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Part 2 of the Buffalo Bills’ 2013 season review focuses on the players on the offensive unit. Statistically, the offense may have been more productive in previous years with Ryan Fitzpatrick at the helm. There was little doubt, however, following the 2012 season, that Buffalo needed to make a change at the sport’s most important position. The club finally pinpointed their “quarterback of the future” in the 2013 draft, and EJ Manuel showed some signs that he was the right choice. In order for the offense to become a productive unit in 2014, one thing has to be a major point of emphasis for coach Doug Marrone and his staff – stability at the QB position. They have to find a way to keep Manuel on the field so he can continue in his development in the offense. Here’s my assessment of the offensive roster:

Quarterbacks

Three different injuries caused Manuel to miss valuable time on the field this season, and that’s a shame because it means he will still be learning things in 2014 that should already be ingrained. When he did play, Manuel was mostly unspectacular, but the good things about his play were that, other than a couple of games, he avoided making big mistakes, and showed good athletic ability with his feet, adding a dimension to the position the Bills have never had before. The main goal of the coaching staff should be to develop consistency in Manuel’s game. If he maintains the ability to consistently avoid turnovers while eventually gaining the confidence to make big plays in the passing game, the Bills will be rewarded with a guy they can turn the franchise around with. As for backups, Thad Lewis made great strides here after being acquired right before the season from Detroit. He worked his way into the starting job when Manuel was hurt and won the support and confidence of his teammates. He did enough to be given a full shot at keeping the backup job next year, but the club shouldn’t hesitate to try to upgrade the spot if possible. Jeff Tuel looks like a decent development project to keep on the roster. Injury-prone veteran Kevin Kolb has most likely seen his final days with the team.

Running Backs

The running game was the strength of the Bills’ attack this year, but could also focus on maintaining consistency. This was supposed to be the year the major load was transferred from Fred Jackson to C.J. Spiller, but Spiller was hampered by injury a lot and Jackson had the better year. Both players complement each other well, and it’s a shame that two backs as talented as they are have had to labor on a losing team for so long. The team cut ties with an old Chan Gailey favorite, Tashard Choice, during the season, so young Ronnie Wingo, if he’s brought back, will have a shot at winning a role in training camp next year. The Bills completely turned over the fullback position in 2013, with undrafted free agent Frank Summers doing a good job as a blocker, as well as a runner and receiver in the few chances he had in those roles. Evan Rodriguez was signed in-season and got some major playing time. He appears to be a decent blocker also, and hopefully will help improve the team’s dismal kick coverage teams.

Receivers

Like the quarterback position, the receiving unit underwent a major makeover in 2013 also. At wide receiver, the one mainstay was Stevie Johnson, a talented but inconsistent player whose 2013 season ended on a low note, as he missed the final 2 games because of the death of his mother. Johnson has been a flamboyant presence in his time with the team, but overall has been a solid citizen and well-respected teammate, so hopefully he returns in 2014. His unconventional knack for getting open can make him an asset to Buffalo’s passing game. He just needs to work on two things – improving his hands so he cuts down on his drops, and developing some chemistry with Manuel. T.J. Graham was invisible in the offense save for a few flashes once in awhile this year, so he needs to majorly step up his game in 2014 to stay on the roster. The team’s two prize draft choices at the position – Robert Woods and Marquise Goodwin – are definitely keepers. Although their production was predictably spotty as rookies, they played with confidence and made plays when their number was called. Goodwin’s track star speed makes him an especially exciting prospect, although he showed all year, with athletic ability and toughness, that he’s a football player, not just a track runner. Woods, on the other hand, appears to be a great route runner who’ll develop into a reliable “possession” receiver in the Bob Chandler/Frank Lewis mold. Marcus Easley and Kevin Hogan, two backup receivers, have mostly made their mark on special teams. The Bills could use a big wideout who can win “jump ball” battles with defenders in the red zone, and signed a couple of future players to the roster who are interesting prospects – 6’4 Cordell Roberson and 6’5 Brandon Kaufman, who was a late cut at the end of training camp in 2013. The Bills enter the off-season with four tight ends on their roster, and their late-season signing of veteran Tony Moeaki could be a sign that they’re looking to upgrade from starter Scott Chandler, a decent player who had his share of ups and downs this year. Veteran Lee Smith is used almost exclusively as a blocker, and has been penalty-prone in his few opportunities. Rookie Chris Gragg earned some playing time late in the year, and has potential but like a lot of young players on the roster, needs to work harder at stepping up his game if he wants to make a bigger contribution next season.

