Monday, September 12, 2005

Our Line Was Pretty Offensive

On the positive side, I think our defense played pretty well, considering it's their first game all together. My favorite plays were watching Hamlin stick it to that receiver, and Rocky's tackle behind the line.

But I really want to talk about our offensive line, who I figure to carry the bulk of the blame for Sunday's loss. Who decided that our line was one of our strengths? I know their team had a great d-line. And I know it was hot. But our line was thoroughly DOMINATED. We couldn't run. Matt was harassed all day, and nearly killed at the end. I know that last one was on Morris, but it still underscores my point: If I was an opposing defensive coach, I would blitz on every play, because we cannot cover it!

And how come our blitzes are never as effective as the other teams? Is our defense not good enough to do it right? Or is our offense just particularly conducive to blitzing the snot out of? Some people think Hass lost the game, or that we should've run Shawn more. But I would say those guys had a tough time of it BECAUSE of our poor line play.

It's not that there aren't other things to fix. Get that defense to gel. Teach Warrick when and when not to field a punt. And get some real receivers out there running routes instead of Collarbone.

But I say the biggest thing to fix is our blocking. If we don't, the potential perils are many: Matt can't throw. Matt gets hurt. Seneca gets a year of experience. Shaun can't run. Shaun gets frustrated. Shaun says something stupid, and is gone next season.

So let's hear some feedback and suggestions.

6 comments:

  1. Well said Brett, I spent the entire day trying to figure out in my head what went wrong. And I came up with the very same conclusion.

    No push at the line of scrimmage? O-line.

    Matt hurried waaayy too often? O-line

    Shaun getting few holes in the middle and even less to the right side? O-line

    Matt on his ass? O-line

    Matt's ints? O-line (ok maybe not but a lot of his bad throws were a direct result)

    Seems to me there's a common thread developing here. :)

    Spencer needs a shot and we need Porkchop back! 

    Posted by vinnyhawkalugi

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  2. speakin of Spencer, our first rounder made his debut yesterday for one play...and Tobeck moved to RG...so im guessin that confirms that should an injury occur at G...that will be the setup 

    Posted by adp

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  3. And speaking of anal retentive, I gotta point out to you brett that Mr. Alexander spells his first name S-H-A-U-N. We can't run a Seahawks blog and have one of our contributors spelling our franchise player's name wrong! 

    Posted by alba

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  4. good catch, alba. and thanks for the help with editing. things were pretty busy here at work, so my hands were kinda full. but if anyone is willing to tell me where they host their pictures, i would be grateful.

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  5. I host mine at www.imageshack.us which is a free hosting site.

    Most often, I just grab the link to the picture where it's currently hosted (i.e. pi site, seahawks.com, etc.) and link directly to it. This is really stealing the other site's bandwidth, but we've only been caught once. (actually it was a picture I posted of Helen Reddy of all things - - classic!)

    If the pic it too big, click on the Compose tab while in Edit mode and you can grab the corner and resize it, just like a graphic in Word.

    To keep the perspective correct, I usually just shrink it a tiny bit, then I got back into HTML mode and adjust the width and height values by the same percentage. I didn't do this with the naked chick in boxing gloves, which is why she looks like an anorexic model on slimfast.

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  6. Will keep it short, but yes, the line was challenged, by one of the best D lines in football, perhaps the best now that Kris Jenkins is out for the season.

    That being said, the play calling was bad. We should be running the ball and doing quick slants. These are the things we do well, or should be able to do well. Actually I don't think we run enough good slants, even Bobby's slants take a while to develop (considering), they are more like short posts.

    The line did what they could against a very good group, and if Jax had reason to quit crushing the pocket (running the ball, quick slants) they probably would have. We allowed them to rush with bad play calls. 4 Alexander rushes in the second half, fer Chrissake. Ok, I'm done harping on the play calling. 

    Posted by JoSCh

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