Bills grades for offense, defense, and special teams
With the season officially halfway done, now it's time for us to look back at the first half of the Buffalo Bills season. We're going to be doing a series of mid-season articles that will talk about both the good and the bad of this year so far. Buffalo Bills' mid-season rookie report cardsBuffalo Bills' […]
With the season officially halfway done, now it's time for us to look back at the first half of the Buffalo Bills season. We're going to be doing a series of mid-season articles that will talk about both the good and the bad of this year so far.
The Buffalo Bills had sky-high expectations coming into this season with their eyes on the ultimate prize of bringing home the first-ever Super Bowl trophy. With the season officially over halfway complete, we wanted to take a look at all three phases of the game and provide our grades for those respective positions.
We'll be taking a broad look at offense, defense, and special teams and giving them an overall grade with the second half of the season ready to begin. Are they meeting, exceeding, or failing is what everyone wants to know, and what the Bills Mafia has pretty strong feelings about. Let's dive in.
Offense
The Buffalo Bills' offense has struggled at times throughout the midway point of the NFL season. Through the first few weeks (after the embarrassing Jets game), Buffalo was scoring points in bunches and was the number-one team in the NFL in terms of PPG. Since then, things have died down with some embarrassing losses in which the offense needed far too long in the contest to get things going.
Second-year offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey was under fire last season, and into the offseason, and let's be honest any time the team loses fans are calling for his removal. However, Dorsey may not be the problem here. Before you get angry with me, he's not perfect and sometimes he makes bone-headed mistakes, but this could be a case of Allen early on, and when the team is struggling, trying to force things downfield instead of taking the easy stuff underneath.
When watching tape, on a few of Allen's turnovers, you can see players who are wide open underneath but instead, Allen will chuck a bomb downfield into double coverage. While the team will continue to live and die by Josh Allen, I don't think the offensive struggles rest solely on the shoulders of Dorsey.
The team brought in some reinforcements for Allen through the draft and offseason by bringing in names like Dalton Kincaid, Trent Sherfied, and Deonte Harty. Outside of Kincaid, the team isn't getting a whole lot of usage with Sherfield and Harty. Now that can be on the shoulders of Dorsey for not finding a good gameplan to get them involved.
Offensively, the Bills' offense doesn't have us hitting the panic button quite yet, but they haven't played their best football outside of maybe the game against Miami where they put on a show.
Taking a look at the offense as a whole, they are still one of the more dominant teams across the league. These stats were all compiled before the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
They're fifth in yards per game, third in yards per play, fourth in points per game, second in both red zone percentage and their down percentage. The area where the team is really struggling right now is getting the run game effective at a high clip. The team currently ranks 14th in rushing yards per game and the same in rushing yards per play.
Even with areas to improve, Buffalo is top five in almost every measurable category. We will take a few bumps in the road in Dorsey's play-calling and in Allen's boom-or-bust type mentality. While the Bengals game has left a sour taste in our mouths, it's hard not to be optimistic with Allen as the signal-caller.
Grade: C+
Defense
The Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott had a tough task ahead of himself when it was announced that Leslie Frazier would be taking a leave of absence and McDermott himself would be taking over the play-calling.
We would be remiss to not mention that the team has been plagued by injury. Three All-Pro caliber players in Matt Milano, Tre'Davious White, and DaQuan Jones could all be lost for the season, which makes McDermott's job even that much more difficult.
However, despite that, the organization has gotten some big wins by finding some crucial replacements in positions of need. Despite Milano going down, the team has unlocked something special in Terrel Bernard who has proven to be a leader on the defense.
Additionally, the team went out and filled some major needs before and after the NFL trade deadline with the acquisitions of Rasul Douglas and Linval Joseph. The defensive line has been feasting, with Von Miller getting back up to speed while recovering from an ACL injury.
To grade them properly, it's best to look at their overall stats on the season and where they compare to the rest of the league. These stats were compiled before the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
In terms of yards per game, they are 13th while sitting at 25th overall in yards per play. Perhaps their biggest weakness is stopping the run, where the team finds themselves 22nd in the NFL in rushing yards per game and 31st overall in rushing yards per play. In terms of sacks, they lead the league and are 6th in red zone defense while allowing the third least points per game across the entire NFL.
Despite the injuries, which have allowed teams to run all over them, Buffalo is finding ways to shut down their opponent which makes us very, very happy. Given what he's had to work with and the unfortunate circumstances surrounding some of the most important positions, those calling for McDermott's removal are way out of line.
Grade: B
Special Teams
While Tyler Bass is continuing his dominant start to his career, the special teams are a big ol' oof this season. Bass has cemented himself as one of the best kickers in the league and could wind up going down as the best kicker in Bills history.
Throughout this season, Bass has his lowest field goal percentage of his career, while making 11 out of 14 attempts, something that he can easily fix with more kicks under his belt. From an extra point perspective, he's once again perfect at 25 made on 25 attempts. Heck, the dude won special teams player of the month, he's clearly doing something right.
When looking at the rest of the special teams unit, it leaves much to be desired. Nyheim Hines was the team's return man who was lost for the season after a jet ski accident before the year even started.
Because of that, Buffalo needed to look elsewhere for their return man. Needless to say, their stats indicate that Hines is missed much more than we may have originally thought.
These stats were compiled before the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. The only measurable category where Buffalo lands inside the top ten is kick return allowed average. Their punt return allowed average has them sitting 25th overall in the league while their kick return and punt return units are firmly in the middle of the pack, sitting at 16th and 17th respectively.
Sean McDermott loves his special teams unit and fully understands the importance of being effective in all three facets of the game. Unfortunately, through the midway point, the special teams unit hasn't lived up to expectations.
Grade: C
Bills’ midseason MVPs have wiped away offseason concerns
The Buffalo Bills had some big questions heading into this season. While we are just over halfway through, two players in particular have risen to the challenge
