I say we do screen shots of the performance graphs at profootball focus for a little non green and gold perspective. I will do tackles to start us off. I will get the graph of the top left and right tackles, as presently rated, and then grab ours. I'll throw up Aaron Rodgers graph also, for shits and grins.

Someone wanna do guards, centers?

All right David, I see what you're getting at. You want to be assured our OL is "good enough" to win the big one.

I can't guarantee you that. My crystal ball is broken.

I can however tell you that our OL has improved greatly over the season. It was by far the worst in the NFL in the first half of the season. That's not even an argument.

But starting November 15th, we've won 6 of the last 7 games. I don't think it's a coincidence in our "hot streak" that the OL's sack totals have dropped.

I do have the sack totals for you, but I don't have the culprit (which guy on the OL, or Rodgers). Someone else has to come up with that. Good luck to anyone who wants to do that research.


This is great news and bodes well for us if the trend continues in the Playoffs. Give Rodgers protection and he'll kick ass. There's no denying that. 4000+ yards, 29 TDs for a guy who has been sacked more than any other QB in the NFL. Very impressive.

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How's about a little graphic action? Site Link 

Here you go, as promised:


Joe Thomas; top rated left tackle Cleveland Browns



Chad Clifton








Vernon Carey; Top rated Right Tackle; Miami Dolphins



Mark Tauscher


TJ Lang

LT games 4,6,7,8,9
RT games 10,11
LT games 12,16


Allen Barbre


Darryn Colledge
LT games 2,3,4







Aaron Rodgers; for shits and grins

I can't speak for Dave, but I think everyone agrees that OL play has substantially improved over the beginning of the year. And I don't think anyone is looking for a guarantee.

I think the question is more "which side of 'chances are 50/50'" are we, and how far. Early in the year, I would have put the chances of winning a playoff game at 1 in 100 or worse. Today, I put it at about 1 in 4. Maybe even 1 in 3.

Which amounts to something between a 2400 percent and 3233 percent increase in optimism on my part.

But it's still in the "sell" range. Because, IMO, a "serious contender" should come in at something higher than 1 in 2. Not 2 in 2, that's not possible. But more than 1 in 2.

Still selling.

:)

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I chose "the game" to get the discussion going, without it being influenced by the other questions we all might have, in the sense that we CAN ask those other questions, but in another thread.

The reason I asked the question the way I did was because I was listening to ESPN radio this AM while running a few errands.

That was the question mark for our team... Is the o-line fixed to the point that it is not a "fundamental flaw" in trying to get to and through the playoffs. One guy said it was fixed enough, another guy said it is not.

I think it is a very, very good question.

OK. Realistic answer. Do I think that this OL will cost us some drive killing sacks in the Super Bowl?

Yes. 😞

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You know if you would use pictures of Womens Breasts, instead of bars, these graphts would be much more pleasing to look at.

Of course the weeks with the most sacks would be the more interesting weeks. :icon_smile:

Playoff time is almost here, IMHO having Clifton,Tauscher and Wells (guys who have been there before) will be a huge plus for The Packers.

I'll buy for the rest of the year and into next year.

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i think we are getting better...we should keep cliffy for another year and give a tauscher a 2 years deal...we can develop lang...sitton is future probowler...colledge has to improve...spitz can stay if he accept a reasonable deal else we go with wells...

id like we spend a high draft pick and a middle round on the OL

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I'm selling.

The offensive line has improved immensely since the first half of the season. They've crept up back towards just below mediocrity. The scary thing is that with our weapons all we need is a mediocre line to have a dangerous offense. However, the line just isn't there yet and it is probably the most likely potential cause of us losing a playoff game (along with penalties, which are also highly associated with our line).

There are some reasons though why I think we can overcome our line:

Rock, I believe, mentioned the lack of scoring drives following a sack. That statistic was brought up in the Tampa Bay game at which point we had yet to score a touchdown on drives where Rodgers had been sacked. We broke that trend in the fourth quarter of the Tampa game and have since scored touchdowns on drives in which Rodgers was sacked against Dallas, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. Since the fourth quarter of the the Bucs game we have had 15 drives in which we have given up a sack (4 sacks in fourth quarter of Bucs game, 2 in one drive, and 2 in one drive against Dallas) and have scored touchdowns in 4 of those drives (26.7% of the time... and even post Tampa game we're 3/12 or 25%). If you compare that to 47 touchdowns in roughly 152 possessions (64 punts, 47 offensive tds, 35 fg attempts, 6 failed fourth downs... which I realize does not include drives that ended with the clock running out, could not find that statistic), we generally score touchdowns 30.9% of the time. So in addition to giving up less sacks we're also doing a better job of overcoming them when we do.

I know it is a small sample (12 vs. 152) but I'm not surprised that we are doing better now. Rodgers has the highest qb rating on third down and has an uncanny ability to convert 3rd and 12-15. The whole team is also doing a better job adjusting to blitz packages. We are no longer seeing guys come completely unblocked like they did earlier in the year. We are also getting the ball out quicker. Whether that adjustment has come from more slants and shallow crossing routes being called, receivers getting open quicker, or Rodgers doing a better job reading the defense pre and postsnap (and I think it's a little bit of all of them), we're not taking as long to get the ball out.

I also find it interesting that the teams we have scored on after giving up a sack (Dallas, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh) are the ones that are the most aggressive and blitz happy of the teams we've played. Teams like that are more likely to get pressure and force a big defensive play, but they're also more susceptible to someone like Jennings or Driver busting a big play on a slant because they've committed so many people.

As it stands, I think we're a very dangerous team and probably the scariest of the wild cards. Our oline will probably give up a couple sacks against anyone we play in the postseason and that is why I'm selling right now, but if our team responds well to the sacks we may very well win in spite of our oline.

edit: bit about scoring against aggressive teams

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No women's breasts, but I did take their graphs and make my graph, lol

A "more simpler" thing to look at, same data, but one position, our team, pertinent players...

Left Tackle





Right Tackle