Look, I've said this before and will say it again, Kolb is the reason we're losign games, and it isn't the Oline's fault. Kolb himself said he's not used to the different drops: 3 step, 5 step, 7 step, we use them all. He's not used to the progressions. Not used to all the hot reads. Not used to any of it.
That being said, we're so close to winning games that I'm not that pissed. Teams that are on the rise looks like we do right now, losing close games. Just takes a few adjustments and reps and we'll be good.
I really do think we'll be good. I believe.
Hey I understand it appears that way, because Kolb has the ball and the outcome is the result of what eventually happens in terms of the ball coming out of his hands, but it's gotten to the point where both the ol and the qb are working against each other.
I don't blame Kolb because he's consistently under pressure. (of course I also blame Kolb because he hasn't found a way to overcome it, and that's his job as QB..to move the offense). He has happy feet for a reason. He was known to have happy feet when pressured, and when we acquired him, we put him behind a line with the worst tackles this century in the NFL (at least pass blocking wise). Any QB legitimately SHOULD have happy feet behind this line and this tackle play.
He's runs around sometimes and puts the ol in a bad position. But that is a product of the majority of the rest of the time the ol puts him in a bad position. It should be in his head. This is what an offensive line snowballing into hell looks like. Nothing works, everything goes bad. But it all starts from the fact that even if Kolb did not have happy feet, our tackles would be getting him killed. He does try to sometimes NOT have happy feet, and we've seen many of his INT's and fumbles come from him trying to do that on the rare occasion he tries that. Had he tried that more, there would have been probably twice the turnovers out of his hands. Of course it's hurt him too with some sacks, a crucial safety, so on and so forth. But overall his happy feet are probably a net positive, given he's still upright (although I see something about turf toe but haven't read it).
I also understand that it's a different system, and he's having some trouble with it. But the trouble really lies in the pressure he's facing and all the while being asked to do these different things is only making it worse (but maybe an extra bit of suckiness after a whole lot caused by the core issue of protection). He looks like he's getting better at some of these things, but again when you get back to basics, our tackles just can't block. Everything bad then starts to creep in.
Even a QB like Kurt, while I'm sure would be a little better at it, would not be much better. There were times when Kurt faced a lot of pressure and had some really bad games. When the protection was decent, and on some occasions where he noticed a breakdown here or there he did great things. Well Kolb is feeling that sort of pressure basically every time he drops back in most games. The worst line play that Kurt had some games, is what Kolb has basically every game, and even more so in terms of consistently bad in that it isn't some times during the game, it's basically the whole game or the majority of it.
Because it's the tackles, much of Kolb's problems lie in the fact that the defense is coming from behind him when it breaks down. Kurt felt pressure from all over, which meant even during a break down, there were more times Kurt saw it because it was coming at him. For Kolb it's almost always behind him. Which leads to happy feet and turning around weird like we've seen. I think it's horribly natural that he does that, and not to be unexpected. I'd rather see that then the alternative if he didn't. Sometimes because it is so often, he thinks he feels it. That wouldn't be there, if the oline and specifically tackles, hadn't put that idea in there by consistently sucking.
Because Kolb isn't a veteran, and isn't used to the scheme like Kurt was, make Kolb less effective in those areas then he would be if he had those aspects down like Kurt had. But overall it's the line play, the tackles, that are putting Kolb in this position. They are playing much worse than the line played for Kurt, and Kolb doesn't have Boldin (or Breaston) to bail him out...he has Andre Roberts. Hell on occasion Kurt even had Doucet.
The point I'm trying to make is, people are stating it's the progressions, it's the unfamiliarity with the system, the happy feet, it's Kolb's talent level that's causing all of this. I'm saying it's very obvious while that all of those things are having an impact, the MAIN thing is the tackle play, which is causing all of these other things to sprout up where they normally wouldn't, or making an occasional problem turn into a real problem. They also happen AFTER all these other plays are messed up by the tackles, and thus the margin for error is slim and those plays carry greater negative weight because so much are riding on them.
...and conversely...even if he wasn't locking onto a receiver, even if he stayed in the pocket more...even if he was used to the system....our tackle play would still be getting him smacked around like Glass Joe on Punchout. The inability to consistently have a passing offense isn't because of the deficiencies of Kolb, it's the deficiencies of the tackle play and when combined with the snowballing that naturally occurs with any QB behind that sort of poor line play results in a 1-6 start. (and combined with our defense ofc)
In reality Kurt was amongst the best in dealing with tackle and other line deficiencies as because he could get rid of the ball quick. But even he had his bad moments when the line was ultra poor, and the ultra poor line play on those days, is what Kolb endures on basically every play, or most plays. If Warner was still on this team, we'd be calling for a change right now, because even he would not be able to turn in a consistent performance with this piss poor tackle play. Kurt would probably be well over 10 int's, and probably have more fumbles.
I know we've been close, so perhaps that would make the difference in one or two of those games. But with more balls out, Kurt would have thrown more interceptions, and thus I don't know if those games would have been close. So it's entirely subjective to say Kurt would have won more games given how close they were with Kolb playing QB given that they would have been different games and naturally played out differently.
We have a lot of talent on this team. We just have some equally big holes at certain positions on this team. The tackle play sucks, and sucks in a way, that statistics won't show an accurate comparison, because statistics don't tell a truth, they tell a generalization. The god of statistics does not come into play here in any meaningful way. You have to see it with your eyes and notice how off it is in order to understand how bad our tackle play is. You (in general) can't say Warner had more time than Kolb, because it's not true. Those statistics lie. Which is why statistics are a god that should not be prayed to, because they aren't real. It's not a physical property. They're subjective, in how they're set up, in what they include and don't, in the circumstances around them, and are only approximations.
In reality, within a second or so, Kolb has to have already made his read or that's it. Warner didn't have to do that. Asking a QB to go thru progressions under this scenario is basically impossible.
But what we need is better tackle play, because then and only then will Kolb (or Skelton or Bartel) shows us what he has or doesn't have. I'm not opposed to drafting Luck. But I know if we do, we better have at least three new tackles that are better than what we have on our roster or he'll suck.
I couldn't even imagine Hall behind this line. My god it would be brutal. Hell it already is brutal with Kolb behind it.
When there is a hole in the bottom of the boat, no matter how good the rest of the boat is constructed, none of it will look seaworthy.
