I normally do 2 of these reviews. This is the review that will make you want to buy season tickets again and go to a happy place in your Bills fandom. Rex for President! Extend Tyrod! Alright, maybe that’s a bit of hyperbole. However, there are some nice things we can build on that I’ll just throw out there. Basically, its an apologist POV review. No worries, I’ll have an evil review on Monday.
Ralph Wilson doesn’t own this team anymore.
Sorry, I know he’s got a statue and some have an oil panting of him presiding over the stadium from heaven as their Twitter background, but aside from making sure the Bills stayed in town, he wasn’t a great owner. I need to sometimes catch myself when it comes to being extremely angry about the Bills not making the playoffs for 16 straight years. I know the Pegulas have had growing pains as owners of both our teams, but they are basically responsible for one full year of the Bills not making the playoffs. They still have money and if they have the right people to run their franchises, everything should be fine.
Realistically, we just went through the first calendar year with the Pegulas in charge. Were there blemishes? Of course. The Bills didn’t make the playoffs. The Bills were 8-8 which means they won the 2nd most games in a season since 2000. Alright, so they’ve done the 8-8 dance 3 times now since 2000. Still, the Bills seem to be in better hands than say in 2010 or 2007. Yeah, Im being a hypocrite since I’ve always said its better to compare the Bills to today’s top teams and not to their sad history. However, this is the apologist piece, so I can spin it in a positive way.
The bottom line is that we can still wish for the best players that money can buy still. We never got that for the first 54 years of the franchise. Now aside from the money, we should give the Bills credit for fighting over the last 2 weeks. I basically thought the Jets were gonna run them out of town, but they stood their ground and knocked out Rex’s former employer out of the playoffs. At moments this year, the Bills looked to be a hell of a team.
The defense had probably the best outing against Tom Brady during their 2nd meeting that I can remember outside of the Giants SB. They crushed the Jets after their offense had a really nice season. They abused Andrew Luck. Consistency is the biggest issue with the Bills. They proved they can play against the better teams in the AFC when their heads are on straight. If the Bills play defense like they did against the Jets/Pats 2nd time around and factor in the ground and pound offense that was ranked 12th and had 5 games of 30+ points, they can make the playoffs.
Most importantly, we are still here…alive. The Bills have missed the playoffs for 16 straight years and there’s no way they’ll miss it for 16 more years. Football evolution says the streak is going to end sooner than the combined years we missed out. No way we won’t go until 2032, right? Tom Brady is a year closer to retirement. If we made it this far and we now have an owner who will invest money and have a young core of players to build on, I think/hope we are closer to the playoffs than any time during the drought. Don’t kid yourself, we are all gonna be here for the long haul The Bills can be awful all they want, but we are still going to watch on Sundays.
Sometimes it just takes going through hell to get to heaven and maybe, just maybe, we are closer to the pearly gates than during anytime over the last 16 years. Hope is what ultimately holds it together for our fandom and hope sometimes comes from accentuating positives.
Here are 5 positives you can take away from the Bills finishing 8-8:
5) Injuries aren’t excuses, they are facts
Injuries are one of those things that fans/media members/myself talk out of our asses about sometimes. It really depends what type of narrative you feel like portraying. If you are in a bad place with your team…”Injuries happen in the NFL to all teams and its no excuse”…if you are trying to find solace…”if only these guys were healthy, we’d be better”. Its a tricky slope, especially since we are going on year 16 of zero playoffs and are pissed off about it because we’ve heard every excuse known to man at this point.
The injury excuse has been used before in these parts. It was used in 2005 when Takeo Spikes went down. It was used in 2007 when the Bills had 17 players on IR. It was used in 2011 when Fitz played with bad ribs and Fred Jackson got hurt when the team was 5-3. However, sometimes you have to look at which players got hurt. In 2007, the best players on the IR were Peerless Price and Poz. To me, injuries are about whether it happens to key guys, not the likes of what we had in 2007. The Bills had just 6 players start all 16 games this season. The Bills original skilled position guys they had (Harvin/Woods/McCoy/Watkins/Clay) only played 2 games together this season. Here’s the list of how many games these “decent” starters missed below:
- Mccoy missed 4 games.
- Watkins missed 3 games.
- Tyrod missed 2 games.
- Gilmore missed 4 games.
- Charles Clay missed 3 games.
- Kyle Williams missed 10 games.
- Percy Harvin missed 11 games.
- Aaron Williams missed 13 games
- Nigel Bradham missed 5 games.