Offensive Line

The offensive line had an inconsistent season, but amazingly stayed healthy all year as a unit. In fact, after Colin Brown was cut and replaced at guard by Doug Legursky, they started together as a unit for every game. The Bills had one of the NFL’s top rushing attacks and protected the passer fairly well, so their solid starting five of center Eric Wood, Legursky and fellow guard Kraig Urbik and tackles Cordy Glenn and Erik Pears can be considered a strength of the team. Wood and Glenn would probably be getting Pro Bowl consideration if they played for a contending team. Mirroring the rest of the team, however, the line’s performances were inconsistent, as they were fairly solid at home but struggled on the road – at times leaving their quarterback running for his life, and at others getting called for ill-timed penalties that killed drives. The club brought in various prospects, including Antoine McClain, Mark Asper, J.J. ‘Unga and Jamaal Johnson-Webb, in an attempt to add some depth here, since any injury problems next year would severely weaken the unit. Look for the Bills to draft some linemen also, maybe even using a high pick or two.

The first segment of my annual Buffalo Bills’ postseason review deals with the front office and coaching staff. The team underwent a total transition in these areas following the 2012 season, which ended in a second consecutive 6-10 record under Chan Gailey. Owner Ralph Wilson Jr. turned over operations of the franchise to Russ Brandon, who in turn hired Doug Marrone away from Syracuse to be the team’s new head coach. After overseeing the college draft, GM Buddy Nix stepped aside and his understudy, Doug Whaley, was promoted into the position. Whoever was responsible for the 2013 draft deserves, at least initially, kudos for coming up with some very promising players. Most of their picks made contributions as the season went on, and although overall the play of the rookies was inconsistent, the expectation should be that they’ll progress as they gain experience and be productive members of the club moving into the future. Five free agents who were signed by the team – kicker Dan Carpenter, Manny Lawson, Alan Branch, Doug Legursky and Stefan Charles – played significant roles in 2013, as did a pair of players acquired in trades – QB Thad Lewis and LB Jerry Hughes. Getting Hughes in exchange for Kelvin Sheppard was a steal. Overall, the front office succeeded in upgrading the roster, even though the team’s final record was exactly the same as Gailey’s last 2 years.

That brings us to the coaching staff. Marrone deserves credit for assembling a competent staff, most notably his hiring of Mike Pettine as defensive coordinator. Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett drew a lot of criticism from fans for his play-calling, but I didn’t have a problem with it, other than the fact that the team maybe ran too many off-tackle runs on early downs. That was probably a product of the team not having much stability at the quarterback position. Hackett had to tailor game plans for three different signal-callers during the season, none of which had much game experience. One weak spot on this team was its’ special teams. Having excellent bomb squads has always been a hallmark of the Buffalo franchise, and this year’s units were dismal. Poor kickoff and punt coverage played major roles in a couple of losses. Danny Crossman, the special teams coach, had a pretty mediocre resume when he was hired, and his units lived up (or down) to that resume. With six NFL coaches and their staffs having been fired since the season ended, it would be a good idea if Marrone looked to find a better option to coach the special teams in 2014. As for Marrone himself, the general consensus is that even though the Bills struggled to another 6-10 finish, that the season had a different “feel”. That’s partly true, but in my opinion, that “feeling” began to fade as the year went on. The Bills eventually regressed to their usual losing ways. Some of the rookies who started out impressively seemed to hit that rookie wall, and their play wasn’t the same. The coaches preached about the need to develop consistency. Well, they were certainly consistent when it came to committing silly penalties at the worst times, and giving up big plays at crunch time when games were on the line, especially on the road. Consider that on the season’s final Sunday, the Bills jumped offsides on a field goal attempt to hand their opponent a touchdown instead, and committed personal fouls on the same play to rack up 30 yards in penalty yardage, on one play. The fact that they had to suspend Marcell Dareus for 2 consecutive games for habitual tardiness is troubling also. Through 17 weeks, a head coach should have had enough time to get a handle on his team. Marrone has already stated that the team needs to focus on structure and discipline, and he has always seemed determined to fix the problems the team has, always talked about “working harder” to get better.  If he is going to separate himself from his predecessors, who also talked about working harder to fix things, he will have to follow his mantra that he had posted on a sign in the team’s practice facility: “Don’t confuse effort with results.”

