Get in line by Alistair Houghton December 5th 2012
It is a football clich that you build a team from both lines out. Certainly, in this pass orientated league, having a strong defensive line can cover for many holes on defense. But what about offensive line play? Do you need a top offensive line to be in contention to win a Super Bowl?
Recent history suggests not. Look at three out of the last four Super Bowl winning lines. The 2008 Steelers line was compared to a sieve many times. The 2010 Packers line was ravaged by injury, and even the first string guys had a bit of trouble protecting Aaron Rodgers (especially against Jared Allen). The 2011 Giants line could not open any holes in the run game, and Eli Manning rarely had a clean pocket to throw from.
The key with these teams is that they had ways to compensate for their lines weakness. Aaron Rodgers got the ball out of his hands a lot faster. The Giants put the game more on Eli throwing deep bombs and getting receivers to make plays on contested balls. Ben Roethlisberger can throw the ball with players draped off him.
There are other teams that have also had recent success despite of their offensive line play. The Steelers have consistently been contenders despite their offensive line. The Chicago Bears made the NFC Championship game in 2010 and would have been a serious Super Bowl contender in 2011 had Jay Cutler not broken his thumb, but their offensive line is infamously bad. In 2010, the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line played terribly, yet Michael Vick and LeSean McCoy had the elusiveness to negate it somewhat.
On the flipside, there are teams with good offensive lines that arent successful. Cleveland springs to mind, as do the Carolina Panthers.
Yet this season is shaping up to reflect the traditional values, with offensive lines once more as important to a team as the old building from the line clich suggests. The Arizona Cardinals started out 4-0 by letting Kevin Kolb get rid of the ball as quickly as possible. He took hits and sacks, but it didnt affect the passing game in a destructive manner (especially as the line couldnt open any holes in the running game). But when both tackles slowly fell apart, the line conceded eight and nine sacks in consecutive games. Kolb got injured, in came the slower, deeper throwing John Skelton and Arizona hasnt won a game since.
The Packers offensive line has gone the opposite way. They started off badly (albeit against good defenses), so badly that even Aaron Rodgers and his receiving corps couldnt win games through it. The low point came in their controversial loss at Seattle, where the offensive line gave up eight sacks in the first half. The first half! After failing to protect Aaron Rodgers in the second half of their defeat against the Colts, the line turned it around and the Packers havent lost since.
There are also misconceptions as to what makes a good line. Often a line that can both run and pass block efficiently if not spectacularly (such as the Saints or the Patriots) are better than lines that do one well more than the other. San Francisco has one of the best run blocking lines in the league, and if they can get on top of a team early then they will often keep them down with their ability to run out the clock with a myriad of running plays. As proven this year though, if you can get on top of the 49ers by a couple of scores and force them into throwing the ball more often, the line is unable to protect the quarterback on a regular basis.
Similarly, the Indianapolis Colts were unable to win it all after 2008, when their offensive line became a lot less effective at run blocking but remained good pass blockers.
All this is immaterial though, when what really matters is whether you have a good quarterback or not. The Green Bay Packers have not had a particularly good offensive line since Aaron Rodgers has taken the place of Brett Favre, but hes still been able to lead an explosive offense. Drew Brees doesnt have the top tackles in the league protecting him, but that doesnt matter when he gets the ball out of his hands so quickly, especially when combined with Sean Paytons and Pete Carmichaels game planning and play calling. Denvers offensive line has been superb at pass blocking since the arrival of Peyton Manning, yet they didnt look all that sharp with Tim Tebow and Kyle Orton under centre. The New England Patriots gave up a lot of sacks (for them) the year Matt Cassel played; they gave up very few sacks the year before and after, when Tom Brady was directing things.
So in reality, a team only needs their offensive line to be sufficient with the right player under centre. Having an extremely good line will not guarantee a trip to the Super Bowl, similarly, a below average line wont snuff out your chances of winning it either. Unless your line is absolutely horrific, what matters more is the quarterback who is standing behind it. After all, Cleveland has a pretty good line, but it hasnt done them much good while Brandon Weeden has been throwing the ball.
The Packers offensive line has gone the opposite way. They started off badly (albeit against good defenses), so badly that even Aaron Rodgers and his receiving corps couldnt win games through it. The low point came in their controversial loss at Seattle, where the offensive line gave up eight sacks in the first half. The first half! After failing to protect Aaron Rodgers in the second half of their defeat against the Colts, the line turned it around and the Packers havent lost since.
