Bills Q&A with Tim Graham of the Buffalo News

[Texans_Chick]

Bills Q&A with Tim Graham of the Buffalo News + stats, more

This turned out well. Some Q&As are better than others. This is a good one.

Oof talk about Mario.

[stingray]

Veteran defensive linemen Kyle Williams and Chris Kelsay have called out the defense for a lack of effort, and although they didn’t name names, it’s understood around the locker room they were referring to Mario Williams and defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, last year’s third overall draft choice who has struggled mightily against the run.”

[LondonTex]

"Texans fans’ main response is “Waaaah,” and Buffalo fans’ main response is “Oh great, we are paying you all this money, you are not performing, and you are basically saying you settled for us.”

haha - Roll on Sunday

[Playoffs]

Wow.

Here’s an amazing stat that sums up how dangerous Spiller has been: ProFootballFocus.com says he’s averaging 4.7 yards AFTER CONTACT this season. Maurice Jones-Drew led the NFL in rushing last year and averaged 4.7 yards totally.

Ruh-roh.

“Right tackle Erik Pears is having a bad season, and now he gets to face J.J. Watt. Pears is on pace to allow the most sacks and to commit the most penalties of his career. The Bills have given up only eight sacks, but three of them have been charged to Pears.

[ObsiWan]

Are the bolded little nuggets bothering anyone else besides me?

Football Outsiders Efficiency Ratings, Week 8 (Considers per play situation compared to league average factoring in opponent–more than just total yards in conventional stats. More info at FO FAQs page)
Bills:
Overall (27th),
Offense (17th), Pass offense (21st), Rush offense (7th).
Defense (30th), Pass defense (28th), Rush defense (32th) ,
Special Teams (4th)

Texans:
Overall (7th),
Offense (9th), Pass offense (8th), Rush offense (8th).
Defense (2nd), Pass defense (2nd), Rush defense (10th),
Special Teams (32nd).

Their running game is listed higher than ours and our rush defense hasn't been top notch so far.

And then there's that special teams elephant in the room.....

[Hagar]

What do you think is the best way to beat the Bills?

“Run, run, run, play action, run, run, play action. I wonder if the Texans know how to do those things …

Nice article. I enjoyed this quote.

[LondonTex]

Originally Posted by ObsiWan

Are the bolded little nuggets bothering anyone else besides me?

Not overly concerned, no.

Their running game is listed higher than ours and our rush defense hasn't been top notch so far.

They may be ranked 1 place above us on rushing offense but lets not forget they have the most generous defense on giving up rushing yards. I'm fancying our RBs to put up some pretty decent yardage.

And then there's that special teams elephant in the room.....

Most of their final practice before the bye was spent on special teams, trying new things with young players. Kubes said they are starting from scratch on terms of ST - mixing things up, using starters etc.... They know it's a huge problem and and I reckon they'll be working on it a heck of a lot...I'm assuming they have some ideas on how to improve and ya never know - we may see a more productive ST this week.

Was ST this bad last season?

[drs23]

Originally Posted by LondonTex

Not overly concerned, no.



They may be ranked 1 place above us on rushing offense but lets not forget they have the most generous defense on giving up rushing yards. I'm fancying our RBs to put up some pretty decent yardage.



Most of their final practice before the bye was spent on special teams, trying new things with young players. Kubes said they are starting from scratch on terms of ST - mixing things up, using starters etc.... They know it's a huge problem and and I reckon they'll be working on it a heck of a lot...I'm assuming they have some ideas on how to improve and ya never know - we may see a more productive ST this week.

Was ST this bad last season?

All true, but it's pretty bad when the Head Coach has to step in to correct Teams play. Could be seeing the end of Coach Joe's tenure here. He has not evolved. At all.

[Playoffs]

Originally Posted by LondonTex

Was ST this bad last season?

13th in 2011, 23rd in 2010.

[LondonTex]

Originally Posted by drs23

All true, but it's pretty bad when the Head Coach has to step in to correct Teams play. Could be seeing the end of Coach Joe's tenure here. He has not evolved. At all.

Fair point - shouldn't be happening

Originally Posted by Playoffs

13th in 2011, 23rd in 2010.

. Is Joe seriously that useless ? Why have they stuck with him ?

[TexanSam]

Originally Posted by LondonTex

Fair point - shouldn't be happening


So it's been getting progressively worse then. Is Joe seriously that useless ? Why have they stuck with him ?

