Semi-OT: The 49ers and OL Play

What was once a rotating offensive line with moving parts and injuries to boot, is now a healthy group with a five-man core that plays nearly every snap together: left tackle Nate Solder, left guard Dan Connolly, center Bryan Stork, right guard Ryan Wendell, and right tackle Sebastian Vollmer.

"Our guys are now at a point where it doesn't matter who is in there, they'll operate," DeGuglielmo said. "In the beginning, maybe that was a little unnerving to maybe the tackles where, 'Hey there's a new guy there.' Well, now they know that's how it is. Every day, every play at practice could be a new guy standing there. So be a pro, do your job, and they all have to play at a certain level. If one guy is playing at a high level, if another guy is learning, that's a problem. So now, we're getting up to speed with all the guys, bringing everybody up to a level where they can function together and not worry about who's coming in and who's not coming in."

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Wendell did not get much playing time at the start of the season, and dealt with an injury as well, but he has played a role in the galvanization of the line thanks to his knowledge and demeanor.

"He's a tremendous pro," DeGuglielmo said. "He's very intelligent. He's got a mean streak. When he plays aggressive and nasty, it's tremendous. He's done a real good job of being patient, playing multiple spots. He's played center for a number of years, and here he is now doing a really good job at guard. I think he has a calming effect on the whole group because of his knowledge and his demeanor. I can't say enough about — I wouldn't say he's an overachiever, because he's a professional athlete, I think he's an achiever. He's doing a job that he's committed himself to, he's passionate about. I love working with the guy because I really think the way he thinks, thinks like a coach, he analyzes everything that happens like a coach, he's quick to come up with solutions. We have to be problem-solvers out there. I think I have a good number of those in the room, and the more we can get on the field, the better."

One person who is greatly benefiting from the presence of those veterans is Stork. As a rookie center, Stork could not ask for a better situation than to be sandwiched between two men who have experience doing his job.

"He relies on them right now because, when it's standard looks, standard defenses, he's great with it. And even a lot of the complex looks, he's a great student of the game. But who wouldn't want to have two guys next to him that have been in the position for years and years? I would," DeGuglielmo said. "I mean, imagine being able to coach a line and having three line coaches standing there. You don't miss a thing, or you can coach three times that much. They're getting a lot of information passed along, not just with Bryan, but even with the tackles. There's a lot of communication going back and forth, and I think they're doing a tremendous job. I think it's helpful to him, but he's also a good pro, and he's developing his own way of communicating and his own style, but it never hurts to have a resource next to you one way or another."

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robertweathers said:

Smart move trotting DeGuglielmo out there and educating the same people on what it takes to put a cohesive o-line together that five weeks ago said hes a sucky coach, Mankins hated him and no one would play for him.

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“I don’t know that there’s any magical formula for it,” DeGuglielmo said yesterday, when asked about finding the right mix up front. “We just try to get good players on the field. We have a lot of guys who work very hard and show that they have talent.”

During the low point after the Kansas City blowout, there was talk that players did not get along with DeGuglielmo, or meshed with his style, as compared with his legendary predecessor.

DeGuglielmo didn’t buy into the notion.

“I never found an issue with mesh. I know that seems to have been a topic. These are professionals. I’ve had quite a bit of interaction since I got here in January. Not one of them has expressed any inability to mesh,” DeGuglielmo said. “I think we have a good group, a lot of good personalities, a lot of serious thinking men. I think we have a good working relationship, and when you really want to look at it, we have a good time doing what we do. As we go along, we’ll have even more fun because there is success in involved.”

Such as Sunday night, when the so-called much improved Broncos defense barely laid a hand on Brady, sacking him once.

That being said, there is still plenty of room for improvement. It’s far from perfect. Brady’s enhanced movement in and around the pocket helped to avoid pressure and buy time to deliver the ball.

“We still have a lot of things to work on, and we’re all working hard, myself included, to be better at what we do,” DeGuglielmo said. “I think the guys have stayed focused, they’ve kept themselves out of what’s going on around the building, and kept focused on what’s going on in the building.”

