3rdand12 Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Texans. I know. just talking to myself. why oh why didn't Troup work out : ( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Agree 100% the O-line makes or breaks the offense. It makes average QBs and RBs play like Pro Bowlers. I don't quite agree with that, Promo. What I would say is that a poor line can make even a Pro-bowl QB look bad (see Tom Brady first few games of 2014) and an average QB look awful. An average line requires above- average talent from QB and RBs to succeed, while a good line will allow average QB and RB to look their best - they still won't look like pro-bowlers, but they'll do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 There's a 3rd aspect that's not being discussed -coaches schemes. Our OL under Gaily was considered very good as Fitz was rarely sacked. Thing is, the ball left his hand in 2 seconds. Same personnel one year later under new coaching? 'They're terrible! They SUCK!' Rodgers & Brady alike have had weak, injury-depleted lines in recent years. Get the ball out faster and no one notices.. True, and not true. Our line was good in 2011, in part because Fitz was decisive, in part because there wasn't so much film on what Gailey was doing so it caught teams flat-footed. Something screwed up Fitz his next year, teams had more game film, and with the same line, they were more prepared and could bait Fitz into mistakes and take away the high percentage stuff. With Fitz unable to hit the longer stuff even at the previous year's low percentage, we spluttered. Marrone's first year, it wasn't the same line. We lost Levitre in FA and tried to replace him with Doug Legursky (ugh) and Colin Brown (double ugh). But the line wasn't awful - something like 22nd overall, we were 14th for rushing in YPA (we were 2nd in the NFL for rushing yards, but only because we were 1st for #attempts so no cause for smiles there). It wasn't until Marrone tried to replace 3 of the 5 linemen from 2012, including starting a RT at RG, sticking a rookie next to him, and putting a rookie on the other side of center at LG, that things really fell apart. So yeah, does scheme and coaching make a difference, sure, but overall I got to say that the biggest difference is having enough bodies on the line who can really play their positions. A quality line can compensate somewhat for 1 guy who is learning his position, but not for 3 guys with the training wheels on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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