Buffalo Bills 2011: Is There Still Enough Time Left to Fix the Offensive Line?

If you didn't know any better, you might think that Buffalo Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was a scab that had crossed the picket line of striking NFL players, because the linemen were either refusing or conveniently forgetting to block their man during Fitzpatrick's first half gig.

Of course Fitzpatrick, is no scab, but a loyal NFL quarterback does not deserve this kind of treatment from his trusted first line of protection. From Eric Wood, Demetrius Bell, C.J. Spiller, the omissions were painful to watch, but plain as day if anyone happened to catch the game.

With so few days left to work in pads due to the new NFL CBA, there really isn't a whole lot left that Chan Gailey can do. The ball appears to be solely in the court of Buddy Nix. He has a mandate to spend 90 percent of the salary cap this year, so we can only implore Nix to go and find some linemen who are adept at both run blocking and pass blocking. If not, then there is always next year, or the year after that.

Spiller, Bell and Wood Cost Fitzpatrick

The picture on the opening slide was the Von Miller sack of Ryan Fitzpatrick, which was not a highlight for Demetrius Bell. Miller blew past Bell as if he had both feet stuck in cement. He looked like he did not have a clue how to set up to block against him, and for a veteran to be beat that badly by a rookie is just embarrassing. In this photo, at least Fitzpatrick had time to throw, which was a rarity.

For the night, Fitzpatrick took big shots from Elvis Dumervil and from Brodrick Bunkley. On the hit by Bunkley, he was initially blocked by Eric Wood, and Wood then decided to let him go, so that he could help out blocking on another Bronco that was already being blocked by two other Bills—Bell and Fred Jackson. Bunkley said thank you very much, and proceeded to lay Fitzpatrick out on a huge hit. What the heck was Wood thinking?

On the Dumervil hit, Spiller got caught out of position, as he was the sole last line of defense for Fitzpatrick on the play, and since he couldn't go through Fitzpatrick, all he could do was stand there and watch helplessly as his quarterback got drilled because he blew his assignment. If Spiller can't be more effective or responsible, it will limit the number of snaps he sees this year. Spiller may be just of the many Bills players that the labor lockout really impacted due to lack of practice time and coaching.

Howard, Pears Have Their Share of Whiffs Too

I pulled this picture not to demonstrate slow motion tackling technique, (because it looks like it could have easily served as great material for a football clinic) but as an example of Denver gang tackling the ball carrier, but no other Bills blockers anywhere in sight.

I don't want to blast just the starters that missed blocks that led to Fitzpatrick getting drilled. Erik Pears missed some blocks that caused Spiller to lose yardage and there was a really bad whiff by Cordaro Howard in the second half as well.

I saw the rotation of Andy Levitre and Chad Rinehart. Not sure who was the winner but I did see the line from WGR Radio's Joe Buscaglia where he said that Kraigh Urbik is auditioning for the new show "Worst Starting Offensive Lineman in the NFL". I watched Urbik and I did not see him playing anywhere close to that level. We witnessed the Bears line giving up nine sacks to the Bills last week. Last night the Bills line gave up one sack for the whole game. Come on Joe, things are tough, but that doesn't help. 

So How Bad Was Fitzpatrick?

Maybe it is smart to hold off on extending Fitzpatrick beyond this year, just to make sure that he is still able to resemble the quarterback that he was this year. We aren't suggesting that he can't do it, we are just stating that whatever the version was that trotted out there in Denver last night, we want that one to go away.

Fitzpatrick threw 16 passes in his half, completing six of them for only 44 yards. That is an average of 2.8 yards per pass and a QB Passer Rating of 19.8. Where is Trent Edwards when you need him? Sorry, that was a bad joke.

One of the favorite pass plays of late making it's way around the NFL is the pass along the sideline where the quarterback tries to hit the receiver streaking down the sideline throwing the ball to his back shoulder (closest to the sideline). Fitzpatrick demonstrated terrible accuracy on the two he tried, as he came up way short on one attempt to Steve Johnson, and on another he floated one more towards the middle in the end zone that would have been intercepted if Donald Jones didn't break up the pass.

With only two more preseason games left, and maybe only one if the Bills rest all of their starters in the final game as a precaution, there is precious little time left for Fitzpatrick to get his timing and chemistry down with his receivers. Speaking of his receivers, that will be our next slide, because as banged up as they were last night, we don't know who he will have to throw to next week against Jacksonville.

Receiving Corps Had a Rough Game

This is the picture of the play I alluded to earlier, when Donald Jones broke up the interception. Jones later on would take a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit from rookie safety Rahim Moore that looked like it knocked Jones out. He laid there motionless on the sidelines for quite awhile. Later on he went into the locker room, and it was encouraging to see how Fred Jackson and Steve Johnson rallied around Jones and came to his defense. 

Other receivers that had a rough game were Naaman Roosevelt who appeared to twist his knee on a second half catch. No word yet on how he is doing or if he will miss any time.

