong. 
I’ve never wanted to be more wrong about anything in sports!

 

#1 - The Fish were really up for this game and played very tough; especially the defense.

#2 - Spencer Brown was out.

#3 - Our starting line has been shuffled around all year and still hasn't had a chance to solidify. It will take the best five playing together a long time (~ 5 more games) for this to happen (Dawkins, Feliciano, Morse, Williams, Brown.).

# 4 Dawson Knox is a good blocker and knows what he is doing.

#5 - JA has to get a lot better at identify and calling blocking schemes with the line.

#6 - JA has to continued e to grow throughout this year at identify and defeating different defenses.

#7 - Dion Dawkins May still find his A game this season.

#8 - Spencer Brown could really improve through the season.

#9 - Feliciano could really improve at LG which is a new position for him.

#10. Williams could really improve at RG if he gets the hang of it.

#11 - Again, it takes a long time for a new line to gel. All our guys have to improve individually and then get used to the guy next to him.

 

PS - Of course Jim Kelly was recognized as a top player in the NFL for years.

 

Allen is still young and learning a lot. He is still getting better and his ceiling is the best player in the NFL.

(Though I Billieve QB rating and QBR are largely a function of the whole offense. And Kelly had a pretty good offense with two HOF).

I really do Billieve Allen and our offense could get much better by January with any luck. No injuries of course.

 

I also Billieve we could be much better next season... I say stay the course, keep next season's cap dollars and draft picks for next season. Allen is still young!

 

Go Bills!

[JY422]

1 hour ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

I think every elite team has been absolutely crippled by bad pass blocking at times this year…josh seems to handle it better than most if not all. Every team’s fans are probably saying the same thing as you right now lol

Nope. There are many teams with lines playing far superior to ours. 
Dallas, Baltimore, Cleveland, Zona, TN, and Rams to name a few. 

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

8 minutes ago, JY422 said:

Nope. There are many teams with lines playing far superior to ours. 
Dallas, Baltimore, Cleveland, Zona, TN, and Rams to name a few. 

pretty sure tannehill was the most sacked qb in the nfl as of a few weeks ago not sure if that changed. Have you watched all of these teams play? Kyler is running for his life on a very consistent basis…Cleveland hasn’t been good up front. Dallas has been stout but they seem like the exception and they have so much money invested there 

[JoPoy88]

35 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

He did say "win it all"? 

So the O line was the sole reason we lost that game huh? F—-ing stupid.

[Eastport bills]

The O-line has been serviceable because Josh is a beast. He can avoid penetrators that abuse our pass protectors, but running lanes are non existent for Zack and Devin. Short yardage scenarios require trickery, because our O-line can't win one on one matchups. A punishing run blocking guard at the deadline with a fast developing Spencer Brown might be good enough with our supporting cast.

 

[newcam2012]

2 hours ago, oldmanfan said:

I keep saying football comes down to physically beating the guy in front of you.  Our O line cannot do that against the better DTs.  They just are not strong enough.

Every team including super bowl winners have their weaknessess. I think it's fair to say the Bills Oline isn't a strength of the team. Question is can the rest of the team with its strengths overcome its weaknesses. A serviceable run game and Oline may be enough to hoist the Lombardi trophy. 

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

2 hours ago, Warcodered said:

But in other news we won today.

A win against the Dolphins should do nothing to quiet fears of not achieving the ultimate goal.

[Warcodered]

1 minute ago, Giuseppe Tognarelli said:

A win against the Dolphins should do nothing to quiet fears of not achieving the ultimate goal.

Kind of weird that we've finished our sweep of the Dolphins without playing either of the other teams in our division. I'm also annoyed that Mac Jones got so much time to develop before he has to play us.

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

2 hours ago, JoPoy88 said:

People said the same thing about the OL early last year and they figured it out enough to get all the way to the AFC championship game. Why don’t you calm down.

So the goal is getting to the AFC Championship?

[SMAKCruiser]

Is Vlad Ducasse still available???

[John from Riverside]

Teams are not all pro in every position to say that we can’t make it to the Super Bowl because of our offense of line is probably not true it just reduces our chances of it

 

22 minutes ago, Giuseppe Tognarelli said:

So the goal is getting to the AFC Championship?

You have to get there in order to have a chance to play in the Super Bowl you know that right

[JoPoy88]

37 minutes ago, Giuseppe Tognarelli said:

So the goal is getting to the AFC Championship?

We know what the goal is. All I am saying is the OL can improve, just like they did last year. And the offensive line wasn’t the problem in last year’s AFC championship game.

[bbillyfootballcoach]

1 hour ago, SMAKCruiser said:

Is Vlad Ducasse still available???

no...he has no new pics of bean or mcdermott.