NFL suffers an offensive shortage of scoring
O-lines and QBs across the league look unprepared
The first Sunday of the NFL season ended with a final flourish of wan incompetence. Eli Manning tossed a useless pass in the direction of Brandon Marshall to the left flat, time running out as the ball bounced near the 30-yard line with the New York Giants trailing 19-3. Even if Marshall caught the pointless throw, it would not have counted, because the Giants had not lined up properly and drew a flag.
It marked both a nadir in quality and a fitting cap to Sunday’s offensive ineptitude. All day, teams flailed to form an offence, and not just those with unproven quarterbacks. Six teams — the Giants, Bengals, Seahawks, Texans, 49ers and Colts — failed to crack double digits in points. When teams fail to reach 10 points in fully half of Sunday’s games, it represents an epidemic.
How to explain the terrible offence out of the gate? The concern entering Week 1 focused on a quarterback shortage, and teams that started Scott Tolzien, Tom Savage and Brian Hoyer counted among the offences unable to manage even a touchdown, extra point and a field goal. But then so did Eli Manning, Russell Wilson and Andy Dalton.
The proper explanation is an intractable issue: NFL football is too dangerous to responsibly prepare for.
Offences require more fullspeed repetition than defences. Despite an industrial complex of team activities and mini-camps throughout the off-season, the risk of injury and collectively bargained constraints deter teams from full-speed, full-contact practices. Pre-season games have become a joke, with entire first units playing together for scant reps or not at all.
There’s not a smarter way to do it, either. The risk of injury is too great. The Giants lost
Odell Beckham Jr. for Week 1 to a knee injury he suffered in the third pre-season game, and his absence turned their attack into a miasma of short passes and hopeless pass blocking.
But the effect of properly conserving players for the regular season was evident in Week 1. Offensive lines were especially ill-prepared. The league has an offensive line crisis. Linemen are coming into the league from spread offences that make them specialize in short-burst pass blocking, and they do not receive enough full-speed practice. Across the league, quarterbacks were under extreme duress. It made for ugly football.
It wasn’t just teams with low point totals. The Packers got to 17 only after cashing in after a turnover inside the Seattle 10, and they have Aaron Rodgers. The Redskins scored just 10 points on offence, needing a pick six to reach 17.
The problem is, there’s no clear solution. It would be foolish and against CBA rules for NFL coaches to revert to a large slate of full-contact practices or to play starters for longer stretches in the pre-season. There’s not a good way for offences to prepare. The results showed Sunday.