O-line Grades Week 3: Ravens

[Tour2ma]

Sorry just lost a 75% complete write up of the first half...

 

Too pissed to redo right now...

 

 

Memo to self... use Word, then copy/paste..

[Tour2ma]

Mid-Term O-line Grades Week 3: Ravens 1st Half

 

Slow day so thought Id get an early jump this week. Turned out Im not posting as early as I thought as I lost a nearly 80% completed post to the brush of a touch pad at the wrong time.

 

Live and learn... and never type long posts live on the site again.

 

Starting this week I'll be abbreviating "Series X Play Y" as "SXPY". Also starting this week I'll post game times for the start of each series by quarter up top.

 

So without further incident hopefully here are the mid-terms for Week 3.

 

1st Half - Week3: 4 Series - 27 Plays (if you count the 1-play, 4th series as a series... and a play)

Q1: S1-09:11; S2-02:18 / Q2: S3-07:19; S4-00:20

 

Joe Thomas +12 -7 net +5

Joe suffered 2 dbl-'s this half. Even more disturbing, however, was that he displayed a lack of vision on the field for the first time this year.

 

Joe's first dbl- came in such an instance when in S3P3 he missed seeing a gap shooting Mosely who proceeded to blow up Crow for a 1-yd loss after JM's Weekly Hand-Off. In S3P5, the screen left to West, I gave Joe a single- when he missed an opportunity to seal off a trailing DE that got in on the tackle. Again, he did not seem to see the opportunity, let alone seize upon it.

 

Joe's second dbl- was for his "hands to the face" penalty in S1P6. The call was by the book, but still ticky tack IMO. I actually graded his cut of the player a + initially and had to go back and look hard for the penalty.

 

Joel Bitonio +8 -4 net +4

Joel had a dbl+ and a dbl- in the half. He remains our designated pulling guy with two pulls in the half.

 

His 2nd pull was his dbl+ and it came on the half's last play, S4P1. It was too pretty to throw away with only 0:20 left in the half. Joel pulled thru the hole and back sealed a 2nd level LB a very alert, very difficult, very pretty play. Surprisingly his first pull came in S1P13, West's goal-line leap. You dont see trap plays that often in goal-line sets... at least not good ones.

 

His lone dbl- was a penalty. Initially I had the play graded a + for him, it looked like a nice cut block of a pursuing D-line inside of him and moving away. After the Ref alerted me that #75 held, I dbl checked and sure enough... the cut was missed and a hand was extended to catch an ankle... or two.

 

You make me dbl check; you get dbl-...

 

Alex Mack +9 -6 net +3

In what was clearly not his best half of the season, Alex had one dbl-. It came in S1P4, a toss left to West when delivered an O-fer 2-fer by first failing to seal the D-lineman (prior to hand off to Greco) followed by a 2nd level whiff on a LB. But hey... it was early... Maybe he was busy not looking forward to Ngata for a full game.

 

Speaking of Ngata I thought he was supposed to be old this year. He gave Alex his best test of 2014. While Alex held his own he did have help (or helped an OG your choice) early and often. More double teams went Haloti's way than any other D-line weve faced so far. When singled, Alex gave up more ground than usual creating a dimple in the pocket more than once, he did not fail.

 

Scare of the day came early when Alex went down and got up a little gimpy, but he never missed a play and I could detect no lasting effect.

 

John Greco +10 -3 net +7

John is our halftime leader this week. He posted one, lone dbl, a sweet dbl+ where he back sealed a pursuer to his side... a tough assignment done well. He had a couple lackluster efforts (including not making a block right in front of him in the screen to West described in JTs section) that spoiled an very, very solid half.

 

John did, however, receive a "?" for a mystery assignment in S1P9, AKA, Trickeration 1: The Benji Reverse. Normally the back side OG will flow with the initial direction (lazily) downfield before peeling back (with renewed vigor) to pick up inside pursuit. John just kinda wandered around. But he was not wandering alone... Stay tuned...