Another disappointing Buffalo Bills season came to an end on Sunday, the fourteenth consecutive year that ended with the team missing the NFL playoffs. The New England Patriots, who needed the win to secure a first round playoff bye, won easily 34-20. Here are my main thoughts as far as what to take out of another one-sided loss by Buffalo to their AFC East nemesis:

* The loss gave the Bills a 6-10 record for the season – the exact mark Chan Gailey managed in his last 2 seasons coaching the team. One season isn’t long enough to make an assessment of Doug Marrone, but a couple of things are clear. One hope fans have if a team can’t have a winning season is that they at least show progress and growth as the year goes on. Marrone’s Bills looked pretty much the same in the season-ending defeat as they have all year. They play hard but make mind-boggling mistakes at crucial times in games. Marcell Dareus, not Marrone, jumped offsides on the late-game field goal attempt that handed New England a first down. He also didn’t take consecutive unsportsmanlike conduct penalties to give the Pats a free 30 yards on one of their late drives. But Marrone, as the head coach, is responsible for coaching these mistake-prone players to be disciplined and not give gifts to their opponents. They did it all season in their losses and the problem, going into the off-season, is still not corrected. The “losing culture” mentality that Marrone keeps talking about changing is still firmly intact.

* LeGarrette Blount took his turn as the obscure back that the Bills turned into a superstar. He gained over 300 yards on runs and kickoff returns. It was very discouraging to watch Buffalo players, on both defense and the kickoff coverage team, show little interest in tackling the big New England back all day long.

*The Patriots seemed to spend much of the game toying with the Bills. Buffalo managed to keep the score respectable, but it never appeared to me that they were really ever going to seriously threaten to overtake the Pats.

* The Bills will be sending 3 players from their defense to the Pro Bowl, and 2 others (Dareus and Kiko Alonso) could still be added to the game if injuries and players going on to the Super Bowl open up spots. Yet that unit has major problems stopping the run and was gashed for big plays on Sunday, repeating a pattern that’s been in place all year. Without a doubt, the team is a totally different unit on the road than at home, supposedly a trait of “young” teams. Realistically, other than Alonso and maybe Stephon Gilmore, is the Buffalo defense young?

* One good thing about Buffalo closing out the year with another demoralizing loss – there won’t be any kidding themselves about how far off they are from being able to truly compete with a franchise like New England. When it comes to decisions about which players to try to build a future with and which to discard, there really aren’t many they can do without.

The Buffalo Bills turned their home season finale against the rival Miami Dolphins into an excellent Christmas present for their fans. Combining their best defensive effort of the year with a workmanlike offensive showing, the Bills shut out a Miami club with playoff aspirations, 19-0. With starting quarterback EJ Manuel out with a knee injury, backup Thad Lewis stepped in and engineered a win over the Dolphins for the second time this season. Buffalo’s running game has been a staple of their successful outings this year, and Sunday’s game was no exception. Fred Jackson ran for 111 yards and the game’s only touchdown, while C.J. Spiller added 77, plus another 26 through the air, for a combined 103 yards that matched Miami’s total output for the game. Lewis led some impressive drives, most of which resulted in field goals, but with the way the club’s defense was playing, it was a good decision by coach Doug Marrone to play it conservatively and build up an insurmountable lead with kicker Dan Carpenter’s reliable leg. With Stevie Johnson out, Lewis did a good job of spreading the ball around to his entire receiving corps. Robert Woods had another fine game before being ejected for fighting in the fourth quarter. T.J. Graham, Chris Hogan and tight ends Scott Chandler and Lee Smith all made plays also.

The story of the game, however, was the defense. Coordinator Mike Pettine had a great game plan, and his unit executed it perfectly. They were aggressive all day, harassing QBs Ryan Tannehill and Matt Moore from start to finish. With seven sacks, the team broke the franchise record for sacks in a season. They also had two interceptions of Moore during short stints when he replaced Tannehill because of injuries. The Bills were sending blitzers from everywhere, as rookie cornerback Nickell Robey registered a pair of sacks. Kyle Williams also had two, while the other three came from Jerry Hughes, Mario Williams and Da’Norris Searcy. Leodis McKelvin and Jim Leonhard had the picks. Overall, the entire defense had a great day, with contributions coming from the whole unit. Miami managed to gain only the paltry 103 total yards, picking up only six first downs all day. Buffalo’s third down defense, a problem in some of their losses this year, allowed only 2 of 14 conversions, a 14% conversion rate. The Bills close out the season in New England, with a chance to put a crimp in the Patriots’ playoff seeding. A win would be a big deal for the Bills, a team looking to show some progress, to distance themselves from the mediocre Bills’ teams of recent years. It would put their final record at 7-9, a tangible improvement over their back-to-back 6-10 finishes under Chan Gailey.

