Mistake to fire OL Coach DeGuglielmo

[BProland85 2,450]

This OL has regressed since last year, and I think it is all on coaching. They haven't dealt with injuries on the OL this season, so you can't use that as an excuse. They have the obvious talent to be dominant, as last year showed. 

 

I think the new OL coach, Chris Strausser, is mostly to blame for their poor technique, especially when trying to block stunts on the right side with Smith and Glowinski. They are simply playing dumb football on the OL right now. 

[IinD 2,721]

9 minutes ago, BProland85 said:

This OL has regressed since last year, and I think it is all on coaching. They haven't dealt with injuries on the OL this season, so you can't use that as an excuse. They have the obvious talent to be dominant, as last year showed. 

 

I think the new OL coach, Chris Strausser, is mostly to blame for their poor technique, especially when trying to block stunts on the right side with Smith and Glowinski. They are simply playing dumb football on the OL right now. 

I wish we could prove it, but by simple observation on Sundays it certainly seems so.

 

Smith has had tough moments through the season, but Glow looks like he's definitely regressed.

[Chloe6124 5,754]

They seem to be struggling with twists and stunts.

[jameszeigler834 1,591]

3 minutes ago, Chloe6124 said:

They seem to be struggling with twists and stunts.

Big mistake and its on coach Reich.

[Jdubu 1,164]

It does appear there could be some truth to this. Outside of the first few games where we ran dominant, we haven’t done much well since then and the passing game is meh at best. We are getting blitzed and not executing many hot reads nor are we executing anything else to exploit the blitz. 
 

one other thing that’s different this year besides the oline coach and that’s no Andrew Luck. Was he the straw that stirred the drink? Did he manage play calling to get us into the proper plays so much better than what Reich and Sirianno has provided? I mean this team looks horrific and that’s a generous term imho. Something is just a huge miss currently and whether the oline coach change is it or whether Luck had so much more influence in playcalling than we knew, it’s going to have to be fixed whether by new coaching, new oline guys, new QB or much better scheming play calls. 

[jameszeigler834 1,591]

27 minutes ago, BProland85 said:

This OL has regressed since last year, and I think it is all on coaching. They haven't dealt with injuries on the OL this season, so you can't use that as an excuse. They have the obvious talent to be dominant, as last year showed. 

 

I think the new OL coach, Chris Strausser, is mostly to blame for their poor technique, especially when trying to block stunts on the right side with Smith and Glowinski. They are simply playing dumb football on the OL right now. 

He was garbage in Denver.

[Flash7 2,479]

In football, there are so many variables.

 

The O-line is struggling compared to last year, but we had Andrew Luck under center last year. You know what he was good at? Picking up the blitz and calling the right plays. Eventually, Luck became one of the least blitz QBs, making life much easier for the O-line.

 

Currently, without T.Y. there is no deep threat. Teams are loading the box to stop the run and are taking away our short passing game. They are also blitzing much more, with more success. They're sending more men than the O-line can block, and it's making life for the O-lineman a nightmare.

 

We're blaming the O-line (they do deserve some of the blame, especially when they get beat straight up) however, there are more factors in play. 

[Fisticuffs111 2,189]

Like the comment above, there are many factors.

 

Part of it is not having that elite QB/passing threat. It was said by a lot of people after Luck retired; teams will stack the box to stop the run and blitz JB, and that’s what we’re seeing. And now that we’ve proven not to pose too much of a threat downfield, teams are taking advantage of that.

 

That said, regression was always a possibility. I do think Glow has had his fair share of troubles as has Braden.

[BigQungus 244]

43 minutes ago, BProland85 said:

This OL has regressed since last year, and I think it is all on coaching. They haven't dealt with injuries on the OL this season, so you can't use that as an excuse. They have the obvious talent to be dominant, as last year showed. 

 

I think the new OL coach, Chris Strausser, is mostly to blame for their poor technique, especially when trying to block stunts on the right side with Smith and Glowinski. They are simply playing dumb football on the OL right now. 

