Its OK for the Bills to be a run-first team

[BigAl2526]

I don't mind at all when circumstances indicate the Bills should run the ball.  It would, however, be a serious mistake if the Bills and Brandon Beane in particular don't address in the upcoming offseason the inability of the Bills to get significant production from their wide receivers.  

[Jimmy Harris 69]

We have four losses, 2 against good teams (Houston & NE), and two against poor teams (Atlanta & Miami). Winning on the ground against the Steelers is hardly a crown and robe for Joe Brady. The defense made this game plan successful by scoring 7, successful rushing the QB and picking off Rudolph. The game plan against Houston was an abomination. Had Brady gone big and run at Houston in the second half, Allen wouldn’t have had -71 yards in losses. But he is poor at making in game adjustments. A run first approach will help cover our poor passing game during the rest of the season but historically it doesn’t win deep into the playoffs. Baltimore lost in the Divisional Round in 2020, the Wild Card Round in 2021, the Wild Card Round in 2022, the Conference Championship in 2023, and the Divisional Round in 2024. During those years they ranked 2nd, 4th, 8th, 14th and 5th in rushing. Note in ‘23 they had their lowest rank but they went the farthest. The Steelers game was a product of a situation. A Poor opponent who turned over the ball. Our defense will need to continue its improved play into the playoffs, or our own ball control will beat us. Only we can snuff out Josh Allen. 

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

I remember when people complained that Allen didn’t have any help. Well, he does in the form of a terrific running game. 7 100+ yard rushing games and even a 200+. He’s been ridiculously consistent only really getting slowed down against NE, TB, and BAL (Allen went off in the latter 2 bc defenses were likely keyed in on Cook.)

 

I remember seeing somewhere that the Bills ran 31 variations of the same running play against PIT. The Bills offensive line is imposing their will. Brady deserves credit for resurrecting the Bills tradition of great RBs. 

 

With the return of Kincaid and a defense that is playing much more inspired, I am excited for this team. Yes, I wish we have WRs, but we’ve had those before and it didn’t make a difference as far as winning a championship then. 

 

So can the Bills current style of offense carry them through? I think so. Rams, 49ers, Eagles, Lions all showed you can have postseason success being a heavy running team. Not the exact same offenses or situation as the Bills, but relevant in this discussion.

 

Allen is so much like Elway to me. Needs to be paired with a great RB to carry him over the top. Cook is that dude. Don’t let anyone tell you different because of draft status. He’s just as good as the Bijan Robinsons and Saquon Barkleys this year. 

[saundena]

Sure... If we actually had some receivers.  We don't have balance with offensive play makers.

 

Pittsburgh wasn't a good run defense to begin with.  We were motivated and beat an inferior team.  

 

Cook is terrific, but the Bills as a whole are inconsistent.

 

Also. He seems to have a case of fumbleitis

Edited 5 hours ago by saundena

[Buffalo Ballin]

Yes. As long as he can stay healthy.

 

He can't do it by himself though. Needs great blocking and Josh Allen and Ty Johnson to get explosive runs to take pressure off from Cook.

Edited 5 hours ago by Buffalo Ballin

[Buffalo716]

Yes and this is why I'm not a Debbie Downer 

 

The bills can win multiple ways... Josh Allen can throw for 290 yards or James Cook can run for 160 

 

It hasn't always looked pretty this is exactly how Brady won all his Super bowls basically in New England 

 

We're only going to get healthier on defense

5 minutes ago, ChronicAndKnuckles said:

I remember when people complained that Allen didn’t have any help. Well, he does in the form of a terrific running game. 7 100+ yard rushing games and even a 200+. He’s been ridiculously consistent only really getting slowed down against NE, TB, and BAL (Allen went off in the latter 2 bc defenses were likely keyed in on Cook.)

 

I remember seeing somewhere that the Bills ran 31 variations of the same running play against PIT. The Bills offensive line is imposing their will. Brady deserves credit for resurrecting the Bills tradition of great RBs. 

 

With the return of Kincaid and a defense that is playing much more inspired, I am excited for this team. Yes, I wish we have WRs, but we’ve had those before and it didn’t make a difference as far as winning a championship then. 

 

So can the Bills current style of offense carry them through? I think so. Rams, 49ers, Eagles, Lions all showed you can have postseason success being a heavy running team. Not the exact same offenses or situation as the Bills, but relevant in this discussion.

 

Allen is so much like Elway to me. Needs to be paired with a great RB to carry him over the top. Cook is that dude. Don’t let anyone tell you different because of draft status. He’s just as good as the Bijan Robinsons and Saquon Barkleys this year. 

Regarding draft status a second round pick on a running back is extremely high now 

 

Tons of second round picks have great careers in fact to me that's the sweet spot for running backs now 

 

You're just as likely to get Leonard fournette in the top five as you are  Robinson... Second round is filled with tremendous running backs for the last 15 years 

 

He's not as physically imposing but he's a legitimate top-notch running back who still is on the top of his game

Edited 5 hours ago by Buffalo716

[HappyDays]

11 hours ago, TheFunPolice said:

10 days ago the sky was falling because the Texans dominated the Bills offense. 

 

Now we're a Super Bowl team whose running game cannot be stopped. 

