O-line Grades: Week 13 @ Buffalo

Tour2ma

O-line Grades: Week 13 @ BUF

If you thought JAX was bad, brace yourself... You've been warned.

14 "series" including two 1-n-outs, five 3-n-outs, and two 4-n-outs this week with 43-1st-half plays (+2 no-plays) and 27-2nd-half plays (+1 no-play)... 70 total plays plus 3 no-plays.

1st Half: S1 - 14:53; S2 - 10:54; S3 - 3:16; (Q2) S4 - 12:59; S5 - 5:13; S6 - 1:46

2nd Half: S7 - 14:19; S8 - 8:04; S9 - 7:54; S10 - 3:37; (Q4) S11 - 13:41; S12 - 12:01; S13 - 3:26; S14 - 0:27

Revelation(s) of the week: Too many revs... too little time.

Could have chosen from: Best D-line We've Faced; Even Crow Can't Run if There are No Holes; It's Official... The ZBS is Dead in CLE; or even. JM's Footwork Looked Very Good, Very Crisp.

Rant of the week: Our O-line Got Its Ass-Kicked...

Only Greco deserved to come out of the Bills game with his head held high. John more than held his own against a very powerful pair of DT's. Our other interiors men had to combine their efforts to survive.

Our OTs were owned... yes, even the redoubtable Mr. Thomas, who Jerry Hughes took to school. Hughes made Joe look slow and, at times, weak. I was half expecting to hear Joe had the flu on game day. On the other side Mitch actually fared better against SuperMario, which is to say he was merely bad. Mitch's issues extended to run blocking where he actually pulled to lead runs twice... and whiffed each time as he did every time he was in space.

Our O-line got its ass kicked.

General Notes:

Shanny again unveiled a couple new plays off of old looks. Austin's behind the line cross on JM Boot right was a nice design that unfortunately did not end well. Also new was the earlier Fake Screen Left, TE Screen Right that should have gone for more than the 4 it netted.
Line discipline was not good this week and the Receiving Corps added to our woes.
Joe is getting away with an awful lot of movement pre-snap. Fidgeting his back leg... raising his ass. Could have been called for not being on the LOS a couple times. Got away with at least one uncalled hold.
I'm still wondering if the long NFL season is taking its toll on our rookie wunderkind, Bito.
The WideZoneRun is dead. I noted none this week. Also missing the odd looking middle toss we (and Crow) have grown to love so...
Two of our best runs..." lol... saw start of this note from last week. Everything is relative.
No shots of Crow glancing to the side this week. Also not seen... a reply to an e-mail I sent to "Football Operations" last week reporting this.
Gordon is not playing disciplined ball. In addition to his publicized bad route reads, he quit on a couple plays where he was targeted. Worst of these was a 3rd & 7 slant (S4P16). Yes, he was running into a Safety, but had he run into the Safety, then PI would have been called. He could have also flattened the route a tad and undercut the Safety. Instead he stopped and the pass was incomplete. I said in the Tavern that I would have benched him for a series to wean BH off of him, but his play also warranted it. Now with Austin out the option is gone.
There were a couple God-awful match up assignments in our blocking this week... TEs on DTs... Gabe on a ILB... Most times these were key assignments with no hope of succeeding.
Nigel Bradham appears to be making a bid to be the new James Harrison. Not only did he spear Barn to the ribs with the crown of his helmet, but he took a similar shot at JM as he dove into the endzone. Fortunately for us QBs wear rib padding. Hopefully Nigel's $16k+ fine will wake him the fuck up. He does not have Harrison's neck...

Weekly Box Count... Now Sponsored by a Three-Time Loser...

1st : 8+ - 3; 7 - 28; 6 - 13; 5 or less - 1

2nd: 8+ - 3; 7 - 12; 6 - 10; 5 or less - 3

Ttl : 8+ - 6; 7 - 40; 6 - 23; 5 or less - 4

The Bills played the most boring D sets I've seen all year... same look play after play after play. But once the ball was snapped they got very interesting... and executed very well.

Weekly Special Request: From me: Another Week's Break Down of Hoyer's Footwork...

Stats coming soon... with an added Bonus... the same for Manziel. 'Til then a couple general QB comments:

BH's mechanics were again by and large quite good. His decisions not so much...
JM's mechanics were by and large very good; his drops were crisper and his set had more punch.
As someone noted in thread, on the late "fumble-pletion", JM did signal for the snap and then looked away to the left.

