o-line

Pats O-line in the middle of the pack here and with Connolly due for a big cap hit in the final year of his deal and Wendell being a free agent, the Pats will have some decisions to make.

I think they re-sign Wendell but aim to bring in competition and try to re-work Connolly and move him back to the interior swing guy. Both are good run blockers though, so no crying if the Pats run game struggles next year without them, okay?

16. New England Patriots (2nd) PB: 19th, RB: 21st, PEN: 1st

Stud: The heir to Matt Light might not have entered the top tier of tackles, but Nate Solder ( 25.6) is knocking on the door. Too many sacks allowed (10), but you have to be happy when you’re tackle pass blocks 647 times and gives up just 35 quarterback disruptions.

Dud: Last year Ryan Wendell (-14.0) got something of a pass from us because of his tremendous run blocking. Well, when he’s not producing that you can’t ignore his woeful pass protection. Centers should never allow more quarterback disruptions (37) than the team’s starting left tackle no matter how good the LT is.

Analysis: A dropoff for a normally solid unit. It really didn’t help that they lost the league’s (at that point) top-rated right tackle in Sebastian Vollmer, but with Logan Mankins far from elite and Dan Connolly struggling, the real problem comes in the interior where the team might look to bring in some competition in the offseason.

Great piece from James Christensen on something that we don’t analyze enough – offensive line play.

An uncharacteristic offensive effort by the Patriots was marred by poor guard play, as LG Logan Mankins (-3.8) and RG Dan Connolly (-2.8) were generally handled by the Bengals’ defensive front. Granted, going up against DT Geno Atkins doesn’t help, as Mankins can attest. Atkins bull rushed him into QB Tom Brady’s lap with 4:39 to go in the first and later notched a sack that was negated by a Cincinnati offsides penalty. It was more of the same in the run game, as Atkins continually got inside Mankins to affect Patriots’ blocking schemes. As for Connolly, most of his issues came in pass protection where he graded at -2.7 on his way to surrendering a sack, hit, and two hurries on 45 drop-backs. Atkins got the better of him for the two hurries, while DE Wallace Gilberry notched all three hits, including one that saw him get into Brady’s face in 1.7 seconds at the 0:22 mark of the second quarter.

The Patriots continued to get stellar play from the left side of their offensive line as LG Logan Mankins and LT Nate Solder graded at 6.1 and 4.0 respectively. Mankins was perfect on his 42 pass block attempts and he was a force in the running game ( 4.1 run block) — he was particularly proficient in the Patriots’ zone scheme that was featured prominently on Sunday. He got movement on DT Gerald McCoy a number of times to open holes for Patriots running backs. Solder gave up one solitary hurry on his 42 attempts, an Adrian Clayborn swipe to the back of Brady’s jersey, but even that hurry was recovered nicely as Solder was able to ride him past the pocket in time to allow Brady to step up. He wasn’t nearly as dominant as Mankins in the running game, but he did take advantage of undersized DE Daniel Te’o-Nesheim on back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter, first pinning him inside and later manhandling him to the ground.