THE ROCKPILE REVIEW - Scary, but Plenty of Treats

[Shaw66]

The NFL season follows a predictable pattern:  In September, a few teams explode offensively and a few teams are absolutely terrible.  Some players (veterans you’d expect and some younger players you wouldn’t) have some spectacular performances.   The trend continues in October, but less dramatically.  Some team (this year it’s the Chiefs) struggles unexpectedly, and a few that had shown some promise (like the Bengals and the Chargers and Cardinals) appear to be the new powers.

 

Then November hits, and the real NFL season begins.  There’s still a really bad team or two, but all of a sudden just about other every team becomes a tough out.  The truth is that parity is real – even the weakest teams have very good football players, and they don’t like losing.  And those explosive offenses?  Well, every team has seen two months of film on them, and every team has seen what other teams have done to slow down the high flyers.  When November comes, tough, hard-nosed football returns.

 

Reality returned to the NFL in 2021 in week 8.  Okay, it wasn’t November yet, but it was close enough.  It began on Thursday night, when the Packers took down the league’s only undefeated team.  Welcome to the real NFL, Kyler Murray.  You’re a spectacular player, but spectacular isn’t enough in the NFL.  Let’s see how the next two months go.

 

Then on Sunday, other teams got punched in the face.  Sorry, Bengals, the Jets were ugly for a month or more, but it’s time for real football with real football players, some of whom are really tired of losing.  Sorry, Chargers, the masters of real football came to town and showed you how it’s done. Sorry, Browns, but Tomlin and Roethlisberger know a lot about November football, and if you want to play with the big boys, you have to step it up.

 

All around the league on Sunday, rough tough football was on display.  Trench warfare.  Hard, power running.  Ball security.  Courage in the face of adversity.   Even the G.O.A.T. got his nose bloodied.

 

In the NFL, there’s preseason in the summer, warmups in September and October.  The true regular season begins in November.  Or in this case, on Halloween.

 

The Bills entered the true regular season at 4 and 2, coming off a tough loss to Tennessee and a bye week.  They needed a win for several reasons – to get back to winning, to keep pace with the rest of the AFC front-runners and well, because it was the Dolphins.  Like a lot of AFC front-runners, they weren’t ready.   They were prepared, but they weren’t ready.

 

The Bills seemed to think that the game would be a Halloween party – maybe a few scary moments, but mostly a lot of laughs and treats.  But these weren’t some cute little kids coming to town.  These weren’t the hapless Dolphins the Bills trampled 35-0 several weeks ago.  That game wasn’t the blowout that the score would suggest; the Bills got two quick TDs in September and then stalled for most of the game, before blowing it open late.  And the Dolphins, although still losing, had been playing better in recent weeks.  They were hungry, and they have good football players. 

 

The Bills’ offense did nothing in the first half.  One 35-yard drive for a field goal.  That was it.  Fortunately, the defense came to play, and Dolphins’ offense stumbled just enough to match the Bills; the half ended 3-3.  Devante Parker looked like the great receiver that he is, and the Bills were fortunate to keep him out of the end zone. 

 

What happened?  The real regular season arrived, that’s what happened.  The Dolphins were ready for it, and the Bills weren’t.  The Bills seemed to think it was still October.  The Dolphins came ready to play November football, and in the first half, they showed they weren’t going to roll over for the Bills. 

 

The good news is that the Bills aren’t just another NFL team.  This is a Sean McDermott team, and Sean McDermott builds his teams for November football.  And December football.  He builds his teams like Belichick and Tomlin, to be tough and resilient in the face of the toughest challenges at the end of the season.  It won’t always be pretty, but McDermott’s teams are built to rise to the challenge, week after week.  They don’t always win (sometimes you get stuffed on fourth and one), but they don’t back down.

 

And so, in the second half, the Bills took over the game and put the rest of the league on notice:  the Bills are who we thought they were.  They forced three straight Dolphin three-and-outs in the second half, while the Bills’ offense was getting rolling.  The Bills finished the game touchdown-touchdown-field-goal-touchdown.  The Dolphins made it close in the fourth quarter with a touchdown and two-point conversion, but the Bills answered with a drive that made it a two-score game.  Josh Allen’s touchdown at the end of the game truly was icing on the pumpkin donut, but it also highlighted the Bills’ offensive dominance.  It may be November, but the Bills still can move the ball and score.

