Unintentionally funny line from Rittenberg
I enjoy Rittenberg's writing and I read nearly all of them. Today's piece was ranking the Big Ten Offensive Lines, and he gave Michigan a respectable 4th in the league.
But I enjoyed this part: "The line did an excellent job of protecting Denard Robinson in 2010, allowing a league-low 11 sacks."
While they did do a fine job, and while I certainly mean no disrespect towards our O-line, I just chuckle at the notion that it had less to do with Denard's dilithium feet than the achievements of our relatively young line. If we had a statue like Kirk Cousins under center, there likely would have been more sacks.
That is all - enjoy your Fridays.
What the hell are you doing.... didn't you see TomVH's post. Now sit down and Buckle UP!
I was shocked when I F5'd the Buckle Up thread and someone had started a new thread... I don't know how they had time to be reading something else!
Wear a condom for safety. We don't want accidents of any kind.
- so some of it is systematic as well - and your point is well taken. That being said, the line did do a pretty good job last year in pass pro, qualifications on sacks allowed numbers aside.
I think Denard Robinson would totally disagree with this post.
But Denard, don't you think the lack of sacks had something to do with your footwork and escape ability?
Denard: (laughs) Man...no, my O-line was blocking everybody. I remember one time I was about to get sacked and my boy..eh, Taylor Lewan, just leveled this dude and I was able to get the pass off.
You forgot the part where Denard smiles, causing every baby in the world to laugh.
I was thinking someone could make a fake Denard Twitter the same way there's a FakeTPryor one, except instead of being a douche they could just fake typical Denard responses to questions.
Denard, you were responsible for 67 points against ND, how did you do it?
Man, if my boy Roy Roundtree hadn't caught six touchdown passes this game would have been completely different haha (smiles).
But what about your three rushing touchdowns.
...that was my O-line. Best O-line in the Big Ten, seriously.
I was expecting something more puerile. Perhaps involving the word 'sack.' Ah well, next time maybe.
HEY, TOM'S TWITTER!!
Can never have enough Cox...or something
I think the O-line did a pretty good job of what they were asked to do. This year, they have a bit more experience but they are being asked to do a few different things. I think they will still do a good job. But you point is well taken, having a fast mobile QB does help to avoid a few sacks.
yea i thought that was funny at first, but then i thought about all those times denard just sat back in that pocket... and sat there... and sat there... and sat there. how many times did you yell at the screen, "just take off!!" when he did sit back in the pocket, he had time to do a word search. i think that's what adam was alluding to.
that they added the Big East blogger, Bennett I think, to split with Rittenberg.
haha
I'm not sure why everyone keeps underrating last year's OL. It was borderline excellent. League low sacks and some of the best rushing production Michigan has seen in quite some time. If not for Kerrigan kicking the crap out of us our sack numbers would have been well into the single digits, which is unheard of.
You can attribute a large chunk of the rushing numbers to Denard more than the OL obviously, but not the sack numbers. Denard wasn't a scrambler whatsoever. Once caught, he wasn't hard to bring down (a la Pryor). When he got indecisive, he tended to sit in the pocket for too long rather than run around (a la Forcier). That he had low sack numbers means our OL did a great job in pass pro - in close quarters Denard is probably one of the easier QBs to sack. Of course, if he gets a step or leaves the pocket all bets are off.
This was no intention to underrate the offensive line. I think the ranking of 4th is well-deserved and should be commended for a team that has struggled through the last 3 seasons.
Not to take anything away from them at all - but do you disagree that Cousins would have been sacked significantly more times with the same OL? I believe that to be true.
Cousins took 20 sacks last season. That's more than Denard, but not that many. The only time he really took a lot was in the bowl, when he was sacked four times while attempting 18 passes. During the regular season, he had a 20-1 attempt: sack (320-16) ratio, which is very good. Why is he your counterpoint to Denard?
I'll just leave the creation of threads up to all you geniuses in the future. My bad.