So this former NFL OL and popper were talking a bit on twitter of what went wrong with this free rusher on the 2nd drive of the game, and hinted that Bozeman did his job by alerting herb of the possible free rusher, but herb failed to slide the protection. I know its very taboo to even consider Bozeman getting something right and herbert getting it wrong, but I am a seeker of the truth. Herb also took responsibility (as always) for not setting up proper protections. I would like to hear EDUCATED opinions on this matter. Do not come in here just blaming Bozeman if you do not know how protections work please, because im actually curious of the true issue here, which is not always Bozeman Bozeman Bozeman 🤦
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These guys know far more than I do. Herbert took the blame for it too in his press conference. Turns out all of us couch coordinators don’t understand every nuance of every play
What about the other 25 plays there was a free rusher lol
[This is the play in question btw](https://x.com/i/status/1998208190740406459)
I was watching some Rivers highlights and man do I miss how he’d command the offense pre-snap. I honestly think if we combined Rivers and Herbert we would have the greatest QB to ever play.
I don’t have an answer but i agree it’s important to know what the truth is and that blame is properly assigned. Brings me back to my high school football days when I played offensive tackle and our guard made a wrong call that looked like it was my mistake but the reality was that I made multiple attempts to override him before the snap and he kept calling me off.
Educated opinions? You’re in the wrong place lol. I don’t think anyone on here, including myself, knows how setting line protections work in the nfl.
This is the reality for most of us watching from home. Even PFF rankings don’t, won’t, and can’t possibly break it down enough to know every nuance and assignment. This is why OL continues to be the most selfless and thankless job in the NFL
I don’t know man. I’m a Herbert fan and I’ve always felt that assigning/changing protection is his weak point. Corey Linsley carried him early on.
I dont have a lot to say about yalls situation. What i can say as a Ravens fan, our most hated player is Faalele our RG. At least half of the criticism I see is situations like this.
The average fans does not have a clue what they are looking at with the Oline and blocking rules.
I feel like Linsley would have handled it.
I agree. I think Herbo was just on Percs because of the hand.
I appreciate this analysis. The good news is, if this is accurate, then it is something correctable. I just don’t understand how apparent it was when watching, yet Herbo missed it. But I also understand that it is easy for me to say that when I am looking only at that, and Herb has an entire offense he is having to coordinate.
Was it part of the call for Bozeman and Becton to get trucked every pass play?
When in half slide protection its the QB and Center who need to know the direction the protection is sliding to. From my understanding the qb will identify the mike linebacker which sets up the direction of the line slide. In this case it seems that Herbert would have identified 53 as the mike. This means its Bozeman’s job to slide to that direction. If Herbert or Bozeman sense someone else is coming it is on Herbert to change the mike and adjust the slide rules. Bozeman appears (in the screenshot) to alert Herbert that 17 (?) is coming, but the line protection is not adjusted. which means bozeman will follow his original assignment (sliding left)
In this scenario yes it is on Herbert that he didn’t get the protection correct. However you will also notice that Bozeman slides left to defenders that aren’t coming. You never want to block air, you always want to look for work, and in this case he should’ve got his head around and see that 17 (?) is coming and block him.
So my opinion (and I don’t know as much as the guys in the building): its on both Herbert and Bozeman. Herbert failing to identify pressure and adjust protection accordingly, and Bozeman for failing to find proper work and block air
Former D1 OL here, also stating nfl is leaps and bounds more complex and different but fundamentals remain the same.
This not being the full end zone angle tough to tell if the rb is chipping off the right side. But it is a slide left leaving 2 for 3 defenders on the right therefore the 3rd falling on Herbert. The reason O-line continuity is so misunderstood is because in this situation the oline should be handling the 2 most dangerous threats or most inside. Ideally the oline is communicating on the right side to slide down or herb changes this to a full line slide.
There’s never 1 way to solve these problems but communication and familiarity are how oline is successful. Something that is impossible to do with how many changes we have had to make through the season.
An interesting fact is that some teams have the QB call the protection while other teams have the C call the protection.
There’s no right or wrong way to do it, both have merits.
Guys like Peyton Manning and Joe Burrow get a lot of praise for doing a lot of pointing and signaling pre-snap for the protections. But part of this is just coincidence that they have the QB doing the protections.
It seems like the Chargers have the QB do it. The C helps with alerts. But Herbert is to blame here.
Herbert has to improve this part of his game, no doubt. Whoever’s mistake this is, I’ve said elsewhere (and several drinks into seeing him get beat to a pulp once again) that Herbert is such a “rule follower”/people-pleaser type that he wants the plays to work as called more than the instinct to change the play (and maybe even protections) at the LOS. That doesn’t mean he won’t improve once the play breaks down of course, but that’s a different thing than saying “no, this sucks, we’re doing this”. If he doesn’t have that license from coaches then he needs to have it. I’m also guessing Herbert was embarrassed by cameras picking up him being irritated at the line (and others) the past couple years, barking at guys, etc, and might be reluctant to be vocal on the field like he started to be.
