First off, Sorry for the delay - this story was supposed to be out days ago, but because of Thunderstorm Irene (nowhere near as catastrophic as it could have been...) - the Blogging Twins haven't had power until tonight... Don't ask us why... but anyway...
"Guys, we talked about this. Please keep those guys away from me. That's literally your one job."
It’s no surprise that Thursday was a ‘coming out party’ for the Browns defense- and that was mostly thanks to our very young, inexperienced offensive line. They looked BAD. Not just bad, but BAD. We had two true rookies (Kelce and Watkins) and one guy that might as well be a rookie in King Dunlap (sweet name, but still only 14 games played in the NFL and only 5 starts – the name can only do so much). All of this led to one thing – our franchise QB spent a lot of time on his backside. Not to mention, it also led to two fumbles for Mr. Vick (one lost) and one interception (which luckily got called back because he got hit too hard by a Brown so the refs felt bad and overturned it).
But lets not beat a dead horse (too soon?)… Some positives DID come out of this whole situation for the offensive line:
1. We continue to see maturity in Michael Vick. Although the man may have been battered and had internal bleeding following the game, he was calm, collected and levelheaded when asked about the performance of his offensive line. He was very clear and simply let everyone know that it was a rough night, but they did some things well and they are still young and learning. That’s a perfect response from a QB in that situation. The man just got done getting lit up because of poor blocking and he goes to bat for the line anyway. A less respectable player would have been a little bit edgier to say the least. To put it simply, Michael knew there was going to be problems early on and he is handling them gracefully. This is a good sign of his maturity in growing as a pro and as a leader in the locker room and on the field. To put it in short – he is acting much more mature than his offensive line is playing.
2. Jason Kelce could have been worse. He didn’t communicate well in pass protection with Danny Watkins on numerous occasions and didn’t remember the snap count on every play (which coincidentally led to his entire offensive unit being guilty of a false start), but he is looking a lot like the Howard Mudd-esque offensive lineman that we were hoping for. He’s quick and tough and a good pulling lineman. Most notably on the 4th and 1 play (TE around) that he got out in front of Cornelius Ingram and took care of his assignment quickly. It was also clear on his ability to get out in front of Ronnie Brown on a nice TD run that he had in the 1st quarter. He also did a fantastic job in the screen game that the Eagles love to use. He got out in the open and used his speed to his advantage. This all makes a good base that Howard Mudd (the guru of offensive linemen) can definitely build on. We are hopefully getting to watch a future Jeff Saturday in the making.
(Wait for him to yell at Mario Williams. Yes, please.)
(R.I.P. Harry)
3. This meaningless pre-season game gave Howard Mudd a chance to evaluate the entire situation and hopefully make changes that we will need to see happen for a more productive offensive unit. This first change came a few days ago as we had to see Todd Herremans get moved to right tackle to hopefully protect Mike Vick’s blindside. Jason Kelce, Danny Watkins, and King Dunlap were going to have a hard time learning on-the-job while all being right next to another rookie. The experience needs to be filtered throughout the whole line so that questions can be asked pre-snap and the veteran players can hopefully correct any weaknesses. Howard Mudd tried to leave Herremans and Jason Peters together where they were last year, but this little glimpse into that experiment has shown him that he has to switch some things up. Again, it’s just a meaningless pre-season game so it’s better to find this all out now. Hopefully this meshing of rookie and veteran will pay off.
It’s definitely a work in progress, but for right now, no need to panic.
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