 

I think the point is that our offense is built to play like it did against Pittsburgh, not like it did against Houston. Of course I still question what will happen if/when we get into a playoff matchup where the opponent shuts down the run and gets a lead on us which forces us to pass. But the way our team is built we need to live with pounding the run and throwing primarily to TEs and RBs until absolutely necessary. Our best pass play right now is PA shot where we check it down to the RB or a leaking TE. So everything needs to build off of the run game. It is not an ideal offense by any means but it is our best path forward.

[Buffalo716]

30 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

I think the point is that our offense is built to play like it did against Pittsburgh, not like it did against Houston. Of course I still question what will happen if/when we get into a playoff matchup where the opponent shuts down the run and gets a lead on us which forces us to pass. But the way our team is built we need to live with pounding the run and throwing primarily to TEs and RBs until absolutely necessary. Our best pass play right now is PA shot where we check it down to the RB or a leaking TE. So everything needs to build off of the run game. It is not an ideal offense by any means but it is our best path forward.

Just like the Patriots 

 

In the second half of Brady's career when he didn't have gronkowski they didn't win 

 

When he had gronk he won in the playoffs 

 

If the bills have Kincaid I like our chances if we don't it's going to really really hurt us 

 

He is a legitimate mismatch who will go for a hundred if the bills need him to

[BillsFanForever19]

55 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

I think the point is that our offense is built to play like it did against Pittsburgh, not like it did against Houston. Of course I still question what will happen if/when we get into a playoff matchup where the opponent shuts down the run and gets a lead on us which forces us to pass. But the way our team is built we need to live with pounding the run and throwing primarily to TEs and RBs until absolutely necessary. Our best pass play right now is PA shot where we check it down to the RB or a leaking TE. So everything needs to build off of the run game. It is not an ideal offense by any means but it is our best path forward.

 

We already have the answer to that. We've seen what happens. It doesn't matter if it's a good team or a team like the Falcons or the Dolphins. If the run is shut down early and/or a team gets the lead on us and we need to pass the ball to stay in the game - it's Game Over.

 

The only hope we have (and it's not a likely one) is that Dalton Kincaid comes back 100% and stays healthy, Brandin Cooks is able to turn the clock back and play his best ball in years (or at least draw attention away from Davis and Shakir), Brady is able to call better games, and we develop at least an adequate passing attack with Kincaid, Shakir, Cooks, and Davis down the stretch.

 

As it stands right now and has been the case for the past 8 weeks, where we've gone 4-4 - if we can win the line of scrimmage and Cook goes off, even when they're scheming to stop it, we're in decent shape. But that's not going to happen on a week to week basis and especially not against the best teams in Football playing their best. 

 

If we continue playing the way that we play and aren't able to develop some kind of passing attack, we're going nowhere fast. And *any* team, whether they're the best or worst team in the league, can beat us simply by playing good Run Defense.

Edited 3 hours ago by BillsFanForever19

[Nihilarian]

55 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

I think the point is that our offense is built to play like it did against Pittsburgh, not like it did against Houston. Of course I still question what will happen if/when we get into a playoff matchup where the opponent shuts down the run and gets a lead on us which forces us to pass. But the way our team is built we need to live with pounding the run and throwing primarily to TEs and RBs until absolutely necessary. Our best pass play right now is PA shot where we check it down to the RB or a leaking TE. So everything needs to build off of the run game. It is not an ideal offense by any means but it is our best path forward.

I go back to the play calling and game plan against Houston, in not working. In the Bills second series, they ran for 6 yards on first down and then a negative-2 yard pass to Shakir (the dreaded WR screen?) Then a 2-yard run and a punt. 

 

Cook had 17 carries for 116 yards at a 6.8 yard per carry average in that game, and yet Joe Brady called for 34 passes. Not just any passes, but mid to deep passes with minimal pass protection against a great defensive front. That's what went wrong in that game. If the play calls were similar to what he called against the Steelers I'd wager it's a win. 

Edited 3 hours ago by Nihilarian

[HappyDays]

3 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said:

If the bills have Kincaid I like our chances if we don't it's going to really really hurt us 

 

Kincaid is definitely our most important pass catcher. He's the only one that Allen inherently trusts, which is a big step forward from last year when the two were frequently not on the same page. It is weird though that we're calling him a key player when he was only in on 41.5% of snaps prior to injury. But he's been ridiculously efficient with a 155.6 passer rating when targeted. He's mostly useless in the run game because there are just better blockers than him on the roster, but our pass game is almost non-functional when he isn't on the field.

[HappyDays]

14 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

and we develop at least an adequate passing attack with Kincaid, Shakir, Cooks, and Davis.

 

I'm already done with Davis to be honest. Dropped a TD against Tampa, failed to get both feet inbounds at the end against Houston on a play that might have won us the game, had his typical route miscommunication with Allen leading to an INT against Pittsburgh. I'm so over it. Targets in his direction are 50/50 whether they'll be a big play or a complete disaster. It's actually starting to lean more 40/60. We worked so hard to remove Davis' brand of chaos from the game script only to welcome it back because we put ourselves in a corner. I'm good with Brandin Cooks taking his job permanently.

 

Four things I immediately want to see less of in this offense, in this order:

 

1) Passes to Elijah Moore - one down, three to go

2) Passes to Gabe Davis

3) Passes to Knox

4) Forward passes to Shakir

 

By and large these plays have been black holes in our offense all year long.

[nucci]

The run game is great but we have the best QB in the league and no passing game.