Bigger Concern: Offensive Line or Defensive Speed?

Which concerns you more for this team both for the remainder of this year and looking ahead to next year?

 

Offensive Line. Their failures with runblocking all year are apparent, but even with their "strength", passblocking, Stone and Bullard got mauled regularly, mainly in the 4th quarter. It's hard enough for Bray to have to deal with fielding ground balls.

 

Agree. AJ Johnson and Curt Maggitt are supposedly plenty fast, they just aren't playing that way because they are true freshmen. Not sure what the deal with the OL is.

We were expecting some issues with the young defense. The OL was supposed to take a quantum leap forward.

 

O-line no question. It's no surprise that our D-line was going to struggle. That said, they were typically making hits or at least contact behind or at the line of scrimmage, they just couldn't tackle. Kiffin had them tackling with no problems, I think that issue can be fixed easily. The O-line is just a disaster as I've discussed in many of the threads. So much work to be done there and I think it goes beyond "getting more experience." It involves continuing to make the O-line a focus in recruiting. And that's a shame because we have so many other glaring issues that we need to use recruiting on. As KPT pointed out, the OL was supposed to be improved by leaps and bounds. 3 games in and I still haven't seen it.

 

Offensive line. Yes, that's an echo.

 

Save a missed tackle or two, Maggitt is playing way ahead of the curve. He has a really bright future.

 

AJ doesn't look plenty fast to me. He's a little faster than Johnson, but it isn't by much. He better be quick as hell once he's accustomed, or we'll never make plays off tackle.

 

Fo Sho.

And wasn't AJ Johnson the one who stripped the ball yesterday?

Back to the question, definitely the O line. Very disappointing. I might not watch the LSU game.

 

No, I believe it was Maggitt.

 

Can't argue, but I thought practice reports did praise his speed. He might be moving to the middle once Austin leaves, which may suit him better.

 

That was AJ. Was a sweet play. No doubt he's strong as all hell and if he can get to you, you're coming down.

 

I think Jacquez Smith is probably faster than both of them, at least at game speed.

 

and that's the problem. He's not OLB fast, but can be MLB fast because he's strong enough to hammer you or arm tackle you.

 

I don't think there is any doubt about it.

 

You guys are right. My bad.

 

Maybe once Lathers comes back things will get better. Let's hope. Or maybe next year Greg King can get it done.

 

Really missed Herman Lathers speed in this game. Could have made a difference. Most definitely would have been in position to stop the long Rainey TD catch/run.

 

It is frustrating because you can see the talent gap closing, but we're just not quite there yet. The jailbreak screen they scored on yesterday was so close to being a big sack for us. We miss the sack, a linebacker is out of position, and zip... he was off...

 

Oline just doesn't seem mean and nasty enough to me. I don't know maybe i'm way off. Just seems that way to me.

 

Somebody has to. Santos ain't that answer. He's all MLB. Maybe one of those guys can get us somewhere and Peters, Henderson or incoming King (I think) has enough wheels. This staff's infatuation with size over speed concerns me a bit against outfits with scat types.