 

9 minutes ago, Flash7 said:

In football, there are so many variables.

 

The O-line is struggling compared to last year, but we had Andrew Luck under center last year. You know what he was good at? Picking up the blitz and calling the right plays. Eventually, Luck became one of the least blitz QBs, making life much easier for the O-line.

 

Currently, without T.Y. there is no deep threat. Teams are loading the box to stop the run and are taking away our short passing game. They are also blitzing much more, with more success. They're sending more men than the O-line can block, and it's making life for the O-lineman a nightmare.

 

We're blaming the O-line (they do deserve some of the blame, especially when they get beat straight up) however, there are more factors in play. 

 

Yep I think it has more to do with teams stacking the box and blitzing to dare us to throw it downfield than an actual O-line regression

[krunk 12,038]

Oh God the next game can't get here quick enough. 

[Coffeedrinker 7,091]

8 minutes ago, BigQungus said:

 

 

Yep I think it has more to do with teams stacking the box and blitzing to dare us to throw it downfield than an actual O-line regression

I agree, it is a combination of things.

 

1.)  I do NOT think Strausser is as good at developing line schemes as Coach D.

2.) Teams are not planning on the Colts throwing deep, so all 11 are usually within 8 yards of the LOS.

3.)  teams have also studied how the line moves and there are a lot of; either overloading 1 side or doing a delay once an olineman commits.

4.)  Glow struggled early in the season but he's played well the last two games.  I know for most on this board it take either an article to be written, a PFF grade or a year and a half for them to see things outside of their preconceived ideas (this one is not directed at you BigQ, just a general comment)

[Superman 35,724]

14 minutes ago, BigQungus said:

Yep I think it has more to do with teams stacking the box and blitzing to dare us to throw it downfield than an actual O-line regression

 

There was always going to be a statistical regression to the mean. Going 8 games without a sack isn't typical. Add in a QB change two weeks before the season, and account for losing important receivers every week, and it's not a surprise that there have been some struggles in protection.

 

I don't think there are any glaring technique issues from the guys on the field, though. Some missed assignments here and there, but that's bigger than the OL coach. 

[Moosejawcolt 622]

Did u watch last night's Dallas/Viking game?  Zimmer made it clear that he was going to shutdown Elliot and make Dak and the passing  beat them.  Dallas has an elite O line and they couldn't get nothing going because the Vikings committed to shutting down the running game at all costs.  Dak performed admirably and had a very good passing game because there were plays to make. Does Dallas have a bad O line based on last night's game? No. The Vikings went all out on shutting down the running game.  The difference is that Dallas has play makers at wr to take advantage of the Vikings defensive game plan. I really don't blame Reich as I truly beleive he is challenged because of who he has to work with. I actually give Reich a lot of credit for getting us to 5 and 3. When the Ravens beat the Pats. Same thing. They doubled Edelman and and pressed the rest of the receivers.  They also have no playmakers and made one of the greatest qbs look average.  U need play makers on O that will make the D back off the line. We dont. Campbell was suppose to b that guy but injuries have severely hampered his development. Based on his short tenure with the Colts, he cannot hang onto the ball and trips over his feet. That being said, I love Campbell and he was my fav wr coming out of the draft. I attribute the teams recent performances more at the feet of Ballard.

[Four2itus 3,072]

Ya, because if a player regresses (I don't see that), then it's always coaching. 

 

Sarcasm....

 

I wonder.... if the Colts had changed OL coaches the year before PM went down and his back up came in, would we see this same thread. Peyton made offensive lines look good. 

[NewColtsFan 19,656]

 

I'm always reluctant to assign blame considering I'm not on the inside,  and there are no reports of any internal struggles or dissention.     Clearly something is not right.    But if it turns out Strausser is the problem,  then I expect Ballard and Reich will handle it.    And if nothing is changed this off-season,  then I will chalk it up to something else internally.

 

But I'd recommend others be very slow to pull out the Blame Card.     Honestly.

