Bills’ Kelsay, Denney must be less less effective

By Anthony Bialy  |   Friday, December 19, 2008  |  Comments( 161 )

Buffalo Bills
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The rush is slow when it comes to the Buffalo Bills chasing quarterbacks. Particularly, the two guys charged with filling the void left by the fallen Aaron Schobel’s absence are still playing like they did when he was around, namely expecting him to pick up their slack. Unfortunately, their failure to realize Schobel is watching means the attack has been almost as bad as Buffalo’s own passing offense, if that’s possible. The coaches should try something novel with the pair if they have any hope of sacking the elusive Jay Cutler of the Denver Broncos this Sunday, namely inverting players who are basically interchangeable anyway.

The two ends are the primary reason why the Bills are only up to 22 sacks after 14 games, leaving them tied for 27th best with the Houston Texans. Noticeably and perhaps obviously, both have also been rendered ineffective in the eight games played without Buffalo’s second-best sacker ever. Denney has managed three sacks in Schobel’s absence and four total this season; meanwhile, one of Kelsay’s two 2008 sacks has come after his more eminent, better platoon mate messed up his foot.

It gets more exasperating: Three of the pair’s four total sacks in the Schobel-less contests came against the San Francisco 49ers, a team that is tied with the Cincinnati Bengals for most conceded this season with 50. When it comes to their primary task, the two defenders have done almost nothing, and did most of that on one afternoon against an assemblage of laughably feckless pass blockers.

In fairness, the plunge had to have been at least partially expected. There’s naturally going to be some falloff when the undeniably best player in the group isn’t participating; it’s the same reason nobody owns that Velvet Underground album recorded after Lou Reed left. But the Bills are just going to have to finally figure out how to get by without Schobel, even if they’re over two months late in doing so.

So why not flip the players in question against Denver and let them see if either can do better from the other side? Kelsay is the marginally better player of the two, for whatever that’s worth, and he might be able to manufacture at least some pressure from his right; he also doesn’t have to worry about getting spun as if on a fulcrum, a problem which has plagued the severely tallish Denney since forever.

Nothing else has worked with these ends, so reversing their alignment is the last option. Denney can go back to the left side where he’s spent most of his career, meaning he’ll no longer have to face any more excessively agile left tackles; meanwhile, letting a smart player/hard worker/middling pro athlete like Kelsay take a shot at trying to outsmart same left tackles couldn’t hurt.

Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell must conjure a fresh approach with his quarterback hunters, as Denver’s eternally solid offensive line has only surrendered 11 sacks this year. It’s going to be tough for Buffalo to suddenly make a mobile quarterback like Cutler hate life, too: Despite an often dauntless general effort by the defense to keep this team in games as its own offense has made a habit of either vanishing or ultimately failing, the pass rush has not been helpful, as even quarterbacks like Brett freaking Favre have been easily shielded from the Bills’ pursuers.

Buffalo has been plagued by injuries in general these past two seasons and Schobel’s in particular this year, but coping with personnel losses no matter how devastating is part of football. Moving around the pieces they have left could help, and the important factor to remember is that, in terms of rushing the passer, things couldn’t get worse.
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