Player Sketches from Seahawks-Titans: Max Unger

Max Unger is approaching structural failure. Rather, the Seahawks offensive line is approaching structural failure because one of its main supports, and one of only five, is consistently and totally stressed to his strength limit.

Unger lost ground on his first pass block. Three plays later, Jason Jones drove him into Julius Jones, shed and tackled Jones for no gain. In the second play of the next series, he was driven back again and lost his man. Jones was stopped after three on second and 17.

Unger struggled through three quarters and against mostly backups. Chris Spencer teams with Ben Hamilton to double the nose or one-tech tackle on most snaps. That leaves Unger alone to contain, drive back even, the three-tech or under tackle. One could argue that  he is assigned a more difficult responsibility than the one performed by Spencer or Hamilton. That established, he is failing at an alarming rate. He moves well and blocks well in space. He can contain many types of pass rush moves, but Unger is regularly beat back and shed against a simple bull rush.

Competition will only get better. Unger needs to step up and soon.