After the WASH game, the Ram OL was being maligned, especially on the R side and in the running game. There was a lot of that here.
I don't want to go into some rant about who was right and who was wrong. I'll simply say that premature judgments are as prolific as they are ill considered.
I am always amazed at how often--and I am talking about pundits and fans in all sports--snap judgments are made about players and teams in transitional situations. People simply do not want to provide space for adjustments to new conditions to work themselves out.
OL play is particularly prone to this sort of snap judgment. OL effectiveness is ALWAYS dependent on complex and slow-to-develop synchronicity between 5 guys and TEs. Even an established OL has to re-adapt each year: the OL is ALWAYS well behind the DL in pre-season development. If there are personnel and scheme changes, the coordination curve will be even slower. And blocking the run will ALWAYS come along more slowly than pass blocking.
So, this year, we started off with a good passing game and a lagging running attack. People were fretting over the OL and especially the younger right side. People were also fretting over Gurley.
Now, that's OK, to a point. One can't simply ASSUME that a unit that is not performing well in its 1st 2 games will improve. It isn't real until it's real. And it is understandable and simply human for emotionally scarred fans of a bad team to fear another disaster on a unit that has been a problem for a long time..
But the fact is that the OL and RBs needed time to work their game out. It ALWAYS takes time for an OL to gel. ALWAYS. And it always made sense to resist the snap judgment. Havenstein, for example, had a fine rookie year and a disappointing 2nd year in a moribund offense. There was good reason, IMO, to give him a chance to adapt to the new system before fretting that he had lost the ability to play football.
So, OK. I know. Sports are about passions. And passions are not known for their patience.
Nevertheless, I think fans will generally find that their passions are easier to endure if they remind themselves to avoid snap judgments and give players and units and teams time to adapt, gel, and develop.
Then, when and if it becomes clear that it ain't gonna happen ... then you can scream your head off.
This year's Ram OL needed time to gel, and now its quality is emerging. I hope you didn't waste a lot of anxiety fretting over its early adjustment issues.
