Mike Brisiel is expected to miss the rest of the season

oh, i think he has to some degree. he's making poor reads and/or late choices. i've heard kubiak say repeatedly that the team is leaving too many yards on the field, meaning the holes are there. that, imo, is a pretty clear indictment of slaton. but i agree that the OL is certainly part of the problem.

 

carolina uses it; they ran up huge numbers last year. i think green bay does, too (iirc). it seems highly suspect (imo) that after nearly 15 years of it being virtually unstoppable, the entire league suddenly catch up to it all at once in a single offseason, doesn't it? houston and carolina put up *huge* running totals last year.

 

Carolina's running game was 3rd in the league last year (yards per game). So far this year, they're 23rd. Houston's running game was 13th in the league last year. So far this year, they're 30th.

Frankly, I'll admit I don't know enough about how the ZBS works to say for sure if the league has "caught up" with it. All I know is what I see on Sundays and that's the Texans having nothing resembling a running game with virtually the same O-line and RB it had last year. I know Pitts is out, but we were equally bad with him this year as without him.

I wish I could find that article that talked about it. Something about how D-linemen were beating our O-linemen to their "zones" and thereby blowing up the entire line of scrimmage.

 

how long has gibbs been teaching the technique, though? defenses invaribly catch up to offenses - it just seems a little suspect *every* defense would suddenly *all* catch-up at the very same time some 10+ years after the fact.

so many teams now incoporate a form of zone blocking that at least part of the problem may be that, rather than face it, you know, maybe once a year - they're now seeing every day in practice. so maybe they did catch up by virtue of it becoming so universally widespread.

 

Perhaps. I guess it's just like any other scheme - it only works when it's executed correctly.

Maybe our O-line just blows chunks (that's a technical term).

Or maybe Slaton isn't as ready to be an every down RB as most of us thought. Moats did look good against the Raiders (3.7 ypc). But it was the Raiders...

 

On Caldwell...

He very well might take the starting RG position this season, but unless Myers steps his game up completely for the rest of the season, Caldwell is still being groomed to be the team's center in the next season, unless he is proven to be unable to handle the position. I am wondering how this will work now, since I heard that White was rotating in for Studdard every third series, like how they did with Brown last year because of stamina issues. What will happen if White possibly becomes the RG or will a true rookie like Caldwell need the same thing?


On Zone Blocking...

It isn't the technique that is the problem its the execution. The reason ZBS linemen are small is so that they can get up the field and engage the defensive linemen away from the line of scrimmage in running plays to open up gaps. Lately, our offensive line hasn't been really doing that either because of the injuries or just being outmatched by the defense in speed and/or strength, only heaven knows. But the fact is, have you really seen our o-line push open any gaps at all for Leech and Slaton to run up the middle?

Heck you can watch the final two goal line runs by Brown and see where our interior gets blown up on both plays.