Offensive Line Comparison

[Fan_in_Kettering]

Did you see Pittsburgh’s offensive line? Did you?

I did and it sickens me how Marvin Lewis and Paul Alexander — and now Bill Lazor — are right on the sideline watching them work and fail to understand how abysmal the Bengals are up front in comparison. Yeah, I know the Steelers hold, chop block, and wrestle defensive players to the ground and never get called for it but forget that; look at what they do to open holes for their runners and protect Pig Pen for up to ten whole BLEEPing seconds in the pocket. Yes, ten seconds. I even used a stopwatch.

Paul Alexander has his linemen drop back and play patty cake. The Steelers lunge forward with pads low. These are the reasons Andy Dalton has a pocket the size of a broom closet and Ben Roethlisberger has a pocket which extends to each sideline. In run blocking the Bengals stand up and push with their arms. The Steelers get low and push with their cores and legs. This is why the Cincinnati runners get stuffed at the line of scrimmage and LeVeon Bell just keeps his feet moving until a hole inevitably appears.

The fix is easy but finding someone in the Front Office with the intestinal fortitude to get an offensive line coach who knows more about moving a piano than playing one is proving impossible.

[*bengalfan74*]

It's so very obvious PA's run blocking techniques do not work it's not even funny. Our line stands up and tries to passively just "get in the way" of the D-line.

I'm not sure how much the RPO offensive scheme plays into this ? but it's very broken.

On passing plays Dalton has 1/3 the size of pocket other QB's do far to often. You can see it watching other games. Sure pockets break down at times with all teams. But not with the frequency ours do !

By the end of this game Andy was in total shock, you could see it. We have zero chance until this is fixed.

[phil413]

The worst part could be that we'r really behind schedule in building chemistry. The best reasonable scenario is they go LT with their high pick and land another starter on the FA market. Then you're hoping for another mid round pick to compete and the best 5 build chemistry next year.

I'm really ashamed of the front office. No matter what the past is, THIS team was a playoff team with an average OL. Most of us saw this coming and no matter the excuse of the weak FA and draft market for OL, it shouldn't have got this far. The Bengals moved on from the stubborn idea of tall freakish DE's and now have talent. They have to acknowledge the failure of losing two starters and go out and get replacements. Marvin didnt deserve to coach this season, but giving him another year without fixing the OL is just nonsense.