 

 

[TheMiz 157]

The OL would look better if there was even a glimmer of a threat of a deep pass. When all 11 defenders are within about 8 yards of the LoS and they're all gunning to stop the run its going to be hard to run, even against "terrible" defenses. 

[chad72 10,345]

When did Howard Mudd leave us and his consultant role? Do you guys think we would be having better scheme adjustments if he stuck around? Just curious, that is all.

[PrincetonTiger 9,568]

6 minutes ago, chad72 said:

When did Howard Mudd leave us and his consultant role? Do you guys think we would be having better scheme adjustments if he stuck around? Just curious, that is all.

Mudd left in preseason 

Coaches can only do so much

[hoosierhawk 510]

2 hours ago, jameszeigler834 said:

He was garbage in Denver.

Absolutely untrue. Denver's OL was 6th in adjusted line yards and 11 in adjusted sack rate which are 2 metrics lines are evaluated on. If they were garbage they would in in the 30s.

[zibby43 1,105]

3 hours ago, Superman said:

 

There was always going to be a statistical regression to the mean. Going 8 games without a sack isn't typical. Add in a QB change two weeks before the season, and account for losing important receivers every week, and it's not a surprise that there have been some struggles in protection.

 

I don't think there are any glaring technique issues from the guys on the field, though. Some missed assignments here and there, but that's bigger than the OL coach. 

 

I agree with the majority of this, except in the case of Glowinski.  He has noticeably regressed in this new blocking scheme.  Not only is he struggling with technique, but things have snowballed into penalties, loss of confidence, assignment errors, and some brutal pass-rush "losses." 

 

Smith struggled for a bit, but got himself right.  He's now playing well, for the most part.

[jameszeigler834 1,591]

1 hour ago, hoosierhawk said:

Absolutely untrue. Denver's OL was 6th in adjusted line yards and 11 in adjusted sack rate which are 2 metrics lines are evaluated on. If they were garbage they would in in the 30s.

My response to that is the guy we had last year it wasn't broke shouldn't have tried to fix it.

[Chloe6124 5,754]

The line is having trouble with identification not technique. Some of that is because JB has been out but they struggled against Denver so it’s not all because he is out.  There is no excuse for yesterday with that bad dline.

[Superman 35,724]

16 minutes ago, zibby43 said:

 

I agree with the majority of this, except in the case of Glowinski.  He has noticeably regressed in this new blocking scheme.  Not only is he struggling with technique, but things have snowballed into penalties, loss of confidence, assignment errors, and some brutal pass-rush "losses." 

 

Smith struggled for a bit, but got himself right.  He's now playing well, for the most part.

 

I was never a big Glowinski fan. I was accused of being harsh when grading him last year, but I felt like his technique and execution weren't all that great to begin with. So I don't notice too much of a drop off from him, but I haven't spent a lot of time watching him specifically this year.

[Chloe6124 5,754]

The line is having trouble with identification not technique. Some of that is because JB has been out but they struggled against Denver so it’s not all because he is out.  There is no excuse for yesterday with that bad Miami dline.

 

Cant under estimate how good Luck was at calling out the right identifications.

[coltfaninnewyork 528]

Will say this he had two scrubs starting one the left tackle ,that we cut .Played ok .Now kelly and glowiski not playing well.So. Yea I think he's a good coach and was a mistake to let go .

[Pacergeek 411]

Firing Dave DeGuglielmo was very stupid. If you fire a successful coach, you better make sure you hire an even better replacement. The current offensive line coach should be fired. 

[Thunderbolt 66]

Yes, it's obvious the way the OLine is performing.  How may sacks have the OLine been giving up? Probably 20, more than they gave up all of 2018. 

[coltsfan_canada 86]

3 minutes ago, Thunderbolt said:

Yes, it's obvious the way the OLine is performing.  How may sacks have the OLine been giving up? Probably 20, more than they gave up all of 2018. 

