Quote Originally Posted by Prediction? Pain. View Post
The OL's pass-blocking in Moorhead's first year took a major step back. In 2016 and 2017, our OL excelled at this -- 32nd nationally in sack-rate on passing downs and 11th nationally in sack rate on all other downs in 2016, and 17th and 20th in those categories in 2017. This year . . . yikes: 86th and 119th. Given that we returned essentially our entire line from last year, this squarely falls on the coaches for a poor transition to our current pass scheme. I haven't (and am probably not qualified) to study the tape on this, but I'm guessing the problems have been a combination of all involved -- QB not knowing his reads or making them fast enough, WRs not always getting their routes or timing right, and OL missing assignments. This wasn't a problem in every game against a quality defense -- for instance, though Auburn's D is 15th nationally in sacks, we allowed none on 17 pass attempts -- it was often enough (as even your limited exposure to our team revealed). So yeah, pass blocking will likely once again be something to watch in the bowl game given Iowa's solid pass rush.

I will say, though, that the OL's run-blocking was been mostly solid, just as it was last year. We're 13th nationally in "stuff rate" (preventing runs of zero or less yards) and 2nd nationally in percentage of runs that gain at least 4 yards. (We're also Top 5 nationally in all of the S&P+ system's "line yard" rankings.) Or, if traditional stats are your bag, we're 9th nationally in yards per carry and 14th nationally at preventing TFLs.
Pain is the stats man!