The O-line & Alex Smith

exactly correct, good OL blocking makes every qb and wr's look better than they are. Alex has done VERY well behind one of the worst if not worst OL in football (2 backup OT's and 2 guards that were horrible, 1 of which was benched). Put any elite qb behind our OL and they may fair a little better than Alex, bc they are better qb's.....but who knows. Brady looked aweful in the sb and a few games this year when his OL didn't preform well.

If our OL just does an average job, we will be in the playoffs and alex will throw 30+ td's and all of a sudden he's a very good qb.

A thread discussing Alex Smith and the Offensive line is kinda unnecessary in this forum, but why post if not to discuss the OP's post right? So, I agree, Alex looked pretty good (well, much improved at least) behind a sorry excuse for a line. As I lineman myself, I understand that poor Oline play can ruin a QB's chances for success, (if I miss a block, he's usually either sacked, hurried, or picked, obviously.) So hopefully we can get a new and improved Oline so IF alex doesn't do well, we can quit it with the excuses!

once he steps up to throw he does good however he has not had time to do that except against seattle jags and surprisingly even the colts which he did well in all games

For evidence of this assertion, compare the '08 vs. '09 seasons of Kyle Orton and Jay Cutler.

Originally posted by djutberg:
For evidence of this assertion, compare the '08 vs. '09 seasons of Kyle Orton and Jay Cutler.

Both of their teams underperformed.

We do not have the worst OL in the league. We are actually ranked 19 in QB being pressured.

I think it's safe to admit that it's a combination of both, QB and OL.

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by djutberg:
For evidence of this assertion, compare the '08 vs. '09 seasons of Kyle Orton and Jay Cutler.

Both of their teams underperformed.

We do not have the worst OL in the league. We are actually ranked 19 in QB being pressured.

I think it's safe to admit that it's a combination of both, QB and OL.

Yea pretty much.

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by djutberg:
For evidence of this assertion, compare the '08 vs. '09 seasons of Kyle Orton and Jay Cutler.

Both of their teams underperformed.

We do not have the worst OL in the league. We are actually ranked 19 in QB being pressured.

I think it's safe to admit that it's a combination of both, QB and OL.

ya but what were we ranked before we started going to the gun alot... I know once we moved to the gun it allowed Alex to get the ball out faster and gave the line more cushion. I know our sacks numbers diminished greatly from that point.

I say your blanket stat is misleading.. what say you?

The ol coach must go.

The play of Aaron Rodgers tells you all you need to know about the relationship between the QB and his o-line. A good QB makes everyone on the team look great, even a bad o-line (and the Packers do have a very bad o-line...yes, worse than ours).

Get a better QB (which admittedly isn't easy), and watch magically how things begin to improve from an offensive standpoint...even with a mediocre o-line. Better reads are made at the line of scrimmage, blitzes are recognized and single coverage is exploited more often, the ball comes out quicker and defenses in general have to play things more honestly when they know they're going up against a formidable QB.

I don't know if Alex can ever be all of these things, but I do know that even if we improve the o-line dramatically, he still needs to learn to play like an NFL QB. Otherwise, we'll be dealing with the same things over and over, year after year.

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by djutberg:
For evidence of this assertion, compare the '08 vs. '09 seasons of Kyle Orton and Jay Cutler.

Both of their teams underperformed.

We do not have the worst OL in the league. We are actually ranked 19 in QB being pressured.

I think it's safe to admit that it's a combination of both, QB and OL.

There are also time's when Smith made the O-line look bad with his inability to move in the pocket and his habit of rolling right with the smallest of pressure.

Originally posted by GoFD74:
The play of Aaron Rodgers tells you all you need to know about the relationship between the QB and his o-line. A good QB makes everyone on the team look great, even a bad o-line (and the Packers do have a very bad o-line...yes, worse than ours).

Get a better QB (which admittedly isn't easy), and watch magically how things begin to improve from an offensive standpoint...even with a mediocre o-line. Better reads are made at the line of scrimmage, blitzes are recognized and single coverage is exploited more often, the ball comes out quicker and defenses in general have to play things more honestly when they know they're going up against a formidable QB.

I don't know if Alex can ever be all of these things, but I do know that even if we improve the o-line dramatically, he still needs to learn to play like an NFL QB. Otherwise, we'll be dealing with the same things over and over, year after year.

Vikings had one of the worst pass protections last year...then....they got Favre.

Also look at Jason Campbell. He was sacked 43 times and I don't recall Washington helping him pad his stats with a passing oriented offense. Remember, Smith got most of his stats in the "Ray-Gun" and whenever we went to the I-Formation, Smiths' stats declined.

[ Edited by Joecool on Jan 8, 2010 at 12:13:38 ]

Originally posted by LeadFarmer:

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by djutberg:
For evidence of this assertion, compare the '08 vs. '09 seasons of Kyle Orton and Jay Cutler.

Both of their teams underperformed.

We do not have the worst OL in the league. We are actually ranked 19 in QB being pressured.

I think it's safe to admit that it's a combination of both, QB and OL.

There are also time's when Smith made the O-line look bad with his inability to move in the pocket and his habit of rolling right with the smallest of pressure.

Yes, I was just being generous because if I were accurate, I'd be a "hata"

I read in an article, that smitty said since the offense has changed every year, that he has not had a chance to work on fundamentals, and has to rush to learn the plays.


He said he was excited to have a chance to improve is footwork this upcoming offseason.

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by GoFD74:
The play of Aaron Rodgers tells you all you need to know about the relationship between the QB and his o-line. A good QB makes everyone on the team look great, even a bad o-line (and the Packers do have a very bad o-line...yes, worse than ours).

Get a better QB (which admittedly isn't easy), and watch magically how things begin to improve from an offensive standpoint...even with a mediocre o-line. Better reads are made at the line of scrimmage, blitzes are recognized and single coverage is exploited more often, the ball comes out quicker and defenses in general have to play things more honestly when they know they're going up against a formidable QB.

I don't know if Alex can ever be all of these things, but I do know that even if we improve the o-line dramatically, he still needs to learn to play like an NFL QB. Otherwise, we'll be dealing with the same things over and over, year after year.

Vikings had one of the worst pass protections last year...then....they got Favre.

Also look at Jason Campbell. He was sacked 43 times and I don't recall Washington helping him pad his stats with a passing oriented offense. Remember, Smith got most of his stats in the "Ray-Gun" and whenever we went to the I-Formation, Smiths' stats declined.

Favre and the Vikings this year is definitely a great example of this. Qbs rule the NFL, and great Qbs give you a chance to win it all every year (why do you think we went after old-azz Kurt Warner so hard in the off-season). Until we address this, we'll never have a shot at being a great team, regardless of the other talent we have on the field.