What can we do about the O-line?

Originally posted by Kolohe:
I mean I'm as frustrated as everyone else, but we have to remind ourselves that time is needed too. So as of right now, we just gotta play mistake free football on the offensive side of the ball and hope the defense can carry us through the season.....oh David Akers and Ted Ginn too.

You are correct, but it's easy to want more from your team, and hard to sit quietly when the OL has been this bad.

i agree with you kolohe, but in meantime, I strongly feel JH can make this OL one heckuva lot better by getting teams to quit on the box 8 against us that we see every game, for most of the game, if not the whole game. Sure they disguise it with 4 guys hand on ground, and 4 or 5 others wandering around or between the DL, and then 7 or 8 come. This can be fixed with what i stated above. Just dink and dunk til these Ds get off the dang OL. Nobody can block 5 on 8, yet that is what has been our #1 O problem ever since it first worked against noln...who never figured out what to do. You know that joe M with dinks and dunks would have the box 8 playing a 3-4 or 4-3 instead, and that is exactly what harbaugh should do. WCO dinks and dunks til those Ds back off. I think our OL may be a whole lot better than we think, but just can't block for anything more than a 1 step drop if outmanned 8 to 5. Slants and outs. Slants and outs. Snap it and sling it. Once that is fixed, your ZB vs MB makes good sense. This is and has been an coaching error for 6 yrs now. Time to fix it permanently.

Originally posted by Kolohe:
Could it also be that this O-line has had no OTA's, no Mini-camps, only been 3 games and that's with Rachal playing on all downs. C'mon some of that has to factor in, you don't just think you can learn a system and master it in a month do you???

System or no system, you either can block or you can't. A system issue would be blocking the wrong man not getting run over by everyone you attempt to block! Every other team in the league had the same amount of time to work in the off season. We have new coaches and a new system same results...

Originally posted by Kolohe:

Originally posted by glorydayz:
If they can't block, they just can't block. I doubt if standing in a different spot on the field will change that!

My thoughts; Davis & Iupati are to young to play with grown men, Both play with horriblt technique, they are almost always to high and they give up a lot of leverage. Not to mention the mental mistakes.

Staley & Rachal just seem to lack agressiveness and have technique issues as well. Not sure what is going on at center.

All in all, these guys have been handed the positions due to draft status. None of them has to work for nor fight (see Chilo Rachall) for the positions they have been given. Heck we only dress one or two extra linemen per game so they can go out there and truck week in and week out and it won't affect they're pay checks one bit!

All of them knew they wouldn't be cut in training camp, so they didn't even have to worry about the job being taken. Like stealing candy from a baby...

Two players come to mind when I read that, Jeremy Newberry and Eric Heitmann, I think they'd have something to say about that.

Those guys had to work to get on the field. Switching from Guard to center may have helped but niether of those guys looked like our current o-linemen before they made the switch.

Originally posted by glorydayz:

Originally posted by Kolohe:

Could it also be that this O-line has had no OTA's, no Mini-camps, only been 3 games and that's with Rachal playing on all downs. C'mon some of that has to factor in, you don't just think you can learn a system and master it in a month do you???

System or no system, you either can block or you can't. A system issue would be blocking the wrong man not getting run over by everyone you attempt to block! Every other team in the league had the same amount of time to work in the off season. We have new coaches and a new system same results...

You post seems contradictory. Other teams have been ok despite the lack of time in the off season because they didn't have new coaches and a new system.

The Carolina panthers not only have new coaches and a new system, they also have a rookie QB! They had the same amount of practice time as us and somehow they are able to block enough for a rookie to throw for back to back 400 yard gains!

This is football, these are pros. No excuses...

Originally posted by glorydayz:
The Carolina panthers not only have new coaches and a new system, they also have a rookie QB! They had the same amount of practice time as us and somehow they are able to block enough for a rookie to throw for back to back 400 yard gains!

This is football, these are pros. No excuses...

