VikingLord wrote:So Bradford has been getting strip-sacked all year and pressured into turnovers like he was against the Eagles?
No, that's not what I meant. I posted a quote from an article and highlighted the following in bold:
"The Eagles' advantage on the game's biggest plays flowed from plain, simple execution -- and a lack of it from the Vikings.
"It's not the scheme," said ESPN analyst and former NFL defensive back Matt Bowen. "This is all about one-on-one blocking. ... They just got beat."
Vikings linemen have been losing one-on-one battles and failing to execute all year. Just because those failures didn't specifically result in strip sacks or turnovers doesn't mean the problem isn't essentially the same. That lack of execution has resulted in numerous negative plays: sacks, big hits on the QB, running plays repeatedly stuffed for no gain or negative yardage.
In my view there is a clear difference between what we saw against the Eagles and what we've seen in the other games from both the offensive line, the offense overall, and the team overall (including the defense). I just don't agree that the Eagles game was typical in any respect from what we've seen in the other 5 games. I think that performance was an outlier across-the-board that will not be repeated again. If I'm wrong I'll admit it, but I think the Vikings will look markedly better in every phase going forward.
Maybe they will but in terms of the offensive line's performance, that game was not an outlier. It was typical. The end result of a play doesn't change how a lineman performed on that play. If a lineman fails to execute and loses a one-on-one battle, that's simply what happened. The play might result in anything from a strip sack to a sack to a hit to a 20 yard gain but it doesn't change the fact that the assignment was blown. Going all the way back to week 1, when the Titans were, on average, hitting Vikings RBs within less than a yard after they first touched the ball, we've seen poor execution from the line. Sometimes it's been worse in the passing game, sometimes in the running game but with the exception of the Giants game, where the line was okay, their performance has been bad.