Applauding The Offensive Line
September 28th, 2015
Ali Marpet and his fellow linemen helped keep America’s Quarterback’s jersey clean yesterday, despite facing a future Hall of Famer.
Joe is going to guess many Bucs fans missed the following: the Bucs did not allow one sack on America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston.
Not one. And only three hits.
Not Joe; not the drunk in the bar; hell, Joe is willing to bet not even Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht would have predicted that.
Offensive line, largely due to starting two rookies — and who is whining about Ali Marpet being a Division-III guy today? — was thought to be the weakest position on the Bucs.
Yet facing all-world J.J. Watt, super-talented Jadeveon Clowney, and grizzled veteran Vince Wilfork, the thought before the game was that Jameis may need a bodybag to exit the Texans’ dome.
Jameis was only hit three times. Three!
Last week, Bucs offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter bemoaned the fact Jameis was getting hit way too much. Against perhaps the strongest defensive line the Bucs will face this year, that objective (protecting Jameis better) has been met.
And mind you, the rookies are just three games into their NFL careers. Could it be that center Joe Hawley, starting in place of hobbled Evan Smith, made that much of a difference? Time will tell.
Whatever is the reason for the sudden solid pass blocking, Joe is of the mind that you don’t fix what is not broken. And if you are able to stop Watt’s streak of seven consecutive games with a sack, Joe has a hunch the pass blocking, finally, is not broken.
September 28th, 2015 at 11:57 am
Young Jameis did plenty to help himself out. He shows good pocket presence and knew when to roll out. The announcer mentioned one particular play where he slid a few steps to buy his receiver a moment to make his cut. He knew he was getting hit and he delivered a strike. Not a huge play but seemed very “veteran” of him.
September 28th, 2015 at 12:00 pm
Big Brother Ali!!!! Yes. The rookies are getting better. Anyone can tell. But having Hawley in there is starting to show. The snaps are on point. THE MESSIAH doesn’t have to bend down to his ankles to get the snap. This in turn doesn’t disrupt timing etc…
September 28th, 2015 at 12:00 pm
I’ve been pleasantly surprised with marpet and smith. It’s nice not to have to watch those slow motion shotgun snaps from eds keep him on the bench please. Mankins is by far the weakest lineman between his untimely penalties and being tossed around like a prison beotch I’ve seen enough of him. Wasted 7 million of cap money that could have been carried over to next year for the new regime.
September 28th, 2015 at 12:07 pm
Dirk Koetter is the reason imo. When we were in obvious pass situations he would bring two extra blockers in the backfield it seemed. Basically having just a few WRs running routes with max protection and it worked pretty well and would have looked even better without the dropped balls.
Honestly I am not really that upset with the team’s performance as a whole as crazy as it sounds outside of bad drops. But the football gods really weren’t with us.
Winston played solid despite no run game.
The defense forced 6 punts and had an interception.
Giving up 19 points isn’t bad when the offense only converts 1 third down and 23 minutes of possession vs 36 for Houston. I thought they stuck with it for most part.
There were probably 4-5 3rd downs not converted due to drops. 10 points worth of kicks that were missed. 7 that were chip shots and could have been the difference in winning on their own.
And we are seriously so screwed by BS penalties I feel like. The offensive PI on ME was one of the worst I’ve ever seen and was called on the bucs 1st offensive play of the game and killed a 30 yard play that could have lead to a FG or TD opening drive; and instead we are punting.
The defensive PI late in the game was huge and very questionable. If they didn’t call that penalty then we get the ball back down 1 with plenty of time. Instead it ends up being a huge clock eating TD drive.
Tough loss
September 28th, 2015 at 12:09 pm
@TMAX
Agree 100%. Mankins is the weak link. I also see him getting pushed around like a BIATCH!
September 28th, 2015 at 12:11 pm
Now if we can just get a coach for defense That can his team ready to play a game.
September 28th, 2015 at 12:27 pm
The offensive line did a great job of “keeping Jambo clean”, but a terrible job opening holes to run through. Perhaps the strongest area of our defense, the middle of the DL and the linebackers, did a terrible job stopping the Texans run game. On offense, with no run game, the receivers dropped way too many passes and Jameis concentrated far too much on Mike. Some beautiful completions, but too many drops and too many passes into double coverage.
Only one screen that I remember and that was beautiful. You know, Dirk, if something works, no law says you can’t try it again and again. Patriots do that all the time.
September 28th, 2015 at 12:28 pm
Jameis was a good reason for that as well. He played a fairly solid game. And very good in the pocket. A couple of times Watt beat rookie Smith and Jameis got the throw off just in time to avoid a big sack. I believe this was the TD pass to VJax that got called back.
September 28th, 2015 at 12:36 pm
Well I think thats the last we see of Smith (Evan)….
September 28th, 2015 at 12:40 pm
The line kept our boy Jameis clean indeed, making it a “promising loss”. If he hadn’t already realized it, Marpet definitely got his arrival moment to the NFL by way of Watt though. Watt just man powered Ali into our back on a running play, Sims I believe. Watt got the credit for the tackle, but it was Marpet’s backside that made it .. Similar to what Vince Wilfork did to the Jets guard on the infamous “butt fumble” play.
Get that footage Joe! It’s always nice to see where we’ve come from once we reach the mountain top. Still, no sacks.
September 28th, 2015 at 1:02 pm
Nope, I didn’t miss it. The Texans have a very good pass rush and the Bucs just laid out a blue print in trying to contain JJ Watt. The run blocking was not very good but as a unit with two rookies it’s a positive.
