Inside The Bills

Comparing Pat Morris’ best to C.J.

Bills newly hired offensive line coach Pat Morris is a veteran NFL assistant and his offensive lines have been largely the reason his teams have put up three seasons where they led the league in rushing. Below we decided to take the leading rushers that ran behind Morris’ lines in 1998, 1999 and 2007 and compare them to the season C.J. Spiller had in 2012.

1998 – San Francisco – #1 in rushing – 159 yds/gm
Leading rusher – Garrison Hearst – 310 carries, 1,570 yards, 5.1 avg., 98.1 yards/gm, 7 rushing TDs

1999 - San Francisco – #1 in rushing – 130.9 yds/gm
Leading rusher – Charlie Garner – 241 carries, 1,229 yards, 5.1 avg., 76.8 yards/gm, 4 rushing TDs

2007 – Minnesota – #1 in rushing – 164.6 yds/gm
Leading rusher – Adrian Peterson – 238 carries, 1,341 yards, 5.6 avg., 95.8 yards/gm, 12 rushing TDs

2012 – Buffalo – #6 in rushing – 138.6 yds/gm
Leading rusher – C.J. Spiller – 207 carries, 1,244 yards, 6.0 avg., 77.8 yards/gm, 6 rushing TDs

Knowing the Bills have an offensive line that’s largely been together for the better part of the last three years, provided Andy Levitre can be re-signed, it’s not unreasonable to think that Morris and Buffalo’s linemen can challenge for the rushing title in 2013, after a sixth place finish this past season.