09-02-2012, 07:48 AM
In the SJS game, the offensive line play was the most concerning to me, more so than Nunes' play. Unfortunately you can't replace NFL talents like Martin and Decastro with Wilkes and Danser. And moving Yankey to LT caused more continuity problems (which Shaw in the past has said he didn't want to do either). In the 4th quarter this really showed if you watch the tape. On the 4th down play that was stuffed, Wilkes trips on Schwartzstein and literally falls to his knees going into the hole allowing his man to dive over him and stop Taylor. On another play, Danser also tripped and falls in the hole causing a no gain play, setting up a long yardage 3rd down. We underestimate how good both Decastro and Yankey were/are at pulling, being nimble, and finding the right person to block. The fullbacks also missed blocks at times, so Hewitt was missed as well. On the Nunes pass/fumble that was challenged, he was hit by 3 defenders at the same time because of multiple missed blocks. We rarely saw this in the last 3 years. The last few years we were dominant on the O-line and could count on 3 yards a pop on most running plays, and it was rare to see so many (or any) defenders in the backfield. Hopefully this can be cleaned up, but I think Shaw should turn to the heralded freshmen or at least Austin at LT and bring Yankey back to guard, because it will be an average season at best if the blocking remains like this. At least with Peat or Murphy, it may be trial by fire, but we would be playing talent that has the potential to be dominant as well as grooming the future.
