Seahawks Grades: Watching the o-line do work vs the Patriots, part II

Friday had part I, which you really must read first here.

Without further adieu ... gifs.

Here’s the play chart again for reference.

Now let’s take a look at a few specific plays.

Play 13: Pass short left to CJ Prosise for 18 yards

There is both good and bad on this play. Fant and Glowinski don’t recognize the stunt, however that doesn’t matter as Glowinski ends up pancaking the LB; Britt locks on to the NT, and the DE stunting over the top; Ifedi sees it and picks up the DE, which is impressive since he’s coming from the opposite side of the line. All while Gilliam blew me away on this play. Watch his footwork. DE does a double move, fakes outside, inside then tries to rush outside. Gilliam’s footwork is great, keeps him in position and then just has to body up the DE when he tries to go back outside.

Play 18: Christine Michael left end for 2 yards

Michael should be off to the races, but one missed block held it to only two yards. Fant has a good block, Glowinski had a really great combo block on the NT with Britt, moved to the LB and opened up a huge lane. Britt handled the NT. Ifedi has to do a reach/combo block to help Gilliam get position, but almost chips instead. Doing this causes him to get too close to the DE and makes it so he has further distance to travel to get to the LB, which he can’t get to soon enough. If he reaches instead by using his length, he’ll be able to get in position on the LB. This caused the play to fail.

Play 24: Prosise right tackle for 10 yards

Good and bad on this play, but mostly good. Fant continues his terribleness at cut blocking. Other than Fant, Glowinski has a great cut block and takes the DT to the ground, Britt combos to the LB and knocks him to the ground, Ifedi locks on to the DT and Gilliam combo blocks the DE with Brandon Williams then moves to the DB.

Play 26: Michael left end for 9 yards

I love this play because there is nothing like the big guys up front getting a running start to lead block for the running back. Here Fant seals the edge, Glowinski pulls and is the lead blocker. He misses his block but does enough to effect the defender that Michael makes him miss. Britt is awesome on this play, he pulls and comes behind Glowinski and gets a perfect cut block. Ifedi keeps the DT from pursuing. Gilliam also pulls and goes through the middle of the line to try and cut off the backside linebacker and is only able to get a push, but its enough.

Play 56: Prosise left end for 3 yards

I wanted to highlight this play, as its the same call as play 26 above but with Prosise. The Patriots safety and MLB pursue well here, since the line got bogged down and Gilliam couldn’t get out to cut one of them. But watch Glowinski and Britt again, just superb blocks, Britt especially with his pancake block.

Summary:

The offensive line is starting to gel and are getting better every week. There are still some issues, especially with stunts, that Fant and Glowinski need to work on together, but they’ll get better the more they play together. The rest of the line is picking up stunts and blitzes beautifully.

New England did some interesting things that jacobstevens mentioned in his article from Wednesday, “A closer look at the epic coaching battle that was Pete Carroll vs Bill Belichick”. Essentially, the Pats only rushed Russell Wilson with two and three man rushes, almost daring Seattle to run the ball. They thought they could get enough pressure while maximizing the defenders to limit Wilson’s options, which obviously he was still able to exploit. This led to a lot of double teams and plenty of time for Wilson in the pocket.

The line still has a long way to go, but its very encouraging to see how far they’ve come along. There were only a few plays where blocks where completely missed. There weren’t any communication errors and all the line calls where picked up, no blown assignments. Failures where just because they were beat, not because they were doing the wrong thing. Now with Thomas Rawls coming back, I think they are only going to get better.

BONUS:

Play 2: Pass deep right to Tyler Lockett for 36 yards

The only thing you need to watch in this play, is Lockett’s release off the line. Freakin’ amazing. I’m sure this release made Doug Baldwin proud of his protege. Phenomenal footwork.