Herbert definitely needs to be held accountable for some of the offensive woes. However, I think we can all agree that the entire offense needs to get on the same page, even the receivers. It seems like Herbert never has a quick hot read against the blitz. For example: the interception he threw against Minnesota (that was called back). There’s a chance he expected Ladd to break on his route earlier because of the blitz.
Tldr: There is not one finger to blame, but I tend to lean toward Roman, since it’s the entire offense as a whole. Our runningbacks are the only ones who have looked good (and even that’s spotty at times). But that checks out, since Roman’s career is built on runs.
This is a situation I can definitely agree with Herbert being at fault. It was either that or Bozeman needed to be put into concussion protocol and checked out🤣
Overall for the Chargers line though, obviously the injuries have been what has messed it up the most this season. But I also think it ends up being a merging point of issues, you constantly have had the line have changes made. So the chemistry isn’t ever fully set, Roman’s play calling at times doesn’t help them. Misreads on what the defense is gonna be doing by Herbert and the Oline itself. It’s all just stuff that happens, and I think the massive amount of injuries affects that a lot. Not just in the losing talented players portion, but people not having enough time together to be on the same page quickly between plays.
But who knows, I’m definitely not a knowledgeable football person. Only ever watch it, and sometimes play madden. Not a in depth understanding at all on my end
I pointed this out when this play was posted here a couple days ago. The protection call was bad but the call is the call and Bozeman can’t just freelance where he slides and doesn’t slide. That’s like a receiver freelancing his routes, sure the best do it every now and then but it shouldn’t be a constant habit for your average player. Now that we can see that Bozeman in fact did point out the blitzing LB, unfortunately id have to agree that this play falls on Herbert. He either needs to adjust the protection or audible the play so he has a chance of getting rid of the football before taking the sack. Maybe the noise from all the eagles fans limits this but something has to be done regardless.
Aren’t you just doing the same? You are assigning blame to Herbert without actually knowing what is going on.
I see a lot of additional variables here and based on the OP original post this thread is being focused on only two. I will mention a few more.
1) Herbert had pain issues that were medicated that could of reduced Herbert ‘s mental side of his performance.
2) Hampton was just coming back after being on IR since week 5. His Pass Pro was not up to his normal level.
3) The Eagles back end coverage was excellent in this game, limiting our receivers ability to get open for easy quick throws.
Having mentioned this plus considering the few points already mentioned in this thread, the Chargers WON in OT over the reigning World Champs 22-19. A game most in this community thought was a slam dunk loss from the minute the schedule was released.
Herbert is the ONLY QB to win a game with such high pressure rate against since the stat was first tracked in 2016. He didn’t just do it once but 4 times in his career.
A few thoughts going forward, Herbert will continue to improve from the hand injury. Hampton’s Pass Pro will be better with more reps, both in practice and games.
This team will play their Hearts Out and leave everything they have on the field. For this season that is what we have to go into battle each week.
You’re right. Bozeman is bad for multiple reason. Physically he’s not it. He lacks a lot of ability as well. To be fair he also played with one of the most injured and lacking quality Olines in NFL history. Having new people every week work with you and subbing them out during the game is a lot of work on a center.
One thing is Bozeman is football smart. I have seen him intentionally try to get people off sides and it worked a couple of times. He shifts the line before he talks to those next to him and points things out he rarely messes up a snap and seems to love Herbert.
It’s football knowledge, intelligence, chemistry. If he had his mostly intact Oline he wouldn’t be the worst center. The problem in the Oline is after the left tackle the center often gets the blame. If you’re doing well but everyone around you isn’t the center is more often called.
Also aren’t the chargers one of the most blitzed and pressured team and had one of the more tougher schedules?
So replace him but also he really isn’t 100 percent terrible.
This dude is not a former nfl player lmao
“Only Herbert can kill/flip his protection calls” is not a factually accurate statement though. It *might* be true in this offense or on that play but we know it’s not the only way that protections can change.
Been saying this about Herb for a while now. The thing I miss the most is Rivers being an absolute field general. Dude was a statue with absolutely abysmal line play for a good chunk of his career and still started for 14 YEARS STRAIGHT. He knew what was coming and prepared for it. You don’t really see these Manning/Rivers types with the young guys anymore tbh
But this is why I keep mentioning that it sucks Linsley retired. Even in this situation where Bozeman alerts, I fuckin guarantee you Linsley doesn’t keep blocking air and instead protects his QB