When the season started, I was really excited bc I thought we were going to have the best offensive line since 2008. That year we MAULED opponents and this was supposed to be the year where we had an O-line that was big enough to play in the NFL AND had a lot of snaps together as a starting unit. Sure CY K was relatively new and Steen was going to be a full timer AND Jones was moving to center, but hey we were billed as the best O-Line in the nation according to pre-season hype.

This being said I wanted to look at some stats for 2011 and compare them to 2012 through our first 5 games. What I found was a bit discouraging.

For 2011:

TFLs: 27 -> avg yds loss/game = 18

Sacks: 8 -> avg sacks/game = 1.6

Rushing: 191 attempts for 1,149 -> avg YPC = 6

For 2012:

TFLs: 28 -> avg yds loss/game = 30

Sacks: 11 -> avg sacks/game = 2.2

Rushing: 199 attempts for 941 -> avg YPC = 4.7

In summary YPC is down while rushing attempts are up - sacks are up and opponents are blowing up our backfield more often for negative plays. Now we could say that Trent and Mark were just that good (they both had great YAC avgs) and AJ is holding on to the ball sometimes too long - but DANG that's a big dropoff for an O-Line that was supposed to tbe the best in the nation.

I'm not saying they aren't good - but we strive to be better than good and I'm not buying anymore stock in the O-line right now. At present, consider me a "Hold" with those stock options.