https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2013/10/09/ranking-the-2013-offensive-lines-first-quarter/2/ I'm surprised Howard is doing so well... I'm also a little bit surprised that we're ranked so low, actually. Based on what I've seen, our OLine is an improvement over last year IMO.
I'm not sure how the formula works, but it seems like the overall grade is negative even taking away Ducasse.
Just checked Clabo is -8.8 which is shocking it's not at least a -10000000000000000000000000000.04224
To me, it is two things. Geno holding the ball too long at times. Some players on the line not playing up to par.
its possible that mangold and brick are scoring low because they are cheating in to help ducasse also. winters didn't look bad monday night, lets see how they progress with him starting
Mangold and Ferguson have not played up to their standards so far. Those two are holding this line back. Colon has been solid and Ducasse sucked besides the NE game. Hopefully Winters can turn into a good player for us and Mangold and Ferguson can start playing like we all know they can.
They take into account penalties in the score. So all the false starts and holdings and so forth are why we aren't much higher. Ferguson and Mangold have also been playing nowhere near their capabilities, esp Mangold. I figured we'd be around that area strictly due to knowing how PFF works with their grading.
You mean Colon and Ducasse are holding this line back, not Mangold and Brick. They have to help account for those 2 awful guards on a weekly basis. That is bring down their productivity. I'll gladly trade you Vlad for Clabo :rofl:
But you don't see Geno taking sacks from holding the ball to long. He gets rid of the ball, throws it away and often completes passes when he holds it long. He takes extra hits but he extends plays. I like it a lot better when Geno hangs in the pocket rather than gets nervous and gives up on the play. But there is a fine line between the two. Geno also holds the ball quite a long time as he throws a lot more deep passes than most QBs. Where Geno takes unneeded sacks are the few plays where he has panicked and run backwards. Most notably a couple of plays against Tampa where he panicked and ran backwards. One play against Tenn where he tried to kill one of the two screen passes that got blown up near the goal line but he was afraid of the intentional grounding penalty and possibly safety and panicked. Along with one other late in Tenn. game where had just lost it mentally and ran sideways backwards. But absent those panic attacks which he seems to be improving on and not repeating you do not see too many sacks on Geno. We saw the sack by Osi where he needed to hot read and get rid of it but that was a bang bang play not a case of holding it for 4 seconds. That sack was definitely on Geno as he should have known there was an uncovered rusher and he would need to get rid of it in a 1 second or get sacked. Where Geno needs to develop more is reading defense and blitzes, making blitz pickup calls and being able to get rid of the ball fast to the right guy on blitzes. That is a long term project if not a lifetime project for every QB not named Peyton. But the poor line play is twofold. Ducasse/Winters and Colon are big drowngrades over Slausson and Moore and the shift in offensive philosophy. For the first 4 games we have gone to a pass 1st deep passing offense exposing the QB to lots of extra hits and sacks. Often leaving our QB alone on island. It is only natrual the protection will not be as good when the Defense will be keying more on the pass and when we will be needing to hold the ball longer on deep pass routes. If your going to call a lot of deep passes that take more time to develop your QB is going to get hit a lot and take more sacks plus your going to have more INTs and mistakes. Against Atlanta we shifted philosophy and went to a short passing game, with few deep balls, that did not put the entire offense on the QB and did not ask the QB to win the game by himself. Not unexpectedly Geno's completion percentage increased, his mistakes decreased, and he took less hits as he was playing in a much less riskier type offense.
Geno is the 2nd most sacked QB in the league right now, but they aren't all on the oline, a bunch are because of his inexperience. I don't really buy in to PFF stats, anyways. Last year they had our oline as top 3. I just don't buy it.
another thing, i know everyone is planning a shopping spree with the cap space we might have next year, but resigning howard might be the best use of that money. he is playing well and continuity on the line will be just as important as getting shiny new toys for geno
agreed noam, i think at the least howard gets the franchise tag and mo wilk gets locked up long term. colon will be back so we should be able to bring back the starting o line and than maybe try to find a mid level wr plus another in the draft. with 4 picks in the first 3 rounds we should be able to add 1-2 starters and some depth at key positions
yeh no way in hell our o-line was top 3 last year, couldnt run for shit, couldnt protect the qb. what the hell were they good at?
I don't buy it for a second, outside of a stretch in the Ten game the OL has been really good. It's so hard to accurately grade OL play unless you are a coach/player on the team.
