O-LINE grades are in vs Squeelers

[TBird]

Film Study's much awaited for grades on the o-line are in. Wagner gets an A, so does KO who is back and

Yanda, Monroe gets a B but note Zuttah's. DeCosta said Uraschel-sp is the future center of this team. Maybe this is why.

 

 

 

Each lineman played all 63 snaps (excludes 2 kneels):

Monroe: Eugene had his 2nd consecutive solid game. For reasons that are probably obvious, interior linemen have higher block percentages in level 2, but he connected on 4 of 6, which is good for a tackle. His only negative pass-blocking score came when he was bulled by the stunting Keisel for a pressure (Q2, 8:11). I also charged him with half of the penetration (shared with Zuttah, Q2, 2:15) when he failed to throw Jarvis Jones enough past the play in the backfield and turned upfield to look for a 2nd block. He excels at that and it’s a rare opportunity for a tackle to take out 2 defenders on the same play, but it just didn’t work out that time. Scoring: 56 blocks, 5 missed, ½ penetration, 1 pressure, 53 points (.84 per play). I credited .04 adjustment for opposition, but that still leaves him with a high B. So far, so good on this signing.

Osemele: It’s time to get excited with a 2nd consecutive top-shelf effort from Kelechi. He did not allow a pressure event or penetration. Subjectively, I’d say his run blocking was a little less special than against the Bengals, but still very good. He made 7 of 9 blocks in level 2, which was a question mark after the back surgery in 2013. Take a look at his pancake (Q4, 13:30) of Keisel and you’ll see he staggers his opponent with the first contact, then finishes well from behind the play as he and Monroe annihilate the left edge to lead Pierce’s 10-yard run. Both Jimmy Smith and Osemele are under club control through the 2015 season and should be considered cornerstone re-signings. If that plays out, the 2016 Ravens will be paying a lot of money for their offensive line with only Wagner still cheap. Scoring: 59 blocks, 4 missed, 59 points (.94 per play). That’s an A without adjustment and .98 per play with adjustment.

Zuttah: Jeremy was flagged for holding for the 2nd time this season (Q3, 15:00) and 21st time in his last 48 games to kill the initial drive of the 2nd half. Aside from the hold, I scored him as party to 4 negative events:

• (Q1, 15:00) He was bulled by McClendon for a pressure.
• (Q2, 2:15) He was shed by McClendon who took down Forsett for a loss of 2 (penetration shared with Monroe).
• (Q3, 8:46) He was bulled by Heyward for a pressure.
• (Q3, 5:37) He made no attempt to block either of 2 delayed A-gap blitzers to allow pressure on Flacco.

That’s a difficult night as a pass blocker. He did lead some sneaks effectively, but the Ravens had other failed opportunities in short yardage. He made 1 of 3 blocks in level 2 and had 3 pancakes. Scoring: 55 blocks, 4 missed, ½ penetration, 3 pressures, 1 holding, 42 points (.67 per play). I would give him the largest subjective adjustment (.06) of any Raven offensive lineman with the overall success in providing ATS as a unit and success on the sneaks, but that is still .04 short of the minimum passing grade. F. As you know, I highly recommend Pro Football Focus (“PFF”) as a site, but there seems to be a problem with his positive penalty score despite the hold and they also have him scored for no pressure events, which is just wrong. In case you did not know this about the PFF folks, they are committed to transparency and will research scoring discrepancies if you provide them specific citations. Zuttah’s game is the only one by any offensive lineman graded below a B this season.

