What the Redskins need-according to the Sporting News

As it so often does, the OL question gets slowly broken down too far into an either/or formula ... EITHER it is/was suckage OR it was good. To me the 2012 OL was far better than I'd hoped and expected. For one thing, because it remained HEALTHY for a change. And for another, because it finally had the luxury of being able to play in front of a real quarterback.

We all know about Robert's run threat out of the read option, and how it helped the overall run game AND bought him some extre time on play-action. But one thing I don't see mentioned often when considering the QB's contribution is that defenses, for the first time in longer than I care to recall, had to defend the entire field against us.

Robert's arm and accuracy quickly got the attention of opposing DC's, and (particularly once Pierre Garcon came back healthy) provided a credible midrange threat and downfield threat, we stopped seeing the 8 and 9 man fronts and all-out pressures that had been our steady diet for so long.

The QB changes everything. A true pro QB with downfield passing skills makes ANY OL better than it was, both passing AND running. Because defenses have to play against a real QB honest. They have no choice.

That's a good thing. It means we can continue to improve the OL, which I suspect not one among us would not agree we should do, and manage to actually be competitive while doing so.

Goaldeje said:

I think Lanky's point is simply that our OLine couldn't have been in the bottom of the pile and still have Morris rush for the second most yards in the NFL, regardless of Griff's influence on the D or the scheme.

It's not the best OLine in the league, nor is it the worst. Middle of the road sounds about right.

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Yep...this sounds right to me also. And yes, you nailed my point. If your RB is running for 1600 yards, your OL is doing something right. Could they use some upgrades? Sure...what OL couldn't use upgrades somewhere? In the salary cap era of NFL football, there is always room for improvement. But the OL is not this atrocious pile of steaming dog crap that some here seem to think it is either.

Did Griffin make the OL better? Absolutely. But they performed well with Cousins in there also.

MikeSr619 said:

Barry sanders would like to argue that lohic. As would Walter payton.
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Goaldeje said:

I love Morris as much as anyone, but I'm not ready to put him in that category yet.

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Wow...I'm probably the biggest Morris homer there is, but comparing him to Barry Sanders or Walter Payton is over the top.

Besides, Barry's OL wasn't great, but the 80s Bears had a great OL. First round picks on the edges and a pro-bowl center. Not sure what angle that comment came from...

The snark runs deep today.

Om said:

The snark runs deep today.

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As well as the irony. Getting accused of not reading a post by someone who clearly didn't read mine is something special!
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MikeSr619 said:

The bears had some of the worst OLs ever and every bears fan will tell you that. It was his toughness that got him those yards and the defense that won those games.

Please dont attack my posts just because you personally dont like me. The PMs between us show you obviously have no intention of being cool so just stop.
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I didn't attack your post, I disagreed with it. Please don't get over-sensitive, we're discussing football here. Not everything is a personal attack.

And LOL at my messages. You really want to go THAT route? I'm pretty sure of the two of us, it was YOURS that showed "no intention of being cool."

Now please move on, and respect the board. I'm done with this exchange.

the mid 80's bears had some great Olinemen, even the lions had lomas brown if not much else.

Om is right, this isnt an either or, we overachieved, thats cool, but bottom line is that the 1600 yards morris had, he often got with little help, go back and watch how often we got stoned when we ran to the left, it was ridiculous, we couldnt run right up the gut for a yard on many occasions and our stretch play only worked when we had that edge threat from Rg3. Cousins is actually pretty mobile and provided a lesser run threat but still solid enough to make teams respect that. when teams didnt respect our edge threat they either got burned by Rg3 or they stopped our running game.

Overachieved? I hate that word.

This line did what they did. Period. It is just like Bill Parcel's comment about how good a team is...namely, you are what your record is and by that measurement we played lights out.

I don't see anyone here busting on the Hogs because Riggins only averaged 3 ypc or had to beat the Safety all by himself on 4th and 1 in the Super Bowl.

