Kelvin Benjamin or Joel Bitonio at 32

[hawknation2014]

Not what I saw vs UCLA. He dealt with Barr superbly off the edge. Ditto against FSU's bevy of pass rushers.

Bitonio did a lot of blocking down in both of those games. Nevada was so overmatched by FSU that they hardly attempted to throw the ball. When forced to move laterally against an outside rusher, Bitonio tends to not do as well because he lacks efficient footwork and hand placement in pass protection.

Here was a play from Bitionio against Fresno State that demonstrates some of my concern with his poor lateral footwork/punch:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9921122

A few plays later, we see the same thing happen again. Bitonio does not slide well against the outside rusher, forcing his QB to rush the pass attempt on fourth down: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9921187

Do you really see Bitonio as a natural OT?

 

[Frozenropers]

Not what I saw vs UCLA. He dealt with Barr superbly off the edge. Ditto against FSU's bevy of pass rushers.

Bitonio did a lot of blocking down in both of those games. Nevada was so overmatched by FSU that they hardly attempted to throw the ball. When forced to move laterally against an outside rusher, Bitonio tends to not do as well because he lacks efficient footwork and hand placement in pass protection.

Here was a play from Bitionio against Fresno State that demonstrates some of my concern with his poor lateral footwork/punch:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9921122

A few plays later, we see the same thing happen again. Bitonio does not slide well against the outside rusher, forcing his QB to rush the pass attempt on fourth down: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9921187

Do you really see Bitonio as a natural OT?

Maybe I was watching different film than you, but in your first highlight link, Bitonio slides with the DE pushing him past the pocket and the QB. The right side of the line collapses and when the QB steps up into the pocket he gets flushed out to Bitonio's side where someone tackles the QB as he is leaving the pocket. Bitonio did not get beat on that play. If the right side of the pocket had held, Bitonio's DE would have been pushed back up into the DT pile. QB had plenty of time to throw the ball on this play, as well.

In the second clip. Bitonio is mirroring the DE as he rushes, then stops and then moves to go back around the outside. Bitonio loses the DE after the LG and DT from his side fall on his right leg taking him to the ground.

From what I saw in those two plays, Bitonio was sliding and mirroring the DE's just fine.

 

[hawknation2014]

Not what I saw vs UCLA. He dealt with Barr superbly off the edge. Ditto against FSU's bevy of pass rushers.

Bitonio did a lot of blocking down in both of those games. Nevada was so overmatched by FSU that they hardly attempted to throw the ball. When forced to move laterally against an outside rusher, Bitonio tends to not do as well because he lacks efficient footwork and hand placement in pass protection.

Here was a play from Bitionio against Fresno State that demonstrates some of my concern with his poor lateral footwork/punch:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9921122

A few plays later, we see the same thing happen again. Bitonio does not slide well against the outside rusher, forcing his QB to rush the pass attempt on fourth down: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9921187

Do you really see Bitonio as a natural OT?

Maybe I was watching different film than you, but in your first highlight link, Bitonio slides with the DE pushing him past the pocket and the QB. The right side of the line collapses and when the QB steps up into the pocket he gets flushed out to Bitonio's side where someone tackles the QB as he is leaving the pocket. Bitonio did not get beat on that play. If the right side of the pocket had held, Bitonio's DE would have been pushed back up into the DT pile. QB had plenty of time to throw the ball on this play, as well.

In the second clip. Bitonio is mirroring the DE as he rushes, then stops and then moves to go back around the outside. Bitonio loses the DE after the LG and DT from his side fall on his right leg taking him to the ground.

From what I saw in those two plays, Bitonio was sliding and mirroring the DE's just fine.

On the first play, Bitonio failed to adjust to the pass rusher's inside move. This allows his man to reach the QB. The fact that the pass rusher misses the tackle is irrelevant.

On the second play, the rusher once again disengages from Bitonio because he lacks the length and footwork to stay with speed rushers.

Against UCLA and FSU, Bitonio was not even asked to block the outside rusher. This was true in other games as well. What are the consequences of having a LT who cannot block speed rushers?

On this play, Bitionio blocks down, allowing the outside rusher a free lane to the QB for the sack/fumble: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9772028

On another play against SDSU, Bitionio once again is beat outside, which causes his QB to collapse into him for another sack/fumble: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9772060