13th isn't bad. But unless it improves, this will be two out of three years where ST is bad. But look on the bright side, Graham's only missed one kick

[ChampionTexan]

Originally Posted by ObsiWan

Their running game is listed higher than ours and our rush defense hasn't been top notch so far.

I think there's been a perception problem about the run D based on a couple of isolated instances (Chris Johnson's game against us for one). The longest run against us this season has was 19 yards which is best in the league.

Overall, it's 4th in the league at 83 YPG, but even on a yards per carry basis it's top 10 at 3.9.

I'm not saying it's a stone wall, but it's not as porous as some folks seem to believe it is either.

[LondonTex]

Originally Posted by TexanSam

13th isn't bad. But unless it improves, this will be two out of three years where ST is bad. But look on the bright side, Graham's only missed one kick

sorry, I edited my post before you posted your quote of mine. 13th isn't that bad, true. I hope we see an improvement soon...apart from ST the teams in pretty good shape right?

[Señor Stan]

Originally Posted by ChampionTexan

I think there's been a perception problem about the run D based on a couple of isolated instances (Chris Johnson's game against us for one). The longest run against us this season has was 19 yards which is best in the league.

Overall, it's 4th in the league at 83 YPG, but even on a yards per carry basis it's top 10 at 3.9.

I'm not saying it's a stone wall, but it's not as porous as some folks seem to believe it is either.

Remind me how many rushing TDs the Texans D has given up this year...

hint...it is the same number of TD passes Vince Young has this year...

[TackHammer]

Originally Posted by Señor Stan

Remind me how many rushing TDs the Texans D has given up this year...

hint...it is the same number of TD passes Vince Young has this year...

I think it's ten games,possibly eleven without a rushing TD if you go back to last season as well.

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by ObsiWan

Are the bolded little nuggets bothering anyone else besides me?

Originally Posted by ChampionTexan

I think there's been a perception problem about the run D based on a couple of isolated instances (Chris Johnson's game against us for one).

Johnson got some cheap yards against the Texans after decided they couldn't pass. Spiller might do the same this week, after the Bills get down 3 scores.

[Speedy]

Originally Posted by ChampionTexan

I think there's been a perception problem about the run D based on a couple of isolated instances (Chris Johnson's game against us for one). The longest run against us this season has was 19 yards which is best in the league.

Overall, it's 4th in the league at 83 YPG, but even on a yards per carry basis it's top 10 at 3.9.

I'm not saying it's a stone wall, but it's not as porous as some folks seem to believe it is either.

Numbers like that (the 83 YDS per game) can be a little misleading. The Texans have the 2nd least rush attempts against them. Baltimore, a great rushing team, only had 55 yards on the Texans, not because the Texans shut them down, but because the Ravens only ran it 12 times because they fell behind.

[TimeKiller]

One quote in here gave me the fear. How the Bills like to spread out a defense. You know who else plays spread offense? Packers. Plus, if they spread out the Texans and let Spiller loose on a run, what then?

Couple that with a D that's been embarrassed and has at least one player coming to prove something to the Texans?

I smell a trap. Hope the bye week didn't break their focus.

[Scooter]

Originally Posted by TimeKiller

One quote in here gave me the fear. How the Bills like to spread out a defense. You know who else plays spread offense? Packers. Plus, if they spread out the Texans and let Spiller loose on a run, what then?

the difference between the packers and bills is that one is capable of going downfield with the help of the league mvp. think david carr in a spread offense, lots of quick throws and dumps. sure it will neutralize a lot of our pass rush, but we cover as well as just about anyone. with our line getting their hands up, and our offense off a bye, a dink and dunk bills team isnt in the same ballpark as the packers.

it does smell like a trap, but then again it sounds like kubiak has been unusually full of vinegar lately, and we tend to take it to another level when kubiak raises hell.

[silentassassin]

Originally Posted by TimeKiller

One quote in here gave me the fear. How the Bills like to spread out a defense. You know who else plays spread offense? Packers. Plus, if they spread out the Texans and let Spiller loose on a run, what then?

Couple that with a D that's been embarrassed and has at least one player coming to prove something to the Texans?

I smell a trap. Hope the bye week didn't break their focus.

You're right about the potential for a trap. However, let's not forget that this isn't Aaron Rodgers running the offense.

The Bills haven't shown any ability to push the ball downfield. Most of their offense in the passing game comes from short throws, which lead to their downfall last season.

Teams began picking up on it, and by around week 6 last year, their offense became largely ineffective at times and that magical 4-0 start looked like a tease.