Bill Bleil

Yes the run blocking schemes need some work, but the line would look a lot better if the QB could complete passes for more than 10 yards. When you have no middle or deep passing game the D packs the box with 8 or 9 guys, mans up on the WRs and fills gaps making it hard to run. The backs made it past the line yesterday but there was no where to go after that point because the D was staying at home, due to the lack of passing game. On pass plays the D can put their ears back and rush 6 guys because there is no threat of getting beat by the passing game. It is easy to game plan for ISU, play the run and make the QB beat you, problem is our QBs have problems with that.
 
Really? The offense from Bleil's standpoint was fine in that game. Over 200 yards rushing (ARob averaging 6.2 ypc), 430 total yards, 6-14 on 3rd downs, etc. It was AA's for turnovers that killed the offense.

Yes, really. It was obvious then too, but some wanted to give him a little time without seeming overly critical so quickly.
 
I played O-line in college and the head coach was a former NFL O-lineman. Football line play is pretty simple, you beat the guy across the line to point A and then either shield him from the action or push him away from the action. Fastest and Strongest win. I find it hard to believe that Tulsa has better physical specimans than a Big-12 team but it was also vividly apparant that they dominated line play. So, they got to point A before we did. Which means we were "thinking" too much and not reacting. Remember we know the play that is called and should have an advantage to get to point A. Pretty obvious to me that the coaching message is not getting thru to the players, which is a coaching issue. K.O. is the poster child for explaining what is going on. While at ISU he was a physical abnormality and a servicable player. He was slow on pass blocking and prone to an off-side call or two per game. If you watch him a year later in Baltimore and listen to the analyst's rave about him, the improvement in one year is phenominal. What sticks out for me is how he never gets beat by the rush end now and his feet movement is so much better. Which is NFL caliber O-line coaching.
 
Yes, really. It was obvious then too, but some wanted to give him a little time without seeming overly critical so quickly.
You are nuts if you think that game indicated anything negative about the performance of the OLine. Herman and AA wasted a good job by that group for most of the year.

There are several games to point to, but that is not one of them.
 
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You are nuts if you think that game indicated anything negative about the performance of the OLine. Herman and AA wasted a good job by that group for most of the year.

There are several games to point to, but that is not one of them.

Okay not necessarily that game, but from the beginning there have been questions.
 
No question the OL is a weakness as far as getting the run game going. But there is a major disconnect between the QB(s) and WR's/RB's when it comes to picking up the blitz and throwing hot routes. FB is a numbers game. Time after time Monday, Tulsa would blitz everyone and leave man to man coverage behind it, sometimes even not covering our WR's or RB's. Nothing an OL can do about it when they are outnumbered.
The next step then is to see if there are receivers open or not, and there were on several occasions, which tells me scheme was not as big an issue as some think it was.
That leads to what I think the problem is- something is lost in translation between the reads the coaches are teaching, and what the QB sees out on the field. No question that lies on the coaches, but I have to believe at this level of college football, the reads are taught (they are taught at the freaking high school level). So I don't know if Richardson had wide eyes under the lights, or just flat out wasn't prepared for what Tulsa threw at him/
The offensive performance was eerily similar to the Pinstripe last year when Schiano had a blitz package for us that we were not even close to prepared for.
 
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While I've not been impressed by the OLine for more than one season, I believe that placing Courtney Messingham in control of the Offense was quite a bit beyond his ability/development. I would look at the Messingham experiment as a failure. Seeing that the quarterback position is also under his domain, I wonder if that position has not suffered as well?

I trust that PR will make adjustments in the off season.
 
While I've not been impressed by the OLine for more than one season, I believe that placing Courtney Messingham in control of the Offense was quite a bit beyond his ability/development. I would look at the Messingham experiment as a failure. Seeing that the quarterback position is also under his domain, I wonder if that position has not suffered as well?

I trust that PR will make adjustments in the off season.

Do you think the QB position was much better the previous year or the year before that or the year before that or the year before that or the year before that or...?
 