- Marcell Dareus missed 1 game
- Mario Williams missed 1 game
- Ronald Darby missed 1 game
22 players went on IR which was the 3rd most in the NFL with 5 of them being opening day starters. If only they were healthy, right? Get the Milk of the poppy in here next year and hopefully we can avoid these things.
4) Tyrod Taylor doesn’t suck…yet.
I hate the term franchise QB. I feel the term was built by some in the media to constantly demand more from the position. Oh, but he’s a good QB, BUT HE’S NOT BRADY!!! That’s not a franchise throw…Seriously, what is a franchise throw? It is a platitude word until you try and make a point of discrediting someone. If I’m placing a bet, I would probably say that Tyrod is not/won’t be in Brady/Rodgers category. However, you can still win in this league if you are a good QB. A good QB to me is Joe Flacco/Russel Wilson. Guys who don’t have to be the man 24/7 because they had other guys on their team to pick up the slack.
This was apparent when they won SBs.
Tyrod Talyor had 3,602 yards in total offense (Passing and running) in 14 games. Collectively, EJ/Tyrod had over 4,200 yards in total offense. Average that out and that’s about 260 yards from your QBs per game. Maybe I’m wrong in using that as a way to measure these QBs, but yards are yards. That right there would put the Bills in the top 10 in terms of combined yardage from there QB across the league (Note: Most QBs don’t run like Tyrod). Now, here are a few more stats that will make you get your Tyrod jersey:
- The Bills set a team record for fewest INTs in a season.
- Their team completion percentage was the 3rd best season by Bills QBs.
- He’s only 1 of 3 Bills QBs to throw for 20+ TDs in a season before the age of 27.
- Tyrod Taylor was 2nd in the league on TDs that traveled 20+ yards through the air.
- His 28 completions on throws that traveled 20+ yards was 5th best in the league.
- His 568 yards rushing was the 2nd best in the NFL for a QB.
- He had a QB rating of 110 in the 2nd half of games.
- Tyrod Taylor’s 99.4 QB rating was the 2nd best QB rating in a Bills season who started at least 14 games.
- His 8.0 YPA ranked 5th best in the NFL.
Don’t forget, we are talking about a guy who has only stared 14 NFL games. This is a good start to anyone’s QB career. Does he have to get better? Yes. However, when you view it through the prism of wanting good and not Tom Brady, you have to be impressed thus far. I don’t know if he’s the answer at QB, but at least the answer isn’t a resounding hell no.
Plus, look at the numbers of the other starting QBs in the playoffs:
- Brian Hoyer-19TDs/7INTs
- Alex Smith- 20TDs/7INTs
- Teddy Bridgwater-14TDs/9INTs
- Tyrod Taylor: 20TDs/6INTs
You can get to the playoffs with these numbers if Defense and other parts of team are doing their job.
3) Gilmore and Darby islands
Prior to the season, I felt if there was one thing Rex knew how to do, it was to coach up DBs. Revis and Cromartie were basically what I was hoping for with the Bills CBs. Well, 28/24 delivered and now we may have the best CB duo in the NFL. Gilmore is a physical specimen who is built like a hard nosed safety. Darby is your classic cover corner who uses his speed and aggressiveness to his benefit. Good luck when they are in bump and run against these guys because that’s exactly how Rex likes them.
- Gilmore was targeted 92 times and gave up 50 catches for 666 yards for a completion percentage of 54.3%.
- Darby gave up 57 catches on 104 targets for just 660 yards and a completion percentage of 54.8%.
- Both combined for 25PDs and 5INTs.
- QBs had just a QB rating of 80.2 and threw 9 TDs towards the duo.
- Darby’s 69 tackles were tied for 3rd most by CBs.
And the best part? They are so young (Gilmore-25 and Darby-21). What makes the duo’s performance more impressive is that they had such a stellar year when the pass rush was kind of average. Everyone says getting a pass rush helps DBs out immensely and these guys seemed to do it a lot on their own a lot. And they didn’t have Aaron Williams for most of the year to help the secondary out. Seriously, standing ovation for them.
2) Running game reloaded
The biggest reason why the Bills missed the playoffs last year wasn’t just because Kyle Orton. It was because the running game sucked. It regressed majorly from what we saw with CJ Spiller/Fred in 2012. It was a dumpster fire to say the least:
- The Bills didn’t have a 100 yard rusher.
- Their best individual game was 71 yards by Fred Jackson.
- They had just 16 runs of at least 10+ yards last year.
- They ranked 25th in total yards rushing and 26th in YPC.
- Spiller and CJ had 103 carries between them that gained 2 yards or fewer.
