The Offensive Line Play

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GreenGears
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Based on watching Tulane play last week. I'm worried the O line play is really what is going to kill Tulane's chances this season. CJ is talking about shaking up the defense, but even giving up 41 points isn't as bad as no rushing game and no time for the quarterback to throw when the defense brings a 3 or 4 man rush.

Is the problem coaching? talent? And will CJ have a solution short of hoping next year the current freshman/sophomores he recruited are bigger/older/stronger/faster?


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Bigschtick
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probably, probably, probably not!
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51WaveBG
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Looking back a ways, Bear Bryant always knew what a good OL meant to his success. Sometimes he had what looked to be undersized O linemen, but he wanted them to be fast, w/good lateral movement; strong; smart and mean and nasty as hell when they played. I think we have a couple of those now in Shienle and Chris Taylor. Don't know how Santa Marina and Stewart will develop, but I hope that they will get leaner, stronger and get a good, mean, nasty streak in them and they should be just fine. I think the rest are what they are, just average at best with little potential or desire to get better. They just take up space on the roster and prevent us for using their scholarships for players with the attributes which I just described.
Wave755
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Now you know why Bowden/RR predicated our running game for the 1997/1998 seasons on misdirection plays out of the shotgun and a quarterback draw (or as Bowden was fond of saying, "have you noticed yet we are 'trickinem' rather than really blocking anybody?"). Since I have been following Tulane football, which is for a long time now, it is rare indeed for us to have more than one good offensive lineman on any team.
Last edited by Wave755 on Wed Sep 11, 2013 4:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.
golfnut69
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In the last several years Tulane has become the leader in "Oh- Lay" and "look- out" blocks
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rpw
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I believe coaching is as much to blame as talent. I think I saw USA blitz the hell out of us for 3 straight drives, and we did little to nothing with our play calling to address the blitz. A bad o-line can look decent if the right plays are called. See the Bowden comment above.

Again, the question is, why isn't CJ doing the small things necessary to win with a team of this caliber?
Wave QB
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Shenile is the only kid playing tough. I told ya'll to keep an eye on this kid.
DrBox
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rpw wrote:I believe coaching is as much to blame as talent. I think I saw USA blitz the hell out of us for 3 straight drives, and we did little to nothing with our play calling to address the blitz. A bad o-line can look decent if the right plays are called. See the Bowden comment above.

Again, the question is, why isn't CJ doing the small things necessary to win with a team of this caliber?
I agree with this.
Even if we aren't poorly coached, we certainly aren't getting any sort of edge there.
TU23
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Some of the mistakes are mind boggling. Rio Mares is staring right at a guy who is going to blitz through the A gap. The defender is making no secret of it. Everyone else adjusts accordingly, but our 5th year senior guard fans out to help double team the DE and lets the blitzer bury Montana. That cannot happen to a freshman let alone a 5th year senior. Chris Taylor played much better last night and he was in the game during the last drive when we had to close the game out. It's time to put Mares out of his misery.

We also struggle with the 3 man rush more than any team I have ever seen. Our tackles are horrendous on an island. One thing I noticed...Todd Jacquet took over for Arturo on the 94 yard drive and then he was subbed out...why the $%^ would we do that? He better have been hurt because Uzdavinis comes back in and immediately misses blocks. Jacquet is clearly the more talented player but he was in CJ's doghouse because of the suspension. Put him back in at LT and send Uzdavinis back to the bench.
TXWave88
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TU23 wrote:Some of the mistakes are mind boggling. Rio Mares is staring right at a guy who is going to blitz through the A gap. The defender is making no secret of it. Everyone else adjusts accordingly, but our 5th year senior guard fans out to help double team the DE and lets the blitzer bury Montana. That cannot happen to a freshman let alone a 5th year senior. Chris Taylor played much better last night and he was in the game during the last drive when we had to close the game out. It's time to put Mares out of his misery.

