Is our offensive line really that bad?

[Todd4State]

I decided to look at the stats and we are 6th in the SEC in fewest sacks allowed.

Arkansas- 2
Alabama- 5
Georgia- 5
LSU- 5 (Has played one less game)
Vanderbilt- 6
Dear Old State- 7 (3 came in one game against LSU and only allowed 1 against Texas A&M who leads the SEC in sacks)

Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Florida have all allowed 10 on the year and Kentucky has allowed 16 on the year.


And I know sacks aren't the only measure of an o-line performance. I'm going to look at TFL.

On the year our running backs have been TFL for a grand total of 28 yards- half of that by Shumpert. Brandon Holloway has only lost 1 yard on the year.

[Liverpooldawg]

They have actually pass blocked fairly well after the first half against LSU, esp on the short routes. It's the run blocking that is the problem. It's not that they are getting pushed backwards on that either. They are getting a push. They just aren't opening holes like you need to run the ball more than a yard or two with any consistency. That's why I think there is still hope. They just have to gel as a unit. Josh kind of spoiled us last year. He didn't need that much of a hole. His combination of quickness and power could hit a hole or a seam quick and run through arm tackles.

[Coach34]

Tackles for loss allowed- we are 3rd best in the SEC

[Todd4State]

Tackles for loss allowed- we are 3rd best in the SEC

Where did you find that? I was looking for it.

[Coach34]

Our coaching staff simply needs to decide what offense we are going to run

[Really Clark?]

For me I would like to see better run blocking. Pass blocking for the most part has been pretty good but we have to consider a mobile 5th year senior QB that is making quick decisions to help offset some issues that with a different QB may be more noticeable.

[Coach34]

Where did you find that? I was looking for it.


http://www.cfbstats.com/2015/leader/911/team/defense/split01/category21/sort01.html

[Todd4State]

For me I would like to see better run blocking. Pass blocking for the most part has been pretty good but we have to consider a mobile 5th year senior QB that is making quick decisions to help offset some issues that with a different QB may be more noticeable.

Statistically speaking the teams with the least sacks have the less mobile QB's in the SEC. Probably because sometimes the mobile QB's tend to hold on to the ball too long in the pocket because they know that they have their legs as an option.

[Todd4State]

http://www.cfbstats.com/2015/leader/911/team/defense/split01/category21/sort01.html

Thank you very much.

[Jack Lambert]

They have actually pass blocked fairly well after the first half against LSU, esp on the short routes. It's the run blocking that is the problem. It's not that they are getting pushed backwards on that either. They are getting a push. They just aren't opening holes like you need to run the ball more than a yard or two with any consistency. That's why I think there is still hope. They just have to gel as a unit. Josh kind of spoiled us last year. He didn't need that much of a hole. His combination of quickness and power could hit a hole or a seam quick and run through arm tackles.

To their defense Shump and Holloway don't look for the holes that are there. Holloway does a little better. I think Dear could be one of the best Running Back we ever had if they move him to that position. He needs to learn to block a little better.

[Really Clark?]

Statistically speaking the teams with the least sacks have the less mobile QB's in the SEC. Probably because sometimes the mobile QB's tend to hold on to the ball too long in the pocket because they know that they have their legs as an option.

That's a good point but I also said he is a 5th year senior who is making quick descisions. He goes through his progression fairly quickly and until last Sat he has been a scrambler this year buying time with his legs when needed but mostly a pocket passer. The line has been pretty good (except some issues a left tackle) pass blocking but I do think Dak has helped some because of his poise and decision making.

[Lumpy Chucklelips]

I would be interested in seeing our yards per completion. I bet it's fairly low. That would show that we're not throwing the ball downfield very much, thus Dak getting rid of it quicker, thus less sacks.

[Prediction? Pain.]

