Video: AM: O-line run blocking

[Number1]

Never, ever compare this offensive line to the 90's dynasty version. They aren't even remotely close.

I think they could be if they just go to man blocking - they lost their nasty attitudes and are fumbling and bumbling with footwork

where's the violent intent?

 

[xwalker]

Pollack had 2013-2014 under Callahan, Colombo had 2015-2017 under Pollack, then half of 2018 under Alexander.

Too bad they mismanaged Alexander. Highly regarded with decades of experience. The Hudson Houck of a new generation. Should have started with him solidifying the Callahan era zone blocking scheme then moving to improve from there. Colombo and the oline could have learned a lot from him, but they didn't need a big change in philosophy on a mostly pro bowl lineup.

Columbo:
He was not an assistant OL coach under Callahan.
Columbo worked in the scouting dept. when Callahan was the OL coach.
He pushed to draft Chaz Green...

Alexander:
What happened?
Just because they struggled to execute his changes does not necessarily mean he was wrong long term.
He likely implemented too many changes to soon.
His changes might have been needed long term.
Did the failure of the OL to execute his changes point to an under-lying problem?

 

[CyberB0b]

Pollack had 2013-2014 under Callahan, Colombo had 2015-2017 under Pollack, then half of 2018 under Alexander.

Too bad they mismanaged Alexander. Highly regarded with decades of experience. The Hudson Houck of a new generation. Should have started with him solidifying the Callahan era zone blocking scheme then moving to improve from there. Colombo and the oline could have learned a lot from him, but they didn't need a big change in philosophy on a mostly pro bowl lineup.

I don't think Alexander was all that well respected or that great of a coach. He was with the Bengals for nearly his entire career (except 1 with NYJ), went to Dallas, got fired, and hasn't coached since.

 

[buybuydandavis]

Columbo:
He was not an assistant OL coach under Callahan.
Columbo worked in the scouting dept. when Callahan was the OL coach.
He pushed to draft Chaz Green...

Alexander:
What happened?
Just because they struggled to execute his changes does not necessarily mean he was wrong long term.
He likely implemented too many changes to soon.
His changes might have been needed long term.
Did the failure of the OL to execute his changes point to an under-lying problem?

It was too bad that Columbo didn't get time under Callahan.

On Alexander, there was an obvious disconnect, evidenced by his firing. Maybe his changes would have been good long term, but he didn't get buy in for the transition costs, or management simply punked on them after the fact.

But it's hard to say there's an underlying problem about scheme and technique if you've got multiple All Pro players under the existing regime. Maintaining that should have been job one. Incrementally improve on that going forward.

Every coach likes to bring in his system. But too bad. We had something that was working well for us on scheme and technique. If Alexander couldn't buy into that, they shouldn't have hired him.

Something had to be done about the Chaz Green debacle. That Colombo pushed for his draft is a bad sign for him in player evaluation, but the moves on Green from T to G back to $T were probably above his or Pollack's pay grade. Green got drafted, so they were going to put him on the field.

Something had to be done under Garrett means scapegoats had to be found, and he was going to hold onto Linehan as the scapegoat for as long as possible. So Pollack it was. He's with the Jets now. He must have enjoyed that game.

 

[buybuydandavis]

I don't think Alexander was all that well respected or that great of a coach. He was with the Bengals for nearly his entire career (except 1 with NYJ), went to Dallas, got fired, and hasn't coached since.

Alexander had a lot of success with the Bengals oline. See his wikipedia page.

 

[Qcard]

The Oline has been Overrated for sometime and Zeke is paying the price.
It was an ingenious move to hold out. This offense.. Kellen's doesn't deploy Zeke in the same way Linehan did. The run blocking style has changed. No way Zeke got paid if he had these struggles before contract. OTAs installation of playbook must have been shocking.
Paul Alexander's exit is still a mystery.

 

[gimmesix]

So what do you do about this? One thing is to recognize the limitations of the front 5. They pass protect better than they run block. Maybe against the stronger defenses it would be smart to throw more on 1st downs and key situations, like 3rd and 2 inside the red zone. It is what it is and I don;t think the offensive line is going to just flip a switch and suddenly block like supermen. The coaches have to play to their strengths, not stubbornly press a weakness hoping it works.

One of those run plays that I love that is almost always effective is when it looks like there's going to be a run one direction and the QB pitches it to the back going the other direction. It's not a play you use all the time, but definitely one you should use when the defense is beating the offensive line to the punch against the run. It's a play in our arsenal so it's sad that we fail to utilize it in situations like the one we faced last Sunday. There are other misdirection running plays that can be used, but that one just comes to mind for me when I see our team stubbornly trying to just win the point of attack.

 

[xwalker]

It was too bad that Columbo didn't get time under Callahan.

On Alexander, there was an obvious disconnect, evidenced by his firing. Maybe his changes would have been good long term, but he didn't get buy in for the transition costs, or management simply punked on them after the fact.

But it's hard to say there's an underlying problem about scheme and technique if you've got multiple All Pro players under the existing regime. Maintaining that should have been job one. Incrementally improve on that going forward.

Every coach likes to bring in his system. But too bad. We had something that was working well for us on scheme and technique. If Alexander couldn't buy into that, they shouldn't have hired him.

Something had to be done about the Chaz Green debacle. That Colombo pushed for his draft is a bad sign for him in player evaluation, but the moves on Green from T to G back to $T were probably above his or Pollack's pay grade. Green got drafted, so they were going to put him on the field.

