Alex Boone

[Mothman]

Alex Boone says criticism of offensive line is “right and fair”

“We watched [the film] yesterday and a lot of that criticism is right and it’s fair and we understand that,” Boone said. “We’ve got to pick our game up. Obviously the run game is completely unacceptable and I know people say a lot of things but at the end of the day it falls on the offensive line to always make it go. No matter what happens you always got to make the run game go. That’s gonna be a challenge this week against a good, good defense. Pass-wise, obviously, protection always falls on the offensive line and that’s another thing we kind of dwindled a little bit last week. We’ve got to pick that up big time this week.”

How specifically does that happen?

“I think the one thing you do is you go back and watch the film of the game that just happened and you say, ‘You know what? Listen, these are simple fixes.’ These are elementary problems. Let’s not let this linger. Let’s not make this a bigger problem than it has to be. We know what we did wrong. We know what we can clean up. Let’s go out and let’s practice against it. You know that’s another thing; Wednesday’s practice is so important. You’ve got to go out and you’ve got to be great on Wednesday. You’ve got to practice great and you’ve got to have the scout team coming at you tough and I think that’s going to be the big key this week.”

There's more at the link, including Boone's comments about Bradford, which are worth reading.

[PurpleMustReign]

Alex Boone says criticism of offensive line is “right and fair”
There's more at the link, including Boone's comments about Bradford, which are worth reading.

So... the problems are easily correctable???

[Mothman]

So... the problems are easily correctable???

We'll see. Apparently, they can correct their problems and if we just wait a few weeks, they'll all adjust to Sparano's coaching, Bradford's cadence and each other and everything will be fine. I hope that's true but Kalil has been struggling for years, Smith has struggled the past couple of years, Fusco was bad last year... I think there's a lot of wishful thinking going on.

Meanwhile, Bradford's played one game, was sacked 4 times, hit 9 or 10 times and had to have his hand x-rayed after the game. They'd better get those corrections in fast.

[Norv Zimmer]

It looked to me like Bradford's hand got hit and he had a large blood blister on it. He then went to the locker room, when he came back he had a small.cut where the blister was. My theory is they cut it open to drain it and relieve pressure.

[Mothman]

It looked to me like Bradford's hand got hit and he had a large blood blister on it. He then went to the locker room, when he came back he had a small.cut where the blister was. My theory is they cut it open to drain it and relieve pressure.

I noticed the same thing.

[Norv Zimmer]

They were just speculating about the x-rays I think.

[PsyDanny]

So... the problems are easily correctable???

The Christian Ponder of OLinemen?

[S197]

I could not disagree with you more.


It's a well known fact that fans making noise while the offense is on the field is not the preferred option, and quite frankly, I don't know how you can be upset with a player for stating the very obvious.

It literally says on both giant screens "quiet, offense at work" or something very similar.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[IrishViking]

We'll see. Apparently, they can correct their problems and if we just wait a few weeks, they'll all adjust to Sparano's coaching, Bradford's cadence and each other and everything will be fine. I hope that's true but Kalil has been struggling for years, Smith has struggled the past couple of years, Fusco was bad last year... I think there's a lot of wishful thinking going on.

Meanwhile, Bradford's played one game, was sacked 4 times, hit 9 or 10 times and had to have his hand x-rayed after the game. They'd better get those corrections in fast.

Or you know, they will just improve with time to gel. Why is that so hilariously unbelievable it deserves sarcastic comment? You literally dont believe 5 professionals will approve after playing together for more than one week with the each other and the same QB? You think they have peaked barring a dynamic change?

[Mothman]

Or you know, they will just improve with time to gel. Why is that so hilariously unbelievable it deserves sarcastic comment? You literally dont believe 5 professionals will approve after playing together for more than one week with the each other and the same QB? You think they have peaked barring a dynamic change?

Sorry, sometimes I fail to sufficiently suppress my sarcastic side.

I don't think they've peaked and I don't dismiss the idea that they can get better. In fact, I expect to see some improvement from them over the course of the season. My sarcasm yesterday was in response to the notion that all this unit really needs is time to gel. It looks to me like their problems run much deeper than that, especially because, as I said, several of these players have been struggling for some time now.

[IrishViking]

Sorry, sometimes I fail to sufficiently suppress my sarcastic side.

I don't think they've peaked and I don't dismiss the idea that they can get better. In fact, I expect to see some improvement from them over the course of the season. My sarcasm yesterday was in response to the notion that all this unit really needs is time to gel. It looks to me like their problems run much deeper than that, especially because, as I said, several of these players have been struggling for some time now.

I guess I can agree with that although I feel like at their best this can be an above average unit, just taking each player's individual peaks into account. I hope Sparano can squeeze a bit more out of them, the way i look at it is 1-2 fewer sacks and a couple less hurries and we are talking about how stout we looked in pass defense, we are closer on pass blocking imo then most people believe
Run Blocking is a hot mess.

[Texas Vike]

I guess I can agree with that although I feel like at their best this can be an above average unit, just taking each player's individual peaks into account. I hope Sparano can squeeze a bit more out of them, the way i look at it is 1-2 fewer sacks and a couple less hurries and we are talking about how stout we looked in pass defense, we are closer on pass blocking imo then most people believe
Run Blocking is a hot mess.

