Monday Analysis: Cristobal about the Offensive Line vs. UCLA

[Charles Fischer]

My FishDuck Friends...there is some good information below for discussion!

Question: I realize Forsyth’s injury may have factored into this a little bit but you started Bass at left tackle and then you had some other shifting around a little bit. Was that anything more than just Forsyth being out?

 

Cristobal: "A lot of it had to do with Forsyth being out and then trying to keep… we don’t have our lineman on a pitch count, but we were a little bit banged up and we were figuring out those pieces. It would take all day to explain that on this conference call, so I’ll spare you the boring details, but we felt that we were going to have a nice rotation of guys that had played beside each other, maybe in different spots. But the matchups were going to fit, what we were running schematically was going to fit as well. Just watching tape it… I mean you had some guys grade out really, really high. 

 

That’s hard stuff to block. I know I mentioned it before, I used the term Star Was to describe their defense because, I know some of you guys probably are probably too young to remember Star Wars, was a good movie back in the day, but it comes in all kinds of different ways at you, and you’ve got to have tremendous eye discipline and you’re reaction time has got to be instantaneous. Those guys did a really good job of protecting the quarterback for the most part."

 

Question: Going back to the offensive line. I wanted to ask about Dawson and just how valuable it was to have a guy like that who could jump into both guard spots and perform at a really high level for you guys.

 

Cristobal: "He’s a Swiss army knife guy. That’s what he is. All tools. He’s got them all. He can snap. He also plays right tackle and left tackle. The best part about it is that we teach our lineman to learn the game from he inside out, meaning at the center position you have to know what the front is, what certain points mean on certain plays, all that kind of stuff. Being able to redirect stuff, readjust stuff, repoint stuff.

 

He understands the game that way from the inside out and he’s gotten snaps at every single one of those positions. He’s been here a long time, been through a lot, battled some injuries, has developed his body. He’s become an excellent football player and his value was tremendous on Saturday."

 

Question: Does he do anything that makes him more versatile and more valuable in that fluid role than the other guys? If that makes sense.

 

Cristobal: "I think he just earned it. There’s a lot of other guys who we have that play their positions really well. We have some guys who have more flexibility than others. Guys that are older typically do, right? A little more flexibility than others. He’s just really, really smart. He understands leverage. He understands hat position. He has really good foot and body quickness. He uses his hands well, very technical. His power is getting better all the time. Now the mullet, that’s a whole different conversation, but aside from that, just a lot of positives with him and his development."

 

Question: You really had to mix and match the offensive line a bit that last game because of some injuries and what not. But, I though they were pretty stout. What was your evaluation now that you’ve had a chance to look at that film?

 

Cristobal: "Coach Mirabal and the offensive line did a great job. We’ve had some guys who have been banged up or dinged up and we shuffled some guys around. Other guys had also earned some playing time. We wanted to get those guys in the game as well. The one thing that was a surprise was the pregame issue with Alex Forsyth and we adjusted. The guys went in there and played their tails off. They really did.

 

You have to. Understand that this outfit that we played brings so much pressure and even brought more pressure than we expected, more than they usually do. 

In the form of sometimes plus one pressures, where they’d have more guys coming than you could block. So you have to sift some stuff and you have to get a hand on two guys with one of your offensive linemen just to provide enough time.

 

I thought not only the offensive line, but Anthony Brown was really good in sometimes having to redirect protections when they were bluffing one side and bringing it from another. Overall, I’m just really proud of that group. They’re not into praise, they just want to get back to work and get better."  

 

From 247 on interception in the end zone.  10/25/2021   Erik Skopil

 

[Jon Joseph]

Thanks Charles. Any idea when Forsyth will be good to go?

[Smith72]

Thanks for sharing this!  Good information on the challenges faced by linemen.

[Charles Fischer]

On 10/26/2021 at 10:50 AM, Jon Joseph said:

Thanks Charles. Any idea when Forsyth will be good to go?

 

They said he is still "iffy" while a ton of other players will be fine for Saturday.

[nw777b]

From 247 on interception in the end zone.  10/25/2021   Erik Skopil

 

I'm SO glad the question was asked and I believe MC's answer.

 

I'm encouraged to hear they wanted to be aggressive,  that call at that time was a mistake, and they discussed it.

 

This is the type of info that helps me as a fan trust the coaching more, even if I might disagree with the in-game decision.