Dawgg Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Two weeks ago on the deciding play of Buffalo's three-point loss at Oakland, the Bills' overpaid offensive line was pushed backward when Buffalo went for it on fourth-and-goal at the Raiders 1. Now it's defending champion New England 24, Buffalo 17 with 3:24 remaining and Buffalo faces third-and-2 on the Patriots 16, a sellout home crowd roaring at military-afterburner decibels. Yet the Buffalo offensive line is pushed backward just like the game before, loss of yardage for the runner. Now it's fourth-and-3 on the New England 19, Drew Bledsoe is hammered by two Patriots a second after receiving the snap, fumbles and TMQ wrote the words "game over" in his notebook. The Buffalo offensive line allowed seven sacks, including sacks on third-and-6, third-and-7 and another third-and-6, plus a sack that took the Bills out of field-goal range. Ye gods, this offensive line is pathetic. And, yes, TMQ predicted the addition of offensive line coach Jim McNally would aid Buffalo: But then, my motto is All Predictions Wrong or Your Money Back. The Bills offensive line performance has become even worse since McNally arrived. On Sunday, "line calls," which tell blockers what to do, were repeatedly botched, allowing New England blitzers to advance untouched by human hands. On the fourth-and-3 that decided the game, New England linebacker Tedy Bruschi, obviously preparing to blitz, lined up directly across from right guard Chris Villarrial. At the snap, Villarrial inexplicably pulled right as if to lead a non-existent sweep -- vacating the hole Bruschi came through untouched to hammer Bledsoe one second after he received the snap. This botched blocking ended Buffalo's hopes for the game and, perhaps, for the season. TMQ watched the play several times in increasing disbelief: With a Patriots blitzer directly over the guard on the snap that may determine the Bills season, that guard pulled and enthusiastically ran to nowhere, leaving an unobstructed lane directly to the quarterback. And what of Richard Seymour, the Patriot who scooped up Bledsoe's fumble and returned it for six, where did Seymour come from? At the snap, left tackle Marcus Price lightly brushed Seymour, then stood still and simply watched Seymour chase Bledsoe, Price making no attempt whatsoever to block. You are not going to win many games when offensive linemen deliberately run away from blitzers, or when linemen make no attempt whatsoever to block on fourth-and-3 -- both are symptoms of suspect coaching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RkFast Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Chilling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jad1 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Now it's defending champion New England 24, Buffalo 17 with 3:24 remaining and Buffalo faces third-and-2 on the Patriots 16, a sellout home crowd roaring at military-afterburner decibels. Yet the Buffalo offensive line is pushed backward just like the game before, loss of yardage for the runner. Actually, the line opened a good-sized hole on the right side, but Henry tripped. But that doesn't fit his storyline, so why bother with the facts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 It's hard for me to agree with anyone who hacks on the Oline from Sunday if they don't at least acknowledge that the line played MUCH better than they had been playing, and maybe even GOOD overall, up until the injuries. The first half they played pretty well. The only sack given up was when L.Smith tripped Bledsoe accidentally when he was pulling to the right. We all know that the ONLY way you ever see Bledsoe completing 50 yd passes is when he has plenty of time and protection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fake-Fat Sunny Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 It's hard for me to agree with anyone who hacks on the Oline from Sunday if they don't at least acknowledge that the line played MUCH better than they had been playing, and maybe even GOOD overall, up until the injuries. The first half they played pretty well. The only sack given up was when L.Smith tripped Bledsoe accidentally when he was pulling to the right. We all know that the ONLY way you ever see Bledsoe completing 50 yd passes is when he has plenty of time and protection. 57921[/snapback] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spun Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 I believe the Bills were sacked 51 times last year. This year the Bills have been sacked 15 times for an average of 5 per game. Roll that average over 16 games and...yikes...80 sacks... The offensive line did play much better on Sunday. And Bledsoe's two pitches to Evans and Moulds were very nice. However, over time those sacks usually lead to injuries whether it be Bledsoe, Matthews or Losman (again). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckeyemike Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Where can you find TMQ? It used to be on ESPN.com, but I can't find it there now. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fake-Fat Sunny Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 It's obvious that the Bills OL play is unacceptable, but the TMQ cut you describe does seem to want to use part of the facts to support their pre-selected narrative rather than using all the facts to create a narrative. Unfortunately it seems to me that the whole of the facts are uglu and somewhat contradictory and will not support a simple narrative of declared statements which make for good writing within the space constraints of a column sold by the author for whatever substantial nickels he makes from his product. A real OL analysis to me is one that lends itself to few simple solutions or explanations and unfortunately is going to take some time and likely some off-season changes in personnel to make it right. Overall, I'd say the important things to consider are: 1. given the lousy job Vinky and Ruel did schooling and teaching our crew, 2. some failings we have with needing good experienced leadership of this crew when at best we stood still with replacing Ruben with Villarial, and 3. some bad luck with injuries to the substandard folks we do have (Teague, Jennings) it is simply stupid to claim that the failure of the Bills OL to mircaulously improve from last year is an indicator of bad coaching. It certainly may not be good coaching from JMac (this remains to be truly assesed after 3 games) but to ignore the bad start we had under Vinky and Ruel, the lack of internal experienced leadership from the players and the impact of injuries to our starting center and starting LT as at least having some impact on our fourth quarter play Sunday and to attribute it all to bad coach is simply dumb and shows limited application of football knowledge. JMac was right when he said when he was hired that he was no miracle worker. He does not walk on water last time I saw him. Unfortunately it would take a miracle to make this OL perform adequately given the current situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theesir Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Where can you find TMQ? It used to be on ESPN.com, but I can't find it there now. Mike 57962[/snapback] He was kicked off of ESPN and all records of him were erased because he said (I'm not kidding here) something to the effect of Jews own most Hollywood movie studios in a Blog he wrote on a completely different website. Nothing derogatory, simply that they own most Hollywood movie studios blah blah blah. He can now be found on NFL.