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.
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.