The Bills Offensive Line Is Refusing To Be Overlooked
Credit: Grace Smith via Imagn Images
Josh Allen is having the best season of his career, and as a result, he is rightfully being given his flowers as the MVP front-runner. James Cook is enjoying yet another productive season, racking up 12 touchdowns on a team where Allen has punched in 11 touchdowns on the ground himself. If you’re investigating who’s responsible for all this offense, you can find 10 sets of fingerprints on this stat: Allen has not been sacked since November 10th.
November 10th! This must mean that the very next day, Allen wished for defenders to forget how to tackle him, a genie appeared, and so it was. Or, maybe… just maybe… the offensive line has played out of their minds for the last month or so.
While the last month has been stellar, the players up front have been doing their jobs as well as anyone in the league all season. Buffalo has allowed just 13 sacks in 2024, an NFL-low. But zero sacks for four games? That’s absurd, and the accomplishment is no small feat, either. All four teams the Bills have faced in their last four games (the Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers, LA Rams, Detroit Lions), rank in the top-14 in the NFL in terms of PFF pass rushing grade. The Bills were able to hold their own against players like Chris Jones, Nick Bosa, Jared Verse, and Za’Darius Smith, and Allen has flourished as a result. Their performance, especially in this most recent stretch, is forcing pundits to recognize their often-overlooked contributions.
“Our team runs through them,” Dawson Knox told The Athletic earlier this week. “They control the line of scrimmage. They’re the tone-setters. We can’t do what we do without them. They’re the blood of this team. They keep us going.”
Offensive linemen are like umpires: the less you hear their names said out loud, the more likely it is that they’re doing their job. However, in some cases, they do their job so well that you can’t help but notice them, and that’s exactly what has happened of late.
Josh Allen on contributions from #Bills RBs against the Lions: “It was awesome… big credit to our offensive line.” #Bills #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/NHvEC9SlUL
— alex brasky (@alexbrasky) December 16, 2024
Take Spencer Brown, for example. Not only did he have a top-ten pass blocking grade in all of the NFL last week (84.6), but he made a crucial run block on Kerby Joseph that allowed Cook to make his third-longest house call of his career.
It’s nice having a RT that can move like Spencer Brown does on this 41 yard TD run. Completely stonewalls K.Joseph I believe to create the lane #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/pXTxsVEKdS
— MeRk (@Merk256) December 15, 2024
It’s far from just Brown paving the way for the Bills, however. David Edwards, who came over from the Rams prior to the 2023 season, has not allowed a sack in his Bills tenure in nearly 600 pass-blocking snaps. Their other guard, O’Cyrus Torrence, has also not allowed a sack this season after having allowed just three last year. In between them, Connor McGovern has been a top-ten center in the NFL this season by PFF’s metrics. McGovern was also the fourth highest-graded player on the entire Bills team against the Lions on Sunday. The results speak for themselves.
Games are won and lost in the trenches. The fact that the Bills have been as elite as they’ve been offensively, especially of late, has allowed them to stay competitive through two shootouts that saw a combined 176 points scored. The offensive line keeps producing positive play after positive play, and at some point, you have to notice these little things that add up to high scoring totals. The evidence keeps pouring in. Did you know that the Bills have only been tackled for a loss on nine plays in these last four weeks? That’s nuts, and realizing that forces you to recognize just how incredible the O-line has been.
“I thought they came out ready to play,” Sean McDermott said after Sunday’s win. “You could really tell there was a focus and an attitude about them.”
That attitude was highly evident when the aforementioned Brown, who was graded as the Bills’ best pass-blocker against the Lions, made a crucial and violent block on Lions safety Brian Branch to allow Allen to sneak out a first down.
Mack Hollins (13) does a tremendous job here. Spencer Brown (79) is literally looking for work because Hollins blocked two dudes on his own. And this allows Brown to pick up Branch (32) spinning back inside by the sideline#BillsMafia #GoBills #Bills
— Anthony Cover 1 (@Pro__Ant) December 16, 2024
The only downside to this play, unfortunately, is that Brown may have suffered a neck injury. The extent of the injury is unknown as of now, but hopefully he gets back to standing out while doing the dirty work.
The Bills’ offensive line has been instrumental to Buffalo’s streak of scoring 30 points each of their last eight games. While Allen is still receiving most of the hype, the performance of the guys in front of him is no longer being overlooked. In the annual Christmas tradition of quarterbacks buying gifts for their offensive linemen, Allen may have to pony up quite a bit of cash to make sure he’s properly valuing the big guys in front of him.
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