Late night bullshit: Cam Erving was not terrible against the Texans.

[Direckshun]

I rewatched the game, or at least the offense possessions, and focused on our temporary new RG.

Now if you regular DraftPlanet, you know I was so incredibly high on Erving coming out of Florida State that I drafted him for the Chiefs in the CP Mock. I loved his length, his power, his versatility, his technique and his athleticism.

Then he goes to Cleveland, who actually has a good OL staff, and becomes one of the worst OL in the NFL. He gets destroyed off the point of attack. He has horrific technique. His versatility works against him as the Browns play him everywhere and he can never get comfortable.

So Veach chucks out a 5th for him, and in a few weeks he's staring down the Texans D for 60 snaps. Hell of a gamble.

So here's what I noticed watching him:

1st of all, what has jumped off the screen is his enthusiasm. There were two plays against Houston where he's seen hopping around after the play, jacking his fists. That's a level of enthusiasm you expect from a DL, not an OL. That's not critical or anything, I just enjoyed it.

Another thing that's immediately apparent is that the Chiefs were protecting him some. I don't think they ran behind him but 3 times, give or take, and he frequently had no assignment in passing downs and was floating from defender to defender.

Erving has every bit of his Florida State athleticism. Ho man. The Chiefs pull him into space and to the 2nd level a ton in this game, and he gets there fast. He's not a mauler -- never was -- but can be effective walling off defenders with some technique. He has long, powerful arms, and they often have that scouting phrase "when he gets his hands on you, it's over" -- well it is with him. If he can get settled or squared up, he wins.

That being said, that's the disclaimer there. Erving gets to his man more often than not but his blocking is still seemingly easy to slip. Secondary players, linebackers, even DL can shed him far easier than his teammates. I imagine some technique work will make that better?

Something that won't get better this year will be the lack of push. Erving is long and strong but it doesn't translate in blowing guys off the ball. He is on occasion pushed back into the play but never with the frequency that occurred in Cleveland.

One thing that's really troublesome about his game is his vulnerability to stunts. The Texans tested this a few times and had roughly a 50% success rate with them against Erving. Sure, it'll only get better as he plays more with his teammates, but the Steelers love stunts. So watch out -- one Houston stunt against Erving blew up a potential TD pass from Smith to Kelce (it was the play that Watt got hurt on).

That being said, he truly did annihilate guys in space a few times, so I do wonder how his skill set translates to tackle from guard. He's a great energy guy and wants to **** people up, and that kind of nasty was missing at Florida State.

.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

I think it shows the difference in credible and good. I was encouraged that he could do that, when he's never played RG at this level and steps in and that's what you get. It wasn't by any means good, but serviceable is what you're hoping for imo

Also shows the finer points of ol play and how it's all about angles. That's what andy is so great at, with the shifts and motions. Getting a false step one way from a LB allows the guard to get a better angle etc.

Hopefully LdT can come back sooner than later and Morse as well

I just start to wonder how many times your RG can make plays that take points off the board despite stellar play design before you say "well maybe 'credible' isn't the right word afterall..."

The other guy gets paid to play as well; I get it. Sometimes you just get beat. But man, there's not a guard on earth that doesn't live for that moment that you get a free release at a flat-footed ILB. That's pancakin' time and instead he just kinda lumbered up there and whiffed. That's a pretty bad play when Andy had the Texans set up for a serious body blow.

It's a generally invisible position so you have to really really suck to be seen as openly terrible in real time (Y'know, like Mike McGlynn), but how many times can he fail to execute in a manner that directly impacts the scoreboard before he falls somewhere between 'credible' and 'McGlynn'?

[Red Dawg]

The same ref again? He better cut us a break this time but I doubt it. The NFL needs the Steelers to stay relevant. Once again we must fight the refs and the Steelers.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I just start to wonder how many times your RG can make plays that take points off the board despite stellar play design before you say "well maybe 'credible' isn't the right word afterall..."

The other guy gets paid to play as well; I get it. Sometimes you just get beat. But man, there's not a guard on earth that doesn't live for that moment that you get a free release at a flat-footed ILB. That's pancakin' time and instead he just kinda lumbered up there and whiffed. That's a pretty bad play when Andy had the Texans set up for a serious body blow.

