16 rushes for 19 yards.

Sperrydogg

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It's the line, but the reason that it's the line is the coaching.

It's amateur hour. No one is moving in synergy with everyone else. They can't run any of the running plays cleanly - you'll have guys doubling the wrong bodies, you'll have WRs screwing up and letting a DB blow up the edge, and the timing on motion is so screwed up that it's actually a detriment more than it's a utility.

I'm sorry, but installing the offense is on the coaches. We've got ENOUGH talent to run the ball. Williams is a proven competent blocker. Tomlinson is a vet who has always been average at WORST. Bradford was always sloppy in pass sets but he's a strong ass road grader. Cross is... actually pretty damn good. Barner and Brown are both plus blockers at TE. K9 is a legit talent at RB.

There is no earthly reason that this personnel should be STOPPING us from running the ball successfully. The truth is that we have an extreme void of experience on the staff, the installation of the offense has been fairly obviously botched, and there's no one there to right the ship with an experienced steady hand. Grubb and Co. are in a sink/swim scenario without an old pro to lean on.

This offense is the same one that we saw as a potential juggernaut based on 2022 and 2023. A capable offensive coach would have them looking like a fairly dangerous unit. We'll have to wait and see whether or not Grubb has what it takes, but early returns are far from reassuring.
Where is Leslie Frazier??
 

Shane Falco

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There's no doubt that we just aren't running the ball enough. 31st in attempts, only Dallas has less carries. We are actually middle of the pack in YPC. So we aren't terrible in the run game, we just don't use it. But against the bills we didn't rush a whole lot and we couldn't get much when we did.

Our oline still sucks ass though. You can see it each week. Obviously a lot worse in pass pro versus run blocking. Or else K9 makes them look better than they actually are. Who knows. The difference between a good oline and a bad one is a team being able to do what they want WHEN they want to do it. Imposing their will when the other team knows its coming and still can't stop it. Controlling the clock and sustaining long drives, which in turn helps out the defense tremendously.

Look at what we did in '05 with Hasselbeck or the Cowboys all those years with Aikman. Imagine what this team could do even with a top 15 oline. This front office has to start prioritizing it imo.
 

pittpnthrs

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I don't like being this reductive when it comes to identifying root cause issues.

The starting line now is almost entirely different than it was the majority of last year. The coaching staff is entirely different. Why would I try to reduce my conclusion into an exercise in finding a correlation and then forcing myself to think of it as causation?

There IS a common denominator that I think is the biggest cause of their troubles though, and that's overall poorly coached and poorly developed offensive linemen. I think the last good line coach we had was Solari, and we ran the piss out of it when he was here. To great result. Without premium investment on the OL.

We're beating a dead horse at this point Mael. We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one. Sure coaching plays a part, but I think it's more lack of talent. No biggie.
 
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