We knew going into the season that the Buffalo Bills were going to have a subpar pass rush. After the release and retirement of Pro Bowl sack artist Aaron Schobel, the Bills were going to have to find a new way to get pressure on the QB. Through three games, they have failed miserably.
In three games, the Bills have four sacks. That's the same amount as Mario Williams, DeMarcus Ware, Juqua Parker, Robert Mathis and Mathias Kiwanuka each have on their own, and two less than Packers stud Clay Matthews has in two games (as Green Bay has yet to play this week). It ranks No. 23 in the league.
To compound the overall lack of pass rush, the Bills have played two of the best quarterbacks - Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady - in back-to-back games. Quarterbacks of that caliber will defeat impeccable coverage with enough time. This happened frequently over the past two weeks. On one play in New England, Brady had over six seconds in the pocket while Keith Ellison ran the width of the field blanketing tight end Aaron Hernandez. Eventually, he found some separation that turned into a long gain for New England. That's not a coverage mistake. It's a pressure problem.
Rodgers and Brady have completed 40 of 56 passes (71.4% completions) for 507 yards (9.1 yards per attempt) with five touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, zero interceptions and just one sack. The Bills can not afford to let quarterbacks stand in the pocket and deliver the football unmolested. It will continue to expose the secondary and result in too many lopsided scores. On a day where the Bills offense put up 30 points, the defense could have put the game away with some quarterback pressure.