Healthy Bills Offense Primed to Put Buffalo Back in the 2015 NFL Playoff Race

When the 2015 NFL season first got underway, it seemed like the Buffalo Bills were destined to be a surefire playoff contender. The Bills were coming off a promising 9-7 2014 record, had selected an exciting, young, talented quarterback in Tyrod Taylor and had an experienced and confident head coach in Rex Ryan.

The Bills also started this season with convincing wins over the Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins sandwiched around an eight-point loss to the New England Patriots. 

Yes, the defense had some struggles against the Patriots, as NFL defenses are often wont to do. However, the Buffalo offense was a pleasant surprise behind Taylor. Through Week 3, Taylor, who spent his first four pro seasons as a backup with the Baltimore Ravens, was rated 14th overall among quarterbacks by Pro Football Focus.

The Bills produced 100 points over the first three weeks of the season and outscored their first three opponents by a cumulative 32-point margin.

Unfortunately, the start to the 2015 season didn't last long (starts rarely do), and the same was true for Buffalo's initial success.

The Bills dropped three of their next four contests. Two of the losses—to the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Giants—came in convincing fashion, and the other loss came against the 2-6 Jacksonville Jaguars. Buffalo's third win of the season was a 14-13 squeaker against the Tennessee Titans.

Naturally, we can pinpoint several reasons for Buffalo's decline. The defense hasn't been quite what it was a season ago, when Buffalo was ranked fourth overall in total defense (312.2 yards per game allowed). The inexperience of Taylor at quarterback has also shown at times, and the Bills were whisked away to London just before their Week 8 bye for the Jaguars game.

However, the biggest factor for Buffalo was the rash of injuries that significantly weakened the offense.

The aforementioned Taylor suffered an MCL sprain against Tennessee and missed the next two games—both losses. Starting running back LeSean McCoy missed Weeks 2 and 4 with a hamstring injury, while backup Karlos Williams missed Weeks 5-7 with a concussion. 

Wide receiver Sammy Watkins made an early exit in Week 6 with an ankle injury and missed the following week as well. He also missed Weeks 4 and 5 with a calf injury. Fellow receiver Percy Harvin has been dealing with knee and hip injuries for much of the season and was placed on season-ending injured reserve Saturday. 

Things were so bad at one point that the Bills' running back tandem consisted of Anthony Dixon and Dan Herron. 

The difference between the healthy offense and the sickly one was palpable.

Over the first three weeks of the 2015 season, Buffalo averaged 33.3 points per game. Over the next four weeks, the Bills' average plummeted to just 19 points per contest. 

Buffalo's bye week probably couldn't have come at a better time this season.

The Bills came roaring out of their bye to put a 33-17 beatdown on the rival Dolphins on Sunday. The defense played at a respectable level, but it was the efficiency and explosiveness of the offense that really stood out against Miami.

Of course, it has to be noted that the offense, for the most part, was healthy again.

	Total Yds	TDs	Turnovers	Weeks Missed in 2015
Tyrod Taylor	225	1	0	2
LeSean McCoy	119	1	0	2
Karlos Williams	110	2	0	3
Sammy Watkins	168	1	0	3

The week off allowed most of the ailing offensive skill players to return to the lineup. Taylor was back under center. Williams was again in the backfield, and Watkins was back out there at receiver. McCoy? Well, he looked as healthy and as comfortable as he has all season. 

Not too surprisingly, the Bills' 33 points against Miami were nearly dead-on with what the team averaged at the start of the season. However, the scary thing is that the offense looked even better than it did back then, especially on the ground.

McCoy and Williams combined for 222 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns. Taylor added 44 yards on 10 scrambles, and Buffalo showed why it can be one of the league's best rushing teams, if not the best rushing team, down the stretch.

Let's just hope that the shoulder injury that knocked McCoy out of the game doesn't prove to be too serious.

If everyone can stay healthy, this is going to be the type of grinding, run-first defense that Rex Ryan loves and that he had hoped to establish in Buffalo. 

“We prefer to ground and pound it, we’re going to run it 50 times if we can on you,” Ryan said early in the offseason on WGR 550-AM in Buffalo, via Sal Maiorana of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

The Bills might not have actually ran it 50 times on Sunday (36, to be exact), but the run game was dominating and certainly set the tone and the tempo against Miami. It also opened things up for Watkins (168 receiving yards and one score), who finally looked like the game-changing receiver the Bills traded up to draft a year ago.

This is a formula that should breed success in Buffalo as the weather begins to turn and the ground game and play-action become even more important to offensive coordinator Greg Roman's unit. If the offense can keep rolling and the defense can tighten a few things up, then the Bills' 15-year playoff drought might just come to an end this year.

We'll find out a lot over the next two weeks, of course, as Buffalo's next two contests come in prime time and on the road against the New York Jets and Patriots. If the Bills can win those games, then there's plenty of reason to believe that an AFC East title could even be in the equation.