Marshawn’s Message, Assessing The O-Line & More

@natedawg338 asks, “Were the offensive line struggles in the first half scheme issues or guys getting beat?”

A: When the quarterback is sacked on the first play of the game, then hit on the second, resulting in an interception, and when a holding penalty leads to a safety, then clearly, as Macdonald put it Monday, “There’s room for improvement. No one’s going to turn the tape on in the first half and be excited about what they saw.”

On a more encouraging note, the line did play a lot better, and there was some really good run blocking happening in the second half as Kenneth Walker rushed for 84 of his 103 yards. It’s also worth remembering that the line was playing without its top two right tackles for most of the game—George Fant, starting in place of an injured Abraham Lucas, left with a first-quarter knee injury—and that starting center Connor Williams was playing less than a year removed from a torn ACL and having only joined the team in mid-August. Williams fared well, all things considered, but he’ll only get better, and the line as a whole will get more comfortable with its new center as he spends more time with that group.

“To their credit, they kept plugging away, and I thought in the second half, the guys played well together,” Macdonald said. “There are a couple of plays you want back. But, on the whole, I thought the second half did a great job of those guys responding and coming back and playing some good football.”

And if you really want to feel better about the line after a day that featured some issues, go back and watch the play of left tackle Charles Cross, who after a great training camp opened his season with a very strong game. Yes, offensive line play takes more than one player, but having a standout left tackle is a great place to start for any line.