Is anyone making excuses for the offensive line?

[kearly]

we will get better. I aint trippin

Wise words.

 

[kearly]

My favorite part of the year is August. Football is back, and preseason football gives us a chance to really focus on positional battles that could impact the team in both the short term and long term.

My favorite part of preseason games is keying on the offensive and defensive lines, particularly the 2nd and 3rd string guys. But after watching this game, I couldn't bring myself to do a 5 hour DVR session on the OL.

I really liked how Sweezy was developing at guard for a long time, but it seems he has been regressing in pass pro. Watching him get punked over and over was tough to see. This was Bailey's debut in his lighter body, and he really disappointed me as well. Britt is like the Mike Zunino of the OL. He gets us killed so much, yet has such good potential if he puts it together. He does stuff you really like, but is it worth it? The centers actually seemed okay, relatively speaking.

Sucky thing is, they play AT the Chiefs in the next game, which should be a much bigger challenge. So it will probably get worse before it gets better.

My only defense of the OL is that I think defensive fronts play far more aggressively when Beast Mode isn't in the backfield. Our backup RBs didn't wear down Denver's D either. Every passing year I come to realize more and more the impact that Lynch brings.

 

[Seafan]

Please don't take this the wrong way, I thought our OL performance was sub par at best, but lets take this with some perspective. A young OL and a very good bronco's defence ranked ?5th? overall last season. Miller and Ray yes, we got beat. but they have film and can show them the mistakes that were made, its a process.

My starting OL week1
LT Okung
LG Glowenski
C Lewis
RG Britt
RT Poole
ok grab your rocks and let the stoning begin. lol

I was thinking:

LT Okung
LG Glowinski
C Nowak
RG Sweezy
RT Poole

 

[Seafan]

My favorite part of the year is August. Football is back, and preseason football gives us a chance to really focus on positional battles that could impact the team in both the short term and long term.

My favorite part of preseason games is keying on the offensive and defensive lines, particularly the 2nd and 3rd string guys. But after watching this game, I couldn't bring myself to do a 5 hour DVR session on the OL.

I really liked how Sweezy was developing at guard for a long time, but it seems he has been regressing in pass pro. Watching him get punked over and over was tough to see. This was Bailey's debut in his lighter body, and he really disappointed me as well. Britt is like the Mike Zunino of the OL. He gets us killed so much, yet has such good potential if he puts it together. He does stuff you really like, but is it worth it? The centers actually seemed okay, relatively speaking.

Sucky thing is, they play AT the Chiefs in the next game, which should be a much bigger challenge. So it will probably get worse before it gets better.

My only defense of the OL is that I think defensive fronts play far more aggressively when Beast Mode isn't in the backfield. Our backup RBs didn't wear down Denver's D either. Every passing year I come to realize more and more the impact that Lynch brings.

It's a night game so it shouldn't be a big issue, plus it's just preseason.

 

[hawkfan68]

This is just from my observation based on last year through Friday night's game. I believe that Britt may be more suited to be a guard than tackle. I also believe that Bailey is better suited at right tackle. Britt is more of a mauler than fleet foot. Therefore, having him in the middle where he can use his power may help him. Bailey is the opposite. He looks more finesse than power, thus taking on speedier guys from the outside maybe a better spot for him. If they do make changes, I'd rather they do them sooner than later. That way they have time to build on the changes.

 

[Scottemojo]

If the Hawks go out give up no pressures and run for 2 hundie next game, will all the panic stricken proclaim them all fixed up?

I really doubt it.

 

[kobebryant]

This is just from my observation based on last year through Friday night's game. I believe that Britt may be more suited to be a guard than tackle. I also believe that Bailey is better suited at right tackle. Britt is more of a mauler than fleet foot. Therefore, having him in the middle where he can use his power may help him. Bailey is the opposite. He looks more finesse than power, thus taking on speedier guys from the outside maybe a better spot for him. If they do make changes, I'd rather they do them sooner than later. That way they have time to build on the changes.

That's an interesting observation. If Britt was anything as a rookie, it was a pretty darn good run blocker. Additionally, when Bailey has taken snaps at OT he has looked fairly strong in pass pro.

Though come the regular season I doubt we'll see Britt left 1v1 all that often against bigtime edge rushers - NFL RTs aren't built to be able to handle guys like Von Miller 1v1 in pass pro.

I think part of what happened had to do with the lack of planning for a preseason game. Rarely have you seen the Hawks run slow developing pass plays with Russ in the pocket that don't feature help for the RT from a TE or back. When the Hawks do leave their RT 1v1 it is usually "catch and release" pass plays where there is no time for the DE to get home and the oline is in short pass sets; or plays that feature roll outs or play action to keep the DEs from pinning their ears back.

Without knowing for a fact, I'd have to guess that the amount of plays the most teams run that have the RT 1v1 with elite edge rushers while the qb takes 5-7 step drops or waits for longer plays to develop is very little.

