In watching line play around the league, it's obvious that there's more than one way to pressure the quarterback. The Jets and Eagles generate pressure with confusion. Teams don't know if they're sending three or eight and they don't know where they will be coming from. The Vikings send their front four most of the time, but with Jared Allen and Kevin Williams, they don't need to confuse people as much as just beat them off the line. It generally works and drives Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers insane (14 sacks in two games).
As we have done since the FanHouse began, I'll be taking a look every week at some aspect of line play. You can read more features in the series here. Check back every Thursday for a new Between The Lines.
For three years I rewatched every Steelers game with an eye on the offensive line. And a good bit of the time, it wasn't pretty. Whether it was a debacle against the Raiders in 2006 or the mass of confusion against the Eagles in 2008, there have been plenty of lowlights.
After watching the Steelers win the Super Bowl last year despite a struggling offensive line, I kind of figured that if everything went well, Pittsburgh could figure out a way to do it again. They had enough defense and enough skill position players on offense to make up for the offensive line's problems.
As we have done since the FanHouse began, I'll be taking a look every week at some aspect of line play. You can read more features in the series here. Check back every Thursday for a new Between The Lines.
If you're a reasonably diligent football fan, it's pretty easy to follow which running backs, quarterbacks and wide receivers are living up to their reputations -- you just check the stats. It's not as easy, but you can also get a pretty good sense of which pass rushers are having big years, by checking out the sacks.
But when it comes to evaluating offensive linemen, it's a lot tougher to know which blockers are starring and which ones are living off reputation.
After logging 401 sacks this season, it's time to start diving into the numbers to try to get a better sense of who has stood out this year.
As we have done since the FanHouse began, I'll be taking a look every week at some aspect of line play. You can read more features in the series here. Check back every Thursday for a new Between The Lines.
It probably wouldn't surprise you to know that offensive line continuity is a good thing , but you may not realize just how important it is.
After looking at the first month of the season, it seems pretty clear that if you can keep your offensive line together, there's a pretty good chance you'll be a winner.
Five weeks into the NFL season, only 10 teams have started the same five offensive linemen every week. Of those 10 teams, seven have winning records including the surprising Bears. 49ers and Jets and the undefeated Giants. Combined those 10 teams are 28-18 this year.
Every week we're taking a look at sacks around the league. We looked at Aaron Rodgers and the Packers' sack problem in our main Between the Lines feature this week, but here are some other notes from Week Four.
• If a Dan Marino-style quick release is an offensive lineman's best friend, Seneca Wallace is becoming a lineman's worst nightmare. Wallace stepped out of bounds for a sack on a play where he could have easily thrown the ball away for an incompletion for the second time in two games. In this case, Wallace rolled out of the pocket and had plenty of time to throw. Eventually linebacker Freddy Keiaho, who wasn't a rusher on the play, came up to force Wallace to make up his mind. Instead of simply tossing the ball out of bounds (he was out of the pocket so any pass beyond the line of scrimmage would have not drawn an intentional grounding penalty), Wallace stepped out of bounds five yards behind the line of scrimmage. It goes into the books as the easiest sack of Keiaho's career, and clearly angered the Seahawks' offensive line--center Chris Spencer is seen throwing up his arms in disbelief at the end of the play.
Every Thursday we're taking a look at the battle at the line of scrimmage. Click here for previous Between The Lines features.
If you're a Packers fan, it's fair to wonder if the season went downhill the minute that Chad Clifton sprained his ankle against the Bengals. Since then, the Packers have been shuffling linemen and Aaron Rodgers has been running for his life. The season hit bottom this past Monday when Jared Allen and his friends sacked Rodgers eight times in the Vikings 30-23 win.
But if you watch the Vikings game a little more closely, you may notice that not all of the Packers' protection problems were the offensive line's fault. It's hard to point fingers at a quarterback who threw for 384 yards, but Aaron Rodgers was as much to do with the Vikings eight sacks as his injury-plagued offensive line. Of the eight sacks against the Vikings as many as five of them can be blamed at least in part on Rodgers or the play call.
Every week we take a look at some aspect of line play--one of the most important but least noticed keys to a team's success. Click here for previous Between The Lines.
Julius Peppers isn't happy. He wanted to be anywhere but in Carolina this year, but when the Panthers franchised him, he was left with no choice but to return to the Panthers for another season.
Things could be worse. He's getting paid $16.7 million this year as the team's franchise player. After watching every snap of the Cowboys' game, it's hard to say he's earning it.
Two years ago, Peppers picked up only 2.5 sacks in an extremely disappointing season. But he bounced back last year to record 14.5 sacks. With the way he played on Monday, it's hard to see him getting back to double digits this year.
As we have done since the FanHouse began, I'll be taking a look every week at some aspect of line play. You can read more features in the series here. Check back every Thursday for a new Between The Lines.
When Marvin Lewis came to Cincinnati he arrived with a reputation as a defensive genius. But Lewis' brilliance quickly seemed to fade once he became a Bengal, much like his former boss Brian Billick's offensive genius in Baltimore. In six seasons in Cincinnati Lewis' Bengals have never finished in the top half of the league in scoring defense.
But thanks to Antwan Odom, Domata Peko, Tank Johnson and Keith Rivers, Lewis is suddenly smart again. They're 1-1 with a win over the Packers and would be 2-0 if not for a flukish tipped pass to Brandon Stokely. Odom not only leads the league in sacks; he's coming off of one of the best days a pass rusher has ever had with five sacks against the Packers.
Every week we take a look at some aspect of line play around the league. Click the link for previous Between The Lines.
The last time the Cardinals won a division title, Jim Hart was throwing to Terry Metcalf and Mel Gray. In between there has been a franchise move, 30+ years of ineptness, one Jake Plummer-led playoff win and years of disappointments.
But here they are, having wrapped up a playoff spot with three weeks still to go in the season. It hasn't hurt that the Cardinals play in the NFC West, but Arizona has made some pretty clear steps forward, as they showed by beating Dallas and Miami earlier this season.
What impresses me is how the Cardinals went out and fixed the team's most glaring problem. Back in the Denny Green days, Arizona had a solid quarterback (Kurt Warner), a big money free agent tailback (Edgerrin James), two outstanding receivers (Anquan Boldon and Larry Fitzgerald), but they were hamstrung by an awful offensive line.
Every week we look at some aspect of line play. Click here to read past Between The Lines.
For the entire decade, there's been no question who is the best left tackle in the NFL. Just give the All-Pro award to Seattle's Walter Jones and move on.
Since 2001, Jones has headed to Hawaii at the end of the season as the NFC's Pro Bowl left tackle. He's been an All-Pro for six of the past seven years. If you're looking for the definition of a dominating left tackle, the standard for years has been Jones.
But if Jones doesn't make it back to Hawaii this year, he can blame Cowboys outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware for ruining his reputation. With a national TV audience on Thanksgiving Day, Ware beat Jones for a pair of sacks and an additional quarterback hurry. In addition to Ware's two sacks against Jones, he also recorded a tackle for a loss on a running play when Jones struggled to get any push on Ware. Greg Ellis got a quarterback hurry late in the game against Jones after Ware left the game with an injury. And Chris Canty beat Jones on a running play to make a tackle.
Every week we analyze line play in a new Between The Lines feature.
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Every Thursday we're taking a look at the battle at the line of scrimmage. 
Every week we take a look at some aspect of line play--one of the most important but least noticed keys to a team's success. Click here for previous 
As we have done since the 
Every week we take a look at some aspect of line play around the league. Click the link for previous 
Every week we look at some aspect of line play. Click 