I have the feeling that if we brought this very same line back for every game in '13 and '14, lead the league in rushing for both years with Morris posting two more 1500 yard/10+ TD seasons and we won a Super Bowl, that some of you would continue to say the line was "overachieving".

Give me a break.

There are no running attacks in this league like the Hogs anymore. Defenses are too fast and too strong for any offense to line up and run one play over and over again in a completely unstoppable fashion when everyone in the stadium knows they are going to do that like we did in the 80's and that appears to be the yard stick some of you want to use to measure this line.

Could we upgrade some positions? Sure. Could the Hogs have been better with upgrades at couple of spots? Yeah, yeah they could. No line is ever stocked with the best talent in the league at all 5 positions and I have the feeling that is what some of you think we have to have.

Let's all admit that the NFL has changed a LOT in 30 years.

The league average for carries back in the 1970's and early 1980's was 3.6-3.8 yards per carry.

The gaudy 4.9 or 5.0 yards per carry averages you see today are a result of the changed rules that allow for the spread offense with multiple receiver sets on each down that allow for more spacing in the run game.

Shanahan to his credit was one of the first offensive coaches to take advantage of this trend with the running system he installed in Denver in the 1990's. It still works today because if anything the rules and how they are interpreted work even MORE favorably towards the offense than they did even back in 1999.

All this said, Alfred Morris COMPARED TO HIS PEERS in today's NFL had an all-pro season and his snub from the pro bowl was only the more pronounced by the fact he WAS named to the NFL all-pro team.

The all-pro team is a select group because the squad is selected on the basis of all of the players in the NFL at a certain position, not simply those from a single conference.

And the fans and players (where politics are highlighted) don't get the vote.

Morris was #2 in the NFL in yards by a running back from scrimmage. We will see if he does it again in 2013 or comes close to those lofty levels.

But he did it in 2012 and you can't take that away from him by simply saying he benefited from playing with Griffin.

Jay Hilgenberg, Keith Van Horne, Jimbo Covert, Bortz and Thayer. Pretty good starting 5 from the Bears on offense. The Bears line now sucks.

Regarding our line. I agree alot with what OM said. For once, the line stayed healthy and was able to get in rythm. Everyone was able to stay in their positions and not have to play musical chairs. We have good enough depth now that when someone DOES get hurt, we don't have to move the LG to C and the C to RT and the RT to LG just to cover up. We have specific backups to go into specific positions. It was a combination of staying healthy, getting used to the system and defenses not being to just put 8 or 9 guys at the line and tee off. We were a good line this year, not great. We could use some upgrades at RT and we need to continue to address the interior for the future as Monty, Lich and Chester won't be around forever. All in all, I'd give the line a "B" as a grade this year.

And LOL at you guys complaining about the line not being able to block for Cousins. One, the game was pretty much over and the team was deflated. Two, Cousins probably didn't get practice reps. Three, the Seahawks knew we were beat and just kept coming. It was an entirely different situation than the Baltimore game.

I think we do need safety help, but I'm pretty confident if we keep adding to the front 7, you don't have to have allstar players in the secondary. The Pittsburgh style of the 3-4 defense that we are emulating, requires you to have a strong front 7 and not necessarily a great secondary. Besides Polamolu, who in Pittsburgh's secondary do you fear year after year? They plug and play rookies and no names because their front 7 is so dominant.

Think about all our SB years. Besides Darrell Green, who would you say was great in our secondaries? We won SBs because of Dexter, Butz, Mann, Grant, Tim Johnson, Geathers, Stokes, Wilbur Marshall, Coleman, Olkewicz. Our secondaries consisted of Vernon Dean, Tony Peters, Jeris White, Anthony Washington, Barry Wilburn, Alvoid Mays, Brad Edwards, Mark Murphey, etc. Not exactly all pros or pro bowlers. Our front 7's were dominant during those years.