Blocking by the numbers

[IthacaMatt]

I’ll watch again but felt he was pressured on and off most of the game. There were times he had time to throw but the o-line wasn’t consistently holding up. I could be wrong too. Hard to contextualize all that while watching it all play out, especially a game like that.

"Off and on", I agree. But he clearly had more time in the pocket, overall, in the 2nd half.

 

[hoopsupstate]

We've given up six sacks this year

Ville 2
UConn 3
Purdue 1

(We have six of our own: Ville 3, UConn 2, Purdue 1)

Let's see where we are after NC State.

I'd hope, expect, that we'd only have another 2-3 total between Virginia and Wagner games.

At this rate, we will have mid 20’s in sacks for the year. A hell of a lot better than upper 40’s or 50’s.

 

[Scooch]

Same. This group is clearly serviceable, but they are holding Tucker's productivity back by not opening holes. Veteran group, but I also wonder if we see a change [or two] made as the season goes on.

Case in point, our drive up 3 in the 4th after Purdue got their TD. That’s precisely the kind of situation where I expected our OL to be able to bulldoze a team into submission late in a game. Productive rushes by Tucker and Shrader as we burn clock and salt a game away.

Didn’t happen.

 

[Newhouser]

Three games in and I’ve been a bit disappointed in our OL. Thought they’d be better given their experience. Hoping they show some improvement starting this week.

I agree but I always remember Bobby Bowden saying talent trump's experience. I just think some of these folks have a low ceiling.

 

[RF2044]

Case in point, our drive up 3 in the 4th after Purdue got their TD. That’s precisely the kind of situation where I expected our OL to be able to bulldoze a team into submission late in a game. Productive rushes by Tucker and Shrader as we burn clock and salt a game away.

Didn’t happen.

Not being able to pick up a first down there and keep the clock rolling probably should have cost us the game. It was killer.

 

[qdawgg]

"Off and on", I agree. But he clearly had more time in the pocket, overall, in the 2nd half.

Yeah I think we’re both right. He probably had more time than I’m thinking and the game was a weird mix of like 3 different games in one. Beginning of the game we couldn’t do anything.

 

[Cusefan69]

Very little push. Vet gets little to no push and frequently is pushed back. When the center of the line buckles all bets are off. Wasn't Schmidt tinkering with Bleich at Center? Did that stop when he was out sick for fall camp?

 

[RF2044]

I'm no OL coach, but here are some observations:

• Vett snaps well when Shrader's in the gun, but he struggles to hold up at the point of attack [which was an even bigger problem for him in the past]. Hopefully, that was just due to Purdont's DL being B1G massive.

• Bleich looks impaired -- probably the residual effects of surgery / missing time.

• Ellis gained too much weight, IMO. He's a surprising athlete for someone his size, but playing around 370 is just too heavy. Regardless, he needs to get stronger, because he doesn't blow people off the ball like a guy his size should.

• I don't love Davis at RT, but he's done better at pass protection all year than I expected.

• I really wish we had a recruit in the pipeline who projects as a natural center -- it's been a trouble spot for us in terms of recruiting for awhile.

 

[rrlbees]

Very little push. Vet gets little to no push and frequently is pushed back. When the center of the line buckles all bets are off. Wasn't Schmidt tinkering with Bleich at Center? Did that stop when he was out sick for fall camp?

Yet Vett graded the highest in run blocking

 

[cusefan88]

I wonder if they'll put Cruz at RT and move Davis to RG for Bleich. He's still obviously not 100% and I hate to see him continue to play so beat up.

 

[hoopsupstate]

I wonder if they'll put Cruz at RT and move Davis to RG for Bleich. He's still obviously not 100% and I hate to see him continue to play so beat up.

I doubt Cruz is an upgrade. He’s very inexperienced.

 

[Chip]

I'm surprised on the pass blocking. Felt like for the most part Shrader had good pockets.

Same here. He was looking at every receiver before taking off.

 

[FrancoPizza]

Same. This group is clearly serviceable, but they are holding Tucker's productivity back by not opening holes. Veteran group, but I also wonder if we see a change [or two] made as the season goes on.

Didn’t we return most of the same unit from last year? It has to be part scheme, part tucker’s thigh.

 

[007]

Based upon PFF preliminary grades. Final grades will be Monday night/Tuesday.

Run blocking. Vett and Berg were at the low end of average while the others were below average. Not surprised, our run game was terrible.

Vett
Berg
Ellis
Bleich
Davis

Pass blocking. Berg was above average and Davis average. The rest were below average.