 

(If McDermott is able to work his usual late-season magic, if his team can continue to get better, then the league should be worried.  Just short of the halfway point, the Bills are sixth in offensive yards per game, first in points scored per game, first in defensive yards per game and first in points per game allowed.  Whew!)

 

What are the signs of a good November-ready NFL team?   One is ball security.  The Bills were going to win the game if they didn’t give away the ball.  I’d been wondering whether this would be the game that Isaiah McKenzie coughed one up, and he almost did.   It was a tough play and a ball he should have fair caught, but it was a play – and a muff - that Andre Roberts might have made, too.  McKenzie’s been a rock, and the Bills survived the muff, so all was good.  Allen waved the ball around wildly on one first-down run, but he tucked it away before the hit.  He didn’t throw anything close to an interception.  The Bills weren’t going to give it away.

 

Another sign is that players step up.  Mario Addison has become a special player for the Bills on defense.  The Bills have stocked the defensive line with guys who can play, so no one needs to be on the field for every play.  The rotation has evolved in a way that allows Addison to be a true pass-rushing specialist, and the effects are obvious.  When Addison is on the field on passing downs, he’s applying relentless pressure.  And he’s able to do it because Jerry Hughes has shown the versatility to flip from right to left defensive end and create his own pressure.  Tua was under pressure all day, from the outside and from the endless combinations of inside rushes, led by Ed Oliver. 

 

Tua had success with Parker in the first half because the Dolphins were getting the ball out quickly, before the rush got to him.  In the second half, as the coverage tightened and Tua held the ball longer, he began to feel the heat.  Why did the coverage tighten?   Well, in part because Tre’Davious White was a man possessed, and not just because it was Halloween.  He’s getting like that every week – serious intensity.  And quarter after quarter, Levi Wallace’s coverage was better and better – by the fourth quarter he was there consistently as the ball arrived, working his hands, making the hit. 

 

Dr. Jordan and Mr. Hyde were their usual scary selves.

 

And for years I’ve been hoping I’d see Tremaine Edmunds take down a running back in the hole with authority.  Who was that masked man, stopping ball carriers all over the field? 

 

Sunday, Cole Beasley was the number one stepper upper.  In the second half, play after play, Allen found Beasley and delivered the ball, and Beasley caught everything that came at him.  Get open, catch the ball, get up field, take the hit, move the chains.  Beasley is a great weapon when you have wideouts who attract the attention that Diggs and Sanders do.  Defenses know that Allen is going to go deep if he can, and that gives Beasley plenty of room to work his magic.  (Kudos to Beas, too, for deciding that it was time to get off social media.  It’s good for him and good for the Bills to get rid of the distraction.)

 

Diggs was rewarded for all the gritty, dirty work he did on short yardage when Allen found him for a score with a picture-perfect throw on a classic Diggs route over the middle.  Sweeney was ready for prime time.  The offensive line survived another shuffle with Spencer Brown out, and then with Feliciano going down.  The run game still didn’t work, but the pass protection was solid.

 

Josh Allen showed up for the the game dressed as the super-hero he is.  Josh made some bad choices here and there, and he missed a few throws, but this was a gritty, MVP-type performance.  The Bills were 6-13 on third down and 3-4 in the red zone, and a lot of that was Allen.  His running was timely and extremely effective.  His 12-yard run on the late field-goal drive was one of those plays that only Allen makes – he’s just so big and tough that he takes yards that no other QB gets.  Daboll isn’t using Allen as the feature back; it seems like a surprise each time the flow starts one way and Allen gets to the edge behind a couple of lineman who have pulled and gone the other way. 

