Oh......I don't think you can tell anything from yesterday. That was as vanilla as we could get.
Question: Ok what are your thoughts on the offensive line?
- Thread starter dewittfamily1
- Start date
I was very disappointed in the OL yesterday, but after watching the tape I feel a little better. CW at LG got beat two or three times. CK will start soon and I vote to move BJ to LG. Steen and Fluker did well for the most part. Also, it looked like the coaches had several things in mind to try for the quarterbacks. We were vanilla and did not attempt to establish a power run game at the expense of all else.
OL is concerning but too early to tell. Aj's two picks were thrown right on the money. PS's picks were "bad" choices.
Once we quit shuffling the line and open the play book we will get a more accurate picture. Most of yesterday seemed scripted.
I think the coaching staff is smart enough to realize to use the Kent State game as a way to experiment with the OL. I have no doubt that Cyrus K will be starting very soon and should get some serious playing time in the next couple of weeks. This will allow BJ to move back to guard where he is more suited. Chance Wamack seemed to have a good game.
The one thing I do know is that the coaching staff and Coach Saban know more than all of us put together on how to make the OL effective so I'll just leave it up to them.
The one thing I do know is that the coaching staff and Coach Saban know more than all of us put together on how to make the OL effective so I'll just leave it up to them.
The O-line will get better as the lineup gets decided. I posted in the LSU thread that lack of talent isn't the problem here - too much talent is. It takes 5 guys doing things together to be successful on the offensive line - you have to know what your teammate is going to do. Everyone has to know their assignment; one blown block makes the whole line look worse. As soon as the staff figures out who the starters are, they'll start getting most of the practice reps and the quality of play will pick up dramatically, quickly.
The strength of the Kent 2010 D was stopping the run, highly ranked at it.
Nix is the real deal.
PSU may have a beter front 4, all 4 considered, but I doubt PSU has a Nix!
"If" BJ had played all game at LG it may well have helped control what Nix was doing.
Experimentation of line combos against Kent = all fine.
But, are we getting consistency of one line combo at practice?
It won't jell till that happens.
BJ at LG, if/when CK can take over at LT seems to be the lean of the coaches, with BJ right there to help with any mental adjustments pre-snap.
Just off this one "scrimmage" it would appear CK is as ready a LT as BJ, go with it now!
Nix is the real deal.
PSU may have a beter front 4, all 4 considered, but I doubt PSU has a Nix!
"If" BJ had played all game at LG it may well have helped control what Nix was doing.
Experimentation of line combos against Kent = all fine.
But, are we getting consistency of one line combo at practice?
It won't jell till that happens.
BJ at LG, if/when CK can take over at LT seems to be the lean of the coaches, with BJ right there to help with any mental adjustments pre-snap.
Just off this one "scrimmage" it would appear CK is as ready a LT as BJ, go with it now!
Whatever combination the staff picks, I agree that, at this point, the sooner we pick one, the better off we'll be.
After viewing the game again, number 5 for Kent State came through unblocked on a number of occasions. I previously thought he was just whipping us up front (which he did sometimes) but I don't know if there were missed assignments or he was just that quick, because he did come through unblocked throughout the day. The right side looked pretty good but from the center to the left side seemed vulnerable. Obviously they were going through some trial and error stuff yesterday, but I have to agree with previous posters that the line should not have been that disorganized in my opinion. I think we'll see a more stable rotation (whatever that happens to be) against Penn State.
If CK takes over at LT, then BJ almost has to be on that side to help. I don't think any of the other guards can fill that role...
So I guess Lacy was running behind a different line or he is twice as good as TR? What credit do you give the line for Lacy's success? Or are you saying he is better than TR?Nix is a stud and will be playing in the NFL in 2 years. TR ran 11 of his carriers between the tackles. 1 run outside the tackles went for 6 yards and the other Nix made a great play. We will be fine in game. Not to mention Coach set the game plan up to let both QB's throw it around.
I'm obviously not in the film sessions with our linemen,
but there were some missed assignments. That's to be expected though when guys are changing positions and splitting reps. It's just unreasonable to expect someone to master a position when they're splitting on field practice time with other players and switching positions during camp, and the performance yesterday bore that out.They kinda had to be that disorganized. Hopefully you're right about a more stable rotation this week. WRT to practice time, there's a big difference between learning something in film study and translating that to the field with your teammates. Practice is the only way to "master" the position, and there's only so much practice time to go around.
Here's what I see happening next week.... We'll have a whole lot less experimenting with rotations and groupings. I predict that practice reports will be show this and BJ will not be playing all over the place. My goodness, we have learned that whenever we start jacking around with moving players around on the OL things don't go well (i.e. Sugar Bowl - Utah - Thanks a lot Pendry). I believe we'll see Cyrus have an opportunity to win the LT job against PSU. That will leave one of the OG's out of luck when BJ moves back. I also believe that we'll still see a rotation at QB this week but I doubt it will be even. I'm thinking we see AJ run 3 - 4 series to Sims' 2.
Never said we were shut down on EVERY play. Of course we had SOME moments, after all, you'd have to expect that from the #2 ranked team in the nation. Jalston Fowler averaged like 17 yards per carry, but you damn sure can't use that as an indicator of how effective our running game was yesterday.
No one has mentioned it, and I'll probably get in trouble for saying it, but I can't help wondering whether Coach Stoutland has been distracted by the Miami mess, which has translated to lack of focus by the guys on the OL. As others have said, we've got too much talent there not to be totally dominant against a team like Kent State.
I agree with what you are saying here. I think by the Ark game the offensive line will be settled and we will see them playing alot better. It also looks to me like AJ should be getting more reps as time goes by and will also be the starter by Sept. 24th.
After looking at other games our line play was ok....not great, but not that bad. We had some breakdowns which are due to the above stated rotations, etc. IMHO, BJ would have to play beside CK -- and it would probably limit our blocking schemes. We did seem to run better to the right than to the left. All in all, we will be fine with some solidifying of positions. Even LSU had bad plays and Oregon's DL has never been the bell cow of that team.
I hope some of you are correct about the experimenting and having confidence that we will see improvement. The o-line play was poor yesterday. Rarely was there a running play where our RB didn't have to break a tackle or elude a defender in the backfield. Our RB's made some yards because they are as big as Kent St.'s defensive linemen, but they won't be able to run over SEC linemen like they did. The o-line must improve a lot if we plan to challenge for championships this year.
If a line needs time to gel, when is it supposed to happen: on the bus ride to Happy Valley? Maybe the shifting lineups are fueled by the fact that what didn't work last year hasn't been fixed.
The entire world is geared up to stop the run and make our quarterbacks win the game. I don't think they can this week, if what we saw Saturday represents what we'll get out of the line.
Fortunately, our defense will have a say.
The entire world is geared up to stop the run and make our quarterbacks win the game. I don't think they can this week, if what we saw Saturday represents what we'll get out of the line.
Fortunately, our defense will have a say.
We were trying different OL combinations Saturday to find the best combination. We could afford to do that with Kent St. I'm sure we won't see this next Saturday.
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