Maybe It's Not Just The O-Line

[dgack]

Schneed, I wasn't making any "points" with comparisons to those teams, just seeing what fell out of the stats. The Buffalo comparison was an attempt to see what team is closest to us in terms of play selection and rushing effectiveness.

To me what these numbers mean are one of three things:

1 -- We are not calling plays that are suited to the strengths of the personnel we have (healthy)

2 -- Different personnel could be more effective running behind the line we're currently fielding (this one seems the most contentious issues)

3 -- We are simply so injury depleted that we can't run effectively.

It seems like many are firmly behind #3. I can accept that run blocking and pass blocking are not the same thing, but I question whether they are so night-and-day different that we are basically without hope until our line "heals" or we upgrade there.

SGG, I had much of the same thoughts when I looked at KC, St. Louis, and Seattle -- though Alexander has also been injured a lot and is on the downside of an extremely prolific career. LJ and Jackson are legitimate comparisons, but Jones is also a pretty tired journeyman back.

Again, I'm not trashing the effort the dude gives. Nor am I saying that the line is doing a great job making holes for dudes to hit. But I don't think that we can rely on the same "classic Redskins" gameplan that we employ with a healthy O-Line anymore. Why aren't we running more screens, for example? This discussion about CP's effectiveness is not all about him breaking down (though I think that's a legitimate concern). It's also about how he's being misused in this offense right now.