 

In the pocket, Allen is showing great presence.  He moves and slides to buy time.  He knows what he wants downfield.  His escape and short scramble to the right to get the ball to Davis for the first TD was classic Allen – he knew what he had, and he knew he needed to avoid the rush.  He had the strength to break the tackle and make the easy throw.  Allen finished with a passer rating over 100, and he is sneaking up into the top 10 in the passing stats. 

 

All in all, it was a solid November-NFL win.

 

Jacksonville won’t be easy.  No one is easy this time of year.

 

GO BILLS!!!

Edited November 1, 2021 by Shaw66

[maryland-bills-fan]

OK. I gotta ask.  Why do you think Shaw was better than Joe D?

[LeGOATski]

Spooky action at a distance. I was far away from the game, but I felt that 2nd half coming. 

 

It seemed like so many of the games last year where the Bills were feeling things out for a while, barely hanging on. You're watching and wondering if their heads are in the game. All through the struggle, Josh looks focused, yet frustrated. But once they figured it out, they exploded.

[Joe Ferguson]

Bills might go back to conservative football again. McDermott sees how well Bass kicks field goals. So expect to see kicking field goals instead of going for it on 4th and short.

[Shaw66]

38 minutes ago, maryland-bills-fan said:

OK. I gotta ask.  Why do you think Shaw was better than Joe D?

Well, I don't know.   My gut says Shaw.   He was just so good, consistently.   But i was going to those games and watching them on TV.   By the time Joe D came along, i was at college and running around, never around Buffalo, so I didn't see the Bills nearly as consistently in those years.  However, the Electric Company was more than a cute slogan - those guys were amazing at getting out clearing a path.  

 

Plus, to be honest, I'm biased against Joe D because he has whined so much about wanting more from the NFL for retired players.   I'm not saying he's wrong; I don't know the right answer to that question.   I just find complaining about it as often as he has to be tiresome.  At some point he needs to accept that he was born in the wrong era.   Shaw got paid less than Joe D, and Shaw's not complaining. 

[NoHuddleKelly12]

This column seems like it was purpose-drafted to be accompanied by the best of NFL Films soundtrack in the background…something like “The Autumn Wind”…well done!!

[uninja]

The Dolphins reminded me of so many drought era Bills teams in yesterday's game. I felt bad for them (if only for a moment) because I've watched so many BUF-NE games that were exactly like this.

[DrPJax]

1 hour ago, Shaw66 said:

The NFL season follows a predictable pattern:  In September, a few teams explode offensively and a few teams are absolutely terrible.  Some players (veterans you’d expect and some younger players you wouldn’t) have some spectacular performances.   The trend continues in October, but less dramatically.  Some team (this year it’s the Chiefs) struggles unexpectedly, and a few that had shown some promise (like the Bengals and the Chargers and Cardinals) appear to be the new powers.

 

Then November hits, and the real NFL season begins.  There’s still a really bad team or two, but all of a sudden just about other every team becomes a tough out.  The truth is that parity is real – even the weakest teams have very good football players, and they don’t like losing.  And those explosive offenses?  Well, every team has seen two months of film on them, and every team has seen what other teams have done to slow down the high flyers.  When November comes, tough, hard-nosed football returns.

 

Reality returned to the NFL in 2021 in week 8.  Okay, it wasn’t November yet, but it was close enough.  It began on Thursday night, when the Packers took down the league’s only undefeated team.  Welcome to the real NFL, Kyler Murray.  You’re a spectacular player, but spectacular isn’t enough in the NFL.  Let’s see how the next two months go.

 

Then on Sunday, other teams got punched in the face.  Sorry, Bengals, the Jets were ugly for a month or more, but it’s time for real football with real football players, some of whom are really tired of losing.  Sorry, Chargers, the masters of real football came to town and showed you how it’s done. Sorry, Browns, but Tomlin and Roethlisberger know a lot about November football, and if you want to play with the big boys, you have to step it up.

 

All around the league on Sunday, rough tough football was on display.  Trench warfare.  Hard, power running.  Ball security.  Courage in the face of adversity.   Even the G.O.A.T. got his nose bloodied.

 

In the NFL, there’s preseason in the summer, warmups in September and October.  The true regular season begins in November.  Or in this case, on Halloween.