Sunday’s NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars wasn’t exactly a clash of the titans. It looked pretty much like what it was – a not-so-well played game between two of the league’s struggling teams. The Bills held on to grab a much-needed win, rookie QB EJ Manuel’s first road victory in his short career. Manuel started out the game looking like he did last week in Tampa, when Buffalo as a team laid an enormous egg. He misfired on his first four pass attempts, and threw a screen pass directly into the hands of Jaguar linebacker Geno Hayes. To his credit, Manuel recovered, and threw a pair of touchdown passes and ran for another to lead a 27-20 win. Offensively, the Bills’ game plan followed the script that has worked in all of their good efforts this year – Manuel was unspectacular but managed the game well enough, the running game did nothing spectacular either, but racked up 200 yards, with both Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller contributing.  Rookie receiver  Robert Woods played his best game yet, catching 5 passes for 80+ yards and a touchdown. The defense came up with big plays. Aaron Williams was a sparkplug, with an early interception and a great hustle play when he ran down Denard Robinson and forced a fumble as the Jacksonville back was about to cross the goal line, causing a touchback to kill a drive. Five different defenders had sacks, including rookie corner Nickell Robey, who also forced and recovered a fumble. Stephon Gilmore played another decent game, and had a pick for the second straight week, this one squelching a potential game-tying drive in the closing minutes.

There were a lot of mistakes on both sides, turnovers and penalties, and fortunately for Buffalo the Jaguars made more. There were a lot of negative plays by the Bills that were masked by the jubilation of them actually winning a road game. Manuel’s early struggles were disheartening, and the offensive line was victimized by penalties for the second week in a row. Despite causing enough turnovers to pull out the win, the Bills’ defensive effort left a lot to be desired. The Jaguars were missing four offensive starters, yet they allowed another unknown backup, Jordan Todman, to rush for over 100 yards. His career total prior to Sunday was 30. They couldn’t get off the field on third and long situations again, and gave up too many big plays. And once again, they couldn’t seem to stand prosperity, allowing a 20-10 halftime lead to erode into a 20-20 tie before rallying for the win. But, in the end, they DID rally for the win, an important stepping stone for them. Coach Doug Marrone proclaimed afterward, “I’m extremely proud of this team.” And he should be. The bar hasn’t been set very high for this team as the season has progressed, but at least they are competing. The Bills, by virtue of Miami’s upset win over New England on Sunday, now find themselves thrust into the middle of both the AFC East and AFC playoff races, even though they are eliminated. They close out the season at home against the Dolphins and on the road at New England, so they’ll have a big say on the playoff chances of those two teams.

The Buffalo Bills officially assured themselves of another in a long string of losing seasons with a dreadful performance in Tampa on Sunday, losing to the Buccaneers, 27-6. Once again, this time against what is one of the NFL’s bottom-feeders, the Bills showed they can’t compete against anybody away from the friendly confines of Ralph Wilson Stadium. There was very little that was positive to take from the game, but there were a couple of things that went well in the defensive secondary. Jairus Byrd came up with another interception, and at this point, on a team that has so few playmakers, it’s mind-boggling that the front office doesn’t seem to want to lock the guy up for the long term. Stephon Gilmore, a total disappointment as a supposed “lock down” cornerback all year, made a couple of big plays, including his first pick of the year.

Then there are the negatives. The Bills were terrible in every phase. The secondary only gave up 90 passing yards, but on the Bucs’ second touchdown, rookie corner Nickell Robey did what the Bills’ defenders have done all season. He had perfect position on receiver Vincent Jackson in the end zone, then looked totally clueless when the ball arrived. The defense went into the game determined to improve their run defense, then gave up an 80 yard touchdown run to Bobby Rainey, a back who was cut by a few different teams before landing in Tampa, on the game’s first offensive play. Rainey wound up with 122 yards rushing on 27 carries, and added his name to the long list of journeyman runners who have career days against Buffalo. The Bills got nothing positive from their return game on punts or kickoffs, but did have a turnover from Leodis McKelvin on a punt return. Offensively, well,  it was the worst game of the year for that unit. EJ Manuel, who had four interceptions for the entire season going into the game, threw four in this game alone. The running game had another dismal outing, picking up a total of 67 yards. Manuel was the leading rusher with 29 yards on five scrambles, which was more a product of him running for his life all day rather than any planned runs by him. Every member of the offensive line except Doug Legursky, the unit’s supposed weak link, had a penalty called on them, and the line surrendered 7 sacks. There were a total of 11 penalties totaling 114 yards in losses. One call negated a beautiful 83 yard touchdown play by C.J. Spiller. The offense converted 1 of 11 third downs, a paltry 9% conversion rate.

After the game, coach Doug Marrone said the same thing he’s been repeating all year after similar performances – talking about accountability within the whole organization, about being mad and disappointed, and about having to “work harder” to turn the thing around. Bills’ fans know this drill, they’ve seen this movie before. “We have to work harder” has been a loser’s lament for every head coach that’s been here since Wade Phillips left. Every one of those coaches turned out to be in over his head. It’s still too early to lump him in with all the other coaching failures here in the 2000s, but Marrone needs to read the banner he had hung in the team’s practice facility before this season. I believe it says something like “Don’t confuse hard work with results.”