bigskydoc
Well-known member
I thought about adding this to the other O-line threads, but I think that it has enough original content to warrant its own thread.
The internet has slowed to a crawl at my place, thanks to all the people at home streaming Netflix etc, so streaming even at low res has been a frustrating task this week. I stopped by work today and took advantage of the better speed there to finish off the game.I finally made it through the all 22 this morning, and, once again, wow is it eye opening compared to the broadcast angles.
It is fascinating how just a subtle difference in the line play, and the big difference in the score, results in some folks thinking the line play was significantly better. It wasn't. It was slightly improved, and demonstrated several of the same glaring weaknesses. In reality, they continued to make a little bit of progress this week and continued to gel as a unit despite the substitutions. I stick by my prediction that they will gel into a solid line going into the playoffs, and they are somewhere just outside a top ten line. The game plan that was put into place and the adjustments they made during this game were significantly more influential in the result than individual improved play.
Arizona brought the blitz a lot less than I thought they would.. Russ did a great job picking it up and burning them on hot routes when they did. Zona did a great job spying Russ and limiting his ability to make yardage on the read option. Unfortunately for them, we had a great game plan to take advantage of the frozen spy by putting in alignments designed to look like read/ triple option plays then going the other direction, essentially giving us one fewer defender to worry about. This is about the only thing I could see that SF could use as a blueprint this weekend.
Bevell did a nice job in this game of using Arizona's aggressiveness against them. In the first half, Seattle would run two identical plays/ protections with only a subtle difference. Watch the Willson touchdown. The only difference between it and the play before was that Willson squeaked out on the second and was ignored. Seattle also ran a lot of counter plays with the entire line going one way and the play going the other. I think that they wore out the defense in the first half and so were able to just outplay them in the second.
Russell had a nice pocket to work from on several occasions because there was so little inside pressure. It was a bit frustrating that he wouldn't step into and through the pocket when there was a lot of space there, opting instead to bootleg and make it harder on himself. That being said, how can you criticize his performance? He did a stellar job overall of supporting the line and making it look better than it was.
Once again, Willson was atrocious in blocking. Couldn't run block, couldn't pass block. Along the line, downfield, it was all bad. I saw two good blocks, but again and again he either misses completely, ignores a guy he should be blocking to go after another defender who is already covered, or just can't complete a block. We all know what he did as a receiver, but unless he can figure out the blocking, he simply doesn't have a future on this team. His best block came in the third on a running play, but then on the second to the last play of the 3rd quarter he makes an awful decision that almost gets Russ / Marshawn blown up. He runs right past Bucannon to block downfield on a run that was going the opposite direction. This gives Bucannon a free shot at Russ and Marshawn. This is his assignment on runs that are going his direction, but on the run going the other direction he should have taken Bucannon.
Christine Michael looked weak in blocking.
Tukuafu had a great game. In the fourth quarter, they used him instead of Willson to strengthen the right side of the line and that is when Russell really went off. I love the heart Tuk plays with. Whistle to whistle, he just wants to hit somebody and keep hitting them. Lynch clearly implicitly trusts him. There were runs where Lynch had a gaping hole elsewhere, but instead elected to follow Tuk to a different spot. Just another chit for my favorite addition this year, and a really good omen going forward. Lynch really produces better and looks more comfortable when he has a fullback that he trusts ala MRob.
Britt had his worst game in recent memory, but the Hawks schemed around it in the second half by giving him support from the backfield. He was beat to the inside. He was beat to the outside. It didn't help that he was constantly left on an island by Sweezy and Willson. I think he must have been coached about not letting guys get around his outside edge because he frequently cheated to the outside. Early in the 3rd quarter, Sweezy abandons him to 2 defenders. Britt looks confused and conflicted. He looks like he knows he should take the inside guy who has the most direct route to Russ, but he realizes if he does this then he will be criticized for letting the outside guy get around him again. He chips the outside guy and the inside guy just about kills Russ who thankfully tosses an incompletion to Richardson over the middle.
Sweezy looked solid as always. He made some small mistakes, but mostly that was due to the Cards overloading that side of the line to try to take advantage of Britt. I think he has a rougher assignment this week against the Wethers.
Carpenter continued to make boneheaded moves. I just don't think he has the brain for a zone blocking scheme. When he has a man to block, he is just marvelous (running or passing), but when he doesn't have a clear assignment, he makes bad decisions ala running downfield against the Eagles on a passing play. He came close to getting another illegal downfield in this game and just generally looked like a meathead when he didn't have a clear assignment.
Bailey had a solid game in run and pass pro. He even covered for a few Carpenter mistakes. He is definitely no Okung, but the dude is a baller. The Cards did figure out how to get to him with a stunt, but if you have to rely on a stunt to beat a guy then he is usually doing pretty good. If he wasn't so good as a backup at multiple positions, I wouldn't mind seeing him starting in place of Carpenter next year.
Lewis looked good, although it is hard to really evaluate. There was very little interior pressure for him to deal with. He did his job with few if any mistakes. I'm not convinced that he can read the coverage as good as JeanPierre can, and certainly not as well as Unger, but his athleticism showed and was a good asset in the lateral movements that were so necessary in the first half. It is notable that the Hawks had a lot of success running up the gut in no small part due to the excellent play of Lewis.
Overall, I am still happy with the line play. They are making strides, and most importantly are learning to work as a unit. Now that Russ is solidly out of his funk, and we are learning how to shore up the right side of the line with backfield support, I am hopeful that this line is good enough to take us all the way.
