2011 Buffalo Bills: Team Allows Fewest Sacks In NFL

where the individual statistics don’t tell the whole story about a team’s performance. Based on our average yards per carry running the ball, and our low total sacks allowed, the Bills line looks like one of the best in football. Seems unreal, based on how this line was put together basically off the scrapheap and a large portion of it was playing together for the first year. It probably is somewhat illusory.

Very often in game situations, our linemen were being pushed back and unable to set up a pocket for the QB, beaten on individual plays, susceptible to pass rushers and had trouble opening up holes for the run game on occasion.

Our scheme masked many of these flaws by doing two things. One was gettting the ball out quickly, which contributed to the low # of sacks, but also contributed to a high # of interceptions, especially when timing patterns were disrupted by rushers getting close to the QB (which should really not happen).

The other was the inability to consistently run the ball. We ran the ball well when we did, but this was largely because our spread out offense and pass-heavy scheme allowed us to take advantage of the element of surprise. We also had fewer opportunities to hold leads and use the run to eat up clock. Had we run the ball in a more traditional offense, I would venture that our average YPC would have been much worse.

The play of the O-line was probably the biggest positive surprise of the season. While there are still areas for improvement, at least we feel some sense that this is no longer an area where we desperately need help. We will need another tackle if Bell is not signed, but otherwise, the starting five is adequate. We still need some quality reserves and better strength and conditioning work, but I would be okay with this unit as our starters next year if they can perform just as well as they did this year. Wood and Levitre were solid draft picks, and they should be the anchors of our line for many years to come.

if we draft reiff or martin in the first, then this line will be really dominant… our offense can be slowly turned into more of a pro-style than quick shoot spread offense… not saying they should go away from spread… but the ability to switch from prostyle to spread and back will put great pressure on opposing defenses…

“Howard Louis Ballard was born November 3, 1963 in Ashland, Alabama. Ballard attended the historically black college, Alabama A&M, where he was selected to the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference first team in his final two seasons (1986-1987). Following his stellar career there, the Bills selected Ballard with the 283rd pick in the 1987 Draft, which was early in the eleventh round. ….” from http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2009/6/13/906079/top-50-all-time-bills-no-41-ot

It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised by something every once in a while, even if everybody wants to explain it away.

Injuries have got to be a concern. I think the offensive style did pad the stats but people seem to forget just how good the left side of the line was playing at the start of the season. Wood-Levitre-Bell were like road graders on that left side. People were talking about Wood as a Pro Bowler and elite center in the NFL right up until he got hurt. Bell looked like a different person. As soon as Bell got hurt, that is when everything started falling apart. Then Wood went down and all the sudden it felt like 2009 again. Sure, the sacks weren’t happening but the pressure was there. Fitz had to get rid of the ball quicker than he wanted and his TD-INT ratio tanked.

I would like to see the team resign Bell, he made a lot of strides last season, but it has to be a heavily incentive-laden contract with much of the salary depending on the number of games played.

We also need serious depth on the line. I like Naman Roosevelt too but this team entering the season with only 8 linemen on the roster so that we could keep 5 million wide recievers was dumb and came back to bite us in the end.

Personally, I’m looking at o-line help as a very, very low priority unless Bell walks. Yes, we could upgrade and yes, that would be nice. However, this is not a team at liberty to upgrade already effective players. Not when we have glaring holes in our pass rush, WR depth, and secondary. Unless there is a lights-out, can’t-miss left tackle available at 10, I’m looking for a pass rusher (DE or LB, doesn’t matter), a corner, or a wide reciever that can stretch the field.

Everyone in this thread seems to be assuming that Bell is especially injury-prone, but the fact is that most NFL players experience bad injuries at some point in their careers. It’s possible that he may be susceptible to getting banged-up, but it’s also possible that he happened to be in the wrong place/position at the wrong time on those occasions when he got hurt. Let’s remember that our new star ILB Nick Barnett had a bunch of bad injuries in a row and that was the main reason Green Bay let him walk. He didn’t seem especially fragile for us this past year; in fact he was one of the only guys on the team that made it through the whole season without any injuries at all.

I’m sure the Bills medical staff has some thoughts on whether Bell is especially susceptible to going down or whether he just had some bad luck in 2009 and 2011 (remember that in 2010 he started all 16 games). In the meantime fans should not jump to conclusions.