Welcome once again to the Hog Molly Report, where winning in the trenches is all that matters. Before we begin, we open with the reciting of our usual motto:

“Big men allow you to compete. We're certainly going to look at the big hog mollies.”

In the spirit of Mr. Gettleman’s words, and the philosophy of building a team from the inside out, my goal will be to watch the hog mollies each game during the season, and give them a grade based on their performance. This week we will look at the ridiculously disappointing loss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and see where the Smorgasbord Smashers went wrong. Then take a look at how they can right the ship again.

Offensive Hog mollies

*Season average in parentheses

Week 5 Yards per carry: 5.4 (4.5, T-6th NFL)

Third down conversions: 1 out of 8, 13% (43%, 8th NFL)

Sacks given up: 0 (13, T-6th NFL)

Running plays less than 3 yards (not including sacks): 7 on 25 attempts

Rating: 4 out of 5 Pulling Porkers

It was a substantially better week for the short-handed offensive line still without the services of LT Michael Oher. They gave up no sacks, even though there was quite a bit of pressure on Derek Anderson at times. They certainly benefit from Derek’s tendency to get the ball out quicker, unfortunately, he doesn’t always make the best decision with it. The running game was effective, if a bit streaky, even without Jonathan Stewart carrying the rock which led to a lot of 4th quarter head scratching with the decision to throw on 1st and goal from the one.

The biggest area of concern was how bad the team was on third down on Monday night, but the eye test would tell you that a lot of that doesn’t fall on the hog mollies this time around. Derek Anderson just gave up the ball a lot in key situations.

Defensive Hog mollies

Yards per carry allowed: 3.1 (3.4, T-4th NFL)

3rd Down Conversions allowed: 6 out of 15, 40% (41%, T-20th NFL)

Sacks: 2 total with 0.5 from DL (11, T-14th NFL)

Running plays less than 3 yards: 17 on 37 attempts

Rating: 3 out of 5 Hog Maulies

The defensive line continues to be really good in run defense, however, the league is catching on to the fact that we need to send blitzes to get to the quarterback and that our secondary isn’t good enough to typically fill those voids. We continue to fail to generate adequate pressure with a four man rush, and therefore, we are going to continue to surrender lots of yards and points as our secondary gets picked apart. On the upside, Kony Ealy had a decent game, even without recording a sack. He was able to apply decent pressure despite often being held (without a flag) and did well in run support.

This unit, and the team in general, will continue to rate poorly until the down lineman improve in pass rushing situations, end of story. But in this particular game’s case, the loss is not on their shoulders squarely.

Kelvin Benjamin

5 receptions, 70 yards, 0 touchdowns

Rating: 3 out of 5 Pigskin Capers

The DA leaned heavily on Kelvin Benjamin and Greg Olsen in this game, at times to his own detriment. Generally speaking, even when KB is covered, he is open... but you have to put the ball on him or slightly high. If you don’t, you’re going to get those passes that get tipped into the air and eventually picked, which we saw plenty on Monday. That said, it was an average and productive game from KB.

Hog molly of the Week: Daryl Williams

We rode the Panthers second year player pretty hard for his poor play last week, so we should commend him for improved play this time. The Panthers had good success running off tackle to both sides and on cutback runs, and those responsibilities fall on your tackles. They are still not very good, but Williams at least showed he isn’t as bad as he showed out against the Falcons (his first real start).