 

The Bills entered the true regular season at 4 and 2, coming off a tough loss to Tennessee and a bye week.  They needed a win for several reasons – to get back to winning, to keep pace with the rest of the AFC front-runners and well, because it was the Dolphins.  Like a lot of AFC front-runners, they weren’t ready.   They were prepared, but they weren’t ready.

 

The Bills seemed to think that the game would be a Halloween party – maybe a few scary moments, but mostly a lot of laughs and treats.  But these weren’t some cute little kids coming to town.  These weren’t the hapless Dolphins the Bills trampled 35-0 several weeks ago.  That game wasn’t the blowout that the score would suggest; the Bills got two quick TDs in September and then stalled for most of the game, before blowing it open late.  And the Dolphins, although still losing, had been playing better in recent weeks.  They were hungry, and they have good football players. 

 

The Bills’ offense did nothing in the first half.  One 35-yard drive for a field goal.  That was it.  Fortunately, the defense came to play, and Dolphins’ offense stumbled just enough to match the Bills; the half ended 3-3.  Devante Parker looked like the great receiver that he is, and the Bills were fortunate to keep him out of the end zone. 

 

What happened?  The real regular season arrived, that’s what happened.  The Dolphins were ready for it, and the Bills weren’t.  The Bills seemed to think it was still October.  The Dolphins came ready to play November football, and in the first half, they showed they weren’t going to roll over for the Bills. 

 

The good news is that the Bills aren’t just another NFL team.  This is a Sean McDermott team, and Sean McDermott builds his teams for November football.  And December football.  He builds his teams like Belichick and Tomlin, to be tough and resilient in the face of the toughest challenges at the end of the season.  It won’t always be pretty, but McDermott’s teams are built to rise to the challenge, week after week.  They don’t always win (sometimes you get stuffed on fourth and one), but they don’t back down.

 

And so, in the second half, the Bills took over the game and put the rest of the league on notice:  the Bills are who we thought they were.  They forced three straight Dolphin three-and-outs in the second half, while the Bills’ offense was getting rolling.  The Bills finished the game touchdown-touchdown-field-goal-touchdown.  The Dolphins made it close in the fourth quarter with a touchdown and two-point conversion, but the Bills answered with a drive that made it a two-score game.  Josh Allen’s touchdown at the end of the game truly was icing on the pumpkin donut, but it also highlighted the Bills’ offensive dominance.  It may be November, but the Bills still can move the ball and score.

 

(If McDermott is able to work his usual late-season magic, if his team can continue to get better, then the league should be worried.  Just short of the halfway point, the Bills are sixth in offensive yards per game, first in points scored per game, first in defensive yards per game and first in points per game allowed.  Whew!)

 

What are the signs of a good November-ready NFL team?   One is ball security.  The Bills were going to win the game if they didn’t give away the ball.  I’d been wondering whether this would be the game that Isaiah McKenzie coughed one up, and he almost did.   It was a tough play and a ball he should have fair caught, but it was a play – and a muff - that Andre Roberts might have made, too.  McKenzie’s been a rock, and the Bills survived the muff, so all was good.  Allen waved the ball around wildly on one first-down run, but he tucked it away before the hit.  He didn’t throw anything close to an interception.  The Bills weren’t going to give it away.

 

Another sign is that players step up.  Mario Addison has become a special player for the Bills on defense.  The Bills have stocked the defensive line with guys who can play, so no one needs to be on the field for every play.  The rotation has evolved in a way that allows Addison to be a true pass-rushing specialist, and the effects are obvious.  When Addison is on the field on passing downs, he’s applying relentless pressure.  And he’s able to do it because Jerry Hughes has shown the versatility to flip from right to left defensive end and create his own pressure.  Tua was under pressure all day, from the outside and from the endless combinations of inside rushes, led by Ed Oliver. 

