Confidence in the OL

[dude82]

Maybe, but I have been impressed with our run game for years. I believe he is one of the best in the NFL at teaching an OL to run the ball and that is why he is here.
It's ok.
I'm happy, you aren't.

I think that, from a fan perspective, this is going to be a "prove it" year for Cable. I don't think Carroll and co. see it that way because they've made the offensive line the lowest financial priority on the team, which doesn't give Cable much to work with, but clearly fans got tired of that excuse a few years ago because the line has just looked absolutely horrible for too long, particularly in pass protection. The security blanket that was Lynch is now gone and more focus will be given to the passing game by opposing defenses, so the offensive line, as good as it has looked this preseason, can't afford to get off to the kind of start it got off to last year. This group needs to come out of the gate strong and keep it up all year. It puts too much of a burden on the skill players to have an offensive line consistently ranked towards the bottom of the league. They've gotten away with it up to this point, but that won't last forever. It has to get better than it's been.

 

[Anointed One]

I feel better about the OL going forward but I also feel we'll struggle a bit this year in pass pro... I like the direction of the OL though...

 

[Anointed One]

I think that, from a fan perspective, this is going to be a "prove it" year for Cable. I don't think Carroll and co. see it that way because they've made the offensive line the lowest financial priority on the team, which doesn't give Cable much to work with, but clearly fans got tired of that excuse a few years ago because the line has just looked absolutely horrible for too long, particularly in pass protection. The security blanket that was Lynch is now gone and more focus will be given to the passing game by opposing defenses, so the offensive line, as good as it has looked this preseason, can't afford to get off to the kind of start it got off to last year. This group needs to come out of the gate strong and keep it up all year. It puts too much of a burden on the skill players to have an offensive line consistently ranked towards the bottom of the league. They've gotten away with it up to this point, but that won't last forever. It has to get better than it's been.

The OL had (2) different 100 yard rushers outside Lynch last year, no? I'm not sure what Cable needs to prove...

 

[dude82]

The OL had (2) different 100 yard rushers outside Lynch last year, no? I'm not sure what Cable needs to prove...

Yes. What I'm saying is that opposing defenses might not give this group of running backs the kind of attention they gave Lynch despite how well they performed in his absence last year, because the sample size for the other guys just isn't big enough to tell whether they're going to be the real deal going forward or not. They know Wilson is the real deal and they might choose to focus on stopping him more than the running game initially. As far as the fans go... with the offensive line being reconfigured (again), you can't really take anything from what happened with last year's line, good or bad, because it's not the same group this year.

Besides, as I said before... if it wasn't for Lynch's ability to brush off and even drag defenders with him on a regular basis, the running game wouldn't have looked as good over the years as it has, and if it wasn't for Wilson's ability to spin, wiggle, duck, dive and dodge defenders, we'd be sitting here talking about perhaps one of the worst runs of offensive line play in league history. Hell... even with all those escapes, Wilson has still been sacked and hit more than almost every quarterback in the league since he entered it.

All that said... I think they've looked really good so far this preseason and I believe they'll finally be able to keep it up once the regular season starts. We'll get to find out for sure starting in two weeks.

 

[seattlefan75]

after last year I am confident in Tom Cable in the coaching staff to change things around if they need to. We started the season with Drew Novak at C and our line was TERRIBLE. But they made their changes and our passing game was looking great the last 8 games, Doug Baldwin had a great season. So if there are issues I believe they can adjust. Its to be expected that there will be injuries to both the OL and DL so the coaching staff would have to adjust fire while going into these weekly games