For Those Trashing The OL....

another “it’s nobody’s fault but mariotas!!!!” thread. someone please just merge this will all the other anti-marcus threads.

 

Mariota definitely needs to get it figured out but you guys are crazy if you think the OL was any good this year.

 

You clearly have never played sports. This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read.

QB’s should never have their passes batted at the line and definitely should never get sacked by someone who weighs more than them.

Hahahaha what a dumba** response.

 

These are partially incorrect conclusions. There is a big difference between sacks and hits. Qb hits can still be TD passes or First downs. Sacks are usually drive killers so there is no equating them to hits to suggest he was protected well. He wasn’t overall. The one thing the article points out correctly is that this is not ALL on the OL. Backs TEs and the QBs take blame as well. Our recievers play a part in this as well in the sense that if no ones open...you get coverage sacks and hits and force the qb to run. To assign all unassigned sacks simply to Mariota trying to bail is misleading at best. I didn’t rewatch every sack but I watched every game...some more than once.

But the biggest problem is OL problems as they make up the majority of assigned sacks. Kelly played better than Conklin. Adding a quality LG and perhaps moving Conklin to RG are ways to boost the OL. Giving Mariota more time is one way to knock down some of those assigned and unassigned sacks. Getting Walker back and adding another quality WR would also help a LOT.

Of course, Mariota improving and not taking sacks he doesnt need to take will help as well.

And Henry running all season like he did this Dec would be a tremendous help in keeping us out of a ton of 3rd and longs.

 

So a coverage sack should be blamed on the qb? Why do t you just make all sacks Mariota fault. Doesn’t matter if OL gets beat or our guys aren’t open...that’s on Mariota, right?

The whole point of the article is to appear reasoned (any one who watched our games KNOWS we didn’t have the 5th best protection around the league)...but is really to bash Mariota. Suggesting the OL is not at fault (5th best protection) and ALL unassigned sacks are Mariotas fault is just making stuff up to bash the qb. And I see the article doesn’t account for pressures in which he turned into positive runs, big plays first downs or TD’s...saving some others from a poor stat. Is it fair to say some of those unassigned sacks are on Mariota? Absolutely! He made more mistakes this year than he should have. Is it fairy to say that he tends to hold onto the ball too long? Absolutely!

Is it fair to put half the sacks on him when a large number of those aren’t his fault? No.

 

On the whole...we were one of the most sacked in the league in raw numbers. When you add the context we threw it half as much...that should tell you how poor the protection was.

Think of it this way. Qb hits mean better protection overall than qb sacks. Why? Because the qb has the time to get the ball off. When sacked...he doesn’t. So sacks are FAR worse than hits.

So jumping for joy we had fewer hits is the wrong conclusion. Taking a huge number of sacks kills the offense and THAT is the problem!

 

Anyone who watched our games this year knows our pass protection was the biggest reason we gave up sacks. Our rbs and tes did a pretty bad job overall on helping out the oline. That's why we didn't feature henry until late in the season, his pass pro sucks. Yes mm8 holds the ball to long, but on a lot of those plays our very young receivers aren't getting the separation needed. Add to that, the fact that our play calling was decent at best all year you are going to get more sacks than you should. I completely agree that mm8 can get rid of the ball faster and move around in the pocket better. But, to suggest he's the primary reason for this issue is ridiculous.

 

Mary also walks into sacks, not all o-line fault

 

Prove it.