 

Tua had success with Parker in the first half because the Dolphins were getting the ball out quickly, before the rush got to him.  In the second half, as the coverage tightened and Tua held the ball longer, he began to feel the heat.  Why did the coverage tighten?   Well, in part because Tre’Davious White was a man possessed, and not just because it was Halloween.  He’s getting like that every week – serious intensity.  And quarter after quarter, Levi Wallace’s coverage was better and better – by the fourth quarter he was there consistently as the ball arrived, working his hands, making the hit. 

 

Dr. Jordan and Mr. Hyde were their usual scary selves.

 

And for years I’ve been hoping I’d see Tremaine Edmunds take down a running back in the hole with authority.  Who was that masked man, stopping ball carriers all over the field? 

 

Sunday, Cole Beasley was the number one stepper upper.  In the second half, play after play, Allen found Beasley and delivered the ball, and Beasley caught everything that came at him.  Get open, catch the ball, get up field, take the hit, move the chains.  Beasley is a great weapon when you have wideouts who attract the attention that Diggs and Sanders do.  Defenses know that Allen is going to go deep if he can, and that gives Beasley plenty of room to work his magic.  (Kudos to Beas, too, for deciding that it was time to get off social media.  It’s good for him and good for the Bills to get rid of the distraction.)

 

Diggs was rewarded for all the gritty, dirty work he did on short yardage when Allen found him for a score with a picture-perfect throw on a classic Diggs route over the middle.  Sweeney was ready for prime time.  The offensive line survived another shuffle with Spencer Brown out, and then with Feliciano going down.  The run game still didn’t work, but the pass protection was solid.

 

Josh Allen showed up for the the game dressed as the super-hero he is.  Josh made some bad choices here and there, and he missed a few throws, but this was a gritty, MVP-type performance.  The Bills were 6-13 on third down and 3-4 in the red zone, and a lot of that was Allen.  His running was timely and extremely effective.  His 12-yard run on the late field-goal drive was one of those plays that only Allen makes – he’s just so big and tough that he takes yards that no other QB gets.  Daboll isn’t using Allen as the feature back; it seems like a surprise each time the flow starts one way and Allen gets to the edge behind a couple of lineman who have pulled and gone the other way. 

 

In the pocket, Allen is showing great presence.  He moves and slides to buy time.  He knows what he wants downfield.  His escape and short scramble to the right to get the ball to Davis for the first TD was classic Allen – he knew what he had, and he knew he needed to avoid the rush.  He had the strength to break the tackle and make the easy throw.  Allen finished with a passer rating over 100, and he is sneaking up into the top 10 in the passing stats. 

 

All in all, it was a solid November-NFL win.

 

Jacksonville won’t be easy.  No one is easy this time of year.

 

GO BILLS!!!

Jax will be a bonafide , legit cake walk.   Have been down here since before the. First year of the franchise and I can tell you this team currently is perhaps the worst ever and struggling with a college coach making a transition to the Nfl.   I NEVER  take a team or Bills game for granted as I have seen too many Billsy loses over almost 40 years of following them, but this team is a culture of losing that has been fostered by the current owner whose Main interest is his desire to be the London team and just assure his investment. He is clueless about football culture as an owner and has consistently made terrible choices for the franchise on the field product.   It is unbelievable to see the most touted qb prospect in ages look unprepared, uninterested , emotionless etc.   Bills have had issues down here sometimes , but they can sleep walk thru this game.  Not worried.  
 

Josh Allen just announced as the third guest on tonight with the mannings !  Should be interesting!   😀

[Shaw66]

32 minutes ago, NoHuddleKelly12 said:

This column seems like it was purpose-drafted to be accompanied by the best of NFL Films soundtrack in the background…something like “The Autumn Wind”…well done!!

Whoa!  Maybe I need do a podcast with a soundtrack?  There's an idea.  

[RiotAct]

Jacksonville will have to play extremely solid, mistake-free football to keep it a tight game against us.  I have a lot less faith in them to actually do that than I did, say, the Dolphins.

[maryland-bills-fan]

1 hour ago, uninja said:

The Dolphins reminded me of so many drought era Bills teams in yesterday's game. I felt bad for them (if only for a moment) because I've watched so many BUF-NE games that were exactly like this.

NEVER NEVER NEVER feel sorry for any ***** that happens to the fish.

