Is anyone making excuses for the offensive line?

[hawknation2015]

http://www.hawkblogger.com/2015/02/the-misunderstood-seahawks-offensive.html

This is a decent article that still applies (with the subtraction of Unger).

Some of it is Russ, and I'll never dispute that... But the numbers were worse than I thought.

I love Tom Cable... I don't want to lose Tom Cable. But with that toughness comes a line that will likely never perform in the top half of teams in pass pro.

I guess this is one of those things that isn't worth discussing because it's stagnant and won't change - you only hope it doesn't get worse, and you hope your QB can withstand it.

Cable's continued development of cheap prospects like Sweezy, Nowak, and Milton is why we have enough money available to have an elite defense while paying Russell the 2nd most money in the league.

 

[Rob12]

http://www.hawkblogger.com/2015/02/the-misunderstood-seahawks-offensive.html

This is a decent article that still applies (with the subtraction of Unger).

Some of it is Russ, and I'll never dispute that... But the numbers were worse than I thought.

I love Tom Cable... I don't want to lose Tom Cable. But with that toughness comes a line that will likely never perform in the top half of teams in pass pro.

I guess this is one of those things that isn't worth discussing because it's stagnant and won't change - you only hope it doesn't get worse, and you hope your QB can withstand it.

Cable's continued development of cheap prospects like Sweezy, Nowak, and Milton is why we have enough money available to have an elite defense while paying Russell the 2nd most money in the league.

That's a great point and one that I won't dispute, but it has to get better. It just does.

 

[DavidSeven]

Walter Jones isn't walking through that door.

The O-line is what it is, and these guys aren't beating the Von Millers of the world within 4 weeks. This situation isn't getting any better by practicing harder. I can't even blame the players. The talent isn't there. There is almost no money or draft capital along that line. That's not the players' fault. I'm sure they're trying. More than anything, it's probably a result of hubris on Cable's part. And maybe Pete and John have a little too much faith.

You basically have to pay Okung at this point. Are you kidding me? I'm not even saying he's elite, but you don't fix the problem by replacing the best guy with yet another college D-linemen.

 

[Exittium]

we didn't use ADB or kearse either did we? Graham on a few plays, I think the oline looked worse because of lack of WR's blocking or missing blocks with newer WRs?

I mean overall the game didn't have very many starters at all on offense (mainly receiving/running including TEs) or defense

Not making excuses but that's one more thing to take into account.
(I'm also a strong believer that Olines like Mannings in denver and whats left in Indy are probably jedi masters or something of getting away with and hiding holding.)

 

[SeaTown81]

This is what happens when you're paying huge money to so many players on defense and a couple on offense. The money has to come from somewhere. And that somewhere is the offensive line. Hawks feel they can go cheap on the o line and let Cable work magic. This strategy has worked sorta the past 2 seasons, but it's really only because of the magician that is Russell Wilson. Hawks have lost a lot of "solid, not great" guys like Carp, Breno, etc. Add Unger to that list and you got Okung, Sweezy, and a bunch of fringe guys that you're hoping pan out. Scary proposition.

The Rams D Line is waiting.

 

[Anthony!]

http://www.hawkblogger.com/2015/02/the-misunderstood-seahawks-offensive.html

This is a decent article that still applies (with the subtraction of Unger).

Some of it is Russ, and I'll never dispute that... But the numbers were worse than I thought.

I love Tom Cable... I don't want to lose Tom Cable. But with that toughness comes a line that will likely never perform in the top half of teams in pass pro.

I guess this is one of those things that isn't worth discussing because it's stagnant and won't change - you only hope it doesn't get worse, and you hope your QB can withstand it.

I will dusput eit

"Russell Wilson was under pressure on 46% of his dropbacks this year, tops in the NFL according to ProFootballFocus.com. He was under pressure 43.8% of his dropbacks last year, also the highest rate in the league. He was at 39.2% in 2012, just behind Michael Vick (41.4%). "


Enough said, when your !B is under pressure the most in the league over a 3 year period it is not the QB period. Now are there some rare times were he could help by getting rid of the ball yeah, assuming someone is open. But when your QB is the most pressured QB in the league no I do not blame him.

Here is a post breaking down 1 season sacks. The total was 44 and of those 44 only 1 was on the QB. Now not all were on the oline , some was coverage none getting open,

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/seahawks/ ... crambling/

 

[Anthony!]

This is what happens when you're paying huge money to so many players on defense and a couple on offense. The money has to come from somewhere. And that somewhere is the offensive line. Hawks feel they can go cheap on the o line and let Cable work magic. This strategy has worked sorta the past 2 seasons, but it's really only because of the magician that is Russell Wilson. Hawks have lost a lot of "solid, not great" guys like Carp, Breno, etc. Add Unger to that list and you got Okung, Sweezy, and a bunch of fringe guys that you're hoping pan out. Scary proposition.

The Rams D Line is waiting.

I kind of agree but they have also missed a lot in the draft when it comes to oline and have come right out and said they draft for run blocking first. I mean instead of getting a lineman that is not an A in run blocking and D in pass blocking, why not get a guy who is a B in both. But nope. Well one thing is for sure their lack of ability or desire to improve the pass blocking will eventually come back to bite them.

 

[hawk45]

Cable doesn't get to use the lack of talent excuse when our past attempts at getting OL talent have been as big or bigger whiffs. Unless we think JS just ignored cable's input on moffit and carp.

