Original Hogs Jeff Bostic and Joe Jacoby were on ESPN 980, waxing poetic about days gone by and the differences that exist between playing offensive line now, versus playing in the trenches 20+ years ago.
Bostic talks about NEVER having taken a shotgun snap in the entire time he was under center for the Redskins. Incredible when you think about it, and the modern NFL climate.
Here is a link to the audio.
It was also interesting to hear Bostic talk about some of the less subtle changes along the offensive line, like alignment:
“The amazing thing for me now is I look at the schematics of how they are playing the offensive line and the next time you watch a football game the thing that I notice the most is how close their splits are. I mean obviously as a center you can’t control the split but normally Russ Grimm or Raleigh McKenzie or Mark Schlereth – whoever was the guard had a nice two-and-a-half, three-foot split. Now, they look like they are shoe-to-shoe.”
After the 1991 season where The Hogs only allowed 7 sacks in 16 games, it’s hard to imagine there being a more prolific unit. But Bostic thinks that with modern schematics and gameplans, it’s entirely possible that Mark Rypien and the ’91 Redskins might have actually finished the season without a single sack allowed. Can you imagine? For my money, seven is close enough to perfect. If your quarterback gets sacked LESS than once every two games, the only one happier than the QB is the equipment manager.
My favorite quote of the article was undoubtedly this:
“… I don’t think you’ll see another team kind of like our team that was happy [with] four-five yard [gains] and a cloud of dust.”
Smash mouth football poetry.
I miss The Hogs. May their greatness forever be revered.
Hail to the Redskins.