We also struggle with the 3 man rush more than any team I have ever seen. Our tackles are horrendous on an island. One thing I noticed...Todd Jacquet took over for Arturo on the 94 yard drive and then he was subbed out...why the $%^ would we do that? He better have been hurt because Uzdavinis comes back in and immediately misses blocks. Jacquet is clearly the more talented player but he was in CJ's doghouse because of the suspension. Put him back in at LT and send Uzdavinis back to the bench.
I dont disagree with you on any of that, but the big question I have is that on some of those missed blocks with a 3 man front. It was clear that only 3 would be rushing and we had guards sit there and not touch a soul. It was like they stayed with their gap and let our tackles get toasted. We had 5 lineman but we were really going 3 on 3 because there were no adjustments. It does not make sense to me really. I know that the guards are expected to stay on their assignment either gap or a guy, but cmon. Our feet are still too slow on some of our pass sets. Our Left tackle was not getting beat because he was just getting over powered. He was losing because his feet weren't qiuck enough to get back and it looks that his sets were leading back into the pocket which shortens the edge. Overall though, it seemd that we had an ok night for our line, but just too inconsistent. Block a play well and then just a disaster in the back field. I actually saw improvement in the overall line play.

I also do not get why we have a pulling TE on the 1 yard line for our last td run....
Bham Wave
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Some of our best runs were with Taylor at guard and we had him trap and pulled Shienle. Seems like using some angles got some holes opened up.

Line was terrible at times...especially those blitzes in A gap but played OK at times. Very inconsistent. Montana ran into a sack or two. One in particular he had nice pocket and I think he got nervous and ran to his left into the DE who was being blocked well. We need more running plays out of shotgun. We only run one. Montana has got to pull the ball out occasionally and throw it or run to at least make the defense hesitate a little bit. Maybe bring WR in motion behind play to make them respect jet sweep.

Kudos to our RB for blitz pick up. They did a great job. Butler got called for chop block but it was just bad luck and he was hustling. He slipped coming up in blitz pick up but still tried to get over and pickup LB from the ground and unfortunately our Olineman hit him at same time so we got called for chop because he was engaged.

Our Left Tackle got called for one holding call that I thought was horrible. DE tried to speed rush around him and our tackle engaged and the guy slips to the ground and we got called for a hold. That was terrible. Then they don't call our DT get spinned in circle in the middle of the field on their last TD drive.

The snaps in shotgun didn't help. When the QB is fumbling with bad snaps it throws the play off by a second and that is an eternity in pass protection.

Overall tons of mental erros and tons of physical mistakes. If we can just clean up the mental errors the Oline would be functional...i hope.
wave runner
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What is up with Santa Marina? Haven't seen him play or practice is he hurt? Why doesn't he get a shot?
Pullinmyhairout
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We should be able to counteract the blitz with a hot receiver right over the middle. That's one thing South Alabama did to us effectively every time we blitzed.
TXWave88
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We need to throw over the middle a lot more. It is the one observation that several people I have talked to noticed. Crossing routes in the middle field is where you can cause all kinds of confusion to a defense. BY the end of last year, we were attacking the middle quite a bit. I hope to start seeing more of that.
51WaveBG
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Agree w/wave runner. Uzdavinis is still listed as the starter on the current depth chart w/Santa Marina listed #2. Last week, Uzdavinis played poorly. He missed a lot of blocks & caused a penalty because he held after a missed block. At this time, he is one of the poorest O linemen we have. Don't know whats going on here, but it seems that some changes to the OL are sorely needed.
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Bigschtick
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51WaveBG wrote:Agree w/wave runner. Uzdavinis is still listed as the starter on the current depth chart w/Santa Marina listed #2. Last week, Uzdavinis played poorly. He missed a lot of blocks & caused a penalty because he held after a missed block. At this time, he is one of the poorest O linemen we have. Don't know whats going on here, but it seems that some changes to the OL are sorely needed.

