Sitton Not Making Things Easy
By Aaron Nagler on Aug 17, 2009 with 10 Comments
Saturday night should have been the beginning of the solidification of the Packers offensive line. Unfortunately, the uneven play of second year guard Josh Sitton is making things more difficult than it should be for Mike McCarthy, Joe Philbin and James Campen to settle on the interior of the line.
In a perfect world, Spitz would be sliding over to center and Sitton would be taking the right guard spot with the winner of the Barbre/Giacomini battle claiming the right tackle spot. Unfortunately, Spitz and Wells look like a draw after one preseason game. If Sitton had come in Saturday night and just dominated, the path to the starting five would have been set.
Unfortunately, Sitton looked anything but dominant.
Penalties, footwork, hand placement, you name it, Sitton had a problem with it on Saturday night, as he had both Rodgers and Flynn running far too quickly after allowing quick pressure and more than once not getting a hat on anybody in the run game. Yes, it’s only one game, but I had much greater expectations for Sitton than what I saw Saturday night. Here’s hoping he comes out with a much better showing against the Bills this weekend so the Packers can start working on the continuity on the offensive line that was paid much lip service this past offseason.
Filed Under: Josh Sitton
Yes, despite the lip service about continuity, I already see McCarthy slipping into his old ways. And he can’t blame it on injuries this time – at least not so far…
Good insight, Aaron. I have a midseason concern should Sitton be slow to develop leading the staff to start Wells at center and Spitz at guard: I’m not convinced that a) Wells can stay healthy for more than 10 – 12 games this season and b) I realize his weight is up at the moment but I see him more to his natural playing weight of 295lbs. as the grind of the season wears on. He’s competitive now but I just don’t see wells as competitive from mid-season on. Thoughts?
I tried watching the offensive line during this game, but it was difficult for me since I’m so used to watching the ball. My impression was that the line did pretty decent early in the game. They weren’t great but weren’t terrible, either. Of course, I am a novice at watching what the line is doing, so my opinion isn’t worth much.
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The big thing that I try to keep in mind is that no team is perfect and every team has areas of weakness. If our biggest worries are an offensive line that, to me, looked decent, and our new defense, which shut out the opponent, then we’re in pretty good shape. Even if this is the preseason and we were playing a very bad team, they did their jobs. That’s a good thing.
CSS – It’s impossible to predict injuries, as you know. Will Wells wear down? He could. Or he could start all 16 games. (Hell, after Kurt Warner made it through 19 straight games last year, anything is possible
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I will say – Wells surprised me a biton Saturday night. He was better in short yardage than at any point last season. Maybe the added bulk and the time off after surgery has paid off. Can he keep it up? We’ll see.
I remember saying this last year: what kind of talent do you have on your team when you have already drafted veteran talent in the second round (Colledge), third round (Spitz), fourth round (Barbre), and the fifth round (Coston, Moll), and a rookie fifth-rounder (Sitton) is your leading candidate for one of the open guard spots?
Throw in Guacamole, and the Packers essentially had drafted seven players that were to “compete” for the two guard spots between Tauscher, Wells, and Clifton. And Sitton was the front-runner before he was hurt last year.
This is not a talented group, sorry to say, and the departure of Tauscher and the soon-to-come departures of Wells and Clifton are not encouraging. I think those three have held the line together for three years while MM has played musical chairs with everyone else.
Didn’t the Packers have over 200 yards rushing? Somebody must be doing something for that type of production as there were no long runs. If the Packers average 200+ yards a game rushing then they should make the playoffs and make some noise. Ya think??
The line decision must be made after the game next week. The starters need to work together for 3 qtrs in Game 3 and 3 qtrs in game 4.
The left side of the line looked good with the first line guys in. Center and Right side were OK. No major break downs but not much push off the LOS. On pass plays they bowed back toward the QB but held their blocks for the most part. On running plays no holes for the starters. Possibly that was due, in part, to the fact that Grant is a little slow to the line and Jackson gets happy feet a little early. It would be interesting to see if Sutton could do better with the starters. He seems to be able to attack the hole no mater how slight it may be.
So, make decisions next week and start working them as a cohesive unit ASAP.
139 yards of the 230 yard total was Sutton 91 and Lumpkin 48 in the last quarter.
I thought the OL looked fine and the RBs looked very good. I don’t think Duke Preston is good enough to make the team, so I think Wells will stick.
It’s just a question of whether Sitton is better at G than Wells is at C. Sitton’s an up and comer. He’ll be fine.
I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that our O-line will be decent enough. No more, no less. The running game will be adequate but not spectacular (due in part to an adequate but not spectacular stable of RBs), but the line will continue to do a pretty consistent job of giving AR enough time keep our passing attack extremely exciting and productive.