Marshawn’s Message, Offensive Line Evaluation and More

@natedawg338 asks: “Did the offensive line struggle in the first half, was it scheme issues or guys getting beat?”

A: When the quarterback is tackled on the first play of the game and then hit on the second, resulting in an interception, and when a holding penalty results in a safety, then clearly, as Macdonald said Monday, “there’s room for improvement. Nobody’s going to turn on the tape in the first half and be excited about what they saw.”

On a brighter note, the line played much better, and there was some very good run blocking in the second half, with Kenneth Walker rushing for 84 of his 103 yards. It’s also worth remembering that the line was without its top two right tackles for most of the game — George Fant, who started in place of the injured Abraham Lucas, left with a knee injury in the first quarter — and starting center Connor Williams was less than a year removed from a torn ACL and hadn’t rejoined the team until mid-August. Williams fared well, all things considered, but he’s only going to get better, and the line as a whole will get more comfortable with its new center as he spends more time with this group.

“They continued to work hard and I thought in the second half the guys played well together,” Macdonald said. “There were a few plays you want to get back. But overall I thought the second half was a good job, those guys responded and came back strong and played some good football.”

And if you really want to feel better about the line after a day that was marred by some issues, go back and watch the play of left tackle Charles Cross, who after a great training camp opened his season with a very strong game. Yes, offensive line play requires more than one player, but having a standout left tackle is a great starting point for any line.