If Palmer can't lock up the LT spot that game was a possible preview of this year's offensive line. Line was Nelson, Mahon, Laurent, Gaia, Mangiro. Dowery replaced Mahon around halftime.
I really focused in on the line and watched most in slow motion. Mahon was just awful and got replaced by Dowery who was only slightly better. Nelson was solid at LT. Mangiro solid at RT. Gaia did ok at guard. and Laurent held his own at Center. Laurent got bull rushed/blown up once, but all it all was ok.
Bigger blocking issue was the TE's and rb's. All 3 TE's had major issues on what looked to be fairly simple blocks. A couple of times they would literally just whiff on a block and other times they are not physical at all. Lynch had some issues on blitz pick-ups. I can clearly see why Franklin has been hammering the TE's about getting better at blocking. It was a major problem.
Hack was pretty bad that day. You might remember he twice fumbled on just taking his arm back to throw. Looked like he threw to the wrong player on the interception that was overturned for ruffing passer. Rushed some throws, missed several other open ones, was not happy with Donovan on sidelines, etc.
Having said all that, if we don't fumble the kickoff return in the 4th quarter that MD quickly converted into a touchdown we probably win the game. Also probably remember we got the ball back up 1 with just under 3 minutes and ran 3 times, low line drive punt returned to the 40 yard line and they kick FG for win.
Sorry to bring up the bad memories, but I thought it was interesting to see what that OL formation looked like. Getting the TE's and RB's to block better will be a big key to our passing game this year.
I really focused in on the line and watched most in slow motion. Mahon was just awful and got replaced by Dowery who was only slightly better. Nelson was solid at LT. Mangiro solid at RT. Gaia did ok at guard. and Laurent held his own at Center. Laurent got bull rushed/blown up once, but all it all was ok.
Bigger blocking issue was the TE's and rb's. All 3 TE's had major issues on what looked to be fairly simple blocks. A couple of times they would literally just whiff on a block and other times they are not physical at all. Lynch had some issues on blitz pick-ups. I can clearly see why Franklin has been hammering the TE's about getting better at blocking. It was a major problem.
Hack was pretty bad that day. You might remember he twice fumbled on just taking his arm back to throw. Looked like he threw to the wrong player on the interception that was overturned for ruffing passer. Rushed some throws, missed several other open ones, was not happy with Donovan on sidelines, etc.
Having said all that, if we don't fumble the kickoff return in the 4th quarter that MD quickly converted into a touchdown we probably win the game. Also probably remember we got the ball back up 1 with just under 3 minutes and ran 3 times, low line drive punt returned to the 40 yard line and they kick FG for win.
Sorry to bring up the bad memories, but I thought it was interesting to see what that OL formation looked like. Getting the TE's and RB's to block better will be a big key to our passing game this year.