[mannc]

31 minutes ago, RiotAct said:

Jacksonville will have to play extremely solid, mistake-free football to keep it a tight game against us.  I have a lot less faith in them to actually do that than I did, say, the Dolphins.

I can't see Jacksonville keeping it close.  Lawrence has absolutely no one to throw to and if Robinson can't go, I don't really see how they score an offensive touchdown against the Bills.

[Shaw66]

39 minutes ago, maryland-bills-fan said:

NEVER NEVER NEVER feel sorry for any ***** that happens to the fish.

Well, I have to agree with that, but the original point was actually pretty good.  It DID look like so many Bills-NE games over the past couple of decades.   Like the Bills did so often against the Pats, the Dolphins played the Bills tough and then, like the Pats, the Bills said "enough" and shut the door.  

[Buddo]

Terrific write up Shaw, even though I don't feel the O-Line pass protected that well, at all.

 

I felt that eventually, Daboll started calling better plays, but also that Josh helped out his line a lot, with his escapeability, and pocket prescense. Too often, for my liking at least, Allen had hands on him, that he shrugged off, and still made a play. Heck, on the one TD, he was getting face-masked, yet still threw the perfect pass.

 

Having said that, you are dead right, the opening salvoes have been fired around the league, and it's time for hard nosed football.

 

I wouldn't say that the Bills are physically that 'tough', but what they are is one of the mentally toughest teams. 'Bend but don't break' might be a mantra for the Defensive style overall that Frazier and McDermott subscribe too, but I think it's a description that can be applied throughout the whole team. There is no quit in them, even when things aren't going the way they want them to.

 

Some of that is a credit to the coaches and FO for finding guys with that type of mentality, but nowadays, I think it's becoming as much a testament to the attitude that our QB brings with him. Allen simply refuses to take a backward step, and takes the rest of the team along for the ride.

 

There's a feistiness about Allen that gets plays made, evidenced by hurdling LBs, or as Romo put it 'out-muscling the whole D-Line'. Or having the temerity (and strength) to face-mask to the floor, probably the best DT ever, in Aaron Donald.

 

It probably shouldn't be a surprise that when things got especially 'chippy' late on, one Joshua Allen happened to be in the thick of it.

 

The Bills D is still a work in progress, but what they are starting to do really well, is pressure the opposition when they have the football in their own 20, or when it's in our 20. The middle 'half' of the field, you can move the football on them, providing you don't try and take any liberties passing, as our DBs are not going to allow that, but when the field is compressed at either end, they are all over it.

 

Ultimately, the Halloween game was something of a trick and treat. The first half was the trick that we had somehow become inept on Offense, and the second half was the treat that we showed we could still beat the proverbial, out of a team that was desperate to regain some credibilty.

[Shaw66]

30 minutes ago, Buddo said:

Terrific write up Shaw, even though I don't feel the O-Line pass protected that well, at all.

 

I felt that eventually, Daboll started calling better plays, but also that Josh helped out his line a lot, with his escapeability, and pocket prescense. Too often, for my liking at least, Allen had hands on him, that he shrugged off, and still made a play. Heck, on the one TD, he was getting face-masked, yet still threw the perfect pass.

 

 

The reason I say they protected well is that I think the perfect pocket that Peyton used to hang in is a thing of the past.   Perfect pockets for most of the game is a thing of the past.  If you're going to throw 35 times a game, on about 10 or 15 of those, you'll be releasing quickly enough that any kind of protection is okay.  On another 10 or 15, a good oline will give you a good pocket.  On the final 10 or 15, a good line will give Josh running lanes, or at least room to move.   I think that's what we saw yesterday.  

 

In the modern NFL, an immobile quarterback can't play, because his oline, no matter how good, can't protect him all the time.  Even Brady is getting forced to run more often. 

[Buddo]

19 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

The reason I say they protected well is that I think the perfect pocket that Peyton used to hang in is a thing of the past.   Perfect pockets for most of the game is a thing of the past.  If you're going to throw 35 times a game, on about 10 or 15 of those, you'll be releasing quickly enough that any kind of protection is okay.  On another 10 or 15, a good oline will give you a good pocket.  On the final 10 or 15, a good line will give Josh running lanes, or at least room to move.   I think that's what we saw yesterday.  

