ReFo: Steelers @ Patriots, Week 9 | ProFootballFocus.com

This is disconcerting…

A troubling trend is developing at left guard for the Patriots. Logan Mankins has earned three significant negative grades as a pass blocker in his last four games – a stretch unlike we’ve seen from him in the five-plus years we’ve been grading his play. His Pass Blocking Efficiency rating is dropping (now 95.5, 36th among guards) and, when combined with center Ryan Wendell’s known weakness in that aspect, is working to widen the danger area for potential problems, not something Brady will like to see given his history with pressure up the middle. With 13 total pressures allowed in the three games (sandwiched around a clean sheet against the Jets) compared to the seven pressures he gave up in the season’s first five weeks, there’s hope that is an extended blip. The Patriots will hope that’s the case and not a downturn of longer hold.