maryland-bills-fan

I guess I'm going to put in my two cents. The Colts were using a mixture of a ding-and-dunk passing game AND big good offensive linemen . ( https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/colts-2020-position-by-position-running-backs/ar-BB170uKu ) to create holes for two good running backs. J.Taylor was a round 2 pick, the 41st pick. We may also see Akers (rams #52), Dobbins (Ravens #55), Gibson (Wash #66, ) , or Vaugh (TB #76) in future games this year. These were all drafted before Moss (#86 buffalo). .... .... Offensives sometimes concentrate their game plan on a specific part of the opponent's defence. The Colts concentrated on the linebackers. Short passes AND short running plays put the stress on the linebackers- and they had a lot of blockers and planned deceptions directed primarily on them. It game the defensive backs an easier game, but the success and yardage gains of the Colts depended upon making the LB lives miserable.

I am not sure. Some of those plays really looked like they were called by the OC as planned plays in order to slow down the pass rush.

Imagine if we had Taylor (1169 yards), Hilaare (803 yards), Dobbins (805 yards), Gibson (795 yards) or Akens (625 yards). All of those 5 rookies (who didn't have a training camp and little preseason) got more yards than you 2nd year player Singletary (607 yards). All of those 5 plus Swift(521) got more yards than our rookie Moss(481 yards). . Wouldn't it be nice to have a running back to help our tailback by carrying the ball sometimes?

The fact is, that it is not a choice between a great passing offense or a good RB. That is a strawman argument.You can have both. https://www.overtimeheroics.net/2020/11/28/nfl-rookie-running-back-rankings/ In this article <<== there are two top 3 RB's taken ahead of Moss, who are major parts of their team's offense and not just an occasional role player. (Robinson and Gibson). Helaire, Swift, Taylor and Dobbins are also strengths to their teams and get a lot of defensive attention. We need to get lucky to get a game breaker in the 3rd round (so far we got just okay guys) or need to spend a mid-2nd round pick. Also remember that rookie RB's, got a late start with learning the pro game and we are just getting to see where they ordinarily would be about a third of the way through the season.

Wouldn't it be nice to have one of those guys like Taylor, Dobbins, Swift and Hilaire?

I am not worried. I expect that there will be a LOT of quality veteran FA's looking for a one year or more home. Playing for a contender is nice for your career and also nice for looking good and finding another payday at a later team ..... The Bills play a variety of offensive and defensive styles so that we could pick up several players who are "incomplete" players. By that, I mean, players who are smart, have a couple of very strong strenghts but also some weaknesses that might keep them from being an every down player. We can pick up a couple of these players, sift through them cheaply and have them play only in certain situations. (Bellycheck made a living doing this). We already do this on the defensive line, where there is a constant shuffling of guys- partly to keep fresh legs in the game but also to attack the opponent's offence from different directions.

that McCoy guy worked out

https://triblive.com/sports/steelers-place-vince-williams-on-covid-list-left-perilously-thin-at-inside-linebacker/ They are down to a second string and a third string linebacker for Sunday. They play mostly a 4-2-5. Vince Williams is out on Covid protocall. He was their leader in tackles last year (63 with 43 solo) and will be replaced Avery Williamson. (6-2 247#). They got him via an in-season trade with the Jests, swapping a Pittsberg 5th for a Jests 7th. On the other side, start of season starter Bush is on IR, and a good replacement, Robert Spiller. got hurt against the redskins. That leaves the starter as Marcus Allen (6-2 215), a converted safety or "nickel linebacker". He was drafted out of penn state as a safety 2017 rd 5 #148 player taken and converted to LB at the start of the season.{https://steelersdepot.com/2020/11/keith-butler-confirms-marcus-allen-as-steelers-dime-lineback] . there is not a lot of depth behind them. Might the Bills take advantage of the new guys with an interior running game or other ways to attack? Allen has 9 tackles the whole year and did not play in 5 games. (Against the redskins he had no stats) https://www.steelers.com/team/players-roster/marcus-allen/. What would you suggest putting in the playbook?

