Tight end platoon does fine grunt work for Bills

By Anthony Bialy  |   Thursday, November 27, 2008  |  Comments( 20 )

Buffalo Bills
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The Buffalo Bills figured a way to match 60 percent of Tony Gonzalez’s production: They used three of their own tight ends. Of course, it’s not quite fair to compare any player, or most groups of players, to the Kansas City Chiefs standout seeing as how he’s the best ever at his position. Anyone who can catch 10 passes for 113 yards in one game for this laughably dismal 2008 team, as he did Sunday, has proved his worth to the sport of football forever.

But by their own entirely modest standards, Buffalo’s tight ends combined for a fair output this past game, even if Robert Royal and Derek Schouman’s respective busts won’t someday flank Gonzalez’s in Canton. While it took a committee to achieve decent numbers, the gang still did collectively OK in last week's 54-31 win, and more importantly helped get their wayward passer back on the rails.

Buffalo's receiving ends accumulated 68 yards in Kansas City, about one-quarter of the 273 yards quarterback Trent Edwards gained on the day. As for a slightly higher percentage, seven of Edwards’ 24 completions were to the three-headed slightly bulky receiving monster.

The gains were spread around fairly evenly: Royal made three catches for 29 yards, while Schouman added three of his own for 25, including that sharp 17-yard reception for Buffalo’s final touchdown of the day. Rookie Derek Fine added a 14-yard catch to the total, as he continued to adjust to NFL life against a team in the Chiefs that makes easing easy.

While Edwards used the trio just about enough, they could in turn make themselves slightly more useful during upcoming games: The tight ends averaged 9.7 yards per reception last Sunday, and it would help a great deal if they could nudge up that rate a yard or two. Of course, it wasn’t a problem this time since the Bills generally ended up moving the ball as if they were unopposed in Kansas City, and even relatively low gains per reception can’t take away from the fact that this effort served as a good rebound for this offense regardless of the foe’s sad weakness.

More specifically, the quarterback reverted to sharpness in part because the tight ends contributed more than yardage; they helped reassemble his fractured psyche. The Stanford product needed to just be able to string a few completions together, and his ends obliged in an agreeable manner by providing him with an outlet. Importantly, Edwards also got wideout Lee Evans involved, something that was precisely able to happen because the passer could count on more anonymous non-Evans catchers.

It would be nice if offenses didn’t have to occasionally lean on unspectacular gains to make drives work and instead could reliably expect wideouts to be recipients of long passes for flashy plays every time. It would also be nice if we could replace factories and parking lots with playgrounds and tranquil meadows, but reality states that there needs to be some unglamorous expanses for society to function. In the same way, occasionally using lumbering blockers for single-digit gains is not always exciting or pretty, but doing so makes more pleasant throws possible. That’s true even if a team has to rely on tight ends, plural, to get it done.
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CommentsComments: 20  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
10:06 AM
11/27/2008
AB -- Thanks for writing even on Thansgiving morning. May you and your family have a blessed, happy thanksgiving. Sometimes we...
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No.2
8and8Forever		11:31 AM
11/27/2008
Fine will be fine. there is a reason they kept him on the roster all year while injured. They've seen something the kid we...
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No.3
Amir FaSaad		12:04 PM
11/27/2008
Good morn and Happy Thanksgiving to all the 365ers, Could Fine be our version of Todd Christiansen ? Anybody remember him with...
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