 

John was firing out high again this week. He also was a frequent partner with Alex in a Ngata dance.

 

Mitchell Schwartz +9 -6 net +3

Lets get the fun stuff out of the way first. Mitch suffered one dbl- in the half, joined John for one "?" in the screen, and earned his own, special "?" for managing to knife cleanly into the endzone in a goalline set. The latter to have a better view of Wests leap I'm guessing.

 

The dbl- was for a complete whiff on the run right Mosely blew up. While the whiff was not Mosely, it was a dbl worthy whiff nonetheless. His half's other neg's included not sustaining a 2nd level block on an LB who got an assist on the tackle, S1P3; and S2P1's overrun of a 2nd level player he could have easily blocked.

 

Now the good side of Mitch...

Are you ready?

Are you sure?

 

In the first half Mitch was helped once and once only, and yet was not beaten by a speed rush... let me repeat that... not once. Moreover he was not beaten by a pass rush of any type period. And the help he received was an unnecessary chip by Agnew. Greco shaded his way a couple times, but never got involved.

 

At least three times in the half Mitch guided a speed rusher safely behind Hoyer. Once for sure it was Dumervil and while Hoyer did have to step up, Suggs had a shallower edge rush vs. Joe on that play.

 

The only time I saw Hoyer react to any pressure coming from his right was on S2P7, the failed 3rd and 2. In this instance the D-line tried to bull Mitch, got stoned and spun inside. Unlike last week, Mitch hung with this spin and took the rusher to the ground inside. It caught Brian attention and he flushed right as there was no contain. Unfortunately 3 WRs were outside the left hash and you know the rest.

 

One last time... this half, Mitch handled the rush. Maybe it does take him a while to warm up?

 

Misc Notes for the Half:

1. The above described 3rd & 2 was one of two plays that produced +'s across the line. It's failure was not on them.

 

2. I forget who in the Tavern slammed Hoyer for not blocking Suggs on the Benji reverse, but you know who you are an Idiot of the 1st Degree. Suggs had to be someones assignment, but not Brians...

 

3. Is there a pad made that JM is not wearing? Looks like the friggin' Michelin Man...

 

4. As a blocker, Cam is a helluva pass catcher. He did sniff a + one play, but fucked it up. He earned two solid dbl-'s in the half including the key miss on the screen to West. Cmon man!!! You want a TE block? Call on Drey...

 

5. Agnew had a couple +'s, but thats it. And he does not blow up who he hits. Not feeling our FB yet...

 

6. Our RBs did nothing noteworthy in the blocking game.

 

7. Gabe runs hard for a little fella. Broke an LB's arm tackle on his bubble screen scamper.

 

8. The PI call on Austin was BS. They hand fought within 5, but were disengaged prior to the release of the pass. BTW probably BH's worst pass of the half as he needlessly rushed it. One more second and it's completed rather than tipped up for grabs.

[Tour2ma]

O-line grades Week 3 - 2nd Half

Starting this week I’ll be abbreviating ‘Series X Play Y’ as ‘SXPY’. Also starting this week I’ll post game times for the start of each series by quarter.

2nd Half - Week3: 6 Series - 34 Plays
Q2: S5-15:00; S6-5:04 / Q4: S7-14:43; S8- 10:47; S9-5:00; S10- 2:19

Joe Thomas +13 -8 net +5
Joe earned 2 dbl- in the half... both were in Q4. He failed to seal Ngata on West’s run right S8P3, the first play after the long pass to Gabe. He miscommunicated a slide with Bito S10P3 and instead of a passed block, they ended up blocking no one. Maybe the fault lay with Bito, but the vet gets the ding.

Joe had a couple nice 2nd level plays that included work at the line before proceeding. He had one nice p/u of a DB blitz.

Joel Bitonio +10 -11 net -1
Joel may have run out of gas as 10 of his –‘s, including all three of his half’s dbl-‘s, and only three of his +’s came in Q4. His dbl-‘s were: getting tossed like a doll by Ngata (S8P1); allowing his D-line to get hands up and tip pass ( S9P1); and dbling JT’s DE rather than p/u LB inside blitz (S9P3). The blitzing LB pressured BH into a weak incompletion.