Other stats to look at when thinking about the O-Line's performance are adjusted line yards and adjusted sack rates. The adjusted line yards stat tries to separate RB skill from O-Line skill by calculating YPC (including those lost on TFLs) progressively, and the adjusted sack rate stat takes into account the number of pass attempts a team has when calculating the importance of sacks. (Both stats are "adjusted" because they are apparently adjusted for strength of opponents.) Here's a link (http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaaol) to this year's stats for the first four weeks of the season, and here's a link (http://www.footballoutsiders.com/statistics/ncaa-offensive-line/2014) to last year's final rankings. (And here's a link (http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2003/fun-sacks) to crap-ton of information about sack-rates stats vs. raw sacks-per-game stats.) [Disclaimer: That's about all I know on these particular metrics. Whatever other advanced-stat voodoo there is going on behind these numbers, who knows.]

Through the Auburn game this year, our O-Line is 91st nationally in adjusted line yards and 29th in adjusted sack-rate. For some perspective, under these same metrics, we finished last year at 12th nationally in adjusted line yards and 53rd in adjusted sack rate. (I was a little surprised at being 53rd in adjusted sack rate last year. But when I checked the raw sack numbers, I guess the ranking made sense -- we were 8th in the conference last year in sacks allowed per game.)

Even though those two stats are for only four games so far -- and I don't know how, if at all, the A&M stats will affect the rankings (I assume they'll help the adjusted line yards ranking, but that's just a guess) -- to the extent that they show anything, they seem to indicate that our O-Line has been doing a solid job pass blocking and a not-so-solid job run blocking.

[Prediction? Pain.]

I would be interested in seeing our yards per completion. I bet it's fairly low. That would show that we're not throwing the ball downfield very much, thus Dak getting rid of it quicker, thus less sacks.

11.77 yards per completion through five games. That's good for 63rd in the nation, so I guess we're slightly higher than most teams in the country. Here's (http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/741/p2) the full ranking. Didn't count to see where we stand in the conference. I saw that Tennessee was a couple of spots ahead, while Auburn, LSU, Alabama, and Missouri were all behind us.

Another way to look at it is yards per attempt. We're at 7.7 ypa overall, and 6.3 ypa in conference play. That makes us ranked 6th and 9th in the SEC in those categories. So at least in SEC games, we're connecting on slightly shorter passes than eight other teams in the conference.

[It_Could_Happen]

Warren- Awful
Malone- Bad
Clayborne- Actually not bad pretty good on the year
Desper- Awful
Senior- average


Jenkins- average at best from what I've seen.

[Dawg61]

Holloway only having one tackle for loss the entire season is impressive. He's more effective than he gets credit for.

[NCDawg]

For me I would like to see better run blocking. Pass blocking for the most part has been pretty good but we have to consider a mobile 5th year senior QB that is making quick decisions to help offset some issues that with a different QB may be more noticeable.

I agree.

[basedog]

Not physical enough, not much depth. Big disappointment, not able to run the ball is a complete meltdown for Mullen and Dak. Maybe in our next 3 home games we will see some improvements.

[Political Hack]

We need a pork chop, a David Stewart, or a Sherrod. We don't have those kinds of horses right now. Clayborne may be close, but he's not there yet and he's also not an OT.

[HancockCountyDog]

The reason we don't give up a ton of sacks is due to Dak being mobile, and the fact that we are running a very quick passing game offense when we can.

When we were in 3rd and 7+ against A&M which seemed like all night, they got pressure causing Dak to run and he did a great job as always of avoiding the rush.

Dak makes a good line look great (last year), and can make a bad line look average (this year).

[Coach34]

The "Dak is mobile so that's why we don't have many sacks" is a line of crap. He hasn't been stepping up in the pocket when needed or taking off to run nearly as much as needed. He's had a shit ton of time to throw the ball this year.

Fla's QB made a perfect throw 50 yards down the field right before getting hit in the chops by Kimchee
Dakota overthrows a wide open Myles Saturday night with nothing coming to his face.

Its not the OL's fault we drop critical passes
Its not the OL's fault we have thrown Shump 2 awful passes in critical situations
Its not the OL's fault we didn't see a wide open Walley streaking down the middle vs LSU with 18 seconds left in the game because we had locked on to Wilson
Its not the OL's fault we fumbled 2 straight possessions to start the 2nd half Saturday night
Its not the OL's fault we use no imagination on offense- hell, we added a QB draw for A&M and what happened? It broke for 30 yards the first time we ran it.

Defenses are are jumping the hell out of our zone runs because that's about the only run play we have