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**Radical** · 09-26-2011, 11:46 PM

(09-26-2011 11:38 PM)Jesus Wrote: I've been thinking. Is it the personnel or the scheme. They protected well enough last year and before. Then the GB game and it was jailbreak city. Since then each team has had their way with the line. Did GB figure out our scheme opening it to the world? It's not possible that they all went bad at once. It has to be something more, right?

No. Our line has been middle of the pack for the past few years, not good or great. Baker has consistently been horrible, now replace the above average Harvey Dahl with Reynolds and put first time starter Hawley in or an injured McClure, and you have issues.

**atljbo** · 09-26-2011, 11:55 PM

Mike Mayock said he looked at our coaching tape .... He basically said what we said... Our O-LINE is our Achilles' heel... He also said vs the Bucs it wasnt just Sam Baker getting beat... It was our whole O-line

juraitwaluzka · 09-26-2011, 11:57 PM

My take is that last year we were just good enough, barely, but we didn't have talent to spare. It's not that Dahl was a huge loss because he's a HOFer, it's just that we were right on the edge as it was and could not afford to get even a little bit worse, yet that is what happened, we crossed the fine dividing line between just good enough and not functioning. In 2009 we had injuries everywhere. In 2008 Baker was injured a good bit (in hindsight probably a net positive) but we had Todd Weiner. A lot of it seems to fall on Baker. Seems to me that if he hasn't gotten it by now he probably never will.

**papachaz** · 09-27-2011, 12:14 AM

i got the impression during the after half interview with coach smith that he's starting to really look at MM. his comments about wanting to get to no huddle more often and sooner, last week against the iggies too. Then the articles today all say he's looking at the scheme first, then the players. maybe this is the beginning of the end for MM

i hope i hope i hope i hope i hope i hope

hitwriter · First Game.. 10.1.67 Atl vs. Green Bay

Besides the lack of effective talent I wonder if there is a give being broadcast as to whether we are rushing or passing? Someone may be setting up in their stance a certain way on rushing and passing snaps that everyone but our own staff isn't seeing?

Drathdon · 09-27-2011, 05:18 AM

I wondered if we didn't have a tell as well. Seems no one is fooled by our play calling.

Statick · 09-27-2011, 08:06 AM

(09-27-2011 12:14 AM)papachaz Wrote: i got the impression during the after half interview with coach smith that he's starting to really look at MM. his comments about wanting to get to no huddle more often and sooner, last week against the iggies too. Then the articles today all say he's looking at the scheme first, then the players. maybe this is the beginning of the end for MM

i hope i hope i hope i hope i hope i hope

You and me both, my friend.

Paulitik · 09-27-2011, 08:43 AM

(09-26-2011 11:46 PM)Radical Wrote: No. Our line has been middle of the pack for the past few years, not good or great. Baker has consistently been horrible, now replace the above average Harvey Dahl with Reynolds and put first time starter Hawley in or an injured McClure, and you have issues.

Are you Mike Mularkey? Why can't it be scheme and OLine?

Jesus · 09-27-2011, 09:25 AM

(09-26-2011 11:46 PM)Radical Wrote: No. Our line has been middle of the pack for the past few years, not good or great. Baker has consistently been horrible, now replace the above average Harvey Dahl with Reynolds and put first time starter Hawley in or an injured McClure, and you have issues.

They have been consistently better than you give them credit for. The collapse this year isn't because Dahl was holding the line together. Reynolds should be good enough. Go back to the 2 GB games last year. In the first one the line handled the pass rush expertly and kept us in that game. In the second one they turned into a sieve letting pass rushers in left and right. The same thing happened against the Cards in 2008. I think it might have something to do with our line getting off the ball slower than the defense. They all seem to get run over quickly.

They need a big win this week. They need their confidence back before meeting Green Bay again.

**Radical** · 09-27-2011, 01:56 PM

(09-27-2011 08:43 AM)Paulitik Wrote: Are you Mike Mularkey? Why can't it be scheme and OLine?

Because we didn't all the sudden stop protecting against GB. Pittsburgh, 49ers, Eagles, and Saints 2 were examples where the defense was blasting through our line regularly.

It's pretty simple. Before, Baker was the only player on our line that was consistently horrible. Now, you've replaced an above average Harvey Dahl with a poorly performing first time starting Reynolds. Throw in the fact that our solid starting center is coming back from injury, and before was also replaced with the first time starter in Joe Hawley, and it's fairly obvious what the problem is.

If it was the "scheme", then we wouldn't just now be seeing "jail break" city along our line. No scheme causes Sam Baker to get abused like he was by Trent Cole against the Eagles(or every DE he's played so far), nor does it lead to the C/RG being blown up in about .5-1 second.