How Should Bills Adjust Offense in Light of Struggles on Ground?
The Buffalo Bills entered the season with one of the best one-two punches at running back in the entire league. Eight games later, they sit near the bottom of the league in nearly every rushing category.
Injuries to Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller haven't helped the cause, but the Bills running game was struggling before either of them went down with their respective ailments.
It may be time to adjust how the Bills are attacking opposing defenses.
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It's tough to be overly critical of the Bills offense considering they just got done putting up five touchdowns and 43 points on the hapless New York Jets. But despite that offensive explosion, the Bills are still dragging their feet in several categories, including total yards (26th in the NFL), first downs (31st) and, most importantly, scoring (21st).
It's also fairly easy to see why the Bills struggled running against the Jets defense in the first place; New York ranks in the top five in rushing yards allowed (683), second in rushing touchdowns allowed (three) and fourth in rushing yards allowed per attempt (3.3). But the Bills haven't fared much better against defenses that are much worse.
| Buffalo Bills | 207 | 791 | 3.8 | 3 |
| League Rank | 22 | 23 | 23 | 28 |
But a closer look at the games and situations reveals that the struggles are not square on the shoulders of the running game itself but are also a product of opponents and situations. The Bills picked up only 87 rushing yards against the San Diego Chargers, but they were trailing 13-3 at halftime. They totaled only 49 rushing yards against the Detroit Lions defense (ranked No. 1 in yards per carry with 3.3 allowed) in a game where they needed 14 second-half points to come up with the win.
So perhaps the answer isn't to adjust, but simply to wait for the right opportunities to run the ball.
"I want to be able to run the ball, and that's something I push toward them because I think it creates a toughness with our guys," offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said, according to Sal Maiorana of the (Rochester) Democrat & Chronicle.
There are times, however, where the Bills must execute better in the running game.
Take, for example, their lackluster performance against the Patriots. New England's run defense ranks 25th overall and in yards per attempt, but the Bills were only able to muster 68 rushing yards and just shy of 3.0 YPA.
On 1st-and-10 with 12:59 left in the second quarter, the Bills were backed up on their own goal line and tried a counter run off the right side.
On misdirection plays such as this, it's important for the backside protection to hold up. Unfortunately, right tackle Seantrel Henderson (circled in yellow) completely whiffed on linebacker Jerod Mayo and failed to open the appropriate hole for running back Fred Jackson.
But that misses the point. Much of the Bills' problems have been running between the tackles, and against the Jets, we got to see those struggles in full force.
On 2nd-and-16 with 14:14 left in the third quarter, the Bills tried to run out of a spread formation with only five offensive linemen. It's hard to be successful running without any extra blockers but especially so against a stout defensive line like the Jets. The play call was bad, but the execution was even worse.
By the time Anthony Dixon had the ball, the play was already dead, as both right guard Erik Pears (circled in red) and center Eric Wood (circled in yellow) whiffed on their blocks.
There's no magic wand that Hackett can wave to fix the problems with his running attack, but perhaps he could simply go to more of an aerial assault to help keep the offense moving.
| Sammy Watkins | 38 | 590 | 15.5 | 5 |
| Robert Woods | 28 | 294 | 10.5 | 2 |
| Chris Hogan | 13 | 176 | 13.5 | 1 |
| Mike Williams | 8 | 142 | 17.8 | 1 |
With wide receivers like Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods catching passes, and with both Jackson and Spiller out, the passing game would seem to be their best bet for continued production. The Bills inserted Kyle Orton as their starting quarterback, presumably to get more consistency from the passing game. It may be time to see what they can do with a heavier workload.
If the Bills want to put the ball in the air more often without losing any semblance of a running game, perhaps they could try the screen game. That would be a good way to allow the offensive linemen to get out in front of plays and still be aggressive without asking them to take on defenders immediately at the point of attack.
The Bills have their bye week to self-scout and diagnose the problems that have caused their offense to stagnate in certain situations. Be it execution, play-calling, strategy or some combination of multiple factors, the Bills must decide what they think is wrong and correct it if they want to not only stay on course for the AFC playoffs, but also hope to be competitive if and when they reach that point.
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