the play of the O-Line has caught everyone by pleasant surprise.
No question that it takes time for an O-Line to jell, but we're talking a virtual transformation here. Initially it was the notable improvement in pass protection, and last night a stunning emergence of run blocking ~ and this coming against an elite Iowa D.
None of us know what's going on in daily practice, and we can get only glimpses during the 60 mins of weekly play. My take is the C is the QB of the O line, not only in keying the A gaps, but in calling out assignments on D shifts. And, for a number of games, Josh Carlin (#54) as the starting C was getting blown up in his blocking assignments, until about 4 gms ago when he was moved to RG and replaced by Sam Yoon (#64). One change doesn't alone transform an O-Line, but Yoon was winning his battle in the middle of the LOS more often than not, and the O-Line went from shaky to what we amazingly saw last night.