Berg
Davis
Vett
Ellis
Bleich

The OL is huge and experienced. Great things to have. Probably one of the better OLs we have seen here in the last 10 years.

But...there is a reason why the staff was still looking to add late in the portal season and I don't think that reason was necessarily depth related. There is also a reason why Davis is playing RT and not his natural spot on the interior. It makes what Anae, Shrader, and Tucker have been able to do even more impressive, IMO.

I have been pleasantly surprised with the pass pro to date, but we have to keep getting better in all phases. Purdue's defense was very good, but we will face better in the games to come.

 

[RF2044]

Didn’t we return most of the same unit from last year? It has to be part scheme, part tucker’s thigh.

It's not scheme, it's personal. Pretty clearly.

This group is exponentially better than what we rolled out 2 years ago, But I think we need a couple of improvements at a few spots, and things will really take off. But the current group, will not great, is more than serviceable.

 

[FrancoPizza]

Case in point, our drive up 3 in the 4th after Purdue got their TD. That’s precisely the kind of situation where I expected our OL to be able to bulldoze a team into submission late in a game. Productive rushes by Tucker and Shrader as we burn clock and salt a game away.

Didn’t happen.

All we needed was 1 or 2 first downs. That’s it. Game over. That was a horrible 3-and-out. The number of 3-and-outs that we had was most concerning for me.

 

[richmondcuse03]

One of the things that I didn't see yesterday were those counter hand-offs to Tucker, where they make it look like the run is going left, Tucker plants the outside foot, and cuts back behind the 3 blockers going left.

Maybe Purdue got too much penetration, or maybe Mang wasn't effective as a lead blocker in the hole, but I don't remember seeing that play called too many times. It seemed like we mostly called straight dive calls or off-tackle plays, not much mis-direction.

Was wondering the same. There was one cut he made that was amazing. But it wasn’t by design. He just adjusted on his own. He really excels on those.

I also think they are purposefully using him as a receiver a lot more to take advantage of his speed. I also think it helps showcase more skills for the nfl. I wonder if they’re doing that to help his pro chances too.

 

[OrangePA]

the inability to get an run push or hold up in pass blocking slowed the offense down.. There were WRs open if the passing blocking had been better.. Seemed like every stunt they didnt handle well.. And i dont know that Elemore missing is the issue. The TEs seemed to make decent blocks. have to watch it again to really see what the issue was but the DTs caused issues all game for us.

It really shows that when you have a center that wins that battle everything gets easier.

Purdue plays tough defense

 

[Timonen]

I’m a bit disappointed like most in the OL but major kudos to them for cleaning up the penalties. I do hope they tinker a bit over the next two games just to see if anything sticks that’s a bit better. It’s not good but I guess good enough for now.

 

[bevosu]

The play calling at times was suspect. Sending Tucker up the middle obviously wasn't working yet they seemed to call that play way too often.

 

[Consigliere]

The play calling at times was suspect. Sending Tucker up the middle obviously wasn't working yet they seemed to call that play way too often.

Particularly when your most consistent run blocker from last year is lining up on the edge at RT. Davis at LG between Berg and Vet should open some nice holes between the tackles to gove Tucker a seam

 

[rrlbees]

2019 we had 0 P5 wins after 8 weeks. Made a change to take Vett out of center (sound familiar?) and put Servais there.

We won 2 out of our remaining 4 P5 games with a strong run game and TE playing QB

We need to find someone else to snap and move Vet or Cruz to tackle. Period. This is 4 YEARS IN A ROW THAT VET AT CENTER IS ASSOCIATED WITH A TERRIBLE RUN GAME. Check the games.

Check the PFF grades. He graded the highest in run blocking yesterday. Or did you just ignore the OP in this thread? And for the season guess who’s graded the highest? Vett. Even higher than Berg.

 

[IthacaMatt]

That’s where I’m at. They’ve done OK I guess but I expected far more. Bleich in particular has been disappointing but I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s because of his injuries and surgeries having an impact on his mobility and moving his feet.

The question I have with Bleich is if we tried him at Center during camp, so that he wouldn't have to move so much laterally, what happened to that?

 

[rrlbees]

I have PFF too and love it. However I think Grading the OL is like grading Bball defense in a Zone.

As JB says, nobody but him and the players know who’s responsibility and fault any given play is.

Well then you can verify everything I’ve said in this thread. Grading an OL isnt super difficult when you breakdown every player every play .

 

[rrlbees]

Did you see my other reply to you?

Just now after if made my post.