Oakland Raiders vs Lions: Breaking Down The O-Line Film

I must admit, I am pretty happy with our blockers for the most part, as its become one of the stronger parts of our team, and promises to be a bright spot for our immediate and even some of the distant future. Let’s hope with their fundamentals improvement comes fewer false starts and holding calls that stall drives. I believe we have at least seen the ones on the offensive side of the ball decrease.

While I haven’t been ecstatic with our team’s apparent ability to get together and suck when it counts most in the final minutes—and upon closer inspection it appears it happens in almost all phases of our game in the end—things like this post and Kevin Boss’s, Gordon’s, and Tonga’s ability to block give us great hope for at least the offensive side of our ball to look like the bully Hue boasted loudly this offseason.

No doubt, it’s the blocking skills of Gordon and Myers that limit the reps Ausberry gets as well. I think Aus can add an interesting aspect to our offense mostly unseen since preseason when we’ll need him most. Hue definitely has a plan that looks longer at the marathon than does the sprints, and though we might be disappointed with the hopes we’ve placed upon this season, perhaps prematurely, I believe Hue will pull through strongly when it counts most, and we’ll see some of it in these final weeks.

I have to say, this week has been tough, but I’m back now, and ready to pull for this team to continue to grow, and I think we can all be confident we will, despite the many pivotal reasons that could lead us to go either way.

I’ll count the line improvements, ones I’ve wanted mostly for a long, long time, as the blessing they are for now, and look forward to the other talent on our team gelling more and showing us what they can do. Defense has too much talent to not get it together. With all that’s taken place this season and with the offseason, it’s to be expected we’ll have hiccups.

While I think Bresnahan will never be the best guy for our DC, I’m prepared to back him for the rest of this season with full force. Just show us something we haven’t seen yet, Chuck. This defense has too much talent.

I didn’t have great confidence in this line going into the season…I was actually disappointed we brought back Barnes and in some ways Satele as well. The whole line has done a great job at giving any QB we’ve fielded a chance to make a play. This has also helped out our WRs get a chance to make a move and get open.

The running game has flourished under the power blocking scheme this year. This has really allowed us to exploit our great tandem at RB this season and it really sets the tone for the offense.

Hopefully the next step for this line is to build it up a bit stronger on the right side as Carlisle is a little long in the tooth and Barnes is good but not great. We have young guys like Campbell and Barksdale that can hopefully fill those gaps and give this line some additional youth and we can rely on the line for years to come.

from Baylor.

He’s big, smart and has played all positions.

That way, when the Niewsk has to move over, or Carlisle needs a rest, we can rotate him in, and not have to worry about the guard position, while having another excellent Center backup.

We should be able to get him in the 5th or 6th.

I also wouldn’t mind picking up Baylor’s power back if we lose Bush.