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


JY422

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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. 

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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.

 

 

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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. 

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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!

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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. 

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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 

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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.

 

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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. 

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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.

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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

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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.

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3 hours ago, Augie said:

 

For what it’s worth (which could be nothing), I met Morse’s uncle on a flight to the opener. He said it would be his last season in Buffalo. I mentioned I thought he had another year on his contract, and he just shrugged and said “we’ll, you know…” 

 

That could be meaningless, but it makes me curious. 

 

Recall you posting that a month or so ago.  Wonder was the assumption that the Bills were going to cut him or that Morse was going to retire maybe due to all the concussions??   Do wonder now based on his level of play will that change as seems to be playing much better than last year.?

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With Ford being a bust, Dawkins still not 100% recovered from his bout with COVID, Brown being a rookie and Williams having to re-learn RG, there were bound to be some hiccups.  After the season I don't think I'd cut Williams and I'm not sure who they can get to replace/upgrade Morse.  So it will have to be LG that they target, after cutting Feliciano.

 

Edit: If this is truly Morse's last season, then they'll have to find a replacement for him as well.  He'll save $3.75M (and Feliciano will save another $3).

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6 minutes ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

Recall you posting that a month or so ago.  Wonder was the assumption that the Bills were going to cut him or that Morse was going to retire maybe due to all the concussions??   Do wonder now based on his level of play will that change as seems to be playing much better than last year.?

 

I have no idea, and it created all kinds of questions in my mind. First and foremost, I wouldn’t want that offered to strangers in an airport. “Gee! Thanks uncle Bob!” But if I know, I’m sure the Bills know. 🤷‍♀️

 

Then I wonder if that’s his personal decision, he’s wealthy enough and the concussions should concern him. I think that is more likely than the Bills saying they are moving on and you need to make plans. They have no replacement.  Regardless, I thank him for his service to our team and hope he finishes healthy and with a Super Bowl ring. What a way to go out! 

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4 hours ago, Augie said:

 

For what it’s worth (which could be nothing), I met Morse’s uncle on a flight to the opener. He said it would be his last season in Buffalo. I mentioned I thought he had another year on his contract, and he just shrugged and said “we’ll, you know…” 

 

That could be meaningless, but it makes me curious. 

 

retire after winning super bowl?

49 minutes ago, Doc said:

With Ford being a bust, Dawkins still not 100% recovered from his bout with COVID, Brown being a rookie and Williams having to re-learn RG, there were bound to be some hiccups.  After the season I don't think I'd cut Williams and I'm not sure who they can get to replace/upgrade Morse.  So it will have to be LG that they target, after cutting Feliciano.

 

Edit: If this is truly Morse's last season, then they'll have to find a replacement for him as well.  He'll save $3.75M (and Feliciano will save another $3).

 

Center can be drafted.  We should have taken Creed Humphrey on rd 2 over Basham. 

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I'm done with Feliciano, the guy is consistently the weakest guy on line.  Get him out of the starting line up.

 

I'm trying Bates.  What's the worst that can happen?

 

Dawkins-Ike-Morse-Bates-Williams (even when Brown comes back, Brown was the worse player vs Ten, even worse than Feliciano, which is saying a lot).

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That Jets game in two weeks isn't looking like a gimme anymore. The Jets D line is pretty good and they can bring pressure. Given the Bills weak OL I could see them being dominated again just like yesterday's 1st half. The Bills should still win being the better team but I could see Allen scrambling and being under pressure all game long. Just ask the Titans and Bengals how easy is it to get a win at MetLife. Since the Jets have no shot at the playoffs they will probably treat the game against the Bills as their own personal Super Bowl. You want to see how you measure up against the top team in the division.

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10 hours ago, JoPoy88 said:

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.

It wasn't? Chris Jones ate our lunch all game.

Edited by D. L. Hot-Flamethrower
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13 hours ago, JY422 said:

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

 

There is no reason why the Bills won't win it all this year.

 

A bunch why they possibly might not. Which is also true for every single other team in the league and was true for the Bucs last year and every champion there ever was.

 

But not a single reason they won't.

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1 hour ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

There is no reason why the Bills won't win it all this year.

 

A bunch why they possibly might not. Which is also true for every single other team in the league and was true for the Bucs last year and every champion there ever was.

 

But not a single reason they won't.

If the O line gets blown up by a team with big DTs and that in turn does not allow our offense to operate in a playoff game they will be the reason why we lost.  We have lost two games thus far this year, and struggled yesterday.  In each of those the interior line struggled aganist bigger DTs.  The guys in the middle are simply not strong enough to consistently withstand big interior D linemen.  

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17 hours 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!

 

I think the oline will get better as the season progresses

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18 hours 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!

 

Well you ARE wrong.   Put the bong down and looks at the ratio of sacks to TD passes.  Enough said.  (nickname "Panama Red")

 

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18 hours 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!

 

 

History has shown that teams with average to subpar olines will get blown out in the SB even if they make it there.

 

I also think that our dline still isn't good enough either but not sure Beane can address both of these issues in the next few days even if he wanted to.

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Could you imagine a QB like Drew Bledsoe behind this line?  I wish Beane would make a trade for somebody.  There has to be someone out there better than some of the crap we got like Feliciano.  I don't like to dog on players but he and Ford are horrendous.  The other guys are serviceable at best.  There are times in a game they give Josh good protection but that doesn't outweigh the complete jailbreaks that happen in every single game.

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