Oline 2010 31st in NFL. In 2011, 32nd in NFL.

I hadn't seen this before I stumbled upon it tonight. I apologize if you guys have already seen it.

I like the methodology in determining rankings. It wasn't just determined by sacks. They have Webb and Lance Louis as our two worst oline players. So of course the Bears will give them both starting roles this season.

And of course we'll pull our BEST oline player from last year and make him our swing tackle behind Webb & flip-flop players to new positions. Incidentally, they graded Edwin Williams as our best oline player. He'll be riding the pine this year too.

And us fans will ooh and ahh again over what a "genius" Mike Tice is, as an oline coach. He can sprinkle that oline with his "pixie dust" and create the worst line in the NFL. Magic!

I feel like we took a 12 gauge shotgun and blew both of our feet off here.

No wonder our expectations here on the board are so low for 2012. I read these posts repeatedly where they think the oline is "decent" or "good enough"......we're setting the bar pretty low I think.

Quote:

---

LINK to the article

Ranking the 2011 Offensive Lines – Part 1

As we make our way through this week devoted to the offensive line, it only seems right that we put out our list of offensive line rankings. This is PFF’s way of letting you know which units graded out the best and in which areas. There are some limitations to these rankings, in that they don’t account for strength of opponents nor do they look at how injuries impacted individual players. Instead, we’ve looked at how each individual lineman graded out and compiled three different categories: pass blocking, run blocking (including screen blocking) and penalties. Then we added them and like magic, got ourselves a set of rankings with the number next to the team in parenthesis denoting their 2010 finish. (Note that these numbers are just for the regular season.)
Tomorrow we’ll continue to count down to the top, but for now, we start at the bottom.


32. Chicago Bears (31st)



Run Rank 31st,
Pass Rank 31st,
Penalties Rank 25th



Does this really surprise anyone?

The Bears at least attempted to rectify their horrible offensive line by drafting Gabe Carimi, only for the tackle to manage 100 snaps before a dislocated knee ended his year. It left them with a group of individuals who struggle to get much push in the run game, and aren’t much better in pass protection. You’d struggle to find a line that performed as badly as the Bears over the years.


Best Player: By default, this was Edwin Williams (+0.5), though this is more of a reflection on the rest of the line which amassed a combined -116.1 grade.


Worst Player: Take your pick. J’Marcus Webb (-26.2) was a failure on the left side, but even he was outdone by Lance Louis (-35.6). Louis should never have moved out to tackle and it really showed down the stretch; in no game more so than when he gave up five sacks to a Chiefs defense that simply destroyed him.

---

I'm not wishing any bad on our team, but I'm curious what you guys think.

If the oline is responsible for our season tanking this year (Cutler getting beaten like a drum, no run game......or worse, we see Cutler carted off with a season ending injury), who takes the fall? Lovie? Tice? Emery, for not drafting any oline players?

Somebody would HAVE to be the fall guy if you're the worst oline in the NFL (or 2nd worst) for a few years - and you just re-arrange the deck chairs instead of improving it.

Well the good news is we will try the pixy dust theory for the third year in a row. Bad news is it hasn't worked two years in a row lol

Oline 2010 31st in NFL. In 2011, 32nd in NFL.

Well, there you go. There's that consistency Tice said he wanted.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by motownbear

Well the good news is we will try the pixy dust theory for the third year in a row. Bad news is it hasn't worked two years in a row lol

---

But we fixed the WR problem which should help the offensiveline ranking ups to 25th.

I didn't buy this when it was posted the first time and I don't buy it now.

When your RBs gain over 1700 yards rushing you must be blocking somebody some of the time. Their pass blocking left a lot to be desired but the run blocking was better than average so how can rank somebody as the worst when their run blocking was one of the best?

Their system of analysis is fucked that's why.

I'm not gonna sit here and defend them but there a good reason for handicapping horse races and risk adjusting returns on investment. What you see ain't always accurate as far as the way it is. Let's look at ALL of the facts.

1) Webb was essentially a rookie LT. I think we may have had a right to expect a little better than we got but he was never gonna be Joe Thomas last year and most likely not any year so how does he rank in comparison to other rookie LTs not guys who have been playing there for an average of five years?

2) Lance Louis is an OG for cryin' out loud playing where he never should have had to play because of two things. Carimi got hurt and OMG was even worse than Louis. He was a five year vet so what would his rating have been if we'd have left him at RT? How does Louis play rank against all the other RGs who played RT last year and how many of them were there?

3) I'm not putting him down but "by default" EWill was our best lineman last year at LG yet he can't even get ahead of Louis, Spencer or even Rachal on the depth chart and supposedly he outranked all of these guys? Is he even ahead of Ricky Henry?

We know the line needs a lot of work and there were times they looked really bad last year but there were also times during that winning streak when they didn't. Five sacks in five games would extrapolate to 16 for the year if they could do that every week. Sixteen sacks for the year would have made them a top pass blocking line with exactly the same schmoes we've got playing now. Some games they sucked and some they didn't and I don't need some pseudo scientific analysis to explain what I watched. They aren't all that good but they're not all that bad either.

I don't know about you guys but this analysis seems to me to be about as scientifically accurate as me taking a piss off my patio to get wind speed and direction. I'm more likely to piss on my sandals than get any useable data.

Quote:

---

I don't know about you guys but this analysis seems to me to be about as scientifically accurate as me taking a piss off my patio to get wind speed and direction. I'm more likely to piss on my sandals than get any useable data.

---

..... nahhhhhh... lol


Thing about a TEAM sport is that how individuals work together is often more important than how they function as individuals...

good... it's for sure it can't get any worse. I don't think our Line is as bad as some say - but it still sucks.

Next year, we will get some help. Either Webb finally stops going to fast food restaurants and concentrates on Football. If he does what I expect him to do, he will suck next year and I hope we find a way to work something out with Long. If it's manageable with the Cap

We really didn't need an "analysis" like this to know the oline was an epic fail in recent years. We saw it with our own eyes. I do believe they were the worst NFL oline I've seen in the past 10 years or so. In some games I wish they'd just stopped the game and told the Bears to come back when they had an offensive line.

If you watched Forte in these past couple of years you clearly saw that he make a lot of that yardage on his own. The line really wasn't doing much for him. In fact, in goal line situations where he DID need an oline to block for him - the oline was DOMINATED and Forte failed to score. He got most of his yardage in recent years - not because of the oline - but in spite of it.

I don't need any "metrics" to validate what I saw with my own eyes. We sucked. Everyone in the NFL saw that we sucked blocking. It's not rocket science here. And this year we're playing the same guys. The only difference is that Tice keeps re-arranging the deck chairs as the Titanic goes down.

Good luck with THAT one Tice.

Fan expectation is higher this year than any I can remember in recent years. If the season doesn't meet those expectations due to oline failure then I have to believe there will be consequences. Somebody gets fired.

Who goes?

Lovie and the whole crew? Will it just be Tice (for telling us the oline was fine for this year)? Emery, for not fixing the oline when it screamed for needing help?

Who goes?