Joel’s only pull of the half, and his best chance for a dbl+ was on the ill-fated, forward toss to Cam at the goalline. Joel never got to his assignment because a gap blitzer beat Mitch inside and blew up Bito... and the play.

Alex Mack +16 -5 net +3
Alex’s vastly improved half included one of each dbl. The dbl+ came in S5P9 when he had fine blocks at 2 levels on a run by West. The dbl- was in S9P2 when he failed (epically) to seal the NT’s pursuit of run right by Crow.

Frequent double teams (five in all) occurred in this half as well. But there were more with Greco than Bito this half.
Alex also received the O-line’s first Oscar nomination of the season... Details in General Notes...

John Greco +13 -6 net +7
John posted the same net, but more scores than his 1st half. John received one dbl+ for blowing Ngata of the line one-on-one. Only time I saw this all day.

John is making a habit of avoiding big, play-killing errors. He only had one – in the last 4 series when others around him were folding. That one was an incidental, 2nd level whiff that did not doom S8P3.

Mitchell Schwartz +12 -6 net +6
Speaking of dooming S8P3… Mitch did with one of his half’s two dbl-‘s. His other came in S6P9 when he missed a gap shooting blitzer who blew up Bito’s pull and ended Cam’s middle toss-pass before it got started.

But again Mitch handled the pass rushers thrown at him well… and alone. A couple times Hoyer had t step up due to pressure from Mitch’s side, but that is to be expected.

Mitch also posted a first... the first O-line pull not by Bito. In S6P2 he pulled around a two-TE right set and kicked out the ROLB. It was pretty and had he maintained the block would have been a dbl+.

Ray Agnew +2 -13 net -11!!!!!
Until now I have never called out a non-lineman before for his blocking. Ray earned this call out by following spectacular fail with spectacular fail. His half included 6 dbl-‘s. SIX! And unlike some of his past mentions, these were not mismatches, but appropriate assignments. Ray’s epic fails came on two levels...

First, he simply did not see the “cracks” created by the zone scheme that the RB he was “leading” saw. Examples of this were in S5P1, S5P2 and S5P5. In general he seems determined to head all the way to the outside, to the sideline. This is what a RB with poor vision/ decisiveness does in any wide zone run. One of his +’s came for an edge kick-out block.

Second, he whiffed obvious assignments as he did in S8P1 and S10P2. In the former he actually seemed to be avoiding the LB he ran by; in the latter he actually split two defenders rather than pick one.

His last dbl-‘s was awarded along with ?’s. At least one option was available to actually participate in play S9P2, but he did not take it and ended up doing nothing.


Misc Notes for the Half:
1. ... and the Oscar goes to... At the end of S8P9 Alex first baited Mosely into the open-handed, head slap that netted us 15 yds, and then acted as if he had been shot. It was comical... and effective.

2. Both Crow and West picked up blitzes in the half. West earned a dbl+ for one of his.

3. Dray and Barnidge had good halves blocking. Barn got a dbl+ for his chip and seal on Mitch’s pull play mentioned above.

4. Again as a blocker, Cam makes a good pass catcher… He actually did garner one + in the half, but sorta held on the play. Plus it was offset by four –‘s... including one dbl-.

5. There was little, noteworthy blocking by the wide-outs in the half. Austin got a + on the inside toss to Gabe.

[Tour2ma]

Final O-line Grades Week 3: Ravens

 

Game Total: 10 Series - 61 Plays

 

No curve buster this week... so no curve and no "A's"...

 

Joe Thomas +25 -15 net +10 --- C

 

Joel Bitonio +18 -15 net +3 --- D-

 

Alex Mack +25 -11 net +14 --- B

 

John Greco +23 -9 net +14 --- B

 

M. Schwartz +21 -12 net +9 --- C

 

Ray Agnew +3 -13 net -10!!!!! --- F-