The Grades

Joe Thomas: 1st +9-16 net -7 w/ 1D+&6D-; 2nd +2-10 net -8 w/ 3D- ; Game Totals: +11-26 net -15

Last week I was worried that Joe ended up in single digits... on the plus side. What I would have given for his ATL performance. Against BUF our rock got rolled...

Here's my litany of Joe's Week 13 woes: Whiff (SP11), Pull&Whiff (S3P1), Holding- Spd Beat (S4P1), No CutOff (S4P5), Allowed Pressure & Big Hit (S4P11), Sack - Beat by Inside Spin (S5P3), Held (S8P1), Pull too deep Whiff (S10P2), and False Start (S11P1). FUCK!

Joe's lone D+ was for a nice, Outside Seal on a toss his way (S9P4). As a Coon-ass, Golf buddy of mine used to say after making a 10-footer for Double-bogey, "Whipped cream on Bullshit."

Last week I said, "I'm not too worried about Joe." Joe... I'm a little worried now.

Joel Bitonio: 1st +9-6 net +3; 2nd +2-10 net -8 w/ 2D-; Game Totals: +11-14 net -3

First, Bito kept his tackling honed by knocking Hawk to the ground at the end of Hawk's bubble screen (S10P3). Seriously... while Joel ran hard to get in a lead position, he inexplicably slowed, further clogging an already congesting area... congested almost equally by Browns and Bills. Next time just hit something in the other uniform, JB.

Bito started the game again looking to help JT while our Center (either one) struggled or doubled with Greco. Then mid-game Bito seemed to be put on an island and consistently struggled one-on-one for the first time this year. He struggled with Dareus' strength in particular often being bulled back close to BH's lap. His D-'s this week came on consecutive Series 7 plays for passing a rusher to no one except maybe Hoyer (S7P2) followed by not responding to a DT flowing off Seymour to their shared gap allowing a split and sack (S7P3). Turnabout was definitely not fair play.

Finally, mercifully he and his center were joined at the hip for the balance of the game in a survival pact of sorts.

Nick McDonald - 18 plays: 1st +5-8 net -3 w/ 1D+&2D-; 2nd N/A; Game Totals: +5-8 net -3

Nick figured out how to improve on his -7 he posted last week... get hurt at -3. McD started off poorly with a couple bounces off of Bills' ILBs, then got his twin D-'s out of the way. First, he was unable to get off his chip to the 2nd level (S1P4) and then he got blown up (S2P3).

Then a funny thing happened. Nick settled in for a string of neutral (0) or plus plays leading up to his D+ for a nice, solo, seal block on a DT (S2P12). Nick then added a "+" for a 2nd level block on the following play, his last.

I had the feeling he was on a roll... then his ankle was rolled. NEXT MAN UP!

Ryan Seymore - 52 plays: 1st +4-7 net -3 w/ 2D-; 2nd +1-11 net -10 w/ 4D-; Game Totals: +5-18 net -13

Ryan's first play was a "-" for allowing pressure up the middle to end our 2nd series. Then he settled in for a string of 0's through the 3rd and the start of the 4th series. Mostly this is attributed to Sey double teaming with one OG or the other. Strangely he pulled in S3P1... first, I remember seeing a C pull since Mack. His neutral string was broken on pull #2 when he hit nothing earning both a "-" and a "?". Pull #3 (one is an accident, 2 is... etc.) produced a nice seal block for a "+", Ryan's first. Could it be? Did we have the answer all along? If you read the scoring, you know I'm being sarcastic... Unleash the D- parade!

D- descriptions, 6 in all, included: Rode, No Control (S4P10); 2nd Level Whiff (S10P13); DBL Team Pressure (S7P2); Bulled (S7P3); Pass DBL to Bito busy with LB (S9P1); and Pull Delayed by DT (S10P1). As the game wound down Ryan strung over a dozen neutrals spending over half the plays in Double teams primarily with Bito in their survival pact.

It's hard to make a case that Seymore is a step up from McD given his score for the week. Yet for much of the grading I thought he looked more fluid in his movement. His physical issue is lack of strength, same as McD, but if his movement is better???