 

[hawkfan68]

This is just from my observation based on last year through Friday night's game. I believe that Britt may be more suited to be a guard than tackle. I also believe that Bailey is better suited at right tackle. Britt is more of a mauler than fleet foot. Therefore, having him in the middle where he can use his power may help him. Bailey is the opposite. He looks more finesse than power, thus taking on speedier guys from the outside maybe a better spot for him. If they do make changes, I'd rather they do them sooner than later. That way they have time to build on the changes.

That's an interesting observation. If Britt was anything as a rookie, it was a pretty darn good run blocker. Additionally, when Bailey has taken snaps at OT he has looked fairly strong in pass pro.

Though come the regular season I doubt we'll see Britt left 1v1 all that often against bigtime edge rushers - NFL RTs aren't built to be able to handle guys like Von Miller 1v1 in pass pro.

I think part of what happened had to do with the lack of planning for a preseason game. Rarely have you seen the Hawks run slow developing pass plays with Russ in the pocket that don't feature help for the RT from a TE or back. When the Hawks do leave their RT 1v1 it is usually "catch and release" pass plays where there is no time for the DE to get home and the oline is in short pass sets; or plays that feature roll outs or play action to keep the DEs from pinning their ears back.

Without knowing for a fact, I'd have to guess that the amount of plays the most teams run that have the RT 1v1 with elite edge rushers while the qb takes 5-7 step drops or waits for longer plays to develop is very little.

Thanks Kobe. You make great points. One of the reasons I was thinking along this line was because of JImmy Graham at TE. Jimmy will be asked to block more but his real strength is receiving. So if he's sent out more, Britt will have less help on his right side. Honestly, looking at TE depth none are really stout at blocking. Maybe there's where McCoy may have an advantage because he may be the best blocker at TE on the team.

 

[Anthony!]

If the Hawks go out give up no pressures and run for 2 hundie next game, will all the panic stricken proclaim them all fixed up?

I really doubt it.

I doubt that the oline will gout next game and give up no pressures and run for 200. They might get the 200 but the pressures no way.

 

[theincrediblesok]

I want us to lose every preseason games, because every time someone said oh just cause you won 4 all preseason game doesn't mean you would go to the Superbowl, which we did.

Just because you won 2 and lost 2 preseason games doesn't mean you go to the Superbowl, which we did

Just because you lost all your preseason games doesn't mean you would go to the Superbowl - To Be Determined, but I believe this team loves it when they have the media saying they can't and won't. It makes them work even harder to prove them all wrong.

 

[bigDhawk]

we will get better. I aint trippin

This.

Well, it can't get much worse.

 

[two dog]

Yes, I will make excuses for our offensive line.

As in; "Please excuse our offensive line".

They will get better.

 

[SalishHawkFan]

Please don't take this the wrong way, I thought our OL performance was sub par at best, but lets take this with some perspective. A young OL and a very good bronco's defence ranked ?5th? overall last season. Miller and Ray yes, we got beat. but they have film and can show them the mistakes that were made, its a process.

My starting OL week1
LT Okung
LG Glowenski
C Lewis
RG Britt
RT Poole
ok grab your rocks and let the stoning begin. lol

I was thinking:

LT Okung
LG Glowinski
C Nowak
RG Sweezy
RT Poole

I'm thinking
RT Revolving door
RG Revolving door
C Revolving door
LG Revolving door/false start machine
LT Injured/Revolving door

 

[ctrcat]

we will get better. I aint trippin

This.

Well, it can't get much worse.

Yes it can. The Panthers last year had zero drafted OTs for an entire season and started a LT in a primetime slot against a division rival that barely spoke English and had never played an organized football game in the United States of America.

 

[Scottemojo]

I remember a 6 game stretch where McQuistan was the starting LT. Gilliam is already better than that horrid memory.

 

[RiverDog]

Yes, our OL is horrible. Normally I would agree with those that point out that this was just the first preseason game and that things will get better, except that it's never been very good in the first place. What we saw Friday was not some preseason anomaly. Even with a healthy Okung at OT, Unger at C, and Miller at TE, our OL sucked, at least in pass protection. I see very little reason to be optimistic about this group producing better results than the other rag tag units we've trotted out there over the past few seasons.

But it works. Over the past 3 seasons, we've posted the best W/L record in the league, netted HFA twice, gone to two SB's, and netted one Lombardi. Our team can't be perfect in all areas of the game, so if we can still win games by trotting out 5 matadors from Mexican bull fights, then I'm OK. It's all about winning.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

They sucked at pass blocking the last 2 years, ended up in the Super Bowl.

 

[Bobblehead]

Britt moves to LG
Gillium to RT

Okung Britt Novack Sweezy, Gillium

Dave Boling ‏@DaveBoling 39m39 minutes ago

O line group @Seahawks has Britt working at left guard, Gilliam at RT
15 retweets 13 favorites

Dave Boling ‏@DaveBoling 35m35 minutes ago

First O line: Okung Britt Novak Sweezy Gilliam (l to r)