In the past four games, the Bills have had one legit sack

[JStranger76]

You say missing our best pass rusher (who has to be accounted for on every play ) is the reason for such a poor pass rush oak tree 12?? News flash: Our pass rush sucked when Schobel was healthy too, so you need a clue. When Aaron Schobel is your best pass rusher, YOU"VE GOT PROBLEMS. Schobel is decent, but we need someone on the other side AND a better DT so Kyle Williams is not starting, but coming on the field in the 2nd rotation. The front 4 is where it needs to happen because in this defense the coaches put a higher priority in coverage and run stopping ability when it comes to LBers. Plus, there is only one DeMarcus Ware in the league as well. LBers who can cover and have elite pass rush skills are RARE. There are many great pass rushing LBers out there (Porter, Harrison, Merriman to name a few) but most of em' are not good in coverage, so our wonderful coaches won't even be looking for these guys.

[generaLee83]

I'm not giving them credit for the Rivers second quarter whiff/fumble that got called a sack (God knows why). The only sack they have is Kawika Mitchell's fourth quarter sack against Rivers. They had none against Warner, Pennington, or Favre, and not one of those guys is remotely mobile. Favre also kept a close pace with the other three in terms of completion percentage: 68%. They've had 2 INTs in those four games.

 

Aside from the "occasionally shows up" Stroud and Williams this defensive line is an absolute joke.

 

Schobel and Kelsay are the two most overpaid and overrated defensive ends in the entire NFL.

 

I would love to see both get cut next season and replaced with players who occasionally try to get to the QB and not sprint to the opposing endzone.

[Orton's Arm]

Right, and this problem isn't solved by Fewell screaming into the headset, "JUST BLITZ!!!!!11"

 

This defense isn't built to blitz at any of the three levels. The coverages aren't made for it, the secondary isn't built to play man-to-man bump and run, we're made to play with less than 4 linebackers on the field, and the linebackers aren't particularly good at blitzing. I'm afraid there's just going to be a lack of a pass rush until we can improve the personnel along the front four.

 

It was foolish to go into another season with Kelsay/Denney manning a DE spot...some of us were ignored when we were screaming as much prior to the draft.

 

All that said, I do think Fewell calls significantly more blitzes than people are giving him credit for...the posts saying he only calls 2 a game are laughable. Poz alone probably blitzes a good 4 times a week.

You make an excellent point: the DL is one of our two areas of most significant need. The offensive line is the only other area of the team which should be regarded with that same level of seriousness. All our other needs are secondary including OLB (re-sign Crowell) and pass catching TE (hope Fine continues to improve, and a pass catching TE isn't much good anyway if the QB's on his back). I hope that in the 2009 draft, the Bills use their first three picks on linemen.