what did he do last night? did he miss the block on the sack? NOPE. he picked up a blitz, brick missed it.
IATA he got replaced after 15 snaps.....by the UDFA who was almost killing Sanchez..thats how bad they thought he was.
He saw a decent amount of action yesterday in jumbo packages. Not sure if any of you noticed the play or two where he went to LT, Brick went to RT. Was it because Hunter was down for a bit? I'm not sure if any of the sacks from yesterday fall on him. I know one if from Brick where he was badly beaten by an outside bull rush, but can't remember the others. Is no news good news?
I left the room and then overheard one of the commentators saying that Vlad was lining up as a tight-end. I'm assuming a blocking one and not an Antonio Gates-esque TD-scoring TE. Otherwise I may have missed the event of the 2011 season.
Ducasse played well when he was in there including pancaking Tyson Jackson on the 2nd play of the game.
vlad had the big penalty but otherwise played an alright game. missed a couple made a few more. he was downfield regularly on big run plays for us so thats a plus.
He's been playing well as the 6th big man in the jumbo package. He's eliminated the mental errors and the guy can flat out drive block...so very good stuff. This is exactly what he needed for his development. Let him get on the field...burn away that timid mentality and play through his mistakes. He's able to come off the field after 1-2 plays and reflect onm his performance. Baby steps. By the way..I was watching him closely on that holding play and although it was technically a hold..you often see those go as no calls on a stretch play like that.
I just watched "What about Bob" this weekend, so it's on my brain... "Baby step on the field, baby step on the field... I'm on the field! I'm blocking! I'm blocking!" or, directly from the movie, "I'm baby stepping. I'm doing the work. I'm not a slacker! Give me! Give me! I need! I need! Give me! Give me!" In a more serious vein, I haven't been watching Ducasse in the games, but I haven't noticed him much either (other than the fact he's in the game), I guess that's probably a good thing.
I haven't given up on Vlad. There's hope just off his run blocking alone. His future needs to be at guard though as he's going to need help on either side of him. Maybe Vlad can succeed Brandon Moore when it's time for him to hang it up which may be soon.
No joke, "What about Bob" might be my all time favorite movie..I've seen it at least 50 times. Best line in the whole flick "I'm ON Vacation!!"
I would disagree with this. He's shown alot more promise at Tackle. Not only is that his natural position but it suits his strengths/weaknesses well. His hand placement and splits can be alittle sloppy, but he has such a big wingspan,good feet and punch that he can get around the shortcomings much better at tackle. Additionally, Assignment pick-up is alot simpler at tackle..and that seems to be something he struggles with inside. Long term, Hunter could possibly move inside, where his often inconsistent feet and tendency to "lean" would not be as much of an issue. There's also the kid from GB they traded for. I have yet to see him action but i've read in several places the team is high on him long term. He's supposively a big time drive blocker.
Greene's big run early in the game was through Vlad's gap. His run blocking should be unquestioned at this point. He had damn good game run blocking. Now if he can just get pass blocking down, he could actually compete for the RT spot.
well its getting better but by no means should that preclude the team from improving the OL this offseason.
Using him in jumbo is pretty smart. The guys a monster and as long as he only has to go forward he'll be fine. No pulling or PB and he won't be able to kill our QB.
He did so quite a few times yesterday. I wasn't really watching him in particular (was in the upper deck so harder to always tell who's in on which plays) but I can remember at least 3-4 times that he was announced as eligible and lined up at TE. That's one helluva load as a blocking TE!
