Chiefs vs Rams: Breaking Down The O-Line Tape

By Bewsaf Dec 20, 2010, 10:01am CST

Week #15

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the St. Louis Rams this past Sunday 27-13, but the KC offense was slow to get started.

Frequently stacking the box with 8 players and trying to be physical with the Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman, the Rams tried following a recipe three previous teams before them had used. But in the end St. Louis didn't quite have the personnel to keep KC from grinding out 210 rushing yards.

The Kansas City offensive line might have started out slow but they picked it up in the second half to secure one of three wins needed to earn the AFC West crown.

Let's take a look at those O-line grades.

	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	00
Percent Scale

Please refer to the Chiefs Preseason: Breaking Down The O-Line Tape - Primer at the bottom of this article for any inquiries into the method used to grade the lineman.
Click on Bewsaf Past Posts at the bottom of this post for any past o-line articles you might have

Performance Perspective

60% or below		70%		80%		90% or above
60% is an indication the lineman was some defenders boy toy.		70% is a rough day in both the run or passing game. The lineman probably got notice a lot and won't hold a job scoring 70% every week.		80% is a solid day for run blocking but only an average day for pass blocking. Players strive to be above 80% every game.		Player had great game run or pass blocking if they score a 90%. All pro players are consistently in the 90%.

RUN BLOCKING

PASS BLOCKING

	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100		10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100
Percent Scale											Percent Scale
Albert											Albert
Waters											Waters
Wiegmann											Wiegmann
Lilja											Lilja
Richardson											Richardson
O'Callaghan	N/A										O'Callaghan	N/A
Asamoah	N/A										Asamoah	N/A
Pope											Pope
Moeaki											Moeaki

Run & Pass Blocking Notes:

Remember that if a lineman gets into the red then he at least had an average day. Ninety percent is a good day in general.
Lilja had another rough day run blocking. He was driven 4 times and end up with a run blocking grade of 79% (sub-par day).
Barry Richardson had another sub-par day pass blocking. He was frequently beat to the inside after a quick move up field and a club move inside. The last couple of weeks have been disheartening when assessing Richardson progress at right tackle. Around mid-season Barry had made a lot of progress, however, currently he has regressed and is allowing a lot more pressure on Matt Cassel.
Pope really didn't have that good of a day blocking.
Jake O'Connell had a lot more snaps at tight end this week. He especially was useful when he stayed in on passing plays to help pass block all the blitzing defenders that the Rams were sending.
Albert has an 85% pass blocking day against St. Louis. For left tackles, that is an ok grade but not good enough in the long run.
Albert is called for 2 penalties, Waters 1, and Moeaki 1.

SECOND LEVEL BLOCKING

POINT OF ATTACK BLOCK

	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100		10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100
Percent Scale											Percent Scale
Albert											Albert
Waters											Waters
Wiegmann											Wiegmann
Lilja											Lilja
Richardson											Richardson
O'Callaghan	N/A										O'Callaghan	N/A
Asamoah	N/A										Asamoah	N/A
Pope	N/A										Pope
Moeaki	N/A										Moeoki

Graphic bars from draftboardinsiders.com

Second Level Blocking Notes:

Due to the aggressive play of the Rams, the Chiefs didn't have many second level blocking attempts. The Rams followed the recipe that many teams have used and were very aggressive with their linebackers.
Albert and Waters (nice second level block) had two good blocks at the 1:50 mark in the 2Q to get Jamaal Charles into the end zone.
Wiegmann relives his glory days when he gets the opportunity to pull to the right at the 1:28 mark in the 3rd quarter.
Chiefs kept the backs in a few times this week to help with the constant blitzing from St. Louis.
Albert misses a linebacker twist at the 10:33 mark in the 3rd quarter.
Matt Cassel was sacked 3 times this past Sunday.

***Next year I am thinking about doing away with the second level and point of attack blocking scales and adding different information. I would like to add: 1) the # of pressures given up by each lineman 2) a dominance factor to be used to compare KC lineman with lineman from other teams. If you can think of any other stat you would like to see here then let me know...I might consider providing it.

OTHER SEASON STATS