17 Total for the season

10 in last 3 games

[masters1 33]

Big Joe Staysniak was talking about it this morning. He was really frustrated with how poorly the OL has been playing the past 3 weeks. Especially the right side of the line. Rick Venturi has said repeatedly that the right side of the line has played poorly. Joe said he counted 5 twists yesterday that the OL didn't handle properly.

[esmort 1,585]

I don't think this is one of Reich's best decisions, especially when it basically attributed to some lame "philosophical differences"/I want my guy excuse.

[mirobi48 32]

• Online coach for dolphins? You guessed it the guy who Frank fired 

[Chloe6124 5,754]

Doyle said after the game they had people coming from everywhere. This comes down to preparation and not being prepared for what a team gives you. Flores is from NE. He did some things BB does.  We have to get better at identification. I am going to bet ballard looks for glows replacement next year or a tackle and moves smith back to guard.

[Moosejawcolt 622]

8 minutes ago, Chloe6124 said:

Doyle said after the game they had people coming from everywhere. This comes down to preparation and not being prepared for what a team gives you. Flores is from NE. He did some things BB does.  We have to get better at identification. I am going to bet ballard looks for glows replacement next year or a tackle and moves smith back to guard.

Luck was awesome against the blitz.  Dolphins wouldn't have blitzed like they did yesterday and so in turn the O line would not have been overwhelmed. 

[EastStreet 2,490]

I'm not a fan of Strausser and think they should have stuck with the previous OL coach, but.....

 

1) we went from a QB with a top 10 QB in time-to-throw, to a QB who is bottom 10. Quarter seconds are a huge impact when it comes to pass pro, and JB is simply making their jobs harder than they were last year, buy a good amount.

 

2) given Ds key on shutting down the run because of our deficiencies in the passing game, that too makes it harder than last year on the OL....

 

So, yes, maybe coaching, but we've made it much harder on the the OL at the same time.

[CurBeatElite 434]

8 hours ago, Jdubu said:

It does appear there could be some truth to this. Outside of the first few games where we ran dominant, we haven’t done much well since then and the passing game is meh at best. We are getting blitzed and not executing many hot reads nor are we executing anything else to exploit the blitz. 
 

one other thing that’s different this year besides the oline coach and that’s no Andrew Luck. Was he the straw that stirred the drink? Did he manage play calling to get us into the proper plays so much better than what Reich and Sirianno has provided? I mean this team looks horrific and that’s a generous term imho. Something is just a huge miss currently and whether the oline coach change is it or whether Luck had so much more influence in playcalling than we knew, it’s going to have to be fixed whether by new coaching, new oline guys, new QB or much better scheming play calls. 

 

We are 5-4 and one game out of 1st in the AFC South.  Vinatieri has played a huge role in several of our losses (we could very well be 8-1 if not for his missed kicks).  

 

Sure, we haven't  looked great over the past 3 games, but 5-4 is certainly better than the 1-5 start we had last year.  We aren't 'horrific', we have a winning record and are still in a good spot to win the AFC South or be in the wild card hunt.   

 

We've been without our best skill player (TY) and have had other injuries at WR.  We also are playing with a back-up QB (which is kind of like a 3rd stringer considering we lost Luck  very shortly before the season).  

 

I don't think the sky is falling.  A couple not-so-great games but games which could have been won had our kicker made some very make-able kicks.  

 

We're in a better spot today than we were at this point last year.  Hopefully we heal up and we ought to see larger improvements.  

 

7 hours ago, Flash7 said:

In football, there are so many variables.

 

The O-line is struggling compared to last year, but we had Andrew Luck under center last year. You know what he was good at? Picking up the blitz and calling the right plays. Eventually, Luck became one of the least blitz QBs, making life much easier for the O-line.

 

Currently, without T.Y. there is no deep threat. Teams are loading the box to stop the run and are taking away our short passing game. They are also blitzing much more, with more success. They're sending more men than the O-line can block, and it's making life for the O-lineman a nightmare.