Something had to be done under Garrett means scapegoats had to be found, and he was going to hold onto Linehan as the scapegoat for as long as possible. So Pollack it was. He's with the Jets now. He must have enjoyed that game.

Interesting that Pollack only lasted 1 year with the Bengals.

Side Note: I just noticed that Bill Callahan's son Brian is the O-Coordinator for the Bengals.

It's odd that Pollack couldn't keep Callahan's scheme/teaching moving forward.

Pollack with Columbo as the assistant should have been a good pairing.

Columbo appears to be good in terms of individual technique and "him in the mouth" type mindset/motivation.

The scuttlebutt was that Linehan wanted to replace Pollack.

I'll give Columbo a pass on Green. CG actually played well in 2 starts at LT in 2016. Green had good physical ability. Green's injury issues were known when he was drafted. Columbo only evaluated his talent. Others signed off on drafting an injury issue player. Green did have injury issues when he had the debacle of a game vs Atlanta. He had started the first 3 games that season at LG but was injured and Cooper played well in his place. The combination of Green not being 100% healthy and having practiced at OG in training camp then playing OG early then moving back to OT was just too much for him. Apparently he was toast mentally after the Atlanta game.

Callahan departed because he and Garrett basically hated each other. The Jones boys tried to get Callahan to stay but he wanted to get away from Garrett.

 

[percyhoward]

Maybe against the stronger defenses it would be smart to throw more on 1st downs and key situations, like 3rd and 2 inside the red zone.

The numbers back you up. This is pass/run ratio, but with the 4th quarter removed, because late-game situations often dictate pass or run. The higher the ranking, the more that team passes. (Baltimore is the only team in the league that runs more than it passes during the first three quarters.)

NFL Rank
all downs
1 Chiefs 69% pass 31% run
19 Cowboys 58% pass 42% run
32 Ravens 48% pass 52% run

But looking only at 1st & 10, Dallas ranks in the bottom 8 in terms of pass rate in the first three quarters of the game. No wonder the safety is crashing the box at the snap on first downs.

1st & 10 only
1 Chiefs 67% pass 33% run
25 Cowboys 42% pass 58% run
32 Commanders 34% pass 66% run

And inside the opponent's 40-yd line, on 3rd or 4th down with 1-2 yards to go, the Cowboys' pass rate is dead last -- 1 pass, 9 runs.

3rd/4th & 1-2 yards to go
inside opp 40
(all quarters)
1 Jets 83% pass 17% run
17 Chiefs 42% pass 58% run
32 Cowboys 10% pass 90% run

 

[buybuydandavis]

It's odd that Pollack couldn't keep Callahan's scheme/teaching moving forward.

Pollack with Columbo as the assistant should have been a good pairing.

Columbo appears to be good in terms of individual technique and "him in the mouth" type mindset/motivation.

The scuttlebutt was that Linehan wanted to replace Pollack.

It's unclear that Pollack in fact couldn't keep Callahan's scheme/teaching moving forward.

He successfully transitioned the line to a power scheme in 2015 for McFadden, then back to zone blocking in 2016, back up there with the performance of 2014. Maybe better.

2017 was worse with a hurt Tyron and the Chaz Debacle. Pollack didn't injure Tyron. I suspect higher ups made the personnel decision to push Chaz to LG, then back to LT, then keep him on the field as Dak was stomped in Atlanta.

Not surprising that Linehan wanted to replace Pollack. Maybe Pollack made horrible decisions that screwed up the offense for 2017. Maybe Pollack resisted those decisions. Or maybe Linehan knew it was Pollack or him who had to be thrown under the bus, and made sure it was Pollack.

I hadn't thought about it much before, but Pollack looks more like a scapegoat than a failure here.

 

[GORICO]

Zeke doesn't get nearly as many of the long runs he had earlier in his career, which strongly indicates his losing a step of speed and quickness. The injuries that have plagued the OL are such that they are the type that hang on indefinitely, especially those to the back. It's just a matter of time before they'll have to be replaced with young, healthy draftees. The ongoing hype that the Cowboy organization constantly publicize effectively serves to extend false values of their true competence. They're far from the dominating unit that they were several years ago in the running game. Injuries take a toll.

Bflop--- i agree...we beat the Lions but Zeke only had 45 yds on16 carries..like 2.8 yds per carry...that is dismal....seems everytime we pay big bucks players dont play up to it

 

[jaythecowboy]

If Akoye actually wanted to show if Zeke lost a step he should have shown well-blocked runs from this year vs early in Zeke's career to show that he still could produce when the blocking is there. Instead he is taking well-blocked runs from 2016 vs poorly-blocked runs from this year. That doesn't really prove anything though.

 

[mahoneybill]

When the O line does a good job blocking Elliott has had over 100 yards. When the O line blows, he can't get up to speed to break longer runs. I think the idea that he's not what he used to be is overrated because of these facts. In those well blocked games he looked quicker and sharp. I find it obvious that if the defense is meeting him in the backfield or LOS, than how exactly is a RB expected to get through all of that?

Agree. One of our our posters highlighted to watch how many are close to the line of scrimmage . They know our tendencies, and I think Zeke knows where the hole should be so he hesitates before hitting it. By that time the D has filled all the gaps and we get these stops

Even then he has a remarkable ability to lunge ahead for 1-2 yards or when tackled to do the same getting some added yards....