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indy Dave Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Actually, the line opened a good-sized hole on the right side, but Henry tripped. But that doesn't fit his storyline, so why bother with the facts? 57918[/snapback] Exactly. You could have driven a truck through that hole. But as Buffalo Bills luck would have it, Henry slipped. I haven't watched five plays of a Giants game this year, but I just read about how well their offensive line has been playing. Maybe it wasn't McNally after all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckincincy Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 OMG. I smell Bengalesque denial - which I witnessed for over a decade. For shame... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jad1 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 OMG. I smell Bengalesque denial - which I witnessed for over a decade. For shame... 58011[/snapback] Yeah, you're an expert in losers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckincincy Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Yeah, you're an expert in losers. 58039[/snapback] Sadly, you are correct. I observed for 12 years so I know what it looks like..I also observed the 0-20 Bills losing streak against Miami, if that lends credence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorCal Aaron Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 He was kicked off of ESPN and all records of him were erased because he said (I'm not kidding here) something to the effect of Jews own most Hollywood movie studios in a Blog he wrote on a completely different website. Nothing derogatory, simply that they own most Hollywood movie studios blah blah blah. He can now be found on NFL.com 57996[/snapback] Huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Campy Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Actually, the line opened a good-sized hole on the right side, but Henry tripped. But that doesn't fit his storyline, so why bother with the facts? 57918[/snapback] Exactly what I thought reading that paragraph. And exactly why I stopped reading the article right there. The author might want to watch the game before he offers commentary on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill from NYC Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 It's hard for me to agree with anyone who hacks on the Oline from Sunday if they don't at least acknowledge that the line played MUCH better than they had been playing, and maybe even GOOD overall, up until the injuries. The first half they played pretty well. The only sack given up was when L.Smith tripped Bledsoe accidentally when he was pulling to the right. We all know that the ONLY way you ever see Bledsoe completing 50 yd passes is when he has plenty of time and protection. 57921[/snapback] Good point. The OL is solid, thanks to McNally. The fact that the giants can NOW block after McNally left is a fluke because he is great. Jennings is great, as is Teague. Smith is a stud, and Big Mike is worth 36 million. Agreed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paco Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Exactly. You could have driven a truck through that hole. But as Buffalo Bills luck would have it, Henry slipped. I haven't watched five plays of a Giants game this year, but I just read about how well their offensive line has been playing. Maybe it wasn't McNally after all? 57999[/snapback] John Gruden leaves Oakland and goes to Tampa where he replaces Dungy. Both teams go the Super Bowl that year. But maybe Dungy and Gruden had nothing to do with it the year before. Give McNally time. Give the whole team time. I know no one wants to...but I'm not certain what the choices are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Good point. The OL is solid, thanks to McNally. The fact that the giants can NOW block after McNally left is a fluke because he is great. Jennings is great, as is Teague. Smith is a stud, and Big Mike is worth 36 million. Agreed? 58166[/snapback] My point was that our Oline was solid for 3 out of the 4 quarters of that game, or up to the point where we lost 40% of our starters. If you watched the game, there was little to criticize them about in the first half, and into the second. Bledsoe had plenty of time to throw and Henry had a 4+ ypc average. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 I remember when that guy was on ESPN and I started reading his stuff. Then after reading essentially the same article for the 9th week in a row I realized that every time I take a shlt in the morning, I forget more about this game than that guy will ever know. He should stick to things he's more familiar with as I've read interesting works of his on physics, theology, astronomy, etc. Suffice to say that if he says the Bills line is worse, then you can safely assume that: 1)it's probably better, and 2)he hasn't even watched the Bills and again thinks that numbers are the same as football Cya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bills_fan Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Give the whole team time. I know no one wants to...but I'm not certain what the choices are. Donohoe has had 3+ years, how much friggin time does he want to at least put together a winning streak?? Absent the first half of 2002 and the first 2 games of 03, have the Bills generated any excitment or been relevant at all during Donohoe's tenure??? I'm sick of waiting. Is dealing with this stevestojan the price we have to pay for enjoying 1987-1999? Even the crappy years we had (1997 6-10), you knew we'd bounce back the next year. This team is doing the slow fade off the NFL map. Choices, I don't know what they are either, cept if we start 1-5, write an open letter to Ralph to get Donohoe out of town. And we won't save the postage!! :I starred in Brokeback Mountain: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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