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Well, after months of buildup, weeks of Hayne-mania and days of tension the 2015 NFL season has finally arrived.
Officially beginning last Friday with the New England Patriots’ victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, the competition kicked into full gear with the first Sunday of the season, or Monday morning for those of us in Australia.
And all I can say is wow, what a weekend it was.
The Buffalo Bills are one of many teams faced with the one problem no NFL team wants to be facing heading into a season – they don’t have a quarterback. Well, that’s what we thought heading into week one anyway.
Enter Tyrod Taylor. The Bills proved to us last year that no matter how good the defence is, if you don’t have a quarterback you can’t win. The Bills defence ranked second in efficiency last season, behind only the Seattle Seahawks, and they had the best pass defence in the league. Sunday showed us that the defence is likely to pick up exactly where it left off last year.
Fuelling the defensive prowess is known defensive maestro Rex Ryan, who was probably the Bills’ biggest off-season signing. The Bills lost linebackers Brandon Spikes to free agency and Kiko Alonso to the LeSean McCoy trade, however they were their only major losses on the defensive side of the ball. On the offensive side of the ball it was a case of addition by subtraction, with quarterback Kyle Orton retiring and running back CJ Spiller heading to New Orleans.
In terms of players arriving in Orchard Park, many of the big additions were on the offensive side of the ball. The side that needed the most work after finishing in 26th place in offensive efficiency last season.
The key additions include McCoy, who the Bills signed to a questionable five-year contract after acquiring him via trade, Percy Harvin, who was cut by the Jets, and tight end Charles Clay. Those three men were among the biggest contributors on offence against Indianapolis. Oh, and you can’t forget Buffalo luring Taylor away from Baltimore.
The Bills managed to hold Andrew Luck, one of the best quarterbacks in the league, to just a 53 per cent completion rate and two interceptions. Coach Rex Ryan was annoyed that Luck managed to throw two touchdown passes. Entering the season it was hard to see the defence getting much better. Against the Colts they proved to us that if they are able to sustain this level for the entire season they can be better than last season.
Unsurprisingly, the cornerstone of Buffalo’s defence was disguised blitzes – Ryan’s trademark defence. The Bills showed one play and used almost the opposite play. When Andrew Luck thought they were blitzing from the outside, it came up the middle. When he thought the Bills were coming from the left they came from the right.
Luck is normally above average when facing pressure but on Monday he struggled mightily. Both of Luck’s intercepts came when the Bills were blitzing and there were a number of dropped interceptions that came when Luck was facing pressure.
With the defence doing their job, Taylor was simply left to manage the game and control the football. He did exactly that, going 14 for 19 passing with one touchdown and nine rushes for 41 yards. By jumping out to an early lead the Bills had the luxury of taking possession out of Taylor’s hand and running the football. They will look to do this every single week.
Unfortunately McCoy was outshone by rookie and former Seminole Karlos Williams. However both men ran well with the football and the duo will likely form a nice combination in the coming weeks. The Bills showed promising signs that they won’t miss Spiller or Fred Jackson, who was cut by the team during the pre-season.
It’s unlikely that Taylor will be as good a passer as Peyton Manning or Tom Brady but if the defence is doing their job and he controls the football this team could be headed for a wildcard spot. Let’s not forget that Rex Ryan managed to lead a Mark Sanchez-quarterbacked team to the AFC Championship game.
The Bills face a massive test in week two when the Patriots come to town. The Patriots’ defence, which is much better than the Colts’, could show us why Taylor has spent the first four years of his career on the bench. Brady has been playing against Ryan-led defences in the AFC East for six years now, he will be more prepared to deal with Ryan’s unique blitzes. Let’s wait until next weekend before we pencil the Bills in for an AFC East crown.
Another team I expected to struggle at quarterback on Monday was the Tennessee Titans. Not because Marcus Mariota is a bad player but because we didn’t know what we were going to get from him. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Mariota, perhaps fuelled by missing out on the number one draft pick, was on fire against the number one draft pick. Mariota threw 16 passes, completed 13 of them and four of those 13 went for touchdowns. You can’t call him inefficient.
Right from the very first drive Mariota looked like the player we feared he would never be, a pocket passer. Granted he didn’t face much pressure, Mariota was sacked just once, but when he was in the pocket Mariota was steady, composed and had impeccable footwork.
We don’t yet know if Mariota will be the franchise quarterback the Titans hope he will become but the early signs are positive. Over the past few weeks the comparison between Mariota and Jameis Winston and the last two quarterbacks taken first and second in the same draft, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III, has been thrown around a lot.
Some have claimed that Griffin and Mariota are very similar players, two system quarterbacks who thrive in the read-option, spread offence but struggle in the pocket. Despite their physical similarities I’m not a huge fan of this comparison because Mariota is a better passer and seems a bit more comfortable in the pocket.
Additionally, he is a more humble person and his personality couldn’t be more different than Griffin’s, based on scouting reports and the multiple leaks that have come from the Redskins’ locker room over the past three years.
We will know much more about Mariota’s chances of becoming an elite quarterback at the end of December. Until then, he needs to manage the offence and control the football, much like Taylor in Buffalo.
The Titans were woeful on both offence and defence last year and while they made a number of additions on offence through the draft, their most notable defensive additions came through free agency.
Washington linebacker Brian Orakpo was recruited to improve a very poor linebacker corps while former Bills defensive back Da’Norris Searcy and San Francisco’s Perrish Cox will both fortify the Titans secondary. Lastly, the most important hiring on the defensive side of the ball for the Titans was defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau.
LeBeau left Pittsburgh in the off-season after spending more than a decade building the best defence in the league. However it was time for a change for both LeBeau and the Steelers. LeBeau is known for his zone-blitz defensive scheme and while the Titans’ defence won’t improve overnight, they were dominant in Tampa and will certainly improve as the season progresses.
Tennessee will not win their division this season, the Colts will do that, but they will be locked in a battle for second place with the Houston Texans. The Texans have Brian Hoyer at quarterback, which doesn’t inspire much confidence, and all the advanced stats suggest that they will regress this season.
Teams that improve from one season to the next by as much as Houston did last year, going from 2-14 to 9-7, almost always lose more games the following year. It’s just not sustainable to keep improving.
The Titans will definitely win more than two games this year but a similar jump to 9-7 is highly unlikely, with 6-10 or 7-9 a more likely result for the team. Monday was a good place to start.
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