Firing Away - Review of the 2010 Offensive Line [ edit | delete ]
By Adam Knoll | July 22, 2010 at 12:08 AM EDT | No Comments (0 new)
Written By Frank the Tank
This year our offensive line had its up’s a downs, sadly more downs. Everyone knows you can’t win games without a solid core of guys who can open up decent size holes for the running back, buy time for the quarterback, or get up field to assist with clearing some defensive secondary to make and ordinary play a big gain. Every time we would get a few pieces who could work together and make that happen we would suffer a freak injury or personal issues would get in the way and we would be forced to add new players who don’t really know how to run our playbook. With that said, I believe with all the things we’ve been through, I like our final product.
I got to say the beginning was our biggest struggle. From March to early May we had veteran tackle David Haywood along with rookie TE Andrew Menard and C Tim Thornton as our core line with me being moved around. It looked very promising with guys like Menard and Haywood having a good combination of speed and blocking ability. Tim was a little bit of a long shot because not only hasn’t he played for a long time, he also never played center in his life. He showed good heart and put a lot of time into his position which eventually convinced me he was a diamond in the rough (and I think he still is). As the preseason went on we realized that Haywood, also our starting DE, was constantly winded which hindered his ability a little and kept us from putting him in certain situations. Also, Tim’s inexperience took a toll on him, heart and quick learning can only get you so far. With Haywood not playing often, I had to play the role of Tackle much more often. I didn’t do terrible but I struggled against some of the speedy defensive ends and blitzing linebackers. Menard did wonderful the whole way through but one lineman can’t handle everything.
Week one of the season was our first true upturn of our year. Tim suffered an elbow injury, so I got thrown in at Center in the middle of the game against a league power the Kenosha Cougars. I had only been practicing there a week. I was so nervous because I didn’t think Tim was going to get hurt and now I’m in the spotlight. I ended up doing exceedingly well for the amount of time I put in. We realized now we can kill two birds with one stone. We can get the more mobile Tim and put him in the tackle rotation, and put my strength and experience to lockdown the middle. The pieces all fell into place with the offensive line of Menard, Haywood, and me. Now all we needed was a little bit of chemistry which only time could help. Later on we realized time wasn’t going to give us a break.
After a big win in week two, we were now up against the defending champion Lakeshore Lynx. The first two plays went very well when all of a sudden, my knee gave out again. With me out for the season we had to place our hopes back in the rookie Tim Thornton. The Lynx knew that with their talent and strength, no rookie could hold the line, so they blitzed relentlessly up the middle. They ended up beating us by a good margin. The following week against the Premier wasn’t much better. We really had trouble picking ourselves up. The team was sputtering due to our inability to gel and consistently take care of business.
Eventually, two weeks later right before our fifth game against the Sabers, 4 of our veterans quit seeking greener pastures with the Racine Threat. Sadly, one of them was Haywood. Out of desperation Matt Splitt decided he had seen enough, with Tim having trouble and with me now on IR, we needed a guy who could hold the line, regardless if he’d ever done it before. He threw his heart into it; there was a silver lining in the clouds once again.
We added a player Adam Peterson to fill the void at tackle. He has gone up and beyond expectations with very consistent solid blocking. Matt Splitt, though undersized, plays big. He finds a way to get the job done and he has been nothing but persistent to learn more and become better at what he does. Menard has done so well he has rendered me speechless. Just think of what blockers are supposed to do and multiply it by 5, that’s Menard. Finally, Tim is showing signs of improvement and I believe with some offseason work we could turn him into a stout lineman yet.
After four weeks of the same line (Splitt, Menard, Adam Peterson and Thornton as our rotation man) finally we are in present time and I couldn’t be more proud of what we have become. The gelling that should have taken place early in the season is finally taking shape, and it’s no coincidence that we have played better as a team. Honestly, when I come back from injury, I wouldn’t rather work with anyone else.
I have a firm belief that if Adam Knoll stayed healthy we would be in the playoff hunt. Yet that’s a hard one to say, we have had injuries, and depletions all season long. We are down to around 17 guys. We fight our heads off, every single game, yet we are thin and it’s hard to stay in games when everyone is tired. Yet we have shown resolve this past month, and I don’t think anyone doubts our skill, or heart. We are the team we set out to be, finally. I just hope we can put it together next year using the core group we have together now.
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