[Goose]

 I marvel at how easy previous OLs made execution of the right plays look so easy...here I think we have mostly the correct playcalls being made but execution failing (and part of that is the defensive sell-out effort to get into the backfield and shut down Love).

I basically agree with you, except with the opposite weighting factors. Opposing teams have had 3 to four years of CMac and Love giving them trouble. They have looked at what worked and what didn't. With Burns and Chryst at QB, loading the box worked. It worked better the more you loaded the box. It also became clear that moving people around in the box and blitzing into the run gaps messed up our blocking and also gave Love no time to read the blocks and choose a hole. Coach's learned, and they copy each other. Seeing what SDSU and Washington State did last year is in everyone's video collection.
They line often may appear to miss an assignment because there is an extra man in the play that was not expected to be there. No matter how it gets blocked, it won't be as planned. The good thing about pulling guards and fullback lead blockers is that they are also "un-planned for" from the defensive point of view. The problem is that a run blitz into a spot vacated by a pulling guard/tackle can blow the play up before it starts, if the defense is quick enough. Still worth trying though.
In the end, what beats this approach is throwing the ball to receivers in one-on-one coverage. That works, and will always work against a run-heavy defensive approach IF the QB is competent and the receivers can catch. We meet this pretty low bar, at least, so that is what we will see a lot of this year. Let's just hope KJ doesn't have a bad game against a good opponent.

[Goose]

 I marvel at how easy previous OLs made execution of the right plays look so easy...here I think we have mostly the correct playcalls being made but execution failing (and part of that is the defensive sell-out effort to get into the backfield and shut down Love).

I basically agree with you, except with the opposite weighting factors. Opposing teams have had 3 to four years of CMac and Love giving them trouble. They have looked at what worked and what didn't. With Burns and Chryst at QB, loading the box worked. It worked better the more you loaded the box. It also became clear that moving people around in the box and blitzing into the run gaps messed up our blocking and also gave Love no time to read the blocks and choose a hole. Coach's learned, and they copy each other. Seeing what SDSU and Washington State did last year is in everyone's video collection.
They line often may appear to miss an assignment because there is an extra man in the play that was not expected to be there. No matter how it gets blocked, it won't be as planned. The good thing about pulling guards and fullback lead blockers is that they are also "un-planned for" from the defensive point of view. The problem is that a run blitz into a spot vacated by a pulling guard/tackle can blow the play up before it starts, if the defense is quick enough. Still worth trying though.
In the end, what beats this approach is throwing the ball to receivers in one-on-one coverage. That works, and will always work against a run-heavy defensive approach IF the QB is competent and the receivers can catch. We meet this pretty low bar, at least, so that is what we will see a lot of this year. Let's just hope KJ doesn't have a bad game against a good opponent.