 

In the modern NFL, an immobile quarterback can't play, because his oline, no matter how good, can't protect him all the time.  Even Brady is getting forced to run more often. 

 

I wouldn't disagree with the synopsis above, or the statement about QB mobility, I just will agree to disagree about the Bills line performance, as we obviously don't view that in the same way.

[Shaw66]

15 hours ago, Buddo said:

 

I wouldn't disagree with the synopsis above, or the statement about QB mobility, I just will agree to disagree about the Bills line performance, as we obviously don't view that in the same way.

I just don't see many teams protecting their QB in the pocket on 90% of the plays.   No teams have studs across the whole offensive line.   The game has changed.   We're seeing mobile QBs for two reasons:  (1) Because they can add to the offense - Jackson, Murray, Allen, and (2) because nobody has a line that can protect a stationary QB.  QBs MUST be able to run, or they'll take too many sacks. 

[Dr. Who]

1 hour ago, Shaw66 said:

I just don't see many teams protecting their QB in the pocket on 90% of the plays.   No teams have studs across the whole offensive line.   The game has changed.   We're seeing mobile QBs for two reasons:  (1) Because they can add to the offense - Jackson, Murray, Allen, and (2) because nobody has a line that can protect a stationary QB.  QBs MUST be able to run, or they'll take too many sacks. 

While I think it's true that it is harder to build an elite o-line in today's NFL, the interior of our line is subpar. We need to do better.

[Shaw66]

15 minutes ago, Dr. Who said:

While I think it's true that it is harder to build an elite o-line in today's NFL, the interior of our line is subpar. We need to do better.

I don't think McBeane would agree with you. 

 

I think they've built the offensive line just the way they've built the defensive line.   They aren't looking for the standout stars; they're looking for versatile dedicated athletes who will work together within a scheme.  

 

The Bills don't have an Aaron Donald or Chris Jones or Kahlil Mack or JJ Watt on defense, and they don't have whatever the comparable names are on the offensive line.   The Bills don't strive to have a feature guy on either line.   Look at the draft choices - Epenesa, Rousseau, Basham - none of them is a flashy sackmeister.    Look at the 1-tech tackles - none of them is the monster in the middle.   That's not what the Bills want to play with.   And they've built the o line the same way.  

 

So, to call the o line subpar is correct, if you're talking about raw athletic ability and special playmaking ability.   If that's what you expect, yes, the oline is subpar and you're going to be disappointed.  That's not the ideal that McBeane are after.  

[Dr. Who]

7 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I don't think McBeane would agree with you. 

 

I think they've built the offensive line just the way they've built the defensive line.   They aren't looking for the standout stars; they're looking for versatile dedicated athletes who will work together within a scheme.  

 

The Bills don't have an Aaron Donald or Chris Jones or Kahlil Mack or JJ Watt on defense, and they don't have whatever the comparable names are on the offensive line.   The Bills don't strive to have a feature guy on either line.   Look at the draft choices - Epenesa, Rousseau, Basham - none of them is a flashy sackmeister.    Look at the 1-tech tackles - none of them is the monster in the middle.   That's not what the Bills want to play with.   And they've built the o line the same way.  

 

So, to call the o line subpar is correct, if you're talking about raw athletic ability and special playmaking ability.   If that's what you expect, yes, the oline is subpar and you're going to be disappointed.  That's not the ideal that McBeane are after.  

You might be right, but then I surmise the implicit counter to what I expect is that the "sum is greater than the parts." I don't see it. To me, Josh's superior athleticism is bailing out a line that at best is inconsistent. And I suggest the FA signing of Morse was meant to provide an anchor. Morse is not terrible, but he is perhaps somewhat above average if one prioritizes pass blocking, which I think plausible in today's game. I'm going to stubbornly claim that Beane ought to invest in more talent there, whether it fits his modus operandi or not.