September 28th, 2015 at 1:04 pm
I agree and noticed that as well. Hawley seems to be an upgrade over EDS.
September 28th, 2015 at 1:04 pm
joe was thee biggest skeptic of marpet and his div III resume…. my how his tune has changed
September 28th, 2015 at 1:08 pm
THANK YOU OFFENSIVE LINE FOR BLOCKING WELL!! NOW ALL OF OUR OTHER PROBLEMS WILL FIX THEMSELVES!!!! WAHH WHOOOO!! =)
September 28th, 2015 at 1:13 pm
The Offensive line was the only unit that played well yesterday!
The only people that didn’t notice that, Weren’t paying attention…
September 28th, 2015 at 1:17 pm
“The Offensive line was the only unit that played well yesterday!
The only people that didn’t notice that, Weren’t paying attention…”
I disagree man. Run blocking is 50% of the offensive lines duty and they were absolutely pathetic in that area of the game. Getting blown back 2-3 yards consistently.
A lot of the pass plays with time had max protection & other blockers. The pass blocking was very solid regardless & protection schemes. They just were terrible at opening any running lanes except for a few plays
September 28th, 2015 at 1:22 pm
@Joe … “Could it be that center Joe Hawley, starting in place of hobbled Evan Smith, made that much of a difference?”
Nice jab Joe at Evan Smith. How to stomp on someone when they’re hobbled. From what I’ve read elsewhere, the Bucs did a lot better running the ball when Smith was at center as opposed to Hawley. And Jameis seems to be pretty comfortable with him it sounds like, as does our OC. But hey, what do they know?
September 28th, 2015 at 1:31 pm
“The Offensive line was the only unit that played well yesterday!
The only people that didn’t notice that, Weren’t paying attention…”
I disagree man. Run blocking is 50% of the offensive lines duty and they were absolutely pathetic in that area of the game. Getting blown back 2-3 yards consistently.
A lot of the pass plays with time had max protection & other blockers. The pass blocking was very solid regardless & protection schemes. They just were terrible at opening any running lanes except for a few plays
It’s tough to run on Vince Wilfork, and JJ
I thought they blocked as well as could be expected in the run game, It was nice to Doug Martin rip off a few nice runs in between getting stuffed at the line!
All in All, The offensive line can build off that kind of performance!
Now if we could only fix those pesky drops…
September 28th, 2015 at 1:49 pm
Lord Cornelius Says: Thank you and the rest who commented here for your positive POV. It is a refreshing change from the same old negative boring bullsheit that so many people post here. The Evans PI call was complete BS. Here are some positives from yesterdays game –
1) The Bucs had 4 dropped passes. Of the 30 teams who played so far this week 12 teams had 3 or more dropped passes. 3 had 5 dropped passes.
2) Winston was ranked 15th overall by PFF. He was ranked ahead of Philip Rivers, Joe Flacco, Andrew Luck, Sam Bradford, Matthew Stafford and Josh McClown.
3) The OL is ranked 11th overall by PFF for pass blocking YTD.
4) The defensive pass coverage is ranked 13th overall by PFF YTD.
5) According to PFF the OL was rated #1 yesterday for pass blocking efficiency and only gave up one QB hit and one QB hurry. Only 2 penalties as well.
6) Only six teams did not give up a sack yesterday.
7) Logan Mankins Joe Hawley and Ali Marpet gave up 0 sacks, 0 hits or 0 hurries.
8) Donovan Smith showed much improvement only giving up 1 hurry against Clowney and at times Watt. Most of all 0 penalties.
Go Bucs!
September 28th, 2015 at 2:09 pm
DSmith blocked watt and clowney at the same time. I was amazed.
September 28th, 2015 at 3:11 pm
big shout out to d.smith and ali marpet..the 2 rookies played like vets…the oline as a unit played its best game in 2 years…IF the oline can play like that consistently 8-8 10-6 is very possible…GO BUCS!!!
September 28th, 2015 at 3:39 pm
@DB55
I saw that too. Texans tried to overload one side with Clown-ey and Watt to get a 1v1 for Watt and Smith said FUK U to both of them. LMFAO Awesome!
September 28th, 2015 at 3:47 pm
You know, the Bucs lost thisg game, but I ain’t even mad.
The offense is fun to watch, and is very close to being scary lethal.
September 28th, 2015 at 4:04 pm
With all of our problems with the Line, if all that came out of this was a solid O-Line performance and that they have found a good up front combo, then I’m happy with that. If this turns out to be a good line all season long, then NOW we can start working on passing and running and what not. The basis of the entire offense is giving the QB, receivers, and runners to do what they need to do with the ball. Let’s keep up the good work on the line and we sort all the other stuff out. (Of course I got nothing for the defense or the special teams)
September 28th, 2015 at 4:40 pm
It was not lost on me. That is why Jameis 47% completion rate yesterday is inexcusable. Between dropped passes and inaccurate throws Jameis and the receivers squandered a great performance of pass blocking by the O-line. What is also not lost on me is the O-line folded like torn tissue when it came to blocking for the running game. The team is to blame for this loss, including Jameis, clean jersey and all.
But I will say that I expect this from a rookie quarterback. I hope he gets better because he is our quarterback.
September 28th, 2015 at 8:35 pm
Bucsbedabest…solid comments!
September 29th, 2015 at 12:54 am
Offensive line played great. Still miffed at that dirty play where the guy hit Winston right in the knee. If Winston’s cleat sticks even a little bit in the turf on that play he would’ve been lost for the season. That guy deserves an ass whippin’ for that BS.