Offensive Line Play

[OnTheRocks]

My guess is that very soon Demetrius Bell will be the starting LT.

Langston Walker will be moved back to RT.

 

Brad Butler will be moved back to RG.

And Eric Wood will be moved to LG or C.

 

With either Levitre or Hangartner headed to the bench.

[Frez]

I think this is a great post. I was going to make the same point about Trent holding the ball. Folks complain about the Captain Checkdown stuff but he's just getting the ball out on time like he's supposed to. If he holds it for more than 4 seconds he's going to get hit behind this OLine, particularly when they're running a basic offense against a good defensive front that was running a lot of games on them. Not to mention a great corner tandem that he had to be leery of.

I thought both QB's ran themselves into trouble unnecessarily a few times and neither of them looked very good. The OLine didn't look great by any means but they weren't as bad as many are making them out to be.

 

 

Simon, how do you explain 6 carries for 6 yards for Lynch? The line was bad man! Did you see them getting bull rushed?

[Frez]

My guess is that very soon Demetrius Bell will be the starting LT.

Langston Walker will be moved back to RT.

 

Brad Butler will be moved back to RG.

And Eric Wood will be moved to LG or C.

 

With either Levitre or Hangartner headed to the bench.

 

 

That sounds about right to me also. I think you hit the nail right on the head.

[Simon]

Simon, how do you explain 6 carries for 6 yards for Lynch? The line was bad man! Did you see them getting bull rushed?

Explain what? The OLine wasn't very good. But they weren't as bad as many are hollering about.

And I don't know what a bullrush has to do with Marshawn's ypc?

[TheChimp]

Explain what? The OLine wasn't very good. But they weren't as bad as many are hollering about.

And I don't know what a bullrush has to do with Marshawn's ypc?

But if he'd have said bull sh--, you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?

[Koufax]

Ha! I think 7-9 IS optimistic for this team.

 

Can you elaborate on why you think this team is substantively worse or schedule substantively harder than the last three years when we won 7 games each year.

 

I'm putting the Jauron stuff separately. I think he is soft and nice and overmatched in the NFL. I was disappointed when he was not fired after last season, but that is separate from the negativity about what this football team will do this season that I don't tend to agree with.

 

Here are some of my observations:

 

1) QB play should be better this year than last...not too tricky after a bad year by Trent and with another year under his belt.

2) WR play better this year. TO, plus he frees up evans, plus possible other contributors without any losses or players on the decline.

3) RB play similar to last year. Three games missed by Lynch hurt early, but we know Freddie is talented, and this might lead to a fresher Marshawn later in the season.

4) O-Line play. I think weaker, but am hoping I am wrong. I think Walker will be weaker than Peters sub-par year last year, and I think starting two rookie guards will take some time to gel, but except for Walker filling in for a lazy Peters, I think this line will likely be stronger than last year after a few more games of playing together.

5) TE. No real comment here. Probably better than last year, but not a big part of our offense unfortunately.

 

End result, a better offense than last year

 

6) D-Line better: Getting Schobel back and healthy and adding Maybin makes this pretty clear. Usual suspects at DT but with nobody worse off or on the downside of their career.

 

7) LB: Better. I expect Poz to take a step forward, and the rest of the pieces should be similar or better.

 

8) Secondary: Better. Have some young guys who should be better on the balance. We will miss Greer, but I think the year for McKelvin and the guys we have make this unit better than last year.

 

End result, a better defense than last year.

 

Special teams I expect to continue to be a strength, could be better could be worse, but I don't have any real reason to think one or the other.

 

So for our weaknesses, flaws, and the softness of Jauron, our team I think is starting the season better than last year (and previous years). New England is clearly in a better position, and while I am rooting for us twice, we likely have those two losses like each of our 7 win seasons, and I would put us as a heavy underdog in the opener which would be a nice stunner upset if we win, but reasonably that is a game more likely to be lost. I think Miami will be worse than their big run last year, and that the Jets will struggle with a rookie QB instead of a Hall of Famer. The rest of our schedule is relatively normal and there is too much turnover in the league year to year to predict too much (last year Arizona was supposed to be an easy game, not a road matchup against the NFC champion).

 

So, for all the range of possibilities there are, I still don't get the rationale that people think are doomed to be worse than 7-9, and that somehow a loss in week 1 ruins our season.

 

I'm always an optimist, but I think a realist rational optimist.

 

Go Bills

[Simon]

Can you elaborate on why you think this team is substantively worse or schedule substantively harder than the last three years when we won 7 games each year.

 

...

 

I'm always an optimist, but I think a realist rational optimist.

 

Go Bills

 

For some reason I actually feel a bit better about the upcoming season.

That must have been a good post!

[vincec]

My guess is that very soon Demetrius Bell will be the starting LT.

Langston Walker will be moved back to RT.

 

Brad Butler will be moved back to RG.

And Eric Wood will be moved to LG or C.

 

With either Levitre or Hangartner headed to the bench.

Maybe next season, but this season the Bills will probably go with the lineup they're using now... at least until/if they're out of the playoff picture.

[billsfreak]

Is the Offensive Line Weak? That might be the understatement of the century.

[NY Nole]

I've never seen such bad play from an NFL offensive line.

 

I re-watched the game to evaluate the OLine. No offense, but this statement is just plain wrong. They had their share of mistakes, but overall actually played a decent game. The turnovers killed the offensive momentum in this game and made everyone look bad.

