Can LeSean McCoy scare Chicago Bears?

If there is any player on the Buffalo Bills that could beat the Chicago Bears on offense it is LeSean McCoy. Should the Bears be worried about him?

It is a tough task finding ways for the Buffalo Bills to score points this week, despite them being at home. They do have a prime weapon in LeSean McCoy, but we have not seen the same McCoy as years past.

McCoy is averaging just 3.4 yards per carry. His career low before that was 4.0. He is averaging only 37 yards per game on the ground, which is almost half of his career low total. His career low in yards per carry came just last year, and he is age 30. On top of that, he is already playing through a rib injury that had him sidelined for one game this season.

Is it fair to question whether LeSean McCoy has it anymore? While that is a fair question, the other question is whether or not it is fair to judge his performance so far this season, considering the other names on this offensive unit. However, after looking into it, if anyone is going to be able to give the Bills problems, it still is going to be LeSean McCoy.

First off, the Buffalo Bills have the 30th ranked rushing offense, which is still leaps and bounds better than the 32nd ranked passing offense. Still, the rushing offense is leaps and bounds better than what will go down as one of the worst passing attacks in NFL history.

This obviously helps make life tough for LeSean McCoy. When digging into the context of his yardage, the Buffalo Bills offensive line ranks 19th in power success and 21st in stuff rate. This means that they are avoiding negative rushes and are typically picking up yards. Where they fall off is in their rankings of 30th in the second level and 26th in the open field. They are getting the quick yards, but not breaking anything out.

That could come as surprising when understanding the style of LeSean McCoy as a runner. McCoy is not a power runner but is extremely elusive. You would assume that his issue is that he is getting stuffed a lot, but having success in the open field.

Does this mean that McCoy is losing it? Is his offensive line giving him push to try to carry the offense, but he does not have the gas to move it?

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When going through the tape, what came out was that McCoy was scratching, clawing and using his elusive open field ability to pick up the smallest of gains. LeSean McCoy was not being a power runner but was using elusiveness to avoid tackles behind the line of scrimmage and turn them into slight gains.

Check this play here. They are looking to run him off tackle, but two defensive backs quickly seal the hole before he can get to it. He looks to kick outside, but his tight end just lost his man, who is now bearing down on McCoy. McCoy plants, jukes away from the defender two or three times as if he is frogger and shoots into a hole before being brought down from behind. He did all of that work for four yards.

This play against Tennessee is similar They are looking to run left, but the right tackle is blown up by the blitzer and blows up the play on the other side of the field. The linebacker fills in where the right tackle would have been, and once again McCoy is scrambling for his life to avoid a loss of yards again. He picks up two yards and breaks about three tackles in the process.

This is throughout his game tape. When looking at how their offensive line grades out by Pro Football Focus metrics, it tends to add up. Only three linemen even rank as average starters. John Miller is their highest graded lineman, and he comes in as the 33rd graded guard in the NFL. Their right tackle ranks 66th amongst NFL tackles. Only 64 start every week.

The Buffalo Bills have serious issues at quarterback. They also have serious issues at every single spot aside from LeSean McCoy. It should be worth noting that McCoy was excellent in eluding tackles. The Chicago Bears already had trouble with Albert Wilson, one of the best tackle breakers in the NFL a few weeks ago.

Still, it is hard to envision McCoy being able to break into the open when he does fight so hard to avoid lost yards.

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