When J.J. Watt recently signed his huge $100-plus million extension it made me think back to the reaction when Mario Williams signed his nine-figure deal in the spring of 2012 and the predictable freakout later after he got off to a very slow start that first season in Buffalo.
‘Super’ Mario Williams is the Hoss of the Week
Williams did everything he could to give the Bills a chance to win last week. The only thing he couldn’t do was make the offense work. It was still enough to earn the Hoss of the Week award from retired NFL defensive end Stephen White.
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Whew, man ...
Suffice it to say not everyone was nearly as gung-ho about “Super” Mario having that kind of dough thrown at him, and there weren’t many folks who were sure that he would eventually earn it.
Well, 42 games later Williams has notched 34 sacks in a Bills uniform. The Bills haven't made the playoffs so he hasn't exactly turned the franchise around, but I can say with some authority that he damn sure hasn't been a bust either. After his four-sack night last Thursday against Miami, Williams is on pace to have the best single-season sack total of his career. Unfortunately, that may still not be enough to drag the hapless Bills into the postseason.
That's no reason to overlook his good deeds, and Williams was a monster against the Dolphins last week even though his team lost. In a game that would keep one of the teams in the AFC East title race, "Super" Mario did all he could to try to get his team a win. It just wasn't quite enough.
Near the end of the first half with the Bills leading 6-3, Williams made two plays against the Dolphins to help force them to eventually punt. At 2:28 with the Dolphins facing a second-and-3, Williams got his big paw up in the air to knock Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s pass right back into his face. Tannehill instinctively caught the ball and was tackled for a 4-yard loss.
Later on that same drive, the Dolphins were at the 50-yard line on second-and-10 with 1:48 left. This time Williams executed a beautiful head fake inside to an outside arm-over of Dolphins right tackle Dallas Thomas' outside hand. The move was so clean that he came scot-free to sack Tannehill for a 3-yard loss. That play helped the Bills maintain a 6-3 lead at halftime.
Early on in the second half, Williams again made two plays on one drive to help force a punt. With 12:41 left in the third quarter, he made the exact same move on Thomas, and once again he got free off the move. This time he only got a pressure on Tannehill. He did knock the hell out of him though, and those big hits on a quarterback tend to have an effect as the game goes on.
Later on that same drive, the Dolphins were facing a first-and-15 with 11:36 left in the third quarter. They tried to run a play-action pass. The play called for their backup tight end Dion Lewis to pull across the formation to kick out Williams, giving the appearance of a running play. This was a dumb-ass move because Lewis is just too light in the ass to handle Williams one-on-one in that kind of situation. The way Lewis hesitated made it look like he didn't want any part of carrying out that assignment. Williams shot right past Lewis and got Tannehill on the ground for a 10-yard loss, which helped to stall the drive out.
Once again Williams helped preserve the Bills’ paper thin three-point lead, but it was only a matter of time before the Dolphins got something going. Williams and the rest of the defense needed their offense to give them some help, but it just wasn’t to be. The Bills did score a field goal on the ensuing drive to go up 9-3, but it would be the last points they scored. The Dolphins on the other hand had scored two touchdowns and forced a safety with more than 11 minutes left to go in the game to go up 19-9.
Advantage, Dolphins.
At that point the only chance the Bills had to make a comeback attempt would be if their defense could force Miami to punt again. Williams responded by making two more outstanding plays on the drive to force the Dolphins to do just that.
Miami made it down to the Buffalo 49-yard line with 7:41 left to go in the game. They had a second-and-2 which is always a good down and distance to try to take a shot down the field. The Dolphins went with a play-action pass and put another tight end, this time starter Charles Clay, on Williams one-on-one. This was also, of course, a dumb-ass move; Clay is simply not equipped to deal with Williams' size and strength. Once he realized it was a pass play, Williams just bull-rushed Clay and took Tannehill down. His teammate and fellow defensive end Jerry Hughes had a shot at Tannehill first, but missed him partly due to being held by the left tackle. Williams cleaned up Hughes' mess to get his third sack of the night.
Yes, I know they only gave him a half a sack, but the All-22 clearly shows Williams getting to Tannehill first, so I would expect they will award him a full sack any day now.
Unfortunately for the Bills, Hughes got a somewhat weak-ass penalty after the play as he made a little contact with an official as he was walking up to argue with a Dolphins offensive lineman who he thought cheap-shotted one of his teammates. That flag helped extend the Dolphins’ drive and put them ever so much closer to being in field goal range. In fact the Dolphins would eventually get all the way down to the Bills’ 31-yard line before Williams said enough is enough:
I am scared of Mario Williams. http://t.co/J3jIM4q7ZN
— SB Nation GIF (@SBNationGIF) November 14, 2014 On third-and-3 with about 5:36 left in the game the Dolphins were primed to put the game all the way out of reach with one more field goal. They decided to call a pass play and go for the first down rather than a safe run to preserve their field position. And I say again folks, that was a dumb-ass move. This time Williams bull-rushed Thomas right back to quarterback depth, ripped inside and about separated Tannehill’s head from the rest of his body for his fourth sack of the night. I’m surprised Tannehill was able to hang onto the ball with how Williams exploded right through him. The play still resulted in a loss of four, however, which forced the Dolphins to punt rather than try a field goal.
"Super" Mario helped give his offense one more chance to pull within a score of the Dolphins, but instead they promptly went four-and-out after his quarterback Kyle Orton was sacked on first down. It was such a waste of an awesome effort by Williams, but he has nothing to be ashamed of. He did everything he could possibly to help his team win the game and for that he wins my Hoss Of The Week Award for Week 11.
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