Chiefs vs Raiders II: Breaking Down The O-Line Tape

By Bewsaf Jan 3, 2011, 10:00am CST

Week #17

The Kansas City Chiefs were defeated by the Oakland Raiders this past Sunday. And if the Chiefs want to go further than the first round of the playoffs they will have to perform better than they did against the Raiders.

It's no surprise that the Chiefs had a hard time with the Raiders. I predicted such a game just three weeks ago in my article (here). The problem is that the Ravens are just the same kind of team that the Chiefs have been having problems with all year. KC better get something figured out...and soon.

Let's take a look at those O-line grades from the Raider game.

	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100
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.

Team Run Blocking		Power Blocking		Power Blocking Score		2nd Level Blocks
Did the lineman get the job done or not? These grades are good for understanding value for a team and not necessarily for comparing across teams. A game in the mid 80s to 90% is a decent score.		How often did the offensive lineman dominate the block or how often did he get dominated? These scores are good for comparing across teams and finding the most dominant lineman in the league.		Anything over zero is a good score. The more over zero the more the lineman dominated the defender. Each lineman is scored a minus for being dominated, a zero for a draw, or a plus for dominating the defender.		The number of success over failures for the lineman when blocking linebackers and safeties on the second level. The lineman must be athletic to accomplish a high second level score.

Run Blocking Grades

	Percent	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100	Power	2/Level	Pull
	Grade											Blocking	Blocking	Blocks
Albert	66%											-8	+2	+1
Waters	86%											-6	+4	-2
Wiegmann	83%											-9	+4	+0
Lilja	83%											-3	+2	+4
Richardson	86%											-1	+2	+0
O'Callaghan	--	N/A										---	---	---
Asamoah	--	N/A										---	---	---
Pope	92%											-2	+1	+0
Moeaki	69%											-3	+1	+0

Run & Pass Blocking Notes:

If you haven't noticed, I have started to implement some of the upgraded analysis I will be providing next year. I still have the team blocking grades but now I have provided the precise percent score, a power blocking grade, and a different way of representing the second level blocks and pulling that the lineman have done. I would appreciate any feedback.
The line didn't have a horrible (being relative here) day run blocking as a whole. It still isn't good when all the lineman manage low 80s...but the Raiders were aggressive and stacking the box.
Albert had a horrible day run blocking. Not only is his team grade horrifyingly low (66%) but his power blocking grade was low. At a (-8) that means Albert was dominated eight more times during the game by the defender compared to how often he dominated his defender in the run game...which wasn't very much.
As a whole, the Chief's power blocking scores were low. No surprise. The eye test could tell you the Chiefs were not dominating the Raiders.
With 8:03 in the 3rd quarter, Brian Waters gets a burst of energy and has a nice combo block and then to a linebacker to help Charles into the end zone. I've noticed that Waters' play has become elevated this season when the Chiefs get close to the goal line. Nice to see he still has some left in the tank.
The Chiefs have had problems with physical teams that can stack the box and have one good cover corner. That is what they are going to see against the Baltimore Ravens.

Team Pass Blocking		Passing Power Blocking		Pressures		Combo Help
Did the lineman get the job done or not? These grades are good for understanding value for a team and not necessarily for comparing across teams. A game in the 90% is a good score for pass blocking.		How often did the offensive lineman dominate the block or how often did he get dominated? Each lineman is scored a minus for being dominated, a zero for a draw, or a plus for dominating the block.		How often did the offensive lineman give up pressure on the quarterback? Every once and a while a lineman can do his job but give up pressure on the QB. This stat will help glean more info from the line grades.		How often did the offensive coordinator provide help for a tough defender or a struggling lineman. Yea, two lineman ended up with the same grade...but how much help did either of them get?

Pass Blocking Grades

	Percent	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100	Power	Pressures	Sacks	Combo
	Grade											Blocking	Allowed	Allowed	Help
Albert	81%											-11	10	2	+5
Waters	93%											-3	1	---	+11
Wiegmann	93%											-5	2	---	+11
Lilja	86%											-16	5	---	+8
Richardson	86%											-6	4	3	+14
O'Callaghan	---	N/A										---	---	---	---
Asamoah	---	N/A										---	---	---	---
Pope	92%											-1	---	---	+6
Moeaki	88%											-3	2	---	+4

Run & Pass Blocking Notes:

The pass blocking against the Raiders was bad: Lineman, tight ends, backs...they all had an off day.
Lineman try and get a team pass blocking grade of 90%: Only Waters and Wiegmann got up that high.
By the looks of the team grades you might think that some of the Chief's lineman didn't do that bad. That is why I have started providing the other stats. For example, Albert had a pass blocking grade of 81%...not good but not really bad. But when looking at the other numbers we see that his power blocking score was at a (-11). That mean that his defender dominated him 11 more times than he dominated the defender (that's poor). We can also see that Albert allowed 10 pressures, 2 sacks, and was helped by another lineman or back during pass protection 5 times. After looking at all those numbers we can see really how bad Brandon did.
Richardson had a team line grade of 86%...but look how many times he had a help block. He was helped 14 times so when he wasn't being helped he must have did very poor. A lineman usually gets a job done when he has help with his defender so that inflates the team line grade.
At 3:47 in the 3Q Jake O'Connell gives up a sack.
Late in the second half the line gives up pressure and sacks three plays in a row. Hard to watch.
Lilja is a smart, undersized, lineman. That is why his pass protection team grade was 86%. But if you look closer at his power pass blocking score you will see he was handled pretty good by his defender. A dominant pass blocking score of (-16) is really bad.
At 4:32 in the second quarter Barry Richardson's defender runs down the line of scrimmage to make a sack on the opposite side of the field. Barry was not charged with a sack in my book.
The running backs give up some pressure and a sack during a slide protection a couple of times.