Loading ...No one likes to agree that they’re wrong, but an ever-growing person does. Houston, we not only have a problem along the New York Giants' offensive line, but we need help in figuring out what or who it is.
In 2010, the Giants’ offensive line was ranked second in the pass/pass blocking, gaining an average of 242.2 yards through the air and allowing only 16 sacks of quarterback Eli Manning. Their run blocking was 7th in the league and had a 59% success rate (getting “stuffed” 19% of the time). Most of that success was up the middle or off right tackle where they were ranked sixth and eighth, respectively. Once they got to the second level of opposing defenses (between 5-10 yards past the line of scrimmage averaged/carry), they ranked fourth. In the open field (more than 10 yards past the line of scrimmage, divided by total running back carries), they ranked third. This is some pretty solid work behind a line that was aging and hurt, huh? David Diehl, Rich Seubert, Shaun O’Hara, Chris Snee and Kareem McKenzie sure were overlooked for their power and cohesiveness.
Seven to eight months later, the altered line consisted of Will Beatty, Diehl, David Baas, Snee and McKenzie – and the statistics dramatically changed with the with a few shifts.
In 2011, Manning’s sacks increased to 28 behind a Giants line that was ranked 6th in pass blocking. The run game took the clearer hit (no pun intended, really) as the Run-Block rank dropped to 28th in the league. Aside from the obvious changes on the line itself, the statistical differences lay in a slight drop in success rate (53%), but when comparing those second level and open field runs, Big Blue was ranked 29th in both (from top five!).
As for choice of where to run the ball, not much had changed. Most run plays went up the middle or off guard (most in the NFL do – it’s at 50%). The difference was only a 6% increase. There was a 5% falloff in carries off right tackle and a 4% waning of left end calls. And the point? Nothing here, really. It’s still that decline (of over 20%) of outside breaks for longer gains.
So what is the main concern that’s hindering the lost production that paves the way for those big breaks in the opposing defenses that lead to (usually) those one-on-one off-to-the-races kind of runs? Some of us fans are endless problem solvers and feel compelled to figure out what in tarnation the issue is so it can be rectified (in our minds) faster than a snowball dissipating in hell. If it’s bothering us here to no end, how do you think the linemen themselves and Coach Flaherty feel?
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I really hope we can see some quick passes today. Nicks is deadly on the slant, but we rarely use it. It seems like all of our pass attempts are slow developing routes and a nine step drop. Makes zero sense with our inability to pass protect
Tomorrow*
Wish it was today! Who else is going tomorrow? We’re tailgating (free beer and hot dogs) at G16 starting at 8 AM.
LoL yeah Tomorrow. Chelsea is on in a couple of hours so Im all game day ready…
I said it last week but I plan on stopping by tomorrow. I’ll be the dude in the Corey Webster jersey
I think the stats for 2010 are misleading; the line was clearly in decline that year, as it was the year before as well
Sacks were lower in 2010 but Eli’s INTs were much higher
We could not run the ball effectively until O’Hara got injured and Suebert moved to center; Diehl got injured and a combination of Beatty and Andrews took over at LT; and Boothe and Petrus took over at LG. It was then that we reeled off something like 3 or 4 200+ yard running games that skewed the stats positively
Then O’Hara came back and the line suffered accordingly
Since then an aging McKenzie was released
Suebert’s career ended
Beatty has proved himself to be Mr. Glass
Baas was signed and looks to be a major bust
Diehl has deteriorated from his former “good enough” status to just awful
Petrus has never progressed
Boothe has been heroic for what he is, but what he is is a back-up now forced to start
And Snee has continued to deteriorate
There have been no quality signings or draft selections
So now what we have is a bad O-Line that is going to require lots of finesse to make work
Against Dallas, the offense had what I consider one legitimate TD drive – the last one I discount because it came with Dallas up two scores, less than 5 minutes to go in the game’ and required 3 Dallas penalties to keep it going
Based on the last couple of years(last year especially), and then Game 1, it is my belief that this offense will only score if hit hits big explosive plays
The line is simply not good enough to allow the offense to consistently move the ball, control the clock, finish off drives or score in the red zone.
I feel much the way I did entering 2009 — thinking that the defense had a shot at being so good that the offense didn’t have to be all that great.
The spate of injuries to the secondary and a really lackluster performance by our D-Line Week 1 has me questioning that already.
But there is no need to question the O-Line. We know what we have there. Unfortunately what we have is not very good.