As the Buffalo Bills 'Year in Review' series continues here on WGR550.com, it's time to take a look at the area that caused the most distress for fans.
While it wasn't always the focal point of the ire from the fan base, it was largely the reason for it. It gave opposing offenses comfort, and exploited the Bills' secondary.
Allow me to be a bit more blunt:
The Buffalo Bills pass rush was essentially non-existent through 14 games of the 16 the franchise played in the 2011 campaign. Let's take a bit of a deeper look:
The Year:
Chris Kelsay, Shawne Merriman, Spencer Johnson, Arthur Moats, Danny Batten, Antonio Coleman, Kyle Moore and Robert Eddins all spent some time as a designated pass rusher for the Bills during the season. Among those 8 players, they scrounged up an abysmal amount of 12 sacks total. You read it correctly. That's 12 sacks at that position the entire season. You know, 10 less than Jared Allen had for Minnesota this year. Kelsay led the way in this group with five sacks, but had only two until the second-to-last week of the season. Merriman was a major disappointment, getting injured early and only registering one sack that was void of excitement. It was merely a push out of bounds, nothing quite like the 'Lights Out' ways of the preseason. In an effort to contain the edge in the run game, the Bills came up woefully inadequate in that department as well.
The Great:
The Bills' final win of the season was also the best performance for their pass-rushers. The game accounted for 33-percent of their sacks all season. Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos stormed in to town and left with a hearty 40-14 shellacking. Chris Kelsay had three sacks and a forced fumble, while Arthur Moats added in a sack of his own. More importantly, they helped contain the edge and held Willis McGahee and Tebow at bay in their running attack. The Bills cut the head off the snake (rushing game) and the Broncos wiggled to their demise.
The Good:
Second honors will go to a game that will often be highlighted as this 'Year in Review' series moves along: The Bills' 23-0 win over Washington. The Bills limited Washington's stretch-run offense to 14 yards by running backs, and accounted for three sacks from their 'designated' pass-rushers. You pair this game with the Broncos, and that's seven sacks. That means that group had only 5 other sacks in the other 14 games. A stat like that seems like a good segue, doesn't it?
The Bad:
During Buffalo's 23-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans, the outside linebacker group had zero sacks. That isn't too much of an anomaly, designating this game as 'The Bad' for a different reason. Titans' runner Chris Johnson broke loose the week before the Bills faced him, and they couldn't do anything to stop that trend. There were plenty of times where the Titans looked at Spencer Johnson at outside linebacker, and called an outside run play towards him. On a counter play or five, Johnson gets sucked inside and didn't have the lateral movement to get to the edge and stop the runner. That led to a few big gains in the first half for Tennessee.
The Downright Ugly:
This is a tie between two games that looked exactly the same. Approaching matchups with both Dallas and San Diego, they each featured a quarterback that can light up a defense if he has time in the pocket. No pressure by the Bills in either game resulted in a blowout loss. In both cases, the game was over very, very early. Tony Romo and Philip Rivers were laughing the entire game.
The Future:
Chris Kelsay will be back, and GM Buddy Nix has already said they hope Merriman to be back as well. I would expect Arthur Moats and Spencer Johnson to be back, under the hope and expectation that they would put Johnson back on the defensive line where he belongs. But the key here is which defensive front they'll use. With Dave Wannstedt now in charge of that group, I'd anticipate a higher percentage of 4-3 played with the type of personnel they have. It won't eradicate the 3-4 completely, but their base should be the 4-3. That would move Kelsay back to DE and keep him out of space, and limit the limited Merriman to pass-rushing situations when there are three down-linemen.
Draft Considerations:
This area, without question, is the biggest position of need for the Buffalo Bills. Not only do I think they should draft someone to rush the passer within the first two rounds, but I believe they need to add depth through free agency as well. Nix knows, Chan Gailey knows, everyone that follows the team knows: The Bills need a pass-rusher in the worst way.