Hopefully, my internet speeds gets better so I can go back and look at the first Cards game and see what was so different.
- bsd
The internet has slowed to a crawl at my place, thanks to all the people at home streaming Netflix etc, so streaming even at low res has been a frustrating task this week. I stopped by work today and took advantage of the better speed there to finish off the game.I finally made it through the all 22 this morning, and, once again, wow is it eye opening compared to the broadcast angles.
It is fascinating how just a subtle difference in the line play, and the big difference in the score, results in some folks thinking the line play was significantly better. It wasn't. It was slightly improved, and demonstrated several of the same glaring weaknesses. In reality, they continued to make a little bit of progress this week and continued to gel as a unit despite the substitutions. I stick by my prediction that they will gel into a solid line going into the playoffs, and they are somewhere just outside a top ten line. The game plan that was put into place and the adjustments they made during this game were significantly more influential in the result than individual improved play.
Arizona brought the blitz a lot less than I thought they would.. Russ did a great job picking it up and burning them on hot routes when they did. Zona did a great job spying Russ and limiting his ability to make yardage on the read option. Unfortunately for them, we had a great game plan to take advantage of the frozen spy by putting in alignments designed to look like read/ triple option plays then going the other direction, essentially giving us one fewer defender to worry about. This is about the only thing I could see that SF could use as a blueprint this weekend.
Bevell did a nice job in this game of using Arizona's aggressiveness against them. In the first half, Seattle would run two identical plays/ protections with only a subtle difference. Watch the Willson touchdown. The only difference between it and the play before was that Willson squeaked out on the second and was ignored. Seattle also ran a lot of counter plays with the entire line going one way and the play going the other. I think that they wore out the defense in the first half and so were able to just outplay them in the second.
Russell had a nice pocket to work from on several occasions because there was so little inside pressure. It was a bit frustrating that he wouldn't step into and through the pocket when there was a lot of space there, opting instead to bootleg and make it harder on himself. That being said, how can you criticize his performance? He did a stellar job overall of supporting the line and making it look better than it was.
Once again, Willson was atrocious in blocking. Couldn't run block, couldn't pass block. Along the line, downfield, it was all bad. I saw two good blocks, but again and again he either misses completely, ignores a guy he should be blocking to go after another defender who is already covered, or just can't complete a block. We all know what he did as a receiver, but unless he can figure out the blocking, he simply doesn't have a future on this team. His best block came in the third on a running play, but then on the second to the last play of the 3rd quarter he makes an awful decision that almost gets Russ / Marshawn blown up. He runs right past Bucannon to block downfield on a run that was going the opposite direction. This gives Bucannon a free shot at Russ and Marshawn. This is his assignment on runs that are going his direction, but on the run going the other direction he should have taken Bucannon.
Christine Michael looked weak in blocking.
Tukuafu had a great game. In the fourth quarter, they used him instead of Willson to strengthen the right side of the line and that is when Russell really went off. I love the heart Tuk plays with. Whistle to whistle, he just wants to hit somebody and keep hitting them. Lynch clearly implicitly trusts him. There were runs where Lynch had a gaping hole elsewhere, but instead elected to follow Tuk to a different spot. Just another chit for my favorite addition this year, and a really good omen going forward. Lynch really produces better and looks more comfortable when he has a fullback that he trusts ala MRob.
Britt had his worst game in recent memory, but the Hawks schemed around it in the second half by giving him support from the backfield. He was beat to the inside. He was beat to the outside. It didn't help that he was constantly left on an island by Sweezy and Willson. I think he must have been coached about not letting guys get around his outside edge because he frequently cheated to the outside. Early in the 3rd quarter, Sweezy abandons him to 2 defenders. Britt looks confused and conflicted. He looks like he knows he should take the inside guy who has the most direct route to Russ, but he realizes if he does this then he will be criticized for letting the outside guy get around him again. He chips the outside guy and the inside guy just about kills Russ who thankfully tosses an incompletion to Richardson over the middle.
Sweezy looked solid as always. He made some small mistakes, but mostly that was due to the Cards overloading that side of the line to try to take advantage of Britt. I think he has a rougher assignment this week against the Wethers.
Carpenter continued to make boneheaded moves. I just don't think he has the brain for a zone blocking scheme. When he has a man to block, he is just marvelous (running or passing), but when he doesn't have a clear assignment, he makes bad decisions ala running downfield against the Eagles on a passing play. He came close to getting another illegal downfield in this game and just generally looked like a meathead when he didn't have a clear assignment.
Bailey had a solid game in run and pass pro. He even covered for a few Carpenter mistakes. He is definitely no Okung, but the dude is a baller. The Cards did figure out how to get to him with a stunt, but if you have to rely on a stunt to beat a guy then he is usually doing pretty good. If he wasn't so good as a backup at multiple positions, I wouldn't mind seeing him starting in place of Carpenter next year.
Lewis looked good, although it is hard to really evaluate. There was very little interior pressure for him to deal with. He did his job with few if any mistakes. I'm not convinced that he can read the coverage as good as JeanPierre can, and certainly not as well as Unger, but his athleticism showed and was a good asset in the lateral movements that were so necessary in the first half. It is notable that the Hawks had a lot of success running up the gut in no small part due to the excellent play of Lewis.
Overall, I am still happy with the line play. They are making strides, and most importantly are learning to work as a unit. Now that Russ is solidly out of his funk, and we are learning how to shore up the right side of the line with backfield support, I am hopeful that this line is good enough to take us all the way.
Hopefully, my internet speeds gets better so I can go back and look at the first Cards game and see what was so different.
- bsd
