At 4-12 the Buffalo Bills certainly had a challenging season, but the main difference here is that we sort of expected them to. They have a lot of needs, and it seems a better front office and maybe even a new owner is what it is going to take to turn this team around. The first half of the season went winless with two tough OT loses in a row. They won four of their last 8 which may be a positive, but this remains a team with a lot of holes.
The offense scored the fifth fewest points in the NFL with 283. That is just 17.7 a game. QB Ryan Fitzpatrick completed nearly 58% of his passes, but had 15 INT’s to go with his 23 TD’s. He was sacked 34 times which suggests the Bills still have needs along the O line. They did average over 107 yards of rushing per game, and that is a pretty good number. However this situation at the WR position could use an infusion of talent.
The defense was pretty bad as well. They gave up 425 points or 26.6 points per game. They ran a 3-4 base defense, with a few 4-3 sets. Of all the teams that did this all of them finished 2010 with a terrible record and all three of them are picking in the top five of the 2011 NFL draft (Cincinnati and Arizona were the other teams to employ this strategy).
This team was -17 in turnover differential and it is not like the QB’s threw a ton of picks. Their defense forced just 15 fumbles and that suggests they need a few ball hawks to attack their opponents. They also had just 11 INT’s and again they don’t have guys who attack the ball, and that is an issue.
Related Links:
- Buffalo Bills news and notes
- The Business of the NFL
- Joshua Lobdell.com
