Of course the first film review of the regular season on a specific offensive lineman is about Quinn Meinerz. After how the game ended I needed a pallet cleanser and I figured Meinerz would be my best bet of physical dominance on film.
I was mostly right, but Meinerz was not perfect in this one. I think there’s some very fixable mistakes that we can take a look at and learn from though. Hopefully we can come out of this feeling a little better about Sunday by looking at one of the positives that came from that game.
The Denver Broncos had 55 offensive snaps against the Indianapolis Colts, not including plays that were called back due to penalties. They also stayed pretty balanced, calling 26 run plays and 29 pass plays.
The Broncos ran behind Meinerz eight times, gaining 30 yards (3.75 ypc) off of those runs.
Meinerz gave up zero pressures, QB hits, or sacks against the Colts.
Meinerz had three “bad” blocks, three “meh” blocks, 10 “alright” blocks, 38 “good” blocks, and one “great” block for a total score of 48.25 points, or 87.7%.
In run protection he had a score of 21.5 points, or 82.7%.
In pass protection he had a score of 26.75 points, or 92.2%.
Quinn Meinerz had a very solid game on Sunday. He was reliable, clean in pass protection, and usually was able to get good contact at the point of attack and create rushing lanes for the backs.
The biggest/ most common issue I had with his blocking against the Colts was his constant inability to get proper leverage on the defender. But also the more I think about this the more torn I become.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to zone blocking. One is to work through the right/left side of the defender, depending on where the ball is being ran. this allows for a vertical block while still cutting off the defender from the desired rushing lane.
The other school is to work through the defender as close to his centerline as possible. This allows for the running back to decide which gap he wants to go through. This is what we run at my high school. And it works well, depending on who is carrying the ball.
I think I only see Meinerz’ lack of choosing a side of a defender when on his base block as an issue when it’s compounded with the other lackluster part of his game on Sunday, which was his inability to get vertical displacement.
And this is what I was particularly surprised to see. Meinerz not being able to get movement off the ball is not a common issue with him, given the fact that he is one of the strongest and most physical offensive guards in the league. But he struggled to do that on Sunday when he was not working a double team. But it was very apparent as to why he lacked a drive off the ball: the dude just stopped his feet on contact.
Very often you’d see Meinerz, when not working a double team, attempt to square up with the defensive lineman and he’d squat deep into his wide base and work to stalemate the guy. Now, once again this can be a scheme thing that I am not privy to, but that is a lot less likely than the first issue being a scheme thing. I’ve yet to hear an offensive line coach teach up just getting good leverage on a lineman and not trying to work him laterally, vertically, or both. So this does lead me to believe that Meinerz was almost satisfied with just having good leverage on a lineman.
But this lead to a problems with the backs not having a clear way to go, or what happened more often, was the back running along side Meinerz, and the defensive linemen he was locked up with being able to get their arm on the back, slowing them down through the gap.
**_Meh block - Inside Zone - Gain of 3_**
Here is an example of what we were seeing too often from Meinerz against the Colts. He doesn’t get any vertical displacement and it appears like he is trying to work across the face of the defender but is unable to get that leverage.
And like most bad blocks by offensive linemen, you can credit the failure to their first step. He doesn’t gain enough ground laterally and his second step does not work vertically, resulting in him getting stuck in the rushing lane, allowing for the lineman to get an arm on Harvey, slowing him down.
**_Good block - Duo - Gain of 5_**
This is more like what we’ve come to expect out of Meinerz. His get-off here is great, and aided by DeForest Buckner slanting into him, Meinerz strikes with great pad level and leverage, lifting Buckner up and working him across the field, completely eliminating him from the play.
The footwork here is a lot better compared to the previous play we looked at. He takes lateral enough of a first step and his following steps are all working vertically. It’s exactly what you want to see. And when combining his strength with good leverage, very few defensive linemen stand a chance at winning the battle at the line of scrimmage.
**_Bad block - FB Dive - Gain of 1_**
This is probably Meinerz’ worst block of the game, coming at quite possibly one of the worst times, and the Broncos were lucky that he slowed Buckner down just enough for Dobbins to gain the much-needed one yard for the first down.
I understand what Meinerz is aiming to do here. It’s a short-yardage situation so all he need to do is make any bit of contact and it will likely be good enough, which it kind of was. But it’s purely by the power of Dobbins’ legs that he was able to get the first down, considering Buckner was wrapped around him in the backfield.
I think that Meinerz is simply trying to do too much, when his usual technique is good enough to get guys off of the ball. If he just kept his feet under him this would have been just fine.
We can’t end things on a bad note, so let’s take a look at Meinerz snatch Samson Ebukam’s soul in pass protection.
There’s nothing special here to talk about technique-wise, this play is just Meinerz looking for work and trying to help his buddies out. He stayed home, keeping an eye on the linebacker over the top of him, and when that backer commits to pass coverage, Meinerz secures the DT and then looks out toward McGlinchey, laying the boom.
Quinn Meinerz played a good ball game. He was solid, and his grades suggest that. The Colts have a pretty good defensive line as well. I have no doubt that there is a ton of them to fix from this tape and Meinerz will be better in the coming weeks. It’s just what he does.
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