What Is To Blame For Buffalo’s Season? I Have A Thought.

This season the Buffalo Bills have had two major problems which assisted them in heading on a downward spiral.  Buffalo faced insurmountable odds this year as they could not over come all of the injuries that they incurred.  Although Buffalo most likely would have still missed the playoffs, it is very hard to assume that they would have finished with the same record while showing no signs of progress if they were able to field a much healthier team.  The Bills coaching under Dick Jauron was not very good and does share in the blame as to why Buffalo looked as bad as they did.  But, still, even if they had depth (which they didn’t) at every position they still had to overcome far to many injuries to make a serious run at respectability this year.

The Bills started the most different offensive line combinations than any other team in the NFL.  In addition, Buffalo also played roughly one game with it’s opening day starting linebackers in tact together.  They also spent portions of the season shifting around their secondary due to injuries to their starting cornerbacks as well.

It all starts with the offensive line.  As they continuously were forced to start different line combinations and sign a new lineman every week, Buffalo could only find two players who lasted the entire season.  The unit was already handicapped going into the season as they were young and inexperienced, but now had to face new players coming in and out of the lineup from week to week.  They had no chance to form any cohesiveness which is essential on the offensive side of the ball.  Eventually starting QB Trent Edwards would go down due to injury forcing backup Ryan Fitzpatrick into action.

Buffalo second largest area of concern this season when discussing the impact of injuries would be with the linebackers.  Buffalo employed a 4-3 scheme calling for the use of three starting linebackers.  Unfortunately they were also unable to remain healthy and would also employ a carousel approach to filling the starting lineup.  In three seasons middle linebacker Paul Posluszny has only been able to complete one of them injury free.  Billed as the anchor for this defense for years to come, Posluszny was supposed to be a player to watch this season.  Unfortunately that never came to fruition as Posluszny suffered a devastating injury, again.  He did end up playing in 12 games but the hope is that these are just freak accidents that wont carry over throughout the rest of his career.  At this point Posluszny is more Dan Morgan than Zach Thomas; talented but mostly injured.  On one side of Posluszny is Kawika Mitchell, a talented linebacker signed by Buffalo from the New York Giants who were fresh off of a Super Bowl Victory.  Mitchell has been able to stay healthy for most of his career and had not missed a game since 2004 where he missed only one game.  But in Buffalo when it snows, it’s a blizzard.  Mitchell was only able suit up for 5 games before suffering a devastating injury that ended his season.  The last linebacker, although he was more of a starter by default, was Keith Ellison.  Ellison only was able suit up for 8 games throughout the past season.

What did this leave Buffalo with?  A wealth of problems.  Going into the season Buffalo was going to be without backup MLB John DiGorgio who was injured.  Buffalo needed to depend on their “depth.”  Unfortunately Buffalo’s depth ended up injured as well as Marcus Buggs and Nic Harris ended up on the reserve as well.  Buffalo had to go to their last resort in converting safety Bryan Scott into their weak-side linebacker.  Surprisingly enough he played fairly well, but hopefully Buffalo doesn’t convince themselves that this could be a season long fix for next year.

The secondary was a pleasant surprise this year and at times was fairly solid, but they also had their share of injury concerns.  McKelvin was only able to play in 3 games this year before he was derailed by injuries.  This allowed Drayton Florence the opportunity to step up and filled in very well.  Terrance McGee was able to play in 11 games although at times it seemed like his name always appeared on the injury report.  Jairus Byrd didn’t get to start until week 4 and had to be shut down for the last 2 games due to injury as well.

After the dust settled, Buffalo had an astounding 20 players on the injury reserve, with roughly 13 being starters at some point in the season.  No team can expect to make the playoffs, let alone win, with results like that.  But again, who or what can be held responsible as we are always told that injuries are a part of the game?  I would nominate Buffalo’s strength and conditioning program (or whoever developed it, I really hope they didn’t just buy a bunch of P90X videos in order to save money in this area) as well as their lack of technique and fundamentals.

Strength in conditioning is a relatively new premise to professional sports.  Even into the 90’s player’s work out regimens and diets were never as closely scrutinized as they are today.  Buffalo appears to be behind in this area.  Someone once told me “…if something happens once, it’s luck.  If it happens again, it’s a coincidence.  If it happens a third time, there is a problem.”  Well, what if it happens more than 20 times to more than 13 of your starters?  Yes, injuries are a part of the game.  But, in the modern game so is conditioning and nutrition.  I find it very hard to believe that Buffalo just had bad luck this year.  If their coaching staff was unorganized and unprepared, why wouldn’t their strength and conditioning be any different?

Bills players were hurt early and often and although some of the players on the IR were mid season signings who may have shown up to the team out of game shape, that still doesn’t explain the obscene amount of players left on the IR that started the season with Buffalo.  But again strength and conditioning can only do so much, but that is where technique and fundamentals.  The art of making a proper tackle, or how to fall after getting hit, essentially how to brace for impact.  With so many young players on this roster, Buffalo coaches did not seem to either get through to them or teach them NFL ready technique or fundamentals.  Proper footwork, understanding how to utilize leverage instead of brute force, proper tackling technique; these are things that seemed to lack from the Buffalo Bills this season.

Would a better strength and conditioning program have made a difference?  Would better fundamentals and more focus on technique prevented injuries?  Maybe, maybe not.  But in a sport where every game is must win, no team can afford to end the season with 20 players on the IR and expect a positive outcome; see Detroit (15) and Tampa Bay (15).  Oh Yeah, and before I get all the responses about New Orleans having roughly 16 guys on injury reserve; how many of them were starters?  Exactly!  Go AFC! Go Colts!

Tags: Buffalo Bills, Jairus Byrd, Kawika Mitchell, Keith Ellison, Leodis McKelvin, Paul Posluszny, Terrance McGee