Biggest part of his audition might have been his snaps. In spite of the "muffed" one late, they were good. In the aftermath of the muff a replay showed him talking to JM. I'm not a lip reader, but it looked like him asking, "Were you ready for the snap?" JM shook his head, "No."

Bottom line: Mentally Ryan was shy of McD, who has spent 6-weeks in our Center OJT program. I think that is the determining factor. So assuming Nick's ankle is substantially good to go, I think McD starts against Indy.

John Greco: 1st +13-5 net +8 w/ 2D+&1D-; 2nd +5-0 net +5; Game Totals: +18-5 net +13

We have this week's winner... and not just by default. John dusted off his power game and in a standout effort, handled whichever DT was across from him. And John did his work on a island with few Dbl Teams with his Center. Occasionally John did double with Mitch, but it was not for John's benefit.

John's D+'s came for an outside seal at the point of attack (S2P8) and a dominating drive block of a DT (S2P13). His lone D- came for a "Drive and Whiff" when he moved his opposite only to fall off the block (S4P13).

I said early on this season that I read how John had lost weight to better move in the ZBS. Time to pass the mashed taters to John.

Mitchell Schwartz: 1st +7-12 net -5 w/1D+&6D-; 2nd +3-8 net -5 w/ 3D-; Game Totals: +10-20 net -10

So much for the 3-week, positive streak... Give MS one thing, with D-'s on two of his first four plays, he did not waste time heading south this week... and taking his score with him.

Here are the D- descriptors: 2nd (S1P1); 2nd Whiff (S1P3); Pull Whiff (S4P8); No (S4P13); Whiff (S4P14); Bulled MW (S5P3); LB Penetration (S7P1); Ripped (S7P3); and Unaware MW Inside (S9P2). His lone D+ came for a nice drive block at the POA.

Mitch looked terrible in space this week. He simply lacked the agility to make blocks on quicker defenders on the edge... even after looking relatively smooth getting "in position". This is nothing new, but he was asked to do more of it this week and was even asked to pull twice... neither ended well.

More disturbing this week was Mitch's seeming inability to improvise in response to changing looks before him. His last D-, cryptically described above as "Unaware MW Inside (S9P2)" is the best example. The play was a middle run by Crow. Just prior to the snap Mario who was in a 3-point, wide-9 set outside of double TEs to his side, rose to a 2-point and moved inside. Mario was head up on our inside TE (Dray) at the snap and still moving inside. Rather than sight adjust and either drive on MW or chip to set up a TE double team, Mitch drove hard on the DT inside Greco. Consequently Dray was unable to cutoff MW who proceeded to blow up Crow for a 3-yard loss.

Other Blockers:

TEs: Reduced activity due to Barn's injury and more Double Teams with each other plus Doubles aiding Schwartz.

Dray: +5-11 net -6 w/ 4D- Negs included: No P/U LB (S2P12); Blocked our C (S3P1); False Start (S4P4); and MW (S4P8).
Taylor: +2-2 net 0 Modest effort... yet to catch one.
Barn: N/A - Get well, Gary...

RBs:

Agnew III: +5-4 net +1 Pedestrian performance.... which is to say an improved performance...
Crow: +5-3 net +2 w/ 1D+ Crow's best blocking game with a D+ for a nice blitz P/U, however, the LB got off the ground and did make the sack. Hit 'em a little higher, IC...
West: +1-1 net 0 Couple of late scoring blocks...

WRs: A little more life here this week...

Gordon: +4-5 net 1 w/2D+&2D- More active this week. D+'s for CB Block (S4P8) and Burying a Safety (S7P1). D-'s for "The Taunt" (S2P3) and False Start (S10P1).
Austin: +0-1 net -1 Thanks for the season Miles... see you next year.
Gabe: +0-2 net -2 w/1D- Failed to cut an LB... kind of a mismatch...
Hawk: N/A
Benji: N/A

Ibleedbrown

I don't know about anyone else, but l scroll right to the oline grades, and then back to the top to finish it out when l read these.

Good to see Greco at least had a decent game. I dig that guy.

Seems that Schwartz constantly gets knocks for not being quick enough. I think it's been mentioned before, but maybe he and Bitonio ought to switch positions.

When l've paid attention l still think Schwartz is decent at run blocking, and if you stick him in the middle of Mack and a more athletic big guy at the tackle position, it just might work better in the passing game.