The offensive line was never an elite unit, it was a good run blocking unit and poor pass protection last year, now its the opposite.

 

Good pass protection, mediocre run blocking RW did hang 50 on the Steelers.

Which to me is all the more reason to evaluate the 6 Running Backs and use the best blockers from henceforth.

There are 2 pure Fullback's on the roster in Anderson and Polite, and one Fb/Tailback in Hilliard, they should find ways to get all three into games to block.

 

Losing Garner did hurt. I think he is better than Richie or Pat.

 

Give 'em time...The line play on both sides should not be under any scrutiny IMO.

 

Penny is obviously the answer

 

Agreed. I was pretty upset at hearing that, but glad to see (knock on wood) that we haven't been hit with the injury bug on the line. With the exception of Jerry who really isn't an injury...

 

Which is why those 4 blocking backs simply must be used more efficiently, if the Oline cannot hit that second level, then there are players who could...:hi5:

 

:up: Polite is playing like garbage. He was batting close to 1.000 last year on taking out LBs, this year he's around .400, one of the unspoken reasons why the run game is suffering.

Also, Henning is in love with pulling Incognito but that's not his game. He's much better as a straight ahead blocker. IMO we should be running ISO or power to the left more often, and we should incorporate more stretch/zone runs and traps into the rushing attack. I am in constant awe with how the Jests are able to run the Iso, power, counter, trap and zone plays effectively. That level of versatility keeps the front 7 off balance and it has L.T. looking like a 26 yr old. Our run game is the same three plays over and friggin over.

 

This is why we need a guard of the abilities of
Logan Mankins(who we showed interest but the price/draft pick New England wanted must have been to high for Ireland.

Next season could be different not having to give up a draft pick and "just pay his salary" which will be considerable.

The thought of Mankins joining Long on our
offensive line has to give you a "woody":wink2:

 

While I totally agree 100% that the line of Long, Smiley, Grove, Thomas, Carey is better than the line now, the problem was we could only count on that line to play 6 games(if lucky) a season together. They definitely need to find improvements inside next year (Moffit, Pouncey, Wisniewski, O'Dowd, Cannon).

 

The plays you mentioned would play right into this lines strengths but with the experience Henning has, it amazes me he is not running those type of plays. It seems that he is running ? no one knows. He knows he has good pass protection but we have gone deep what? twice in 6 games ? Deep I mean a play over 20 yards, 30 yards, hell, go 40 yards downfield. Not sure the reason why. Either he has no trust in Hennes arm or no trust in our receivers, has to be one of the two.

We have a good Offensive line, now we need someone in touch with reality up in the booth to run plays that will work. Tell ya what, we do not go deep against Cinn. , since their secondary looks like a Mash Unit this week, then its one of the two, no faith in Henne or no faith in our receivers. Its the only logical answer I can think of. If Henne was not getting the protection and time to throw, it would be different but Henne can knit a sweater back there.

 

The line has regressed, but it would have regressed had we kept and started Smiley and Grove. Those two players did very well initially when they got here, but then declined.

Justin Smiley's right shoulder is shot. He's had multiple surgeries on it, and reportedly had difficulties lifting his arm above his head still this off-season. He's able to play, but he's a big liability during in-line blocking situations. He's riding the pine in Jacksonville now, despite being as healthy as he's going to get.

Jake Grove's situation is murkier, but he played like **** this pre-season, so bad that he's still unemployed. He played very well last season, but so did Joe Berger. Berger isn't playing as well as he was last season, but he's not in any sense playing bad.

Next offseason, they'll probably drop some resources on the line again, probably Left Guard.

 

Add Grove to the " bad " shoulder brigade.

 

It is possible that they just feel like Henne is the most valuable player to try to protect. Perhaps they play a tackle at RG, the better pass blocking C etc etc...

Maybe the difference in yardage to the coaching staff is irrelevant compared to better passing totals.

 

Polite always seemed to get the pub for crushing blocks on outside runs, most of the time following Smiley on pulls either on the toss sweep or on the wildcat. We don't have any lineman that can pull anywhere as near as effectively as Smiley, and therefore I think Polite has suffered because guys like Incognito and McQuistan aren't as adept at pulling and Polite's been hung out to dry. As evidence, on that 3rd and 1 play, we tried to pull Jake Long on a counter - as good as Jake is, pulling your backside tackle isn't going to work against the Steelers; it's just too slow of a developing play to have a chance.

I'd love to see every effort made to get Logan Mankins. Hell, Jeff Ireland already called the Pats this year.

 

Who are you speaking to? Do you ever use the quote button? It's a wonderful devise. :up:

 

You can only go Smiley/Grove for so long till they both end up injured and on the bench. We cut dead weight and moved on.
BTW I really don't appreciate being told I'd damage the thread and then in turn being lied to. :up:

 

How'd ya "damage" it? Do you put a virus in it? :shifty:

 

Do you mean get all three in at the same time?

 

Some people just can't handle the truth. :lol: