Originally posted by Rascal:
Originally posted by 9ersLiferInChicago:
Originally posted by mayo49:
Originally posted by PERUVIAN49ERS:
Please someone should put OLine heads out of their asses.... 
Yeah, the OL is real bad right now. 
If the O-line is bad I'm putting this on Shanny. He's got the O-line he wants. I'm not really trusting Shanny's offensive personnel judgement right now. He's got the WR's he wants. He's got the O-line he wants. He's got the TE's he wants. He's got the RB's he wants. Given that the offense is largely healthy I expected at least a shootout. Missing half our defensive starters and key rotational players I fully expected the defense to get torched. The offenses inability to score points has nothing to do with the defense, so I'm not putting this on the defense.
I really think Shanny was a bit exposed yesterday. His offense is too finesse, too soft, and the Eagles and Dolphins did what they should have done to a soft team - bully them. That's what happened yesterday. The line couldn't block anyone. The WR's (who are all just slot WR's) couldn't get open. All game Miami played all our WR's tight at the LOS because they don't respect none of them. Our offense just got punked, and Shanny had no answers, and we haven't even gotten to the teeth of our schedule.
This season is over
And I will reiterate again, this O-line is massively compromised for run-blocking which is what Shanahan wanted because running the ball is such a huge part of his offense. As such, in most part the personnel on this line can't or are at least not great in pass protection which is the reason why our QBs are getting killed by half decent pass rushes. Shanahan will have to fix the line and take less emphasis on run-blocking. He needs to replace a good number of players on this line with bigger and stronger solid pass protection linemen, otherwise even if you change QBs they will still get killed. The ONLY other alternative is to ditch his own bias against mobile QBs and start playing mobile QBs who can evade the rush like your Russell Wilsons and Kyler Murrays of the world.
Every bit of that!
I don't disagree with the bold. I actually agree with it. However, that would mean that Shanny's coveted outside zone scheme would be seriously compromised. I've been coaching football for a long time. And I've learned that coaches fall under two main categories:
schemers of the game and
teachers of the game. Then there's the very rare type that excels at both, like Bill Walsh. So far from what I can tell Shanny is an excellent schemer of the game, perhaps the best in the game today. Schemers like Shanny bring players in exclusive to their scheme, with very little deviation. Not much teaching to players who already fit the mold the coach is looking for.
The problem comes when you have situations like we have now, when the schemer has bring in players outside mold he like and teach them to physically perform his scheme. I faced this dilemma in reverse years ago when I first started coaching.
Shanny is gonna have to either 1) bring in bigger, stronger pass blockers and actually teach them how to execute his outside zone scheme, and bring in physical big-body outside WR's that can get open on their own and teach them how he wants his route ran, 2) or, as Rascal stated bring in more athletic, mobile QB's and adjust his scheme to fit him and/or teach him how to execute his scheme (the way that Bill Walsh did with Steve Young).
I've stated before that Shanny is well within his ego about the personnel of his scheme. But clearly he's gonna have to make some real adjustments. Because trust me, teams are going to do what the Eagles and Dolphins did against us, and that's attach his personnel executing his scheme and not the scheme itself.