I feel like the height and weight exaggerations are most pronounced when a guy is 5'10"-5'11" in height and / or 190 or 290 in weight. There is so much more buzz about a linebacker that is 6'0" 205 than there is about one that is 5'10" 195. Same thing for an interior lineman on either side of the ball, or even a cornerback. Although I do think that the NFL numbers are likely very accurate, since they try to make sure that all the info is out there to curtail any "mob-like" interferences (hence the injury reports).
"No matter how good our D is this year we can't have consistent 3 and outs. Depending on our FG team to kick 40+ yarders while the D forces early turnovers but stays on the field for most of the game is a recipe for late game fatigue and comeback losses. We need to be able to establish something consistently and that starts with the O-Line." I couldn't agree with that statement more and feel the season will fail or prevail with the production of the offensive line. The D is obviously juiced and just chomping at the bit, waiting for game one to get here. The key is to make sure the O-line has enough swagger/confidence to complete the mission at hand.
I wouldn't be worried about our offense because of a poor practice, this is the second year of this offense, I'm sure we'll be fine.
Not much to be gleaned from an open practice. Run the same plays. Muscle memory. Nothing new. Defense usually has the upper hand.
This may be a bit of a reach, but the perception of the OL being a bit small may be directly related to the increase in size of UConn' DL. Edsall was known for his undersized and quick DTs and played DE like Whitten and Williams when they were below 220 lbs. In an up close look at a practice the OL would look huge compared to the current DL which is dominated by 300+ pound DTs and 250+ pound DE. Guys like Stephens (6'5 317 lbs), Pruitt (6'3 296), and Knappe (6'9 280) will not be dwarfed by any OL. Joseph, Jennings and Pruitt are all approx. 260 lb DEs.
Good one Pal. Seriously, Trev Williams is 'undersized' but if things go well could be BE Def Player of the Year wouldnt worry about our OLs size. We're not Wisconsin but we're not at a disadvantage there, either. Experience/chemistry is the biggest unknown.
This is a transition. Under Edsall this team ran the ball and dared defenses to stop it. We won a lot of games simply phyiscally beating the snott our of folks with our OL Think ND, Pitt in 2010, Baylor. During the Int'l Bowl a pretty good Buffalo team went through a stretch where the couldn't keep defenders on the field in the second half of that game. Guys like Hurd, Ryan, Petrus where just very physial guys. I don't know enough football to know exactly what P and Deleone are up to with the OL, but it surely has to do with better balance to he offense. Blocking schemes are clearly going to be more involved than they were under Edsall when so much of the offense was geared towards establishing a power running game. I suspect it's the right thing to do, alhtough we won a lot of games b simply pushing folks around. Clearly a lot of the fanbase and a lot of posters on this board did not like the offense under Edsall's regime. Only time will tell if the changes afoot will be for the long-term better interest of the program.
I disagree. No doubt the changes will be for the better long-term interest of the program. The old way had a ceiling which we probably came close to reaching. If you believe in the program, you have to figure there was a better way.
