Hey guys. I know I've been promising to take a closer look at the Bears preseason game to see how our offensive linemen did. I have my own system for grading these guys.
The reason I decided to do this was because I had seen various reports that Carey struggled against Alex Brown. That certainly isn't what I remembered seeing during the game, so I checked.
Without a doubt, Vernon Carey was our best and most consistent lineman out there on Monday night. Note that this was just one game, but I am absolutely certain of the results of that game. This could change, no doubt, but at least this Monday night Carey was the best out there.
Two years ago I did the same thing with a preseason game tape against the Jaguars and graded out Wade Smith, who went up primarily against Hugh Douglass that night. Smith graded out bad, even though everyone was clamoring over the fact that Douglass got no sacks and no tackles.
Observations:
1. Zone blocking is perfect for Carey. His power is evident. He's got the power to make two blocks in succession, and actually affect the path of both blockers. What I'm saying is that just a "chip" block from Carey, as the first of successive blocks, can take a guy out of a play when it's Carey doing the blocking.
2. During his quarter and a half of game play, Carey screwed up twice. That includes run blocking and pass blocking. His worst screwup was NOT the A.J. Feeley sack by Brian Urlacher. A few plays before that, on a 3 step drop, Brown succeeded in faking Carey out on an outside-inside move, and blew right past him after Carey barely got hands on him. Brown was on his way straight into the QB when Feeley got rid of the ball (actually I believe it was a complete pass, too). That was not a failure that is as bad as it possibly gets but it was still failure. The other failure was the Urlacher sack. But, it wasn't as bad as it seemed. Urlacher green-dog blitzed on a 7 step drop and Feeley really should have seen it coming. Had Urlacher not done that, Feeley would have DEFINITELY gotten the ball off. Brown did nothing more than get a paw on Feeley's bicep as a result of Carey's blocking (or non-blocking). No doubt he beat Carey to the outside and got Carey off balance, but Carey recovered in time to prevent the sack. This would not have gone down as a sack on Carey under any circumstances...however the other play I was talking about, had it been a 5 or 7 step drop, it would have been a sack and the sack would have been hanging over Carey's head.
3. I was not able to give Carey a failing or even partial-failing grade on any single play. None. Not any run play, not any pass play. He pancaked Alex Brown twice (once on a run play, another time on a pass play). Every other time, he fulfilled his blocking assignment perfectly. And by that I mean the guys he was responsible for blocking were fully locked out of the action on every play. On pass plays, that means the guys he blocked were nowhere near making a play on the passer, and on run plays, he blocked them away from the action by the runningback.
Other notes:
Lamar Gordon sucks so much it's incredible. First run play to the right side, the entire right side is blasted wide open...blockers have their defenders tied up, all Lamar has to do is step to the right and he's got the speed and daylight to maybe even take it to the house. Nope. He cuts inside, to the only spot where there are free defenders unblocked, and gets tackled for a 3 yard gain. Way to go.
In case you were wondering who graded out as our worst linemen among the starters, it was Jeno James and John St. Clair. They got manhandled in general, failing grades like every other play. Jeno was slightly worst than John. I know Jeno was shaking off that dehydration thing a little still, but really the guy was letting DTs blast right up the middle on run plays and pass plays. That's just not acceptable. And Stockar McDougle really did have some struggles against Ogunleye...which just showed me that hey, Ogun really IS pretty good lol.
The important thing to take away is that Carey was our best lineman out there, which is exactly what your LT should be. He shows tremendous power, very quick feet, and the ability to make successive reads and blocks. I never thought I'd be saying this after last year. I had given up hope on him. It makes me so mad at the previous coaching staff for not realizing what we had, especially after we gave up a 1st and 4th to get him!
