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Beerball

By Beerball
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Fake-Fat Sunny Veteran

Fake-Fat Sunny

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An irony in all this is that Bledsoe actually was IMHO a far better player and more productive last year than he was the year before.

 

Though his passer rating only bumped up a marginal 3 points or so from 73 to 76 (the passer rating is the best but still a marginal with some flaws statistical indication of QB play) I think his play vastly improved last year.

 

This however I think if an indicator of two things:

 

1. It really shows how bad he stunk in 2003-

 

Much of his improvement was a significant jump from absolutely horrendous in 2003 to merely inadequate in 2004. I think the Bills were correct to cut him last year as our future lies elsewhere and though I think Bledsoe can still be effective as he was in 2001 in the right situation, this situation is not the one the Bills are in. TD should have quit while we were ahead (in terms of Bledsoe contributing to the business) or at best a wash (he was great on the field in 2002 and horrendous on the field in 2003) after two years.

 

It was a mistake to restructure and extend the Bledsoe deal for 2004 and beyond and we still will pay a price for that this year as the accelerated cap hit of cutting Bledsoe still sits on our cap room this year.

 

2. I am really impressed with the job TC and MM did with Bledsoe last year-

 

They did several specific things with this team which improved Bledsoe's play last year over the Kevin Killdrive disaster:

 

A. Since many things start with the OL, there was an impressive difference in the work JMac did with the OL compared to the learn on the job mistake filled work of Vinky and Ruel. The sack numbers were cut in half even with relative imobility of Bledsoe (he is a big boy who can take a hit and he deserves credit for that, but he is not going to avoid sacks with his mobility). I think a lot of the credit goes to better management of the OL from JMac compared to the confusion which Vinky helped create and Ruel could not solve.

 

JMac still has things to show and do that he is able to achieve very good results on an absolute basis rather than simply being relatively better than bad coaches. However, plaudits to him for managing MW well applying carrots (the gameball for his play) and sticks (the threat to move him to G which fooled MW and ICE) and also for somehow turning a PS Raven (Smith) into being even a credible though flawed starter for the Bills at LG.

 

This year we again do not have a lot of proven extraordinary talent on the OL (Teague, Villarial and MW MAY well be solid) but we are simply loaded when it comes to quantity if the quality is not yet proven. JMac can really prove alot this year and if the OL is not productive enough it is all on him.

 

B. TC/MM took a great step by limiting the ability and the types of audibles Bledsoe could call. Bledsoe simply has too much confidence in his rocket arm and my guess is that we ended up calling an extraordinary number of pass plays in a row in 2003 on 3rd and 2 or less because in addition to Killdrive being pass-happy, the too few run plays that were the original call were probably audibled into passes by Bledsoe who saw some marginal opportunity for a WR to get free IF, the WR ran the right route well, IF Bledsoe delivered the ball well, and IF the D was not fooling us with the coverage they were showing.

 

Even Bledsoe sang the praises publicly of the offense being simplified by a reduction in his ability to call audibles. We ironically became less predictable by reducing the number of plays we could switch into.

 

C. TC/MM did a great job using Bledsoe as a runner and using his 10 years of time and ball-handling ability to great effect.

 

Bledsoe will never be Micheal Vick breaking free with a few jukes to gain double digit yards running. However, just because it is not a long TD scoring tool for him does not mean he cannot run the QB draw to pick up 6 or 7 yards after we got stoned on our 1st down run to make our 3rd down play a potential run or pass. TC effectively used Bledsoe as an occaisonal runner using the QB draw to pick up positive yards which actually benefitted the pass game most of all. Opposing defenders knew that they did not have to guard the middle of the field against a draw under Killdrive and sold out to blitz or take outside rushes completely in 2003. Since they had to hesitate even the barest moment to make sure there was no delayed draw, it made the pass block much more effective.

 

In addition to the occaisional run. TC/MM recognized that Bledsoe really had shown very good ball handling skills as a Bill. The shotgun snaps of Teague were a real adventure as he started learning this when he moved to C and from what I saw it was actually due to Bledsoe's ability to field some of these wayward snaps that we did not have a lot more fumbles of the QB/C exchange in 02/03. In 04, TC/MM used Bledsoe's ball-handling ability to employ him to receive the pitch back from WM on the flea-flicker and toss some downfield strikes to Evans and Moulds. In addition to being able to handle the pitch back and make the accurate downfield strike, Bledsoe also used his vet experience on plays like his fake QB sneak (which he sold beautifully even though we had not run it alot) and pitched it back to WM who a scampered 40 yards into the endzone.

 

4. The alarm clock was a brilliant move-

 

Parcells went to the SB with Bledsoe as his QB in NE by using his force of will and great humor in practice to yell "just throw the damn ball" at Bledsoe every tine he would go into his familiar pat in practice waiting just a second for the WR to break free so he could hit him with some long spiral. In real games this resulted in some horrendous sacks. MM isn't Parcells (few HCs are), but he seemed to use an alarm clock set for 4 seconds which would go off whenever Bledsoe held onto the ball too long as a reminder/teaching tool to get Bledsoe to just throw the damn ball. I suspect part of the reduction in sacks was due to this work.

 

The bottomline to me is that though we were much improved moving from 6-10 to 9-7 (in the end W/L is what it is all about) Bledsoe's prescence was still a rate limiting factor in that his teammates still rely on him to win the game when they screw up (as the D did letting Pitts run last year and the ST did in the final game with Lindell missing a chipshot and Clements laying the ball on the carpet). With a talented but learning younster at QB this year, the rest of the team will need to recognize that like the 2001 Pats team they all have to step up for the young QB if we want to win.

 

In addition, I think Bledsoe also needs to remember and learn that as great as his arm is that he will actually be a more productive QB if he tries to do a bit less (throw the ball away and avoid the sack rather than wait for his WR to spring free by an inch so that he can needle the ball in to a small space. In certain situation's Bledsoe can be an effective QB to win games (like when he was using an O powered down for Brady's weaker arm and youth in the 2001 AFC championship game where Bledsoe played QB in relief of an injured Brady the majority of the game and threw the winning TD pass, also in 2002 as a Bill Bledsoe was very effective as the Bills QB until opponents got enough tape to dissect and learn the tendencies of the Killdrive offense and KK refused to vary the O enough to fool folks).

 

I suspect that Dallas with Parcells will be both smart enough to see this and Parcells will have the force of will and Bledsoe's confidence to create a situation on this clean slate for him to effectively run Big Ds O. They may not do it, but I am actually willing to even make a prediction here as I rarely do that 2005 will see a resurgence in Dallas play and Bledsoe's redemption as an achieving player. This may not happen as the unpredictability of injury and the strange bounces taken by this odd-shaped ball (not to mention refs occaisionally blowing the coin toss) may cause a bad W/L for Dallas. However, I think that this is a smaller chance and the likelihood that I see is an impressive comeback by Bledsoe despite the sense I have that cutting him was the right thing for the Bills to do.

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