Rumblings Bills grades: Week 5

Below are grades for every Buffalo Bills player on every play in the team’s Week 5 win over the Los Angeles Rams. You’ll also find cumulative grades through the first five games.

(For a quick primer on this project, this is from the introduction article. Here's a link to the entire thing.)

As I re-watch each game, I’ll be assigning number grades to each Bills player on every play this year, so keep in mind... the grades themselves will be inherently subjective. However, they should provide a relatively good idea of which players are struggling and excelling on the field. This system is not precisely how Pro Football Focus grades — they have multiple graders for each game and use a different numbering system — but it’s similar. Below you’ll find that grades were assigned in 0.2-point intervals on a scale from -1.0 to +1.0 on each play for each player.

Offense vs. Rams

Observations:

Despite what the stat book indicates, in my opinion, Tyrod Taylor did not have a poor game against the Rams. He had a few misfires — on an comeback to Marquise Goodwin, down the field to Robert Woods, and he threw slightly behind Charles Clay on a 29-yard completion on the opening drive -- but against Los Angeles, Taylor was the same accurate and efficient passer in the short and intermediate areas as he was in each of the past two games and made some of his most impressive throws of the season on Sunday. Both touchdown passes were exemplary combinations of athleticism and ideal ball placement. He received a huge negative score for lining up behind Richie Incognito on the botched snap but redeemed himself with a spectacular run to covert a 3rd and 19 just a few plays later. The home run balls of 2015 haven’t been there for Tyrod over the past three weeks, however — and this "trade off" of sorts is important — he’s been considerably better on throws he should make, which don’t exactly light up the stat sheet or the grade book, yet those passes have really helped to move the chains consistently and improve the overall effectiveness of Buffalo’s offense. John Miller has had higher individual game grades this season, but, man, was I impressed with his performance against Aaron Donald, arguably the best defender in football. I tracked their 1-on-1 battles and finished with a final tally of 10 "wins" for Miller, four for Donald, and four draws. As I referenced last week, more playing time seems to equate to better play from Jerome Felton. Jordan Mills struggled in pass protection on a handful of occasions and wasn’t a road-grader for the run game. Meanwhile, Cordy Glenn was a brick wall in pass pro. I’ll finish with LeSean McCoy, who, as you can probably imagine, graded extremely well. He was exceptional all afternoon.

(I tracked Tyrod's 11 incompletions against the Rams as: 2 drops, 2 tipped passes, 2 legit throwaways, 2 slight overthrows, 1 scramble/throwaway, 1 pass breakup, 1 WR out of bounds.)

Defense vs. Rams

Observations:

It was another strong effort across the board from Jerry Hughes, which is the norm for him. Also, as per usual, Jerel Worthy was disruptive on a small amount of snaps. Zach Brown wasn’t as dominant against the Rams as he was against the Patriots, but his quick recognition skills, speed and block-shedding ability were certainly on display in the Coliseum. Aaron Williams had a few lapses in coverage and missed some open-field tackles, which led to his lower-than-usual grade. Obviously, Nickell Robey-Coleman received a stellar pass-coverage rating. On his first interception, he avoided getting picked by the clearing route on his side of the field then drove hard underneath the route to catch the football. Adolphus Washington had his finest pro performance, and it was another day at the office for run-game wrecker Kyle Williams, however, he hasn’t proven to be as productive rushing the passer as he used to be.

Offense: Through Week 5

Defense: Through Week 5