In other words, they weren’t reading about how bad they were, and remained focused on simply doing their jobs.

Having grown up in Lexington and attended Boston University, it was a bit tougher for DeGuglielmo to ignore the noise. The first month certainly wasn’t the easiest.

“All I care about is that my men come out of a game like they did after last game and say, ‘Coach, I feel good. I’m healthy. We did it right. We had success,’ ” DeGuglielmo said. “Was it perfect? No. But they have an energy to go back and fix the things that were wrong. That’s what you want. When it’s not good, they don’t have the same . . . it’s hard for them to generate and get motivated to fix things when there are so many things to fix.”

Fixing the space that had been previously occupied by Logan Mankins was a chore, but that also didn’t seem to phase the new skipper of the offensive line.

“It’s professional football. I’ve been with other teams where things have happened. You learn over time, that’s professional football,” DeGuglielmo said. “I’ve been in situations in the past where I walk in on Wednesday and three guys are gone, three new guys are in the chair, and I wasn’t even told who they were, or where they came from. I introduce myself and away we go.”

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Nate Solder: 54 pass-block snaps; 1 hurry; 1 hit
Dan Connolly: 54 pass-block snaps; 2 hurries
Bryan Stork: 54 pass-block snaps; 1 hurry; 1 hit
Ryan Wendell: 54 pass-block snaps; 1 hurry; 1 hit
Sebastian Vollmer: 54 pass-block snaps; 3 hurries; 2 hits; 1 sack
Rob Gronkowski: 12 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
Shane Vereen: 10 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
Michael Hoomanawanui: 6 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
James Develin: 5 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
Tim Wright: 3 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries
Jonas Gray: 3 pass-block snaps; 0 hurries

In all, Brady was pressured on 13 separate plays (8 hurries; 4 hits; 1 sack). There were two plays where multiple blockers allowed pressure, and one play where an unblocked defender came through (defensive tackle Terrence Knighton at 12:37 in the second quarter).

For the first time all season, the Patriots' starting offensive line played every snap together. The group appeared to be mostly in sync, and all five men were communicating with each other on the field.

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mayoclinic said:

Eric Frenz breaks down the pressures and hits allowed by the OL and the offense against the Broncos:



http://www.boston.com/sports/footba...ake_2_how_the_patriots_secondary_made_pe.html

Brady was pressured or hit on 24% (13/54) of the offensive plays.

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patfanken said:

It even sounds better if you think of it this way. Tom Brady dropped back 41 times against what was considered the top pass rushing DL in the league and wasn't even hurried. (it's all in the presentation )

Thanks for those stats. Think about this. Volmer who had the worst game of the group, while playing against the best pass rusher in the league, STILL completely beat his man over 88% of the time.

I think the other 2 important things to look at from those stats were: 1. There were only 2 plays where more than one guy put pressure on Brady (out of 51) 2. There was only ONE play (out of 51) where a man came in free (mental breakdown). Pretty impressive for an OL that includes BOTH pre-season pariahs, Dan Comnolly and Ryan Wendell.

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mayoclinic said:

Brady also deserves credit, for his pocket movement and for not holding on to the ball. He's not putting more pressure on his line than they are able to handle. They, in turn, have cut down on the mental mistakes and are giving him a clean pocket most of the time. It's good synergy.

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mayoclinic said:

Brady also deserves credit, for his pocket movement and for not holding on to the ball. He's not putting more pressure on his line than they are able to handle. They, in turn, have cut down on the mental mistakes and are giving him a clean pocket most of the time. It's good synergy.

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patfanken said:

You could also imply that the reason Brady is getting rid of the ball so quickly is that his receivers are getting open.

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The Seahawks are hoping to get center Max Unger and left tackle Russell Okung back from injury this week. Otherwise, they might be forced to throw stuff against the wall like last week.

Listening to Seahawks coaches describe the chaotic scene last week agains the Raiders underlines the struggles they’ve had putting a line together this year.

