Bills football is back. Get your head in the game for Week 7 with The Hurry Up!

The Bills are mostly healthy coming out of the bye week, just in time for a crucial stretch that will determine their playoff fate (yes, we’re talking about playoffs). That stretch kicks off Sunday, as the 2-3 Buccaneers head to The Cap sporting a susceptible defense that may present the perfect opportunity for the Bills to jumpstart their rushing attack.

The Hurry Up has you covered from all angles for Sunday, featuring some new wrinkles, because The Process applies to all of us. Listen using the link below, in Apple Podcasts, or on Stitcher.

Also, be sure to check our latest feature, an interactive outline of this week’s episode.

1st Down: Read and React

When We Last Saw Them

• The Bills lost a tough one in the rain in Cincinnati, falling 20-16 to the Bengals
• Offensive futility was the theme of the day
  • Charles Clay lost for an extended period of time with a knee injury
  • The offense never got right after he left
  • Tyrod had the chance to orchestrate a go-ahead drive, but threw his 2nd interception of the year to end it
    • He’s only won twice when trailing in the 4th quarter
• Defense gave up more big plays than we’ve come to expect, but continued to be opportunistic to the tune of 3 turnover

What are the Bills coming back to?
NFL

• Parity reigns supreme

• There isn’t a single undefeated team, and there are examples of parity and unpredictability all over the league

AFC

• The Chiefs lost to the Steelers and then again in epic fashion Thursday night against the Raiders, and all of a sudden there’s no powerhouse in the AFC

AFC East

• The Jets hung 14 early points on the Patriots before the Brady and Gronk remembered it was the Jets

• The Patriots seem truly vulnerable, thanks in large part to porous defense, no matter how the advanced stats experts try to spin it

• The Dolphins seemed left for dead after a string of abysmal play and an ugly off the field incident involving an assistant coach

• But they scored 20 unanswered 2nd half points against the Falcons and may have revived their season, at least for one more week

Buccaneers

• Got down BIG against the Cardinals last week (31-0 by halftime)

• The defense single-handedly rejuvenated AP’s career
• Lost Winston to injury, and Fitz almost led a frantic comeback, ultimately losing 38-33

The Opposition: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• Head Coach: Dirk Koetter
  • 2nd season as Buccaneers head coach (11-10)
  • Spent 7 seasons as an Offensive Coordinator in the AFC and NFC South
    • He’s sorta know as a “QB Whisperer”, having gotten high level production out of Matt Ryan and then Jameis Winston
• The QB: Famous Jameis Winston
• An AC sprain to his throwing shoulder could have a significant impact on his game
  • But he’s still an up and coming franchise QB who’s thrown for back to back 4,000 yard seasons
  • He can keep plays alive and find his playmakers down the field
  • It should say something about his talent that despite not throwing in practice until Friday, the Bills still prepared as if he was going to play

1st Timeout

2nd Down: The Narratives

Getting Healthy

○      Through the bye week, a lot was made of injuries

• Charles Clay is done for at least another few weeks
• Lots of injuries, and to bigtime players, so injuries are a universally accepted truth, an operational risk, and the Bills are not the only team dealing with injuries
•  Find a way to compensate,evolve, reform, adjust, whatever verb you choose, but it’s not an excuse

Offense

• O-line
  • What’s the plan at OT?
    • They currently have 5 tackles on the roster, which is unconventional
    • Cordy is healthy, and Dion Dawkins has taken snaps at RT for the first time this week
    • There’s been a gradual adjustment away from Rick Dennison’s traditional outside zone running plays, so there is evidence that the offense can evolve
• WR/TE
  • Jordan Matthews is living up to his blue collar reputation, and trying his darndest to play this week after thumb surgery following the Falcons game
  • Nick O’Leary will be interesting to watch as he assumes the #1 TE role for the first time
  • Zay Jones has stayed off social media, and this is as prime an opportunity as he’ll get to exorcise whatever demons possess him, because the Buccaneers secondary is not good

Defense

The defense is pretty damn good.