 

We're blaming the O-line (they do deserve some of the blame, especially when they get beat straight up) however, there are more factors in play. 

 

Agreed.  TY has been out, he's kind of the security blanket on our team in terms of the WR position.  Cain hasn't lived up to his hype and Funchess & Parris Campbell have been hurt, all three of these guys are guys who most people believed would make our WR group a very strong group this season.  That hasn't been the case.  Our top 2 WRs last week were Zach Pascal and Chester Rogers, both undrafted free agents.  Plus we had a back-up QB in the game.  

 

Our offense was (not-shockingly) pretty 1-dimensional against Miami due to the amount of injuries.  We still ran for almost 4 yards per carry and only gave up 1 sack.  If this team gets healthy, I don't see any reason to believe we will not be challenging for the AFC South title with a playoff birth as a wildcard team being a fall back.

 

3 hours ago, Superman said:

 

I was never a big Glowinski fan. I was accused of being harsh when grading him last year, but I felt like his technique and execution weren't all that great to begin with. So I don't notice too much of a drop off from him, but I haven't spent a lot of time watching him specifically this year.

 

I agree with you.  I think (when healthy) Glow was the weak link on last year's OL as well.  I don't think he's really digressed that much, rather I think people have such high expections for our OL this year that there's more scrutiny being given to them.  Playing with a back-up QB and missing 3 of the top 4 WRs (TY, Funchess, Campbell) certainly doesn't help this offense, either.

 

[CurBeatElite 434]

19 minutes ago, Moosejawcolt said:

Luck was awesome against the blitz.  Dolphins wouldn't have blitzed like they did yesterday and so in turn the O line would not have been overwhelmed. 

 

They may have blitzed yesterday given we were down 3 of our top 4 WRs.  Part of Luck being very good against the blitz was he had TY to depend on.  Yesterday, our two top WRs were undrafted free agents who are decent NFL WRs, but by no means in the same category as TY.

[Nickster 254]

 I’ve been saying this for weeks.  We mostly block our guy.  Glows not at all great.  The issue is missed assignments.  We look lost at times.
 

They have been allowing free rushers on missed assignments and rarely seem to have A back pick up a blitz.

[zibby43 1,105]

5 hours ago, Superman said:

 

I was never a big Glowinski fan. I was accused of being harsh when grading him last year, but I felt like his technique and execution weren't all that great to begin with. So I don't notice too much of a drop off from him, but I haven't spent a lot of time watching him specifically this year.

 

I agree that he's never been a precise technician, but last year, he played with a lot of power and consistently executed his assignments in both the running and passing game.  I've watched him super closely this year only because of what the Colts ended up paying him.  I was also curious to see how he'd be affected by the scheme change this year.

 

Here's how Glowinski graded out at the end of '18, relative to Kelly and Nelson. 

 

G Quenton Nelson (G6, 74.3)

G Mark Glowinski (G10, 72.7)

C Ryan Kelly (C8, 69.9)

 

He was a top 10 guard last year, per PFF.  His contract extension was a little generous, but I didn't complain too much because I thought he would only get better.

 

With the way he's played this year, I'm hoping last year wasn't just a fluke. 

[ColtsAC 172]

8 hours ago, CurBeatElite said:

 

They may have blitzed yesterday given we were down 3 of our top 4 WRs.  Part of Luck being very good against the blitz was he had TY to depend on.  Yesterday, our two top WRs were undrafted free agents who are decent NFL WRs, but by no means in the same category as TY.

I think their were two factors about their blitzing yesterday.

1. I totally agree about the lack of WR talent on the field yesterday. due to injuries, guys were elevated to beyond their current abilities.

2. But I think the Miami coach, coming from NE, went to his NE coaching playbook and read "Colts - blitz the hell out of 'em", Simple as that.

[lollygagger8 10,284]

Whether or not the QB picks up the right blitzing calls (which I agree was not happening very well when Hoyer was in) the O-Linemen should still be picking up stunts and not be getting pushed back consistently.