Everybody seems to agree that Uzdavinis played very poorly except perhaps for the coach who touted his strong play in yesterdays news conference. Was the coach paying any attention?
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51WaveBG
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Hate to disagree w/the coaches, but either they were not watching closely or their criteria for strong play and mine are totally different. I did not see Uzdavinis pick up a single blitz, but I did see him miss a block completely and grab the defender as he went by costing us 10 yards for holding. He is slow and has poor lateral movement. I am just not impressed with his play and don't see how the coaches can be. :cry: :cry:
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Ok. Bring on the RS Freshmen and do everything we can possibly do to sign Raul Diaz. Defenses don't carry FBS football teams for 2 years in a row.
DfromCT
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One thing we all agree on, the line play was pretty offensive. As Jim McKay would say "It's about execution. Our play was so bad, I'm in favor of it."
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Man, I so disappointed in the 2013 offensive line. I really thought they had enough experience to be better than that. CJ must get Toledo's kids out of here. You do not see linemen over 6'2 weighing over 250 pounds that have 2 or more years of experience playing absolutely terrible at other FBS programs.
51WaveBG
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I believe that you will see a complete retool of the O line next year. Morgan, Henry, Mares and Skidmore will be gone. Chris Taylor, Shienle and Skold are the only ones who showed any real promise. Donnelly and Uzdavinis should be used only as back-ups of last choice. KSM and Jason Stewart( if he gets his weight under control) hopefully will make significant contributions. Don't know how whether Jacquet or Paul can make a difference or not. Godfrey could make a difference and if we hold on to Diaz, he could be the surprise of the 2014 season. All in all, remaking the O line will be a major undertaking, but it has to be done! :?: :?: :?:
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Eaglewave
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51WaveBG wrote:I believe that you will see a complete retool of the O line next year. Morgan, Henry, Mares and Skidmore will be gone. Chris Taylor, Shienle and Skold are the only ones who showed any real promise. Donnelly and Uzdavinis should be used only as back-ups of last choice. KSM and Jason Stewart( if he gets his weight under control) hopefully will make significant contributions. Don't know how whether Jacquet or Paul can make a difference or not. Godfrey could make a difference and if we hold on to Diaz, he could be the surprise of the 2014 season. All in all, remaking the O line will be a major undertaking, but it has to be done! :?: :?: :?:
Diaz is a strong dude. He has offers from Kentucky and NC State. I hope we can keep him. Shienle and Taylor will be fine. KSM and Godfrey will have two bring some pain. If Stewart doesn't lose weight, he will only be thrown in on 3rd and short plays. I hope CJ gets on his ass because he could be a force. CJ needs to tell John McDonell that he will be fired if this offensive line isn't better.
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winwave
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51WaveBG wrote:I believe that you will see a complete retool of the O line next year. Morgan, Henry, Mares and Skidmore will be gone. Chris Taylor, Shienle and Skold are the only ones who showed any real promise. Donnelly and Uzdavinis should be used only as back-ups of last choice. KSM and Jason Stewart( if he gets his weight under control) hopefully will make significant contributions. Don't know how whether Jacquet or Paul can make a difference or not. Godfrey could make a difference and if we hold on to Diaz, he could be the surprise of the 2014 season. All in all, remaking the O line will be a major undertaking, but it has to be done! :?: :?: :?:
I think you meant to include Hanson. He started replacing Shienle later in the season. The coaches have been high on Shienle but he has a lot of work to do. His pass blocking was horrible. The staff has always raved about Skold but he's never responded.
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51WaveBG
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Forgot about Hanson. He did play more as the season progressed. CJ must not be concerned about the O line situation too much because the 2014 class only had 3 O line commits. Boynton. Diaz & Johnson. Rivals lists Booth-Lloyd as OL, but he is really a DT. If Jacquet & Paul don't improve some, O line quality depth could be another problem. After watching Duke & UCF play, my concern about the 2014 season continues to grow as we move up to the AAC. Does anyone know anything about Anthony Taylor's situation? Will he go on football scholarship and play or stay on a track scholarship and not play? How good was he in HS? He is very strong, but I don't know anything else about him. We could use another big body with some strength & good lateral movement on the O line.
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winwave wrote:
51WaveBG wrote:I believe that you will see a complete retool of the O line next year. Morgan, Henry, Mares and Skidmore will be gone. Chris Taylor, Shienle and Skold are the only ones who showed any real promise. Donnelly and Uzdavinis should be used only as back-ups of last choice. KSM and Jason Stewart( if he gets his weight under control) hopefully will make significant contributions. Don't know how whether Jacquet or Paul can make a difference or not. Godfrey could make a difference and if we hold on to Diaz, he could be the surprise of the 2014 season. All in all, remaking the O line will be a major undertaking, but it has to be done! :?: :?: :?:
I think you meant to include Hanson. He started replacing Shienle later in the season. The coaches have been high on Shienle but he has a lot of work to do. His pass blocking was horrible. The staff has always raved about Skold but he's never responded.
Are you sure you are talking about the right lineman? Review the offenses best moments this season and keep your eyes on #66.
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