Grading the Chicago Bears Offensive Line versus the Atlanta Falcons
Submitted by Your Boy Roy on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 10:41am
What a difference a shortened off-season makes. Arguably the biggest question mark going into Sunday's game was the Chicago Bears offensive line. As I've said before, the Chicago Bears will go as far this season as the offensive line allows them to go. Based on their production in week one versus the Atlanta Falcons, the sky appears to be the limit for the Chicago Bears in 2011.
As some of you already know, I've been exhaustively breaking down Bears games for years. I gave you a taste of my methodologies during the short lived, yet very well received Chicago Football Film Room series on YouTube. The latest byproduct of my extensive breakdowns has been the addition of my offensive line grading series which began this preseason. Because the Bears offensive line was the biggest question mark going into the season, I had to do my best to translate the answers I see while breaking down tape into a digestible format for my fellow Bears fans. Without further introduction, here are the grades for the Chicago Bears offensive line versus the Atlanta Falcons ordered by overall performance starting with the line as a unit.
| Overall | Running | Passing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| As a Unit | B 86.89% (-43.25) | C 79.26% (-28) | A- 92.18% (-15.25) |
| Overall, the Bears offensive line played very well in this game. Of the 66 chartable snaps that occurred, 39 of them were passes with the remaining 27 being runs. Considering the Bears led for the majority of the game, you can see which side of the ball the Bears would like to make their living on. Appropriately, the Bears graded very well in the passing game giving Jay all day to throw on several occasions. They weren't perfect by any means as is reflected in their -15.25 pass blocking score, but -8 of that score was accumulated by the young tackles, Webb & Carimi. Of more concern to me is the run blocking which scored at -28. Their main weakness continues to be open field blocking and at the second level, especially for Roberto Garza who whiffed regularly. To be fair, as Michael Wright of ESPN 1000 tweeted to me when I was tweeting about the run blocking, it does take a few games before the backs and the offensive line mesh to the point of having the running game "pop" as he put it. | |||
| Chris Spencer | B+ 90.76% (-4.25) | B+ 90.48% (-2) | B+ 91% (-2.25) |
| After Lance Louis left the game due to injury at the 11 minute mark of the second quarter, Spencer ended up having the best performance among the Bears offensive linemen. Very impressive considering his natural position is at center and he's still only practiced with the team for little over a month. What impressed me even more than him taking care of his own assignments was the athleticism and field awareness that he showed while helping Gabe Carimi on several passing plays. As for his mistakes, three mistakes he made could actually be attributed to miscommunication, lack of experience with the blocking schemes, and also due to tying to do too much to try to make up for other teammates mistakes, specifically Kellen Davis on one running play. He had two mistakes in the running game, one when he whiffed on a cut block and the other where he allowed himself to get shed due to poor pad level & hand placement. Other than that, he had a false start that was not called which accounted for the -.25 you see in his running and overall grade. Seeing as how Spencer graded out as well as he did at guard, I would expect him to be starting this week at right guard if Louis is ruled out versus the Saints. As for Spencer's 2011 future when Louis is healthy? If he plays as well as he did versus the Falcons and continues to improve, he would be hard to bench. Depending on how the other linemen play while Louis is out, you might see Spencer squeezed in at the expense of other players as opposed to Lance Louis. Time will tell. | |||
| Gabe Carimi | B 87.88% (-8) | B- 85.19 (-4) | B+ 89.74% (-4) |
| Surprisingly, Carimi graded out to be the Bears second best lineman overall despite making several rookie mistakes. There was one mistake that he made which I cannot attribute to his lack of experience. On that one running play, he didn't play until the whistle blew and let go of his block at the second level which allowed his guy to make the tackle on Forte. At least this only occurred once or I'd be making more of a stink about it. I'm sure Tice has already pointed it out to him so I don't expect to see that becoming a regular problem moving forward. Being a rookie, Carimi needed help from his fellow linemen creating holes in the line which plays were made from. As he grows, those linemen will be able to stay home which should improve the overall play of the line significantly. | |||
| Roberto Garza | B 86.36% (-9) | C 77.78% (-6) | A- 92.31% (-3) |
| Newly crowned captain Roberto Garza didn't have a terrible game in his debut at center for the Chicago Bears. I don't want to underestimate the complexities of quarterbacking the offensive line which is an intangible that I don't have accounted for in my grades. That being said, Garza continues to show issues with his run blocking in the open field and at the second level. He whiffed on several plays and made little contact on two other plays while attempting to block in the open field. On Forte's big touchdown run, when Forte takes a hit from a defender towards the end, it was Garza's guy that took the shot on Forte after Garza completely whiffed while attempting to block him in the open field. On another running play, Forte made up for Garza's second level whiff again by breaking the tackle gaining 6 yards. These are the types of plays I alluded to when I tweeted that Forte was making his offensive line look better than they played. Garza fared much better in the passing game though he still had a few bad plays. On the big missed touchdown pass from Cutler to Davis, it was Garza's guy who immediately bullrushed passed him whom Jay noticed which forced the hurried and missed throw to Davis. Though Garza played well overall, I'm concerned that he will not get any better at this stage of his career at open field blocking. Unfortunately, the fact that he was recently named captain makes me think the Bears will be really hesitant to replace him for Spencer though he would be an immediate upgrade in terms of open field blocking. The Bears probably feel they can get by with the poor second level blocking for now as long as they keep winning. However, if Garza gets hurt, I could see the Bears taking advantage of that opportunity to leave Spencer in at center assuming he continues to play well especially if their run game improves as a result. | |||
