baffling Oline still struggling

Longestday

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Shaq is a 1st year NFL starter on a good team. Shaq could pull like no other. Do not doubt his contribution in ability and leadership. His leadership led others to higher performance.

The second is the jamming of our tackles and centers. All the better defenses jam hard.
 

jandrews

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I think our OL is having a hard time getting push on the DL. This is causing our guys to be late getting to the second level. Some of that comes from the defense being extremely aggressive with flow of that MLB. I would like to see us not motion our ABs every once and awhile and see what that does to that LB flow.
 

dressedcheeseside

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Shaq is a 1st year NFL starter on a good team. Shaq could pull like no other. Do not doubt his contribution in ability and leadership. His leadership led others to higher performance.

The second is the jamming of our tackles and centers. All the better defenses jam hard.
Agree on the first point, but on the second, we surely must have a counter for this?
 

UgaBlows

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I wonder if Burden would be better at guard and try someone else quicker at center to get to the mlb?
 

takethepoints

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I think the Cheese's third point is the main one.

• Last year, we had BBs who were capable of getting 3 - 6 ypc and broke one regularly. Result: the MLBs couldn't break for the edge as quickly and the block on them was easier.

• Last year, our main ABs could block. Period.

• Last year, our ABs were bigger, stronger, and faster. And more experienced. Result: the O ran a lot faster and it was easier for the OL to sustain a block.

• Last year, because our BBs were so effective and the edge game was so dangerous, Ds had to play it safe and react. If they didn't the phrase, "live by the blitz, die by the blitz" would take on a whole new meaning. Result: it's a lot easier to pass block.

So, in short, I think the OL is about the same - though losing Shaq hurt - but the O execution and effectiveness is a lot less. That means Ds can lay their ears back with less fear of the big run. If we started to hit 20+ yard runs regularly, I can guarantee that the blocking would pick up. To last year's level? Ah, mem-sahib, that is another story.
 

cmathis

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So who here still likes Sewak? The only reason he's still here IMO is because of his long relationship with CPJ, thus knowledge of our offense.
 

Minawreck

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if defenses did to us last season what they are doing this season (with the late shifting and mid-series alignment shifts) we would've thought the O-Line sucked. This is a double-edged sword for defenses though as it will only serve to make our entire O-Line better in the long run at reading exotic packages and reacting quickly. Short-term it will hurt us during the adjustment period as we've seen, but long-term we will be better.

See past VPI games for evidence
 

alagold

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In the replay of fsu, I watched Devine a bunch to answer about the fall-off.His performance was just meh/ average to me but it was not against chopped- liver out there ..I would think he could just flat root out guys straight ahead with a 40+ lb advantage usually but it didn't happen much. He does get lost some also in getting downfield ,as do several.So between the excellence of Shaq and the fall-off by Devine there is quite a change and not for the good.

On any play, it seems one of the OLs does not execute a good block which is amazing to me considering the experience level.( a specific instance was a pull out by Joe (75) to block for JT.He basically just fell down right in front of the defender barely touching him.er, no gain.) Luckily not all have to be real good though.Also, Having the bback especially run the correct hole makes them look a lot better also.
Coming into the yr, many (and myself) thought almost anyone can function well behind this experienced OL.--- probably not. The good news is maybe the falloff for next yr will not be that great, since we are not functioning at the highest level now anyway..
 

iceeater1969

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It's us ( ol, bb, ab, WR coaches) being not as good or is it others getting better.
I think it's some of former and a bunch of injuries and a some of latter.

Most on board seem to discount that others are getting better.

In 2015 no dc wanted to be embarrassed by gt like the last 3 2014 games (uga,fsu,msu) . Still remember the all american lb for msu fruitlessly signaling to shift to help him on the strong line right . We are not getting any plays were the defense is totally clueless. Now after first step the defenses are flying to the ball. By third and long it's jail break time - getting every lineman to all come out of our agressive 3 point stance to pass block is Possible but not practical.


I had posted in offseason that we would get a steady dose of pressure till we proved we could break plays for big gain. Had hoped we could run some counters or quick passes with really fast true freshman to loosen up the d till we got going. Sadly Cottrell, searcy, benson did not get to show anything.

So Imo
They clearly got better, but now after injuries , we are getting better.

This week we get on track against the smaller dt at uva.
 

Boomergump

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One thing I see is that we are getting held a lot more this year. Holding, you say? Yes, the defensive linemen holding our offensive linemen who are trying to run past to the second level. It has become blatant, but never called. If it doesn't get called, I don't blame teams for doing it. It is just something that REFS aren't conditioned to look for I guess.

I agree that teams have decided to come with more pressure this year. That happens when DCs don't respect your speed at the WR and AB positions. They can pin their ears back because they don't fear getting beat deep.

I thought Shamire got a lot of movement out of the guys in front of him Saturday night. At least on what I have watched so far. Hat on Hat is not his problem. Neither is pass protect.
 

GT1992

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So who here still likes Sewak? The only reason he's still here IMO is because of his long relationship with CPJ, thus knowledge of our offense.

We've had more years like this than last. Sewak is also not an avid recruiter. Glad to see him go.
 

takethepoints

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I thought Shamire got a lot of movement out of the guys in front of him Saturday night. At least on what I have watched so far. Hat on Hat is not his problem. Neither is pass protect.
Yeah, I was watching him closely and I thought he did just fine. Not up to Shaq, but this is his first year as a starter, Given that, I saw nothing to complain about. What really surprised me was that there were so many plays where the FSU DT lined up right on his nose and tried to bull-rush him. This, needless to say, didn't work all that well. Hope out future opponents are that confident.
 

iceeater1969

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From the end zone You can see the dl holding.
On last drive for field goal we did some trap and some fold blocks where 71 was very effective. We got space and disrupted the dl for a few plays. Makes me optimistic.
 

Whiskey_Clear

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If Sewak is to blame for this year....was he not also one to praise for last year? I have no idea what kind of coach he is. Neither do y'all. He has been around CPJ for a very long time. I'd suspect CPJ has a pretty good idea whether the guy is a benefit to the program or not. The Fire Sewak line is just as flawed as the fire Roof line IMO. Also, I may be wrong but I want to say Sewak did recruit some good guys last year.
 

awbuzz

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Was reading through this and it is finally post #33 - way to go @Boomergump - that brought up one of the main issues. It appears that defenses are basically told to "hold" our linemen for a second or two to prevent us from getting to the second level as well. Unfortunately the LJ and other refs don't call defensive holding against linemen very often.
Watch for it on the various replays and it is visible if you look for it.
 

cmathis

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If Sewak is to blame for this year....was he not also one to praise for last year? I have no idea what kind of coach he is. Neither do y'all. He has been around CPJ for a very long time. I'd suspect CPJ has a pretty good idea whether the guy is a benefit to the program or not. The Fire Sewak line is just as flawed as the fire Roof line IMO. Also, I may be wrong but I want to say Sewak did recruit some good guys last year.

I'm not necessarily saying fire Sewak. But CPJ said that last year's OL wasn't as good as everyone thought, that it was just the ABs and BBs making plays. And obviously Shaq was a beast. So no, Sewak wasn't necessarily one to praise for last year. I just know that our OL play has always been kind of iffy under Sewak, at least to me. Maybe we need to do what @dressedcheeseside said and go back to having two OL coaches.
 
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