Bills vs. Redskins: Ryan Torain, Roy Helu To Split Carries?

by Brian Galliford on Oct 27, 2011 9:00 AM EDT in Buffalo Bills News

Earlier this week, the Washington Redskins - this week's opponent for the Buffalo Bills - placed veteran running back Tim Hightower on Injured Reserve, bringing his first season in D.C. to an end. Acquired via trade from Arizona during the abbreviated off-season, Hightower had carried 84 times for 321 yards and a touchdown through the Redskins' first six games.

Mike Shanahan's offense has long been renowned for its ability to get production out of obscure tailbacks. It's not precisely clear yet how runners Ryan Torain and rookie Roy Helu will split carries now that Hightower is out of the lineup; it's expected that both players will produce, however.

Both players have had their moments. Torain carried 19 times for 135 yards and a score in a Week 4 win over St. Louis, while Helu - who has only carried three times in the last two weeks - rushed for 74 yards on 10 carries in Week 2.

Buffalo enters Week 8 with the NFL's 30th-ranked run defense, and they're coming off a game in which they allowed Ahmad Bradshaw to run for 104 yards and three scores. Needless to say, the Bills have work to do against the run, regardless of who's toting the rock for the Redskins this week.

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question for brian

Why has our run D sucked so bad this year? I hear great things about Dareus and Barnett, yet we continue surrendering a lot of yards. Who are the weak links? Or is it the coaching?

by paythemannow on Oct 27, 2011 9:54 AM EDT reply actions

I think “sucked so bad” is probably a bit strong, because they have shaved 34 yards off of their per-game average allowed from last season. They are very obviously better in that department, but clearly, they’re not as good as they should be.

They’ve had some flukey things happen to them. They handled the Eagles well, but Vick had some big scrambles that skewed the data. Their biggest problems have been defending edge rushes, which Der Jaeger has covered well. I think they’ll get marginally better as the season goes on.

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by Brian Galliford on Oct 27, 2011 10:53 AM EDT up reply actions

Their biggest problems have been defending edge rushes

and it should be noted that Nix really hasn’t focused on rebuilding that part of the roster. clearly he is an “inside out” type of rebuilder so i’m excited to see what he does next off season to shore up that part of the roster.

He’s got some late round and UDFA types that I think they want to develop and see how they do but i’m not sure they’ve put a ton into the edges. Merriman – sure – if he worked out then that was good – but he “seemed” stop gap until he could prove himself again – which he obviously did not.

by J2 on Oct 27, 2011 11:07 AM EDT up reply actions

Agree completely

Even the games where opponents had success running the ball against us, (NYG, CIN and PHI) were much better than most of the games our run defense had last year.

When our bad games have opposing RB’s averaging around 4.0YPC shows how much that part of our D has improved.

I do wonder how Merriman’s injury will effect this though. While his pass rush was not want anyone hoped it would be, I think he did a very good job of setting the edge, something which Moats and Batten have had trouble doing.

"I got no problem with 7-9 coming off of 4-12 as long as I don't buy a couch there, you got to keep moving" - Mike Schoop

by lonestar_ak on Oct 27, 2011 4:30 PM EDT up reply actions

Schemes

I think schemes. Setting the OLB’s on the line of scrimmage makes it more difficult to defend the edges. A pure 3-4 is a run-stop defense, played in its truest form, it’s hard for the OL to get out and find a LB to block. I think runs to the outside have hurt the Bill’s run-defense numbers, they have been fairly stout up the middle. Again, I said earlier in previous article that if the Bill’s were to move their OLB’s out and back a couple of yards would significantly help in stringing runs out. Just my opinion.

by Coach Bob on Oct 28, 2011 10:41 AM EDT up reply actions