Offensive line
 

Well I made a post early in camp expressing my concern for the offensive line.
I was basically laughed off the board. Hey at least we have Fleener catching now!

Re: Offensive line
 

The O-Line was fine until Strief went down.

Re: Offensive line
 

I don't know. I saw players getting beat early even before he went down. Brees was getting the ball out pretty quick at first though. I kept saying we needed two guards in the offseason. Peat needs to be playing LT instead of starting at Guard.

LT - 1. Armstead 2. Peat
RT - 1. Strief 2. Ramczyk

If we had signed two guards in the offseason Peat would have been filling at LT until Armstead returns and when Strief went down Ramczyk comes in instead of a Kelemente. Now we've got all kind of people out of position and it looks like a mess. Hell, we need a mobile QB until we can get our line together.

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No it wasn't. It definitely exploded when he went down but even from play one Bree's was dropping so far back he was basically running backwards. It would have eventually been dealt with by their defense. The depth along the line was my concern. And it is very real.

Re: Offensive line
 

We were playing a top 5 defense. Did people really expect Brees to have 5 seconds in the pocket?

Re: Offensive line
 

No, but when people say "give us a top 15 defense and we'd have won 3 or 4 Super Bowl's by now" you'd think if our offense is that amazing, we could give him SOME kind of time, right?

We have a good offense, most of the time. It's not elite. The talent is there, but for one thing the line depth IS and has been an issue for some time, and the play calling is too predictable. Even with Drew running for his life, you saw that when we were aggressive (which was rare) we could still move it. This offense COULD be elite, but it's far from it as of now.

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To simplify, it's about matchups.

NO was over matched vs the Vikes. A better "matchup" will come Sunday vs NE. Their D (specifically the front 7) is no where near as good as MN.

It will help that this game is in the dome.

Re: Offensive line
 

The offense needed to play more in preseason, Brees is not in sync with these receivers.

Credit Coby Fleener and Tommy Lee Lewis, the only two bright spots in my opinion.

Re: Offensive line
 

As several experts pointed out before the game, the Vikes have arguably the best front 7 in the NFL right now.

I looked that way to me.

My biggest disappointment was the fact that we couldn't get any pressure on them. And several experts also pointed out before the game that the Vikes O-line was arguably among the weakest in the NFL right now.

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K Major they might not be as good as Minni but Belicheck can mask his weaknesses on either side of the ball better than any coach has ever. Brees will have to beat their secondary which is pretty good. Their front line isn't bad but their lb.'s right now are their weak links. I look for more dinks and dunks in this game against their lb.'s and with our O-line being broke down I look for Belicheck to play man to man and send occasional blitzes if his front gets enough pressure on Brees.

Re: Offensive line
 

Offensive Line play poor. Offensive game planning poor. Defensive game planning too timid. Harris??????? Saw in preseason he was bad. Several much better players on roster. NINE plays for Peterson???? Not that it would have made any difference with lack of O line presence. Looked like starters were shaking off rust. Hey that's what the THIRD preseason game is typically used for. Don't blame defensive players. Bad game plan. Offense much like last year couldn't keep them off the field and they were worn out. Offensive stats - like last year - padded with garbage yards and points. The "geniuses" out thought themselves again. Let the boys play football. Many of the calls on both sides really sucked. Refs were acting like they were playing flag football. Getting hard to watch- and I am a really, really optimistic die-hard fan (since way before the saints had a team).

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Totally agree. By about the 4th quarter my focus went from winning to finding something, anything to feel positive about. Fleener and lewis were all I could come up with.

Re: Offensive line
 

Cut and paste

Kelemete to LG
Peat to LT
Ram to RT.

2017

Pour over the waiver wires as they come out.

instead of Kelemete at OG
Alex Boone, G, age 30

2018

Start scouting up OG and OT for the draft.

Bentley Span OT/OG N Carolina 6056 300 5.04 #75 Sr
Frank Ragnow C/OG,Arkansas 6052 319 5.14 #72 Sr

Look for a veteran FA that can back up multiple positions.

We missed the boat on two excellent veteran backups in 2017

That or call it quits with Armstead in 2019 and go get a starter.