Marcus Easley had two nice catches for 45 yards which is a great average. He did however fail to catch a pass from Fitzpatrick, that went off of his hands and wound up turning that into an interception instead. If Jones is out for any amount of time, it will be up to either Easley or Davis to step up now that Lee Evans has been traded away.

It was a long night for Steve Johnson as well. He only had one catch on the night out of four targets. He was clearly upset at the hit by Moore on Jones. Johnson demonstrated some leadership with his actions but he is not being allowed to get into any kind of rhythm or groove yet on offense so far this season.

Finally, we come to David Nelson. The tall receiver is a great target, but for some reason has been largely ignored so far. He has received one target so far in two games, and has yet to catch a pass, which is the same as Roscoe Parrish, who has yet to suit up.

Rough Night for Running Backs

C.J. Spiller had a run for 14 yards in the first quarter and then everything went downhill from there. Spiller missed blocking assignments, started to dance when running east to west, and ran into Fitzpatrick on a running play that resulted in a loss of eight yards. For the night, Spiller had six carries for 10 yards. Ugh. He also caught a beautifully set up screen pass, but instead of following his blockers, he chose to go in the only direction where the one defender could have possibly tackled him. 

If Spiller has learned more patience this year, it was not on display last night. There was a Twitter comment from Tim Graham stating that the starting running back job is now C.J. Spiller's to lose. I don't see that Fred Jackson has done anything to warrant losing his starting job. He is a durable and powerful runner, good receiver, and a fearless pass blocker. I don't see how Spiller matches what Jackson brings to the table. Maybe sometime down the road, but not right now. 

Jackson rushed for an impressive 34 yards on only four carries and looks like he is regular season form already. Give him the rock.

Then there was the scary hit on Johnny White, by ex-Bills linebacker Mario Haggan. It was the first play the Bills offense ran in the second half, and coming not very long after the hit on Donald Jones, you had to wonder what was coming next. We know that White was released from the hospital and flew home with the team, we just don't know if he is hurt yet or not, but it sure looked like it could have been bad.

The Run Defense Is Better, Pass Defense Is Worse

The Bills pass defense in 2010 went largely untested because it was so easy to run on the Bills. Well, this year the run defense looks to be much improved, so naturally teams will have to revert to their passing attacks to try to find some soft spots.

The Broncos found soft spots most of the night. The guy that looked like he was getting beat the most was Leodis McKelvin. For some reason, McKelvin insists on playing corner with his back to the ball. I guarantee that he will never lead the league in interceptions playing like that. Almost every pass that was targeted towards McKelvin wound up going for a completion. Drayton Florence was also beat repeatedly but I have to say that trying to cover Brandon Lloyd is a very difficult assignment.

Reggie Corner was beaten on the final Denver touchdown, but at least Corner made some other nice plays in breaking up some passes. Great interception turned in by Terrence McGee at the end of the first half. Thought he had a window to take that pick all the way back.

Reggie Torbor was beat on several passes where he is just too slow to cover backs coming out. Ex-Bills running back Willis McGahee beat Torbor on a pass for a touchdown in the first half.

Pass Rush Missed Shawne Merriman

Nine sacks in Week 1, down to two sacks in week two. Can Shawne Merriman mean that much to the Bills, or was it that the Chicago Bears offensive line is that bad? Maybe a little of both. For the most part, Kyle Orton and Brady Quinn were afforded plenty of time to throw. Both had over 100 yards in passing in playing less than a half.

Marcell Dareus had a sack, so now has recorded one sack in both of his preseason games. That is something we can get used to. Von Miller and Dareus each had their one sack for the game, as they will probably be compared to each other throughout their career's, since they went back-to-back in the draft.

Linebacker Robert Eddins had the other sack for Buffalo. That came on Denver quarterback Tim Tebow, and you could tell that Eddins was happy with the accomplishment.

So Where Are We Now?

The Bills have one week to find out how many healthy receivers they have. They will also need to see if any of these walking wounded players are ready to earn a job. That is a long list, but players like Shawn Nelson, Craig "Buster" Davis, Roscoe Parrish, Kelvin Sheppard, Levi Brown, Justin Rogers, Chris Hairston and Ed Wang could use quite a few snaps this coming Sunday to determine if they are in a position to help the team this year or not.

If Buddy Nix is going to bring any offensive linemen, it would have to be this week, because you are really trying to get your game install in for Kansas City on opening day after this week. There isn't a whole lot of time left, but there are still some guys that will be hitting the waiver wire that might be worth bringing in for a look.

Based on what we saw last night, Bills fans have a right to be worried. Buddy Nix has repeatedly been saying that we like what we have. We think they have promise. If Nix continues to say that during the upcoming week, then you know we are talking about two very different things.

The Bills will be hosting Jacksonville on Saturday, August 27th. The Bills get to debut their new field, new home uniforms and hopefully get their first win.