• #1 in scoring defense (14.8 ppg)
• Top 10 in rushing defense
• Only given up 2 passing TDs (#1in NFL)
• Micah Hyde leads the NFL in picks

The Path To The Playoffs Starts This Week

○      This is a crucial stretch for the Bills against susceptible opponents

○      Every game from here on out is winnable

○       The Bills aren’t going to get blown out, but other teams look at the Bills and think “winnable”

2nd Timeout: Our Sponsor

Algonquin Sports and Buffalo Soccer Club

Algonquin Sports in a non-profit organization providing free and low cost sports opportunities for youth in underserved communities right here in the City of Buffalo.  They believe that all youth should have access to sports. Check out their feature in No Boundaries Issue 3 right here

3rd Down: Crunch Time

Significant Stat of the Week

• Two Part Stat of the Week
  • • Part I: Zero.  That’s the number of TDs and 100 yard rushing games for LeSean McCoy so far this season
    • Part II: From sharpfootballstats.com, the Buccaneers defensive rushing efficiency is 14th best in the NFL
      • This stat uses weekly Success Rate data to calculate how effective each team is defensively
      • Compare that to the teams the Bills faced before the bye, and there should be room for Shady to run this week
      • Looking beyond the Bucs, the Bills don’t see a team with a rush defense efficiency better than 20th in the NFL until the Dolphins in December
• Bonus Stat of the Week
  • Andy Reid’s record coming off a bye week
    • 16-2 Regular Season
    • 3-1 Post Season
  • He was asked about it way back on the Monday following the Bengals loss and made a low-key joke about having in fact made note of it
  • Sean McDermott seems like the type of coach who grasps the importance of capitalizing on the bye week, and he’s a direct product of the Andy Reid coaching tree, so we’re confident he’s harnessing some of that Kool-Aid Man Bye Week JuJu

The Real McCoys

Buccaneers Players to Watch

Gerald McCoy

• One of the league’s premier interior linemen
  • So far this season:
    • 22 QB pressures (3rd among DTs)
    • 17 tackles
    • 2 sacks
• LeSean McCoy called the other McCoy a “nagging pain” this week
• He also loves Game of Thrones, which makes him alright with us

Bills Player to Watch

LeSean McCoy

• Shady doesn’t have a TD or a 100 yard rushing game
• He’s catching passes out of the backfield, and is the team’s leading receiver by far, so he’s involved
• But he’s a runner, and he wants to run!
  • Listen to him talk, and he’s saying the right things, but there’s an urgency to get back to doing Shady stuff

Final Timeout

4th Down: Finish The Drive

Advantage Bills

Running Game

• Offensively, if the Bills neutralize Gerald McCoy, they should have success running the ball
• Defensively, the Bills interior front has held opposing defenses to just 88 ypg
  • The Buccaneers are 30th in the NFL in rushing yards per game, and 23rd in yards per attempt
  • The rotations on the line seem to be effective, and aren’t just a way to marginalize Marcell Dareus
•      For the record, the Buccaneers secondary is trash, but so are the Bills WRs, so it’s hard to that matchup an advantage

Injury Report

Both teams are mostly healthy

Bills

• Jordan Matthews is questionable and day-to-day with his thumb injury
• CBs EJ Gaines and Leonard Johnson are also questionable, but expected to play
• Cordy Glenn isn’t on the injury report at all
• TE Charles Clay and LB Ramon Humber are out

Buccaneers

• Jameis Winston will start at QB
• LB Kwon Alexander is back in action for the first time in 4 weeks
• Special teams ace S Josh Robinson is the only noteworthy player out for the Bucs

Prediction

23-17 Bills

Outro

• Shout out to Rise Collaborative
  • No Boundaries Issue 3 is available now!
  • The 90s Rise Again – The Sequel is happening October 28th, and tickets are going fast!
  • You can now listen to The Hurry Up on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and the Rise Collaborative website
  • Follow @_risesports on Twitter…we’ll be live tweeting before, during, and after the game with insights and analysis

Say goodnight to the Bye Week……Bills football is back!  It’s Week 7, it’s Bucs @ Bills, and that’s The Hurry Up!