I agree that we are closer with pass blocking. There were stretches of the GB game when they did fine. Run blocking is definitely a hot mess.

[mansquatch]

Sorry, sometimes I fail to sufficiently suppress my sarcastic side.

I don't think they've peaked and I don't dismiss the idea that they can get better. In fact, I expect to see some improvement from them over the course of the season. My sarcasm yesterday was in response to the notion that all this unit really needs is time to gel. It looks to me like their problems run much deeper than that, especially because, as I said, several of these players have been struggling for some time now.

Jim, I agree, I am not sold on there being some kind of high ceiling. However, I do think the "gel" thing is reasonable given the long history in the NFL of that being an issue. This line is a classic case with so many new players where the "gel" thing is an issue.

However, I agree 100% that it is not the ONLY issue. We are at the point with Kalil and Fusco where we have several seasons of below average play, even if they "gel" we are stupid to expect them to suddenly become above average. Andre Smith was let go by the Bengals so it probably fair to assume that he also has a low ceiling. Boone has performed at a high level so I think we can still have faith in him. Berger has also been competitive, but he is old.

This is the indictment of Spielman on OL. Heading into this season we have 3 guys that are average at best (and at their best) and 2 who are potentially good. One of the good guys is in his mid-30s. So basically going into the 2017 off season there is a reasonable case that we need FOUR (!!!) new OL. On top of the mediocrity, they are 5th highest paid line in the league. There is no way that spins to anything but terrible.

I give Sparano a pass only because it is his first season and he hasn't had much opportunity to coach up "his" guys. My guess is he has a multi-year project ahead of him which will involve massive overhaul.

The worst part of all of this is that this situation exists on a roster where just about every other group is ready to compete for a championship...

[IrishViking]

Jim, I agree, I am not sold on there being some kind of high ceiling. However, I do think the "gel" thing is reasonable given the long history in the NFL of that being an issue. This line is a classic case with so many new players where the "gel" thing is an issue.

However, I agree 100% that it is not the ONLY issue. We are at the point with Kalil and Fusco where we have several seasons of below average play, even if they "gel" we are stupid to expect them to suddenly become above average. Andre Smith was let go by the Bengals so it probably fair to assume that he also has a low ceiling. Boone has performed at a high level so I think we can still have faith in him. Berger has also been competitive, but he is old.

This is the indictment of Spielman on OL. Heading into this season we have 3 guys that are average at best (and at their best) and 2 who are potentially good. One of the good guys is in his mid-30s. So basically going into the 2017 off season there is a reasonable case that we need FOUR (!!!) new OL. On top of the mediocrity, they are 5th highest paid line in the league. There is no way that spins to anything but terrible.

I give Sparano a pass only because it is his first season and he hasn't had much opportunity to coach up "his" guys. My guess is he has a multi-year project ahead of him which will involve massive overhaul.

The worst part of all of this is that this situation exists on a roster where just about every other group is ready to compete for a championship...

I will not say our GM deserves a pass but remember where we were just 3-4 years ago. I started to do a big write up on it but ended up deleting it, basically broke down every drafts first two rounds and pointed out which Olinemen we could have gotten, what we would have had to give up, and how well certain Olineman panned out. We had no secondary, a depleted linebacking core, no wide receivers, and our Dline had recently lost the William wall. There where a couple of standouts we could have gotten, at the expense of Bridgwater, Barr, Smith.

I don't want to get into a hindsight debate but i don't think people Remeber just how complete our rebuild needs were a few years ago. If you could improve everything at once everyone would win the superbowl. What if we had no Linebackers, or our secondary sucked again (see 20 years prior to zimmer) or we got coverage sacks because we had no WRs?

Again, no pass, the oline needs attention but it's not like he just ignored it and reinforced strong spots for 5 years. Haha our whole team was a need in 2010.

[Mothman]

Jim, I agree, I am not sold on there being some kind of high ceiling. However, I do think the "gel" thing is reasonable given the long history in the NFL of that being an issue. This line is a classic case with so many new players where the "gel" thing is an issue.

However, I agree 100% that it is not the ONLY issue. We are at the point with Kalil and Fusco where we have several seasons of below average play, even if they "gel" we are stupid to expect them to suddenly become above average. Andre Smith was let go by the Bengals so it probably fair to assume that he also has a low ceiling. Boone has performed at a high level so I think we can still have faith in him. Berger has also been competitive, but he is old.

This is the indictment of Spielman on OL. Heading into this season we have 3 guys that are average at best (and at their best) and 2 who are potentially good. One of the good guys is in his mid-30s. So basically going into the 2017 off season there is a reasonable case that we need FOUR (!!!) new OL. On top of the mediocrity, they are 5th highest paid line in the league. There is no way that spins to anything but terrible.

I give Sparano a pass only because it is his first season and he hasn't had much opportunity to coach up "his" guys. My guess is he has a multi-year project ahead of him which will involve massive overhaul.

The worst part of all of this is that this situation exists on a roster where just about every other group is ready to compete for a championship...

Isn't that always the way with the Vikings? They just can't seem to build a very complete team. they always seem to have some massive Achilles heel.

Good post.