Different players, same results if Bills pass too much

By Anthony Bialy  |   Thursday, June 18, 2009  |  Comments( 77 )

Buffalo Bills
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It’s worth repeating what happens to those who don’t remember history. The Buffalo Bills should particularly be aware that they’ll face doom if they make the same mistakes they perpetrated earlier this decade. Specifically, the fact Terrell Owens is aboard doesn’t mean that the team can neglect the ground game.

Doing so will have perilous consequences. All the Bills must do is look at the last time they attempted to win solely with air power. The team doesn’t have to look back far to see what happens when it leans on that single dimension. As recently as 2002, a new addition to the aerial game tricked everyone into thinking the franchise could throw its way into the postseason. Instead, the offense burned as brightly as it did quickly; the Bills can’t let themselves be seduced by the same temptress again.

Drew Bledsoe played about a dozen good games as a Bill, and he put eight of them in a row to begin his stint with his second franchise. He guided the squad to a 5-3 record despite its woefully shaky defense, and fans weren’t merely anticipating reaching the playoffs; rather, the buzz was about how deep this team could get.

But the honeymoon quickly degenerated into annulment talk. The Bills inversely lost five out of their last eight contests to plummet from their place as the league’s darling to just another mediocre playoff outcast. It all had to do with the team’s predisposition to pass the ball constantly no matter how loudly fans shrieked at the television to rush a few damn times.

Passing excessively worked for a bit: The squad gained a spectacular 2,298 yards by air during the first eight games. But that amount plummeted to 1,697 in the season’s second half beginning with the ninth-game turning point against the New England Patriots. From there, Buffalo’s shallow attack was clearly exposed for all opposing coordinators to see.

Prominent oaf/then-offensive boss Kevin Gilbride, who won a Super Bowl ring with the New York Giants despite himself, notoriously fell in love with Bledsoe’s arm. Worse, he didn’t realize that everyone else was aware of his infatuation.

That’s particularly true for defenses that soon wisely backed off the line of scrimmage. Regrettably, the Bills didn’t adjust, gaining just 774 yards by ground through those glorious first eight games and barely more than that, 822, from games nine through 16.

The team went the way of the dinosaurs; while it devoured at will for a while, it was ultimately doomed to extinction thanks to an unwillingness to evolve. Alarmingly, the scenario could recur if the Bills are not careful. The worry this season is that offensive coordinator Turk Schonert will be so enchanted with the idea of throwing to both Lee Evans and Owens that he could disregard his backs.

The trouble may not be immediate, but it would lead to offensive failure by season’s end. Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson are as important to this franchise’s success as Owens and Evans. That’s in part thanks to their enormous combined talent but also because of their general role of keeping defenses honest.

Schonert needs to be an astute engineer and balance the matter and antimatter streams, much like a smart-alecky Scotsman or former “Reading Rainbow” host. The unpleasant alternative is facing safeties stationed deep in the cosmos on every passing attempt.

It’s exciting to have access to more than one dynamic receiver, but walking away from the run is a losing strategy no matter how talented the passer and catchers are. To paraphrase the maxim, insanity is calling the same plays over and over and expecting winning results.

The Bills may as well learn from one of the endless stream of mistakes they’ve managed this decade. Specifically, they must remember one of their most frustrating lessons: Throwing too much only works for so long. That’s true whether it’s Bledsoe passing or Owens receiving.
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