Breaking Down the Chiefs and Raiders Tape - O-Line

From the FanPosts   -Joel

The Kansas City Chiefs recorded their second win of the season against the Oakland Raiders last Sunday.  For the second week in a row the Chiefs returned the same five starters and continued to build some continuity on the offensive line.

Many fans on AP have wanted Alleman to get some playing time at right guard to see if he could be the answer for the Chiefs.  Against the Raiders, Alleman was not the answer.  He graded out the lowest of the five offensive lineman and demonstrated a difficulty in handling defenders during passing plays.  Even in the area in which he is perceived to have a strength, run blocking, Alleman graded out low.  He had difficulty the whole game keeping his man engaged.

Observations after reviewing the film:

1. The Chiefs used the tight end as a blocker during passing downs more often than last game. 
   
2. Although Pope did not dominate his man at the point of attack he did make sure his man did not make the tackle.  An improvement over previous games.
   
3. Richard Seymour is a load.  Albert had trouble blocking him during runs and Waters had trouble a few times blocking him on the pass.
4. Alleman has trouble with pass blocking.  The 3 times he was driven happened during passing plays.
5. Alleman fires off the ball hard but missed his man frequently.
6. Waters had a good game getting to the second level and making a block.  This is one of the hardest blocks for a lineman, IMO.
7. Alleman had trouble with stunts.  Again, Waters was the best at having his head on a swivel and passing defenders off and picking up defenders looping into his area.
8. The Chiefs pulled their lineman a lot more this game.  For the most part, all the lineman did a good job when pulling.
9. The line appears to still need improvement but also appears to be less of a problem then in previous weeks.
10. Remember, blitz pick-ups have been placed in the PB Double area. 

Here are the grades from first three quarters against the Oakland Raiders :

TOP GRADE		TOP GRADE
	pics source

Here's how it works:

• Each offensive lineman was given a "+" for doing their job or a "-" for failing to do their job on each play.
• These pluses and minuses were grouped into the type of block they were asked to do, e.g., a run block solo (RB Solo), a run block double team (RB Double), or a pass block solo (PB Solo), etc.
• A "D", for "driven", was assigned every time a player was manhandled during a pass or run play.
• The quality of the lineman's play is represented as a percentage above.  The higher the percentage the better the lineman did.
• I tried to be very strict...I think Haley would want it that way.
• One important note, some plays were unclear as to who exactly did not do their job, e.g., a defensive tackle going unblocked at the line of scrimmage.  Was it the centers fault?  The guards fault?  In these cases it was clear that a mistake was made and the player that looked to be most at fault was assigned the blame.