FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS | Word of Muth: Cards Won’t Budge

Interesting read about how the Pats o-line struggled to generate any push up front in the run game. The pass protection has been generally graded out as solid, but this shows where the problems are…

The biggest problem by far for New England’s running game was their inability to knock anyone off the ball. It isn’t that they gave up a lot of penetration, because, with the exception of a couple memorable third-down failures, they didn’t. It’s just that they weren’t moving any defenders off their spots. The Cardinals were in a 2-4-5 alignment for a large portion of the game. The only two defensive linemen Arizona had in this set were Calais Campbell and Darnell Dockett. Whichever one of them was on the play side got double-teamed on just about every running play. Despite a 2-on-1 advantage, the Patriots were unable to budge either Campbell or Dockett for most of the game. Left guard Logan Mankins in particular struggled to generate any type of movement.