No question the OL is a weakness as far as getting the run game going. But there is a major disconnect between the QB(s) and WR's/RB's when it comes to picking up the blitz and throwing hot routes. FB is a numbers game. Time after time Monday, Tulsa would blitz everyone and leave man to man coverage behind it, sometimes even not covering our WR's or RB's. Nothing an OL can do about it when they are outnumbered.
The next step then is to see if there are receivers open or not, and there were on several occasions, which tells me scheme was not as big an issue as some think it was.
That leads to what I think the problem is- something is lost in translation between the reads the coaches are teaching, and what the QB sees out on the field. No question that lies on the coaches, but I have to believe at this level of college football, the reads are taught (they are taught at the freaking high school level). So I don't know if Richardson had wide eyes under the lights, or just flat out wasn't prepared for what Tulsa threw at him/
The offensive performance was eerily similar to the Pinstripe last year when Schiano had a blitz package for us that we were not even close to prepared for.

This thread is SO full of win. The issues described above have plagued us for several years - we can not handle the blitz for who-knows-why. It's not a problem with the scheme (which is run successfully at other schools), but execution. Probably partly due to coaches and partly due to players.
 
This thread is SO full of win. The issues described above have plagued us for several years - we can not handle the blitz for who-knows-why. It's not a problem with the scheme (which is run successfully at other schools), but execution. Probably partly due to coaches and partly due to players.

If you are having the same execution issues for 4 years, you damn well better believe you have a coaching and/or scheme problem.
 
When I see how fluid a lot of teams are, even mid majors, I can't help but to think we need a fundamental change.
 
This thread is SO full of win. The issues described above have plagued us for several years - we can not handle the blitz for who-knows-why. It's not a problem with the scheme (which is run successfully at other schools), but execution. Probably partly due to coaches and partly due to players.

Weird thing is up until Rutgers I thought of our offensive line as a strength. Maybe I'm not remembering bad line play in Rhoads's first two years. I think some of our line problems lie in with having smaller lineman since KO and Hicks graduated. With a guy like Big Dawg involved next year I think some of that might get better simply because of different personnel.
 
We've had problems handling the blitz for a while - not that we can't pick it up in the line, but that we can't make the defense pay. Tulsa in the second go around (with their stud LB back) was a lot more aggressive than they were in the first game. I don't think many of the defenses in the Big 12 are the hyper-aggressive, lots-of-blitzing style because so many of the offenses can burn them. So during the season, we don't play that make blitz-heavy teams. But every time we do, we are exposed. I've said that for a couple of years. If I were to gameplan against ISU, I'd just blitz the crap out of us until we started moving the ball consistently.
 
We've had problems handling the blitz for a while - not that we can't pick it up in the line, but that we can't make the defense pay. Tulsa in the second go around (with their stud LB back) was a lot more aggressive than they were in the first game. I don't think many of the defenses in the Big 12 are the hyper-aggressive, lots-of-blitzing style because so many of the offenses can burn them. So during the season, we don't play that make blitz-heavy teams. But every time we do, we are exposed. I've said that for a couple of years. If I were to gameplan against ISU, I'd just blitz the crap out of us until we started moving the ball consistently.

Disagree. Every team ISU plays, blitzes ISU more than any other team they have played. The coaches have been quoted as saying this. Yet we still have problems stopping it or making them pay consistently.
 
Disagree. Every team ISU plays, blitzes ISU more than any other team they have played. The coaches have been quoted as saying this. Yet we still have problems stopping it or making them pay consistently.

Yes, Big12 opponents blitz ISU more than they do against other teams because it's smart for them to do so. But the heavy blitzing is not part of their "normal" defense because other Big12 teams can make them pay for it. Tulsa was a big blitzing team against all of their opponents this year, and they dialed it up even more against ISU.
 
So, who are our returning OL players and the ones most likely to fill the graduating senior's spots?
 
So, who are our returning OL players and the ones most likely to fill the graduating senior's spots?
I hope they more than fill the spots. I hope they block better. A few holes to run through might be nice. For the record, our false starts were down since Hicks and KO left. In fact, our dline probably had more offsides than the line had false starts.
 

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