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GroundPounder
So I assume you believe our 2018 OL was better than 2019, correct? What are you using as your metric for that conclusion?
Well no I don't quite think that.
I think the OL got exposed in the 2nd half of the season. Sullivan was declining, Blythe was exposed at guard, and Hav held up less effectively because he needs to be part of a stable unit to perform well overall. The first half of 2018 they were fine.
My metric? None really. In terms of the 2nd half of the season, first you see they don't play as well, that they struggle in games (Detroit, Chicago, Phil, and N.E.). Discussion with others helps, even during games (I always am in a chat room during a game). Reading around--different analysts will consider the OL. Then there's always fans who discuss the OL well. So it adds up and deepens an impression. But there's not one metric. Sacks/pressures is a clue but not always...it's not a dead to rights giveaway.
Why not always? An example from 2019: Rams were high in attempts, and yet low in sacks. With the OL performance, which was shaky for most of the year, that can only be explained by the qb compensating in some way. Since Goff can't just take off and run, where was the compensation? In just throwing the ball even if the timing and execution were not there. Some of that was pressing to make plays, some of that was just getting rid of the ball. HOWEVER you could line up pressures with wins/losses. Games where they gave up 8 or more total pressures, they went 3-5. But did that add up to high pressures all season, every game? No. Games where they gave up 7 pressures or less, they went 6-2. That means that in half the games, they allowed 90 pressures (avg. 11.25) and in half the games they allowed 32 pressures (avg. 4). If you just look at the total number, the games averaging 4 pressures per, obscure the games averaging 11.25 per.
There's a lot of reasons why half their games averaged 4 and half their games averaged almost 3 times that. But the entire time, there were OL issues (though it was different in the first 9 games v. the last 7 games).
