EDS Hopes O-Line Set
August 20th, 2014
Bucs C Evan Dietrich-Smith hopes the current starting five on the offensive line remains intact. Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.
Joe can still hear shrieks from Bucs fans after watching the offensive line get tossed around like tackling dummies in the preseason loss to the Jags. It was an eye-opening scene, in a nightmarish sort of way.
Joe could and did understand the outrage. Not even Roger Staubach would have been able to operate an offense behind what was alleged to have been blocking that night. Poor Bucs quarterback Josh McCown was running for dear life on each play.
After the game, Bucs coach Lovie Smith benched Jamon Meredith and inserted Patrick Omameh into the starting lineup. In the second game against Miami, the offensive line looked so much better, but it still didn’t remind anyone of the Redskins Hogs from the 1980s.
One element to a developing offensive line is stability. And Bucs center Evan Dietrich-Smith, one catch of the Bucs’ free agency spending spree this spring, seems to believe the current assembled five is the starting offensive line Bucs fans will see when the Stinking Panthers come to town Sept. 7.
“Yeah, I hope so. Pat and Oneil [Cousins] have been doing a good job. They have been earning their reps,” Dietrich-Smith said. “We will see how it goes this week. I’m expecting to see improvements from us as a front. We are going to be playing against some good guys inside. They have some good edge guys up there. We have to improve as a group. We have to take another step forward. By the time this game comes around, you should be seeing more of what the polished product is during the regular season.”
Joe understands where EDS is coming from. It’s not like he is trying to belittle others on the offensive line currently known as backups. But for an offensive line to come together, they have to play together. Substituting just one guy delays the development.
In fact, EDS noted that when he played for Green Bay, the offensive line would know each other so well that they could communicate non-verbally so defenses couldn’t detect the line calls. That is how close they got.
To hear more from EDS, click the red button below. Audio courtesy of Joe’s comrades in crime, WDAE-AM 620.
August 20th, 2014 at 4:05 pm
Hope? Hope?
Well as long as we have Hope?
August 20th, 2014 at 4:24 pm
Keep hope alive!!!
August 20th, 2014 at 4:31 pm
What, no clever name for the Washington Racial Slurs?
You do pretty much any other team!
August 20th, 2014 at 4:38 pm
The word “Hope” has really taken a beating over the last few years (don’t even get me started on “change”)! Probably time to retire it from the American lexicon! But maybe EDS is correct that our O-line has had time to gel and is more “polished” now, than what we saw the first couple of preseason games. We can always “h*pe” so, but I’d feel better actually seeing a strong performance by them this weekend!
August 20th, 2014 at 6:43 pm
I keep waiting for the” brain trust” over at One Buc to make a move which will improve our horrible offensive line… But as each day of preseason slips by it is becoming apparent that L&L are going to keep what they have…
I just really can’t believe they didn’t have a better plan at guard other than trading away Zuttah for nothing, drafting no one until the late rounds, signing Cousins, counting on Carl Nicks (hasn’t played a down in two years.), pretending that J. Meredith is worthy of a starting position, releasing both Penn and Joseph without even asking to renegotiate their deals…
God forbid we have any injuries on this crap line or it will actually get worse (if that’s even possible)
August 20th, 2014 at 7:37 pm
Hope for the whoooooooa-line
August 20th, 2014 at 7:46 pm
Drama is all Joe is about this guys a joke that doesn’t know football this is more like tabloid than football the bucs deserve better
August 20th, 2014 at 7:47 pm
This site is so negative that it makes me sick
August 20th, 2014 at 11:02 pm
Chickster/Buchead407:
Apparently you are cleaning up a lot of puke in your place. Under your other alias, Buchead407, here are your comments just from last Saturday night during the Dolphins game, all in the “Dolphins At Bucs, Open Thread:”
Now those comments don’t sound very, um, “positive” to Joe. What happened? Did your significant other log on to your computer without your knowledge? Or a child perhaps? Or a cat burglar?
Or did you simply forget to take your prescribed dosage of Thorazine?
August 21st, 2014 at 9:01 am
Thats not me but I think glennon is a capable backup and I just do not see him being the face of this franchise . I do believe that the good teams in this league are quarterback driven and do not have game managers on there roster
August 21st, 2014 at 9:22 am
Where are the nicknames! Evan Dietrich-Smith, Austin Sefarian-Jenkins