Yanda: It was another day at the office for Marshal, who made the Steelers’ best defender (Cam Heyward) look bad. He missed a cut on Cam Thomas (Q4, 12:01) that allowed Pierce’s run to be blown up for a loss of 1. I also charged him with half of the only QH allowed by the Ravens (Q3, 0:24) when he and Forsett were unable to negotiate the A-gap pressure. Yanda finished with 4 level-2 blocks and 1 pancake. As great as Lebeau has been as a DC, I have never liked the way he has concentrated a very high percentage of his front-3 snaps in just a few players. It worked with Aaron Smith, Brett Keisel, and Casey Hampton in their prime and controlling the total defensive play count. With the increased snap count from a suspect defense and increased use of zone blocking schemes, the Steelers are going to find out how ineffective even their best defensive lineman will be playing the same percentage of snaps. Scoring: 59 blocks, 2 missed, 1 penetration, ½ QH, 55.5 points (.88 per play). With a .06 adjustment for quality of opposition, that’s an A.

Wagner: Rick gave some ground in the pocket, but I did not charge him with any pressure events. He had 5 blocks in level 2 and had 1 solo pancake. A good 2-play highlight sequence came beginning (Q4, 13:30). First, Pierce ran left for 10 yards, led by Monroe and Osemele, but Wagner took Heyward out of the play, then shadowed Shazier all the way to the left pylon. On the next play, he takes Yanda’s handoff of Heyward perfectly as the right side made a big push on Pierce’s 2-yard run (Q4, 12:44). Scoring: 59 blocks, 4 missed, 59 points (.94 per play). He gets a .04 adjustment for Worilds who would have been .07 or .08 last year before he decided to pull the rip cord on that life raft he’s wearing around his waist. A.

Flacco had a rare inverted game where he actually performed better under pressure. He had Ample Time and Space (ATS) on 19 of 29 drop backs (66%), which is substantially better than his 50% average for 2010-13. Here’s a summary of Flacco’s pass plays both with and without pressure:

While it’s nice to see Joe play well under pressure, he and the other skill position players underperformed the pass-blocking opportunities by approximately 29 yards.

Having better numbers without ATS is very unusual and the only game (2010-13) Flacco had better yards per drop back on non-ATS plays, the opportunity set included the F-Bomb in the Divisional playoff at Denver (11.1 YPP).

This entry was posted in Blog View, Featured, Filmstudy by Ken McKusick. Bookmark the permalink.

About Ken McKusick

 

Ken comes to us via area message boards where he has consistently posted some of the most insightful and memorable posts that you'll find anywhere. Known as "Filmstudy", Ken is a lifelong Baltimorean and rabid fan of Baltimore sports who grew up about 1 mile from Memorial Stadium. He attended...more

[thundercleetz]

Very good read! If Zuttah gets an F I can't imagine what Gradkowski would get if we ever have to play him at center!

[TBird]

LOL - Good point and scary thought. DeCosta said Urachel is the future of the Center. Maybe it's time to

give him a try. He shocked fans making the team and passing Ryan Jensen on the depth char but I

think he was in-active Thurs, not sure.

[oldno82]

Great post, T-bird. Really appreciated!

[cravnravn]

Yo rough on Zuttah,

[TBird]

When we got him Zuttah was rated around 18th - 20th best Center and played in every game and every position on the

line. He isn't that much bigger than Gino last year and got pushed around by Squeelers.

[TBird]

Great post, T-bird. Really appreciated!

Thanks, man.

 

I'm just a NEWB and haven't been insulted yet with old man jokes or stalked by someone who

loves to point out my errors like a spellings, abbreviations, movie quotes, wrong date but never

on football strategy because there are none. I did rough up a couple guys on another board at a hot tub party years ago

that were trying to bully me off the board but those days are gone. Well, Sat night I threw a guy

off my seat at the bar when he stole it but that was after my gal told me to. She tried to save it-lol.

 

Is a guy named Tim still associated with this board. He loves me. We used to sit together at the games.

I was walking back to H lot years ago with Papasmurfbell after a Squeelers game and he stole a yellow

crying towel hanging from a fence. the owner came over and said that's mine and Smurf wiped his ass

with it and dumped it in a fire. THE Squeeler just walked away. LOL

 

 

 

I love it here. Thanks everyone.