It's a generally invisible position so you have to really really suck to be seen as openly terrible in real time (Y'know, like Mike McGlynn), but how many times can he fail to execute in a manner that directly impacts the scoreboard before he falls somewhere between 'credible' and 'McGlynn'?

Depends on your definition or placement of credibility. Not getting your qb killed and standing in between your guy and the qb would be the credibility baseline for me.

But I can see where it would be different

[O.city]

Also I just don't know that Hunt houses the second one. That's like 75 yards after having to make that guy miss

Maybe but that's tough. The missed stunt absolutely though. I tend to bend a bit there in a guys making his first start at RG but shit, figure out a stunt.

The dead giveaway that he's a somewhat novice guard imo, is how he comes to that LB so out of control. Get there quick but throttle it down and get your weight distributed.

[Halfcan]

I am curious what people's opinions are- for those that have rewatched the game film- because it seemed like the left side of the line were either flat out missing blocks or skipping assignments to block on the second level? Hunt was getting hit as soon as he touched the ball. He had no time to even make an initial move. Hunt could not get any traction for the first three quarters.

Is it just Great defense or poor O-line plays?

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

Also I just don't know that Hunt houses the second one. That's like 75 yards after having to make that guy miss

Maybe but that's tough. The missed stunt absolutely though. I tend to bend a bit there in a guys making his first start at RG but shit, figure out a stunt.

The dead giveaway that he's a somewhat novice guard imo, is how he comes to that LB so out of control. Get there quick but throttle it down and get your weight distributed.

Hard to say based on what Hunt was doing. If he continues to try to go inside of the safety, I think Jackson has him (I think that's Jackson coming from the CB spot). But if he's just making that inside move to set up the hard cut to the sideline like he's already done twice this year, it becomes the same play he put on the Chargers and Eagles and he's already past the angle for the far side defenders.

He had a shot.

[lcarus]

How long is Tard out?

[O.city]

I haven't rewatched it, just flips here and there on twitter

But the Texans seem to decide that Hunt wasn't going to beat them. They were throwing run blitzes and double a gap stuff in there all night.

They made smith and company shoulder the load and they did. And they not only shoulder'd it, they stuffed it back up houstons back side

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Hard to say based on what Hunt was doing. If he continues to try to go inside of the safety, I think Jackson has him (I think that's Jackson coming from the CB spot). But if he's just making that inside move to set up the hard cut to the sideline like he's already done twice this year, it becomes the same play he put on the Chargers and Eagles and he's already past the angle for the far side defenders.

He had a shot.

It's hard to see how many guys aren't in the picture that may have a shot at him.

It's definitely a bigger gain I'm just not sure he goes the distance

[milkman]

We also have bear in mind that he is just learning this offense.

[RunKC]

He was decent which is all you can ask for. I hope we get Morse and LDT back for Denver.

We'll need them for that game

[tmax63]

I was just gonna add that Being a turnstile in Cleveland and just being here a month or so I was just happy he didn't get Smith killed. Not every backup is going to be good when you get to the 3rd or 4th option. Using last Sunday as a baseline, I can see him moving up to solid backup pretty quick.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by thabear04

Oh great

So Carl Cheffers will be the ref for the #Chiefs #Steelers on Sunday. You may remember him from the Divisional playoff game. #FisherHold pic.twitter.com/K2cb6PVKKD

— Nick Jacobs (@Jacobs71) October 10, 2017

Are you mother ****ing kidding me?

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by O.city

I haven't rewatched it, just flips here and there on twitter

But the Texans seem to decide that Hunt wasn't going to beat them. They were throwing run blitzes and double a gap stuff in there all night.

They made smith and company shoulder the load and they did. And they not only shoulder'd it, they stuffed it back up houstons back side

The Hunt-Hill combo is just too much.

Sell out to stop Hunt, and put a safety over Hill, and e v e r y t h i n g opens up across the middle. Conley, Albert, and Robinson were wide open all game and Kelce had a 100-yard 1st half.