Gee....... Think of this. IF your team is super against the pass- two good safties, three good DB's..... then the other team will run a lot, or use the pass to set up running plays. ... and vice-versa. ... ... Some "poor" teams look great in pass defence because the opponent is averaging 7 yards a carry, is eating up the clock and is on a safe route to a confortable victory.

Well...... "the footbone is connected to the shin bone,,, the shin bone is connected to the leg bone,,,, the leg bone is connected to the hip bone"...." ..................... The 6 yard rush is connected to the 10 yard crossing pattern,,,, the 10 yard passing pattern is connected to the 20 yard square out,,,,,, the 20 yard square out is connected to the 35 yard post ,,,,,,, the 35 yard post is connected to the 50 yard hitch and go ".... .... A lot starts with the running game keeping the linebackers and safeties with their weight and eyes leaning to the running back. Everything else in the projection gets you an extra yard for the deeper patterns and creates holes to make medium to deep patterns work real well. ... ... I like some old time gospel songs.

Speed wide receivers who play like Bob Hayes can be taken in the later rounds.

We have two 3rd round draft picks as running backs. By the time you get out of the second round, you will get RB's who have some missing parts- not fast enough, no break away threat, lack of pass catching,,,, somewhere the toy has some problems. There are gaps in the abilities and the defences will ignore those weaknesses and defend against the fewer good points and shut them down. You gotta draft higher to have confidence to get difference makers. Or you gotta take a lot of long shot picks and hope one day you will get lucky. In 2020, Moss was the 9th RB chosen AND the overall 86th player chosen. 8 NFL teams passed on Moss and chose a different running back. Edward-Helaire,,,,,,Swift,,,,,,Taylor,,,,,Akers,,,,,,Dobbins,,,,,,,,,Dillon,,,,,,,Gibson,,,,,,Vaugh,,,,,,, MOSS Starting RB's who were chose before him were Edwards-Helaire (1st RB, 32nd pick Kansas City),,,, Swift (2nd RB, 35th pick Detriot)....and Taylor (3rd RB, 41st pick Colts) . Notice that rookie NFL starters are picked higher than 9th RB? ( for completeness, also "starting rookie running backs" are 11th RB and 111th player drafted J.Kelly of the 2-7 Chargers and James Robinson UFA of the 1-8 Jaguars). The 5 other guys drafted earlier than Moss are 2nd string players, not starter

