Great thread, AND,

Drew is a surgeon, but he has no survival instinct. If he did he would grow legs and get the hell out of that collapsing pocket.

We do defenses a favor by allowing them to concentrate on everyone BUT Drew gaining yards by running a football.

Alaska

Same logic, the defense resets the LoS 1-2 yards in the back field instead of us resetting it 1-2 yards on their side.

That exactly is what I am seeing. And while I appreciate your post very much ( and certainly learned some things ), it is hard for me to believe that the phenomenon you reference here is entirely the center's fault.



I think our entire O-line needs work. Offensively, everything really starts with the O-line. And, the way back-up and rookie QBs are playing this year -- kinda makes you wonder if O-line and skill positions' importance shouldn't be quite so over-shadowed, by the QB, from a financial perspective. Ya know what I mean?

Yes and no..... Most fans watch the ball and are relatively clueless as to who misses some blocks in the running game.

Familiar with a "trap block"?

For the sake of this discussion both sides are the same as in Right side o-line is over Right side d-line.

Right Side DT crushes TB...... 98% of fans blame RT.

The trap block means it was actually the LGs responsibility to block the RDT. Notice the black line crossing in front of the Center.

With me so far? Yes you are.

Now....... The complicated nuances of the offensive line. The Center comes off the ball and gets jammed at the line.

When the LG pulls it's fast.... Very fast. Ball snapped, pivot right explode fast. He has to get to that RDT before that RB hits the hole.

But chit... He pivoted ad exploded into the side of the Center because he didn't get out if the way, never made it to the RDT, and the RB was crushed at the line of scrimmage.

Right tackle gets blamed or Right guard gets blamed
The Left Guard missed the block
It was all the Centers fault.

If you are with me to this point you'll understand some of my past comments about the offensive line being more about how the group plays together than how good each of them are individually. It's synchronized swimming with 1600 pounds of beast. It's the 100 empty coke cans that hold up the man because they all pull their weight evenly.

I'm with you. That was really helpful and instructive, Oak. I see your point. Thank you.

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Not sure if you saw this question: "Drew Brees average time to sack 3.63s only 2 QBS have shorter times Brady and Manning"

Yep. That does blow my mind. Where did you get that from? What this suggests is that with a great QB, you don't have to have an amazing O-line. Is that what this stat suggests?

The Internetz must have eaten my previous reply.

I know I am going to get roasted for this but its my gut feeling based on what I see from our receiving corps. Meachem, Moore, Colston are getting into their 6th, 7th, and 8th seasons and they are not as healthy or fast as they were in 2009/2010. One could say I have no clue but when you look at what was brought in this year you see clones of them. Stills/Moore, Toon/Colston Toon's hands are crap, Meachem/Hendersons replacement is Morgan but he cant stay healthy.