 

[erik2690]

I'm sure there are specific plays where Russ doesn't help his cause, but tonight I don't think that was the case at all and even in total I think his % of "blame" is fairly small. The O-line just isn't great at pass pro. That said this was a small sample size of the 1's. Really small, Russ got like 5-6 dropbacks. The first sack Britt just got beat crazy clean and Russ had next to no time to secure it and Von got his hand on the ball clean. The second sack he had slightly more time, still very much a collapsing pocket. What I saw on that one though was that his crossing routes of Graham and Matthews pretty much ran into each other and took away his first reads and cost a bit of time. My take is that tonight was pretty ugly and not on Russ, but I have hope that with a bigger sample size and more time it can get a few ticks better. If not Russ will have a big burden, but if anyone is capable of somehow playing behind that it might be him. I mean he got no pocket on that 12 yard run either.

 

[HawKnPeppa]

I was pinging on Hawk Blogger mercilessly for his earlier comments about pass pro problems being a 'myth.' He cites Russell having to move around to see as an exacerbating factor, and there is truth to that, but I saw plenty of examples in this game, as I did in many other regular season games last season, where Russ was staying put and we still had a sieve. Britt against Von Miller I can dismiss somewhat, but we had penetration through the middle as well.

I take some solace that, yes, it's still preseason game one. That said, I agree with Pete saying OL has to get better in a hurry. It still befuddles me that Bevell still can't seem to wrap his mind around the hot reads and quick-hitting timing routes that were saving Osweiler's azz at times. I really hate the all-or-noting approach we employ. If there's nothing open on the sideline and nothing deep, we are SOL unless Russ runs around long enough to open something, or Lynch is in the flat. The D is often a well-oiled machine while the O is herky, jerky on it's best day.

 

[SeaChase]

Yeah, some guy was in the game day forum.

Yeah that guy said Wilson should have noticed the pressure coming from his front side. He also said that he counted till 3 and Wilson still had the ball. People say cray cray stuff in the game day forum.

 

[SomersetHawk]

I'm not going to excuse the offensive line as such but Cable's come in for some unfair criticism. He's not had a lot to work with over the past three seasons, his highest draft pick in that span, Justin Britt, is effectively a 4/5th round talent they reached for because they didn't have a pick in the 3rd. We just traded away his best (albeit gimpy) O-lineman for a new toy and are asking him to pull rabbits out of hats in the search for his replacement; with a career utility-man and a DT convert heading up the current competition.

Meanwhile, one of his success stories, Sweezy, could be gone next year with Glowinski likely being groomed into that role. God knows how we'll try and replace Okung should he leave. It just doesn't seem like a model for long-term success.

To think Evan Mathis is still out there. I'd swap him straight up for Cary Williams.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

I hope they find a way to get these to guys to become mediocre pass blockers.

And what a massive upgrade that would be.

Imagine how good the offense would be if the team was middle of the pack in pressures allowed instead of dead last.

 

[seabowl]

A 7th round flyer on La'el Collins would have looked pretty good right now seeing what we saw last night from the OL.

 

[hawk45]

We will have to spend money on the OL it's true, but even when we had okung, unger, and carp out there, 3 high picks, pass pro wasn't good. I don't think we'll see good pass pro if cable is picking the groceries but I do agree we must get over the idea we can do it with nothing.

 

[Ozzy]

I'm tired of the blame RW line of reasoning. Anyone watching tonight can see it was obvious it was the line. I also keep hearing we only use low draft picks but this isn't true either. Two of the starters are first or second round picks.

Now at times can Wilson hold on too long? Sure 80% of the time it's the line and I know it's heretical to question Cable 5 years in but it's hard not to.

And I know we are all overreacting to one preseason game but it's what we do lol.

 

[SeaChase]

I'm tired of the blame RW line of reasoning. Anyone watching tonight can see it was obvious it was the line. I also keep hearing we only use low draft picks but this isn't true either. Two of the starters are first or second round picks.

Now at times can Wilson hold on too long? Sure 80% of the time it's the line and I know it's heretical to question Cable 5 years in but it's hard not to.

And I know we are all overreacting to one preseason game but it's what we do lol.

Wilson is at the top of the list of holding the ball too long. If you know your line sucks then you probably want to get the ball out quicker. This is what year 3 of having a bad Oline, or should I say pass blocking since we are one of the top rushing teams in the league.

 

[SeatownJay]

I'm beginning to think the problem is that Cable just plain doesn't have a clue on how to coach pass blocking. I don't think our offensive line will get any better until he's replaced.

 

[CalgaryHawk]

Did you see that play where a dlineman ran right by the left guard Sokoli barely being touched and nearly decapitated Archer? It looked like a mirror image of so many plays last year of guys running by Carpenter to hit or pressure the QB. Cable needs to spend a greater percentage of time in practice coaching these guys in pass protection, but I'm beginning to wonder if that will ever happen with the emphasis on run blocking.

 

[Chawker]

I believe what you saw last night was maybe a starting front 5 that didn't need the playing time. i.e. most likely not our starters come opening day, other then Okung.
I believe it was more about getting a much playing time to players like Lewis, Glowinski and Poole. I was impressed with the right side of our line in the second half. Opening some decent running lanes for Rawls. I'm not saying that Poole could of handled V. Miller without some help, but he seemed to have quick feet and moved rather well. I was concerned about our young players but, not any more. It will be interesting to see our starting OL when the season starts.
cheers