Terron Armstead
Potential Out: 2019, 3 yr, $31,321,000; $7,400,000 dead cap

Re: Offensive line
 

One guy does not make the O-Line

Re: Offensive line
 

I was watching Spanglish by then...

Re: Offensive line
 

I remember when I saw that and that just blew me away, literally. I couldn't control myself and I had to say something.

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Didn't Strief get beat badly causing a sack

Re: Offensive line
 

We were not getting any push in the run game from the get go. There weren't any holes for the running backs to hit. The offensive line just din't seem to be cohesive. Armstead out and Unger missing time really affected our rhythm. We always seem to get slow starts and then build up momentum aa we go or build up points in garbage time.

The strength of this offense started early on with good drafts under Payton. We need to keep investing in the O-line. Apparently Ramczyk was a nod in the right direction but we need more mass and ass on the line.

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I am going to be honest, you did express this concern multiple times .

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Armstead (pro-bowler) - Out
Strief - (pro-bowler) Injured during game
Unger - (pro-bowler) only 2 weeks back from injury

Is anyone really shocked that our O-line struggled?

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"A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link."

Re: Offensive line
 

Offensive Line + Out-Coached

Re: Offensive line
 

Two weeks back from injury is two weeks back from injury. If he's cleared to play, I expect he should play well enough. Nobody is asking him to sprint down the field; he's an offensive lineman. Ya know, when Unger's injury was first reported, some people were freaking out about he and Armstead being out for extended periods of time and I seem to remember you telling them to chill out because you read that Unger would be back in time for week one... Or something like that. And I think a couple of other people echoed your sentiments.

But now, we are using his injury as an excuse, when 4 months ago, or whatever, everyone was told not to worry about him? Personally, I couldn't tell if he was playing well or not (I was usually looking at the rookie to see how he would hold up), but I would expect he's healthy enough by now.

As for Strief, let's please stop using the pro bowl logic. So many players reject the pro bowl, with various excuses as to why they "can't go", that every year we have guys go who have no business being there. Strief is ok enough for what he is, and relative to expectations anyone had when he was drafted. But he's no more of a pro bowler than Jermon Bushrod was, that one year. The guy relied on chip blocks to help him out, and yet was selected to the pro bowl for some reason. He went on to Chicago, and I don't recall hearing from him in a long time.

Is Strief better than Kelemete playing right tackle? Absolutely. But the line wasn't exactly dominating before his injury.

Armstead being out was something we already knew was going to be a problem. But you gotta devise a plan to get around that, at least somewhat. That jail break screen pass to Ingram early in the game was a good call. Then they abandoned it. They ran those isolated swing passes to Kamara, where if everyone didn't already know what was coming, Drew gave it away with his three second stare downs of his receiver. That's the kind of predictability that grinds my gears. Stop staring at your primary target and forcing it in when it's not there.

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when was the last time NE went 0-2 ? This is one of the best teams in the NFL and they are not playing around. So we go 0-2 or Patriots do.. we have a serious problem.

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I'm not afraid of New England. That doesn't mean that I think we'll definitely beat them. Not at all. But we should be able to move the ball against them and anytime we can at least get into a shootout, we have a chance. It's the inability to compete consistently against the better defenses, and knowing that we still don't have a competitive defense at the moment, that leaves me questioning our chances of being contenders for anything.

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No which is why SP should have adjusted, but instead he kept calling plays that took too much time to develop down the field

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I expect Sean Payton to bring his A-game Sunday. Will it be enough to beat the Patriots? I hope so!

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Ram is solid. Peat is solid. Unger is solid. Warford is solid. Strief is solid. You have to run at the Vikings. Their strength is their pass rush. Payton is never going to run first or often. Even when it's working. And it was working early while Strief was in. There was a second and two situation at midfield. Predictably, pass,pass, punt. Plus, Ingram needs to come out when he raises his hand. It's coaching. It's game plan. It's Payton and Brees thinking they can outplay and out smart everybody else. Run the dang ball. That would out smart Saints opponents.

Re: Offensive line
 

When has he EVER ADJUSTED