| Chris Williams | B 86.36% (-9) | C- 74.07% (-7) | A 94.87% (-2) |
| Tied with Garza for third among Bears offensive linemen, Williams played much better in the passing game than he did in the running game. The biggest mistake he was involved in was caused by him having terrible pad level which allowed him to get pushed into the hole and then into Clutts who then fell on Louis ankle, injuring him for the game. The remaining mistakes that Williams had which could not be attributed to miscommunication or confusion, were almost all due to him playing too high with poor pad level and leverage. A couple of times this resulted in Williams being pushed into the runner. His worst open field block actually came on the wildcat play when he made no contact with anyone while pulling. That being said, Williams still proved his worth as a pass blocker, which is his strength, as he graded out the be the best pass blocker among the linemen that played the whole game. | |||
| Lance Louis | B- 85% (-3) | F 50% (-3) | A+ 100% (0) |
| Sadly, Louis was injured and it was actually due to his teammates having poor pad level which forced the line to collapse into Clutts who then fell on his ankle. He never saw it coming. To his credit, he tried to give it another play, but he fell down with barely any contact due to having the bum wheel. He was immediately replaced after that. In his short stint of play, Louis again flexed his pass blocking muscle on the 14 passing plays that he was in for, clocking in with another perfect pass blocking grade. Of his three mistakes in the running game, one was due to confusion in the open field between he and Spaeth, the other came when he did not play to the end of the whistle, and the last play came due to poor pad level. All of that resulted in him making mistakes on three of his six total running plays. I doubt Louis would have finished with an F in the running game had he played the rest of the game. That being said, you have to make the most of your opportunities which he did not on two of the three mistakes that he made. Because the Bears want to be a passing team which Louis excels at, I don't necessarily expect him to lose his job to injury unless Spencer plays phenomenally. | |||
| J'Marcus Webb | B- 84.85% (-10) | C 77.78% (-6) | B+ 89.74% (-4) |
| Though he ended up with the lowest grade among the linemen, Webb didn't play terribly which shows you how well the line played overall. Basically he made the most mistakes of a very solid bunch. Webb had only one play that I could attribute to miscommunication between he and Williams which resulted in a tackle for a loss. Webb was called for holding twice, but I still question the second holding call even though I still graded him negatively for it. Webb's main problem continues to be his poor pad level. I'm not really sure if he'll ever get low enough due to his size. On the play where Louis got hurt, his poor pad level forced him to be the first domino to collapse resulting in Louis' injury. Webb can still improve with his technique over time which could allow him to overcome that weakness more often than not. I'll be on the lookout for this as the year progresses, but I won't be completely expecting it per se. | |||
As I said earlier, the line played well overall. They began to positively answer the questions that many Bears fans had regarding their ability to protect Jay Cutler. I am hopeful that this mostly young group can make some improvements and clean up the mistakes that they had. My main concern now isn't with the protection of Jay Cutler as he's helping them make their job easier. My concern now is with the open-field blocking and poor pad level that some of the linemen showed which negatively impacted the running game. Fans who have been wondering why Forte looked off in the running game should realize that he actually played very well considering how little he had to work with on several running plays. As such, Forte needs to also be given far more credit than he's been receiving for making his offensive line look better just as Cutler has. In closing, I'll leave you with a quote from Cutler's postgame presser which summarizes my feelings the best, "Protection wise, those guys did a heck of a job for me. If we can get that level [of play], and those guys are going to continue to get better and build on that, we're gonna be pretty good I think." The sky's the limit my friends.
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Hey roy i wanted to know going into the future if along with your line grades will you also possibly include
tight ends? Just wondering cause while some of the o-line did definitely step up, there was some plays were Davis looked a little suspect at pass blocking. I think it would be pretty neat to also show how those guys are progressing along with the front 5.
Great stuff as always my friend. Even though we've lost your film room, we've gained your text-base breakdowns which can then be spread along the grapevine,. So it's all good. Great work, man.
I know that continuity is the goal and I am very happy with the line play but, if Webb struggles or is injured, could you see a Williams, Spencer, Garza, Louis, Carimi line?
Thanks for the great reporting!
It felt like the line started to give up more sacks later in the game. I don't know if thats due to being tired or ATL just finding a weakness and sense of urgency late in the game or the Bears thinking the game was over. You know when you have a nice lead it's always good to finish strong and I felt the Bears line started to get sloppy but none the less they played pretty well. I think they need to take more pride in not letting Cutler get touched. To me you hold if it means someone gets a free shot on your QB. I think Webb was getting beat so much that he had to hold and they called him on it. But they were better than bad. So thats good.
It looked to me more cutler was getting a little too comfortable and holding the ball slightly longer as the game went on, not saying it was all on cutler but it was a little bit of both
He's always seemed to lack that clock in his head. I mean five seconds is asking for trouble. I nearly prefer to see him throw on the run.
Good stuff, Roy! I always enjoy your in-depth breakdowns and I'm glad you found that the line acquitted itself well in its first actual game. I know the debate is centering around whether to play Spencer or Williams at RG in the wake of the injury to Louis, but I wonder if they might also moving Garza back to RG and inserting Spencer at C. I guess we'll see.
thank you for this