This, but supposedly harbs doesn't trust alex.. (is what people keep saying to me)

I say let it fly, its the pros, if you can't do your job, step aside son. (like rachal and gore are about to do)

Originally posted by unst4bl3:

Originally posted by glorydayz:
The Carolina panthers not only have new coaches and a new system, they also have a rookie QB! They had the same amount of practice time as us and somehow they are able to block enough for a rookie to throw for back to back 400 yard gains!

This is football, these are pros. No excuses...

This, but supposedly harbs doesn't trust alex.. (is what people keep saying to me)

I say let it fly, its the pros, if you can't do your job, step aside son. (like rachal and gore are about to do)

I don't trust Alex either, and yes he holds on to the ball to long but sometimes the o-line just crumbles and that's not on A. Smith.
We need a QB and a entire o-line, that will take about 5 years worth of drafting to fix LOL.

Originally posted by glorydayz:
The Carolina panthers not only have new coaches and a new system, they also have a rookie QB! They had the same amount of practice time as us and somehow they are able to block enough for a rookie to throw for back to back 400 yard gains!

This is football, these are pros. No excuses...

I remember reading from Memphis9er many times that Carolina has the SAME system... not so?

Originally posted by glorydayz:
I don't trust Alex either, and yes he holds on to the ball to long but sometimes the o-line just crumbles and that's not on A. Smith.
We need a QB and a entire o-line, that will take about 5 years worth of drafting to fix LOL.

5 years sounds about right, so Kaep will be ready then... finally..

except willis, and half of our defense will be old and gone so we will have to redraft that.

Originally posted by oldman9er:

Originally posted by glorydayz:
The Carolina panthers not only have new coaches and a new system, they also have a rookie QB! They had the same amount of practice time as us and somehow they are able to block enough for a rookie to throw for back to back 400 yard gains!

This is football, these are pros. No excuses...

I remember reading from Memphis9er many times that Carolina has the SAME system... not so?

Fox is in Denver, and Newton wasn't there last year. Doubt if they have the same system, and even if they did use the same system Newton wasn't there so he would have had to learn it in a month. No not a new system, look at the coaches they have, and look at when they got there: http://www.nfl.com/teams/coaches?coaType=assist&team=CAR

Originally posted by glorydayz:
Fox is in Denver, and Newton wasn't there last year. Doubt if they have the same system, and even if they did use the same system Newton wasn't there so he would have had to learn it in a month.

The point was... assuming the system is the same... is that only Newton has to learn it and I am sure they are letting him go wild until he really does.

But if it is different... like ours is... every offensive player has to learn it... and THAT is a huge difference.

"WE" Can do nothing except b***h about the O line play on the web . The coaches understand there is an issue, hopefully they start benching starters and re work the line until they have found the starting unit.

I think the strongest O line is

LT Alex Boone
LG Iupate
C Goodwin
RG Kilgore
RT Davis- with a short leash, Staley starts at RT if Davis does not improve with Kilgore.

Re sign Barry Sims to back up LT spot.

Adam Snyder is back up center and Guard.

Rachal is gone.

Originally posted by 9erred:

I think the strongest O line is

LT Alex Boone
LG Iupate
C Goodwin
RG Kilgore
RT Davis- with a short leash, Staley starts at RT if Davis does not improve with Kilgore.

I like it. As bad as our OL has been, I might want to wait just a little longer... but I would put our starting LT, C, and RG on hard notice that they are on very thin ice.

Originally posted by oldman9er:

Originally posted by glorydayz:
Fox is in Denver, and Newton wasn't there last year. Doubt if they have the same system, and even if they did use the same system Newton wasn't there so he would have had to learn it in a month.

The point was... assuming the system is the same... is that only Newton has to learn it and I am sure they are letting him go wild until he really does.

But if it is different... like ours is... every offensive player has to learn it... and THAT is a huge difference.

My point is the system has changed because the guys who ran the old system (in Carolina) are gone.