When left guard James Carpenter sprained his ankle against the Raiders, the Seahawks line, from left tackle to right included a first-time starter (Alvin Bailey), an undrafted rookie tight end they’re converting (Garry Gilliam), a fourth-string center they had cut a few weeks earlier (Patrick Lewis), a converted college defensive tackle (J.R. Sweezy) and a rookie (Justin Britt).

“Yeah, there was some great communication going on,” offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said, via Gregg Bell of the Tacoma News Tribune. “We hadn’t been able to rep every one of those guys at the positions that they were at. We had to fall back on [offensive line coach] Tom [Cable] a lot and say, ‘What do they know? What can they run? And where can we put them to make them successful?’ ”

Cable said he walked from the field to the sideline at one point, and starting telling guys “OK, you go to guard. You go to tackle,” the line equivalent of drawing a play in the dirt. At certain points, they flipped Bailey and Gilliam, since Gilliam didn’t know certain plays at guard.

“We’ve been lucky to train our guys,” Cable said. “But you don’t expect on Sunday morning to hear, ‘Well, he’ll be up but it’s an emergency [basis only].’ And then James gets hurt. So you’ve just got to piece it together. Let’s go. But it’s a grind, with all the junk that goes on in there.”

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Froob said:

what do you guys think of Solder past couple of weeks? I havent really been looking his way tbh. I remember him getting owned multiples times vs the jets.

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patfanken said:

You could also imply that the reason Brady is getting rid of the ball so quickly is that his receivers are getting open.

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mayoclinic said:

At the beginning of the season the Pats' OL struggled considerably, went through a number of different rotations, and received tremendous criticism, most of it deserved. Among the criticism was that BB has not invested enough in the OL compared to other teams. Dallas' dominant OL performance this season behind 3 1st round picks (Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick and Zach Martin) further underscored the difference for many.

The San Francisco 49ers have used a dominant OL to fuel their 3 season run to the NFCCG. They have helped build a dominant rushing attack, and a physical unit that has often overpowered opposing defensive lines. The 49ers have invested 1st round picks in LT Joe Staley (2007), RT Anthony Davis (2010) and LG Mike Iupati (2010). RG Alex Boone has been one of the best. They invested a high 3rd round pick in center Marcus Martin in the past draft. Meanwhile they are 4-4, and their OL is getting shredded. They have given up 6 sacks to Denver (9 QB hits) and 7 sacks to Arizona (6 QB hits) in their past 2 games, both losses, and have struggled running the ball (62 and 80 yards rushing).

http://espn.go.com/blog/san-francis...49ers-offensive-line-simply-offensive-vs-rams

Meanwhile the Pats' OL is arguably playing the best over the past 2 games than at any time since 2011, when they had Logan Mankins and Brian Waters anchoring the interior OL. They have given up 2 sacks and 9 QB hits over the past 2 games, and have given Brady a clean pocket most of the time. Dan Connolly, Bryan Stork and Ryan Wendell has been a rock solid interior combination, and the tackle play has settled down considerably.

All of which is to point out that, perhaps more than any other unit, offensive line play is much more than the sum of its parts. Scar always excelled at making a cohesive unit out of spare parts. Dave DeGugielmo seems to be doing a masterful job pulling the line together after a very rough start.

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AndyJohnson said:

Actually it was the Rams, and it was EIGHT sacks. The Rams had 5 sacks combined in their first 7 games.

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AndyJohnson said:

By the way, is there any more shocking stat than the abysmal pass rushing in the NFCW?
SF has 13 sacks in 8 games (after 38 last year)
St Louis not has 13 in 8 (53 last year)
Arizona has only 8 in 8 games (47 last year)
Seattle has just 11 in 8 games (44 last year)

Division total half way through the season is 45 and last year they had 182. They are producing less than half the sacks they did last year.

Its also not a factor of the division offenses improving their pass blocking either as they have allowed 80 sacks, exactly on pace for the 160 they allowed last season. This could be a major factor int he post season, especially since a lot of the success this division has had has been on defense and with pressure.

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