It was complete dog shit thanks in large part to Doug Marrone’s obsession with fat OL and just being a dumb ass. This year…well, complete 180.
- The Bills had 3 players (Taylor/Karlos/McCoy) gain over 500+ yards rushing in a season for the first time in club history.
- The Bills were the first team to have 3 500+ yard rushers since the Panthers in 2011.
- Lesean McCoy had 41 carries where he gained 10+ yards.
- Karlos Williams had 20 carries where he gained 10+ yards.
- The Bills had 84 carries that gained 10+ yards rushing (5x more than 2014).
- Tyrod Taylor had more rushing yards this season than anyone else did for the Bills in 2014.
- Despite missing 4 games, LeSean McCoy was the 12th leading rusher in the NFL.
- McCoy’s 4.4 YPC was the 5th best for any RB with 200+ carries in the NFL.
- The Bills were 2nd in the league in runs that went for 20+ yards (19).
- The Bills 19 rushing TDs were the most rushing TDs by the Bills since 1990.
- Their 4.7 YPC was the 6th best in club history.
- Eric Wood, Cordy Glenn and Ritchie Incognito were all ranked in the top 10 at their positions by PFF.
They were beasts. I think it really starts up front and scheme. I mean, some guy named Gilly or whatever averaged 5.7 yards per carry. Karlos Williams, a guy who was drafted in the 5th round, looked awesome when he was healthy. Greg Roman totally fixed the rushing attack on this team. Whether they were running out of 3WR formations or 2TEs, the Bills should versatility when it came to ground and pound.
1) Sammy Watkins is becoming the man
Sammy has been such a lightning rod since he joined the Bills. At some moments, we were captivated by his greatness (See: October of 2014) and then became enraged because of OBJ’s impact and how the Bills weren’t targeting him enough. This year split everything down the middle in those regards. During the first 7 weeks of the season, Sammy had just 11 catches for just 147 yards on just 17 targets. Sammy was pissed. Instagram losers were pissed. Folks were using the Sammy deal as some sort of way to get Whaley canned. I was wondering what the hell was the reason we got this guy? Seriously, the fan base and Sammy couldn’t have been at a lower point with each other by the time the bye week came around..Then against Miami…Sammy blew up and he’s been on fire since.
- Over his last 9 games, Sammy had 49 catches for 900 yards and 7TDs
- Since week 9, Sammy was the 3rd leading receiver in the NFL in yards and 4th in TDs.
- Sammy has more catches, yards receiving, and TDs during his first 2 NFL seasons than any WR in Bills history.
- Sammy was 12th in the league in catches (18) that went 20+ yards.
- Sammy was 3rd in the league in catches (7) that went 40+ yards.
- His 9TD receptions were tied for 2nd most in team history for a season.
- Sammy’s 900 yards receiving were the most a Bills WR has ever had over their final 9 games.
The man single-handily destroyed Revis island. Like he made the island worse than the Island on Lost. The best part about his dominance against Revis is he wasn’t a 1-trick pony with just catching a deep ball and inflating his stats. He was catching balls all over the field. Sammy can run those dirty routes if the coaching staff actually calls for it.
The crazy part is that Sammy was only targeted 91 times on the season which ranked 34th in the NFL. In fact, heading into the final game, Robert Woods had more targets than Sammy Watkins and Woods ended up missing 2 games as well. Throw the man the damn ball. Anyways, its always great to be able to see a star in the making evolve like we are witnessing with Sammy. Just stay healthy and we may be witnessing a player who can give Andre Reed a run for his money. That’s how good he can be.
Final happy ending take:
The only solace I can find that isn’t complete bullshit is that the core guys on this team are young. Here’s a list of key guys who are 27 or younger:
- Hughes-27
- McCoy-27
- Tyrod-26
- Glenn-26
- Clay-26
- Dareus-26
- Aaron Williams-25
- Gilmore-24
- Sammy-22
- Darby-21
- Karlos Williams-22
This is basically the major core for the Bills and its safe to say most of these guys are good…for now. Obviously you hope that they get better as the years pile on, but their best football should be ahead of them. 8 of these players were picked within the 1st two rounds which tells me the potential is there. The Bills aren’t babies, but they are still young and are only scratching the surface with evolving. Ronald Darby was only a rookie and can you imagine if he actually gets better because of experience? Sammy’s last half of the season was awesome and he’s only 22.
Sorry Bill Polian, but the Bills aren’t old…they just aren’t old enough for us to know if they have limitations and that’s a good thing.
Stats from profootball reference, profootball focus and my brain
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