I think people have missed some important points about the running game. Some thoughts..... FIRST: The last few games, we have been down 3 starters on the offensive line. Morse playing center is out and Feliciano is the 2nd string center. The guard Feliciano is not playing guard (he is playing center) so a second team player is there. Ford is injuried and was starting to start at guard- he is out and a second team player is there. 3 second teamers does not work as well as 1st teamers. That is going to hurt trying to run the ball. SECOND: (pardon my departure from my homer style). We have two 3rd round draft picks as running backs. By the time you get out of the second round, you will get RB's who have some missing parts- not fast enough, no break away threat, lack of pass catching,,,, somewhere the toy has some problems. There are gaps in the abilities and the defences will ignore those weaknesses and defend against the fewer good points and shut them down. You gotta draft higher to have confidence to get difference makers. Or you gotta take a lot of long shot picks and hope one day you will get lucky. In 2020, Moss was the 9th RB chosen AND the overall 86th player chosen. 8 NFL teams passed on Moss and chose a different running back. Edward-Helaire,,,,,,Swift,,,,,,Taylor,,,,,Akers,,,,,,Dobbins,,,,,,,,,Dillon,,,,,,,Gibson,,,,,,Vaugh,,,,,,, MOSS Starting RB's who were chose before him were Edwards-Helaire (1st RB, 32nd pick Kansas City),,,, Swift (2nd RB, 35th pick Detriot)....and Taylor (3rd RB, 41st pick Colts) . Notice that rookie NFL starters are picked higher than 9th RB? ( for completeness, also "starting rookie running backs" are 11th RB and 111th player drafted J.Kelly of the 2-7 Chargers and James Robinson UFA of the 1-8 Jaguars). The 5 other guys drafted earlier than Moss are 2nd string players, not starters. THIRD: What do I think is lacking in Singeltary/Moss? [1] Break away speed and elusiveness. Other teams do not have to worry about these guys breaking through the line of scrimmage and making somebody miss in the open field and then running away from linebackers and safeties to get chunk yardage. They can nickel and dime a bit but not make field shifts. [2] Power through the line. These guys are in the middle of the weight range. (204#). They are not big enough to overpower linebackers (20-30# lighter) or tackles (50+ # lighter) and not really that much bigger than safeties (maybe 10-15# heavier). they are not much faster either. "Tweaners" [3] Wide receiving pass catching I think a coming trend in the NFL is having a small very fast running back, who can hid, squeeze through a small hole and blow by the linebackers. BUT he can also line up on the outside where he has the speed of a go-route wide receiver and presents match up problems for the defences. They can NOT cover him with a 220# linebacker. This either creates a single coverage on someone else ( or stretches zones) or forces the defence to go with an extra defensive back as their base defence. The consequence is that for the running game, you can scheme a O-lineman matching up blocking a safety, with an advantage. My summary, is that we have 3 nice backup running backs, but do not have enough horsepower to do much better. Maybe we could convince the NFL to give us another top 40 pick in 2021? https://fftoday.com/stats/20_run_pass_ratios.html https://www.ourlads.com/nfldepthcharts/depthchartpos/R B

Pittsburg is hard to figure out. They may have the easiest schedule. (https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-power-rankings-week-11-raiders-cardinals-rise-seahawks-titans-exit-top-10) top third 1-10 middle third 22-21 bottom third 22-32 9 of their games are against the bottom third 4 against the middle third 3 against the top third. They have had only one hard game so far. Theyl play teams ranked #31, #30, #29 , #28, #27, #27, #26, #25. that is 8 of the 9 worse teams in the NFL. (how did they miss the Jests?). We really don't know how good or bad they are. They have played a lot f easy games. They also have a scrimmage against the Redskins the week before they play us.

Here is what I mean. The Bills were caught trying to figure out who to prepare for when the Titans were next on the schedule. the Bills didn't know if they would play the Titans or the Chiefs. and had 9 days before this game suddenly got scheduled AND were preparing two different game plans. The Titans KNEW they would be playing the Bills (or that they would have 3 weeks off) AND had 16 days to prepare for the game, get plans and get healthy. Next up was the superbowl KC chiefs. KC had 9 days to prepare and were pissed coming off of a close loss. Bills had 6 days to prepare, were banged up and were coming off of a loss. It doesn't cause those losses BUT it didn't do us any favors.

We have 3rd round running backs. Notice that a lot of teams have 1st and 2nd round running backs. Gee, do you get what you pay for or are we so very clever and the rest of the world is stupid?

Are you saying that big people can not spell Butler? It is not like they are trying to spell defencse.

It sounded to me like the Bills did not have an answer to the Rams offence in the second half.

Didn't Brown miss the second half?

Moss lasted until the 3rd round. I am going to wait until mid season to see how the top 5 RB's 2020 do compared to Moss and the DE we drafted in the second round.

Let us not get carried away. Remember that we have played the worst two teams in the several lists above. AND the games were competitve but should have been blow outs.

They were change of pace yards.

Are you sure? A fair comparison would be the number of injuries in the longer training camp and preseason games compared to the injuries in the 1st two weeks. Heh? These professional athletes came into camp with beer bellies and no conditioning this year?

We will be down two starting linebackers and lack quality depth there. Might the Bills use a 5-2 https://footballadvantage.com/5-2-defense/ scheme to cover that or cover 3 with a safety replacing a linebacker?(rip/liz)?