Remind me how to Dougie

[warrenfb12]

What is up with the run game the past couple of games? Teams have obviously got a plan of attack against our offense which has somewhat slowed. What are you guys seeing out there? A lot of two deep? We haven't been able to take the top off the defense much lately it seems. Just curious as to what people think the reason is.

[FreeHawk]

I think that the fact that we have 3 back up lineman along the interior has finally caught up to us.

Awesome thread title lol

[chace1986]

This week...it was just situational.

Their punter had us backed up the entire day, which made us a little predictable. Drives kept stalling because of penalties by our OL. Freeman struggled. Then we fell behind in the 3rd and abandoned the run.

[BerubesBucs]

How many hands to the face calls before you realize it's illegal?

[chace1986]

7.

[Pepsi]

Everyone person on the Oline except Penn is below average. Some games it won't matter because Doug Martin is just really good, and some games we're going to get man-handled. The bright spot for the future is that we've groomed some quality depth now. These guys are getting some quality experience.

We still have an outside shot at the playoffs this year but things to look forward to next year: The return of Donald Joseph, Carl Nicks, Adrian Clayborn, most likely 2 talented corner prospects (hopefully at least 1 pans out). Those seem like big upgrades.

[TebowTimeBucFan]

Agree with chase on this one.

[JavaRay]

first you have to pull your pants down real far way below your underwear.

[caradoc]

Everyone person on the Oline except Penn is below average. Some games it won't matter because Doug Martin is just really good, and some games we're going to get man-handled. The bright spot for the future is that we've groomed some quality depth now. These guys are getting some quality experience.

We still have an outside shot at the playoffs this year but things to look forward to next year: The return of Donald Joseph, Carl Nicks, Adrian Clayborn, most likely 2 talented corner prospects (hopefully at least 1 pans out). Those seem like big upgrades.

While Doug is certainly better than I expected, you seem to have things backward here.  Doug has benefitted from the best OL performance we've seen since the superbowl run.  The OL is starting to really struggle as injuries and quality of opponent are catching up, and the reality is that Doug is good, but it was the OL driving the run game, not him.  He can't carry it.  Carries have always needed to be split and they aren't. 

Playcalling is also suspect.  THey need to mix it up more, especially when you are forcing a one-back mindset on a guy like Doug.  His strength is his versatility, you need to leverage that. More stretches, more screens, etc.  Can't keep running him up the gut, that was never his strength, and teams know it now and they aren't pushovers any longer. 

[Jack Rabbit Slim]

Unless I missed it, it didn't look like we ran many off tackles or tosses, seems like everything was up the middle. Hard to get first downs when we are only getting 2yds per run.

[Chief Joseph]

I haven't reviewed the game, but my initial impression was that Denver crowded the line pretty hard. Regardless of the stats, I thought Martin did an outstanding job of using his blockers to get every inch that was there.

[Benchwarmer#1]

Cara, I hope you aren't looking for stats on the OL, because that can most certainly be switched around.

Freeman is a big mobile QB, not only that, but martin is pretty good. Also, there are two good WR's out there. I don't think OL means as much as you think it does, especially when everyone around them are baller. Those stats look pretty, but the fact is, it hardly tells the tale of their play. Then again, the whole line is makeshift.

I mean, damn. 30mil down the tubes on IR. TWO probowl linemen out? Surely things could have been worse.