Exciting Offense in Buffalo? 'Bill-eve' It

Woody Hayes, the man responsible for turning Ohio State University into the college football powerhouse it is today, became a coaching legend through his ultra-conservative offensive philosophy known as "three yards and a cloud of dust."

The bread and butter play in Hayes' playbook was a fullback off-tackle run, one his teams executed so flawlessly that it earned him 205 wins, 13 Big Ten Conference championships and five national titles in 28 seasons at the helm in Columbus.

Call it passive, boring, redundant, or whichever adjective you prefer, but place your label knowing that all NFL coaches would accept being called "boring" if it added a few Lombardi trophies to their legacy.

And while the Buffalo Bills of present day would never be confused with Hayes' Buckeyes of the 70's, in terms of success or style, when was the last time you used the words aggressive or exciting to describe their offense? Probably 1993, the last great year in the Jim Kelly-Andre Reed-Thurman Thomas era.

The odds of the 2009 Bills being as prolific as the '93 team are slim, but there is reason to believe they will be much closer to the Greatest Show on Turf than three yards and a cloud of dust.

Buffalo's most glaring issue on offense the past 10 years or so has been its predictability. How many times did you find yourself watching the game and on a 3rd-and-2, saying without hesitation, "Here comes a run up the middle"?

Or on 2nd or 3rd-and-long you could yell out the name of the receiver the quarterback was targeting, whether it was Eric Moulds, Peerless Price, or Lee Evans?

Aside from the lack of creativity, the Bills have also been short on viable options. Every offensive coordinator would love to use three or four wide receivers in a game, but at the end of the day, they are going to call plays for the players they trust the most.

Offensive coordinator Turk Schonert will have plenty of dependable options to work with this year, so any vanilla scheme or return to predictability should be deemed inexcusable.

Trent Edwards is entering his third professional season and showed Pro Bowl potential in spurts during the 2008 season. He is smart, poised, and very accurate, and seems to have earned the trust of the coaching staff.

He will be throwing to arguably the deepest foursome of pass-catchers in the NFL in Terrell Owens, Lee Evans, Josh Reed, and James Hardy. 

The thing that makes the offense scary is that it also has a loaded backfield with Marshawn Lynch, Fred Jackson, and former Indianapolis Colt, Dominic Rhodes.

This group will force defensive coordinators to lose sleep at night. There are playmakers (Owens and Evans), possession receivers (Reed), running backs with speed (Jackson), and ones with a more bruising style (Lynch). 

For the first time in years the Bills are—say it with me now—versatile.

If the defense puts eight in the box, they can spread you out. Show five or six defensive backs, they can expose you with the run. 

Some will look at the numbers and say the offensive philosophy won't change much from a season ago. That's because the numbers will show Buffalo to be a pass-first offense. 

The Bills ran 956 plays on offense in 2008 and dropped back to throw on 54 percent of them.

That pass-run ratio is about as close to 50/50 as you will see in the NFL, and while they passed more than they ran, consider that the Bills were often playing from behind, forcing them to play catch up.

In 16 games last season, the Bills never led in six and were tied or trailed in the fourth quarter of four of their seven victories. Such situations force an offense to become one dimensional. 

With an inexperienced Edwards under center, Schonert wanted a run-first offense in '08. While he and head coach Dick Jauron will talk all summer about how they will run to set up the pass, make no mistake the Bills will throw first to open running lanes in 2009.

Edwards is ready for increased responsibility and has all the weapons he needs to succeed, which is why I expect him to put the ball in the air on 57 or 58 percent of downs this season. Who knows what the results will be, but at the very least, the approach will be fearless and aggressive.

With Lynch, Rhodes, and Jackson, the Bills have a backfield capable of carrying them on any given Sunday, but expect the heavy lifting to be done by Edwards, Owens, and Co.

The NFL is a passing league, and Buffalo is finally catching up with the times, further distancing itself from the days of Woody Hayes.