I will check it out, Great find! Very interesting.

But I dont even think Backus is the 9th best tackle in his division.

The Backus rating makes me want to puke. Who on earth puts these things together??

It reminds me of an article I read last year in a local NYC paper ranking the best college movies of all time and had “Animal House” as the 6th best of all time!!! The jerk-off author actually had the balls to rank “Van Wilder” as the best college movie of all time. WTF??

Come to find out the dude was a 21 year old Journalism intern so there was really no merit to this kids rankings. Maybe this is the same type of thing.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around these two seemingly contradictory facts:

1. We have allowed the 8th most sacks per pass play (7.9%), according to ESPN.com NFLstats

2. We have the 3rd best Guard, 9th best Left Tackle, and 12th best Center, according to these rankings.

…that gives some explanation as to how they grade these players. It’s a little confusing, and they don’t give away all the information (on purpose) but it does what it can to justify their assessment. One thing that jumps out at me for each of the “starters”:

Backus: While his overall leaves him closer to the top of the rankings, it is due strictly to his run blocking ability (which they rank very high). His pass blocking is closer to where I think a lot of us would expect him to be…and frankly it’s the pass blocking that gets noticed more than the run blocking by most viewers. If run blocking goes well you generally don’t notice the lineman…but do notice the hole the back just ran through.

Peterman: Solid all around (according to their rankings). His play has actually been acceptable (in my opinion) so far this season, if for no other reason than he hasn’t been heard from. He’s committed one penalty, and has given up only one sack.

Loper/Ramirez/Jansen: Terrible no matter which way you slice this. I can’t agree with this more. If nothing else is done next season…the other guard position NEEDS to be addressed. I think most of us were hoping that this would have been done last season, so this is not exactly a suprise.

Gosder: As much as I’ve wanted to see him step up, he hasn’t. This may be just another example of why Matt Millen should be drug through the street and strung up from the roof of the Elwood Grill. Gosder has been okay when they run the ball, but has been dreadful against the pass rush. I’m not sure what he’s worse at, protecting Matt Stafford or doing insurance commercials on the radio. “Whoa, whoa, whoa Mushy…isn’t that kind of a personal insult?” Ugh!

Raiola: Extremely mediocre for both the pass and the run. If he could stuff a dirty sock in his fat mouth and avoid getting into it with fans, I would actually give him a pass for this season. While he isn’t doing anything noteworthy on the field, he isn’t killing the team either. If I’m reading their explanations correctly Raiola is basically just doing his job (not necessarily really well, but not very poorly either). He’s still a Wanker though!

All in all, I don’t necessarily disagree with any of these individual ratings. One thing of note though, is that just like a chain it is easily broken by it’s weakest link. As both tackles have been dreadful in pass protection, and one side of the line is extremely hampered by poor play at guard, it is easy to take some decent individual efforts and make the team effort look pathetic.

Regardless of whether or not people agree with their assesments, it is a pretty cool website.

In 2007:
Backus ranked 30th amongst Tackles.
Peterman ranked 36th amongst Guards.
Raiola ranked 19th amongst Centers.

In 2008:
Backus ranked 66th amongst Tackles.
Gosder ranked 68th amongst Tackles.
Peterman ranked 73rd amongst Guards.
Raiola ranked 9th amongst Centers.

I’ll be very curious to see where our OL finishes their season according to their rankings.
Rec’d this post, BTW.

…Matt Stafford is rated as the worst quarterback in the league…according to their rankings. Sorry, last post for now…I’m just hooked on this site.

I really thought the worst person on our line was Peterman (aside from LG). I keep hearing Peterman is actually somewhat decent, but I’m not seeing it. He had an awful game yesterday from what I saw. And the one game I broke down play-by-play last year (against Indy), he was atrocious.

This year, admittedly, I haven’t been able to pay as much attention. I don’t have the luxury of having a DVR like I did last year and I’m watching the game at a friends house, so I occasionally have a lapse in attention. But still, 3rd best in the league? Really?

What I found incredibly interesting is looking at K. Smith’s running and where he’s the most successful. He looks good in every gap, except he’s doing horrible between the LG and the center. But he’s actuallly doing the best between Backus and the LG. Strange.

What happened to him in the second half?? Was he injured or did he get pulled after his fumble to start the second half. He was running well yesterday I thought.

I’d expect our line to be ranked quite badly, especially considering how they have played during the last 4 or 5 games. In my opinion, they need to pick up their act, because Staff isn’t gonna be able to survive much longer back there.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol

Detroit O-line: 29th rated run blocking, 25th ranked pass blocking

Detroit Running: Ranking / % of plays in that direction
Left End 6th ranked / 15%
Left Tackle: 23rd / 18%
Middle: 32nd / 30%
Right Tackle: 11th / 17%
Right End: 25th / 20%

This other site has rankings that seem not to be adjusted for situation. Ranking the Lions O-line that highly just does not pass the smell test.

Run Blocking is not about individual matchups like pass blocking. I assume that the end runs they talk about are the D and E gaps that run to the sideline and outside the tight ends. IMO these are statistically useless because these type of runs are often designed misdirections and therefore result in more average yards per attempt. You have to wonder if those QB scrambles where they run up the sideline against the prevent count here too.

The tackle runs are C gap runs where the tackle and guard work to seal off the middle. You can’t associate these stats with a tight end because its not always their job, could be a pulling guard, full back etc.

The middle runs A & B gaps involve all three interior linemen and the tackle on the play side to make their hole. So there is no way to measure that stat to a particular player.

As fans we can only speculate. The coaches tape where they know what the play call was and can see who screwed up is the only true measure of the O-line. I’ve always scratched my head about the Lions coaching and management staff(s) apparent lack of concern over the line. I watch these game and see some flashes of good things but they are never consistent. At the end of the day Backus is on pace to allow 10+ sacks again this year. No more injury or 7 step drop excuses for him, he is not getting it done over there.