 

Here are some observations:

1. People need to understand how offensive line play works at the NFL level. Blocking is not about overpowering your man (although it certainly helps if the blocker is capable of physically dominating.) More often, it is a game of leverage and angles. The point is to drive or steer your man out of the play (ie it doesn't matter if Raji blows a blocker off the line if he's not in position to make the play -- which was the case in the second qtr -- Raji ended up on the ground).

 

2. Green Bay blitzed almost the entire time. They routinely ran corner blitzes and dropped their lineman into coverage.

 

3. On numerous occasions (including the opening fumble by TE) the line gave more than enough time to get the ball off. It was more on the QB than the line.

 

4. Run blocking was not exceptional, but it wasn't terrible either. Marshawn simply ran in the wrong hole on at least one occasion. As good a runner as Marshawn is -- his best attribute is not always following his blockers.

 

5. Both Shawn Nelson and Derek Schouman were liabilities in the blocking game. On passing plays, neither were able to effectively chip their man and on running plays, both whiffed when blocking down on the end.

 

6. Brad Butler had the worst game of the offensive lineman. Hangartner was one of the best -- routinely getting off the ball on run plays and neutralizing AJ Hawk -- his main responsibility. Bell held his own. Walker got beat on a few plays but was solid. Wood and Levitre played like rookies -- but both improved from the first series to their last.

[Koufax]

My guess is that very soon Demetrius Bell will be the starting LT.

Langston Walker will be moved back to RT.

 

Brad Butler will be moved back to RG.

And Eric Wood will be moved to LG or C.

 

With either Levitre or Hangartner headed to the bench.

 

Hmmm...that seems like a pretty significant shuffle for mid season (if that is what you mean by mid-season). I can see Bell beating out Walker only if Walker fails significantly or is hurt, and otherwise think Bell will be a 2010 impact. Butler is a natural RT and I can't imagine the coaches having a quick trigger with either of our rookie guards. Hangartner looks like he had one of the stronger games against GB, and seems like a rather reliable veteran who I don't see a capacity to screw up enough to have a shuffle.

 

Especially with the no huddle, I think there will be patience on the line and it would take injuries or big failures for any shuffling.

 

Now my personal reading of the tea leaves aside, I think that the Bell-Levitre-Wood-Butler-Walker line is pretty intriguing and maybe even stronger than what we have now, but having three in a row left to right basically as rookies (I know Bell isn't) would be WAY too much to throw at the blind side going into this season.

 

I'm wishing Walker a nice boring season of pretty good, and think he is big enough and smart enough to do that, even if he lacks quickness and experience on that side. I would love Bell to emerge since we all agree on his upside, and I would love it to be based on him tearing things up in practice and not on failure or injury to Walker. But I don't see that happening, and am settling in for a long run of the status quo.

[BEAST MODE BABY!]

Bills were equally inept against all of the 3-4 defenses they played last year.

 

You'd think playing only 3-4 teams in our division would allow them to figure out and solve the problem. In any other business, you can't successfully solve the problem you're out on your ass.

 

But nope, we looked bad as almost always. I love Dick ball.

 

Does Kawika Mitchell have a tweet for how his ass got owned on defense?

[billsrcursed]

I re-watched the game to evaluate the OLine. No offense, but this statement is just plain wrong. They had their share of mistakes, but overall actually played a decent game. The turnovers killed the offensive momentum in this game and made everyone look bad.

 

Here are some observations:

1. People need to understand how offensive line play works at the NFL level. Blocking is not about overpowering your man (although it certainly helps if the blocker is capable of physically dominating.) More often, it is a game of leverage and angles. The point is to drive or steer your man out of the play (ie it doesn't matter if Raji blows a blocker off the line if he's not in position to make the play -- which was the case in the second qtr -- Raji ended up on the ground).

 

2. Green Bay blitzed almost the entire time. They routinely ran corner blitzes and dropped their lineman into coverage.

 

3. On numerous occasions (including the opening fumble by TE) the line gave more than enough time to get the ball off. It was more on the QB than the line.

 

4. Run blocking was not exceptional, but it wasn't terrible either. Marshawn simply ran in the wrong hole on at least one occasion. As good a runner as Marshawn is -- his best attribute is not always following his blockers.

 

5. Both Shawn Nelson and Derek Schouman were liabilities in the blocking game. On passing plays, neither were able to effectively chip their man and on running plays, both whiffed when blocking down on the end.

 

6. Brad Butler had the worst game of the offensive lineman. Hangartner was one of the best -- routinely getting off the ball on run plays and neutralizing AJ Hawk -- his main responsibility. Bell held his own. Walker got beat on a few plays but was solid. Wood and Levitre played like rookies -- but both improved from the first series to their last.

 

This is a great post, which is why you should have just kept it to yourself instead of posting it here.

[BillnutinHouston]

...Thank GOD it's only one more Season of this garbage...Thank the good Lord above...

 

You do realize that Jauron is under contract through 2011, right? Firing DJ during or after this season would require Ralph to eat two years of Dick's contract.

[OnTheRocks]

My guess is that very soon Demetrius Bell will be the starting LT.

Langston Walker will be moved back to RT.

 

Brad Butler will be moved back to RG.

And Eric Wood will be moved to LG or C.

 

With either Levitre or Hangartner headed to the bench.

So....Bell has been carted off the practice field....can I have a do-over?