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The Redemption of the 2017 Offensive Line

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The Patriots made a statement Sunday night, dominating the Atlanta Falcons to the tune of a 23-7 blowout in which Atlanta’s lone score occurred with just 4:09 left to play in the game. While the defensive effort made most headlines, it was the unheralded work of perhaps the Patriots most important unit, the offensive line, that deserves their share of the credit for the victory.

After the Tampa Bay game, I wrote about the Patriots offensive line struggles and the essential nature of protecting Brady, and it is clear that they red what I wrote, because we have seen a marked improvement from the unit in the two games since. In the first five games, Brady was sacked 16 times, which already eclipsed his sack total from last season ( just 15). The offensive line conceded three sacks Week 1, two Week 2, five Week 3, three Week 4, and three Week 5, good for an average of 3.2 sacks allowed, and 3.4 quarterbacks hits allowed, in that span. After Week 5, the Patriots were on pace to allow 51 sacks on the season, which would set a record for total sacks in a season with Brady under center.

However, in the past two weeks, we have witnessed a profound rise in the performance of the offensive line, led by the interior line, particularly center David Andrews (Pro Football Focus’s 3rd ranked center) and guard Shaq Mason (Pro Football Focus’s 5th ranked guard). Against the Jets last week, the Patriots did not yield a sack for the first time all year, and in Sunday’s contest with the Falcons, the Patriots did not allow a quarterback hit, also for the first time all year. Brady was sacked twice Sunday night, but one can be attributed to a communication breakdown between Brady and his line, not an offensive lineman being beat by a rusher.

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Breaking Down Pats O-Line Struggles vs. Tampa Bay

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Despite being the first team in NFL history to allow five straight 300 yard passers in a single season, the New England Patriots defense looked immensely better Thursday night in Tampa, grinding out a 19-14 victory thanks in large part to the woes of Nick Folk. The defense, despite coming in to Thursday’s game ranking last in the NFL in points allowed and yards allowed, showed signs of improvement, and in my mind, the defense is not the unit that could cost the Patriots the shot at a return trip to the Super Bowl.

To me, the struggles of the offensive line thus far have been far more concerning than the defensive woes, because New England returns the exact same starting group as 2016, a year in which Brady was only sacked 15 times (in just 12 games), yet he has been sacked 16 times already in just five games. Brady has been hit 32 times, meaning he has been hit on 17% of his drop backs this year, a rate that is certainly not ideal for the 40-year old quarterback. Despite Brady’s seemingly impenetrable youth, it is now more important than ever to protect him, and the offensive line needs to do its job and step it up.

And it’s not like Brady needs a ton of time too; on Thursday night, when he released the ball in under 2.6 seconds (13 attempts), Brady’s quarterback rating was 116, and his adjusted completion percentage was 92.3%, meaning all Brady needs is roughly 3 seconds in order to be successful, yet the offensive line isn’t even giving him that.

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Patriots Positional Preview: Offensive Line

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Thuney in his first NFL game vs. Calais Campbell

Today we’re on to one of the most important positions on the roster, the guys who keep #12 safe and open up all those holes in the running game — the offensive line.

After losing Nate Solder in 2015, it was clear how vital the veteran left tackle was to the offense. His return to health in 2016, coupled with the return of Dante Scarnecchia as well as great luck injury-wise, gave the Pats some of their best play upfront in recent memory.

Marcus Cannon emerged from the depths of his 2015 season to have the best year of his career. It was one of the most unexpected turnarounds from an oft-maligned player.

The interior of the line has a great young core, with David Andrews, Joe Thuney and Shaq Mason. Thuney stepped into the starting LG spot and was a stalwart ala Logan Mankins in 2005. That trio should only get better as they enter their second season together.

Reinforcements arrived this offseason as well, with Tony Garcia, perhaps the future at left tackle, drafted in the third round. The team also added Conor McDermott, an athletic tackle in the sixth round and a pair of undrafted rookie tackles.

An extension for Nate Solder could still be possible, but more likely is that his replacement will be groomed this season. The team has thrown enough at the wall that someone should emerge, with Garcia likely stepping into the backup swing role that should get him onto the field early.

The only other question is the interior depth where rookie Ted Karras was solid in spot duty as a rookie. He won’t be handed the job this year and will face plenty of competition for his roster spot this summer.

Let’s break down the entire line.

 

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Young Guards Keying Patriots Resurgent Ground Attack

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Save for two terrible plays on special teams, the Patriots put forth their best overall effort of the season Monday night against Baltimore, led by a defensive effort unrivaled by anything we have seen out of this unit thus far in 2016, and, of course, Tom Brady and his 406 yards passing and three touchdowns. But an after-thought of sorts of the performance was the Patriots ability to run the football against the best rush defense in the NFL. Entering the Week 13 contest, the Ravens defense led the NFL in yards allowed, rush yards allowed, and rush yards allowed per game – not to mention they led the NFL in points allowed per game. In short, running the ball figured to be a tall task for the Patriots Monday night, especially considering it has been a long time since the Patriots have had a rushing attack of a high enough caliber to have success against the best rush defenses in football.

Prior to the matchup, the Ravens allowed only 3.4 yards per carry and just 75.5 yards per game on the ground. The Patriots rushed for 94 yards on the ground, and averaged 3.7 yards per carry, and while an uptick of only 0.3 yards more per carry doesn’t seem like a lot, consider this: the Ravens held Lesean McCoy and the Bills to a mere 2.7 YPC, Latavius Murray and the Raiders to just 3.3 YPC, and Leveon Bell and the Steelers to only 2.0 YPC. In fact, LeGarrette Blount averaged 4.0 YPC against Baltimore on Monday, more than all three backs I mentioned. He even put up a higher average than NFL rushing leader Ezekiel Elliot did against the Ravens  in their matchup earlier this season (Elliot averaged 3.9 YPC).

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Patriots Offensive Line Review: Week 1

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The worst thing that could have happened prior to playing week one was an injury of any type to Nate Solder. The $6 million dollar left tackle was unavailable due to a suspected hamstring injury. This unforeseen situation would mean that several young offensive lineman would be called upon to perform well immediately against the Cardinals. Sebastian Vollmer is likely out of the season and it appears that Belichick will ride out the year with Waddle and Fleming as his depth tackles.

It certainly didn’t appear that the outlook was promising for the Patriots in pregame. News broke that Rob Gronkowski would not play Sunday. His skills as a blocker would be sorely missed, especially with a new quarterback under center. Shaq Mason had a broken hand but played with a club. This is certainly a testament to his toughness as a player.

Snaps

There would be a total of 71 offensive snaps in the unbelievable victory against Arizona. Four lineman stepped up and played every single down week one: Cam Fleming, Joe Thuney, David Andrews, and Marcus Cannon. Rookie Ted Karras and Shaq Mason saw less reps in the game. Karras totaled 57 plays and Mason 14.

The Patriots pulled it off with a solid performance from their offensive line. Fleming, Thuney, and Karras have never seen/had limited NFL reps. Shaq Mason and David Andrews are both second year players. The only veteran on the line was last season’s biggest disappointment in the trenches: Marcus Cannon.

The concern before this past game centered around giving the rookie quarterback an early boost of confidence. Belichick kept the pocket moving through play action and a variety of misdirection plays centered around Julian Edelman. This helped to keep the edge rushers honest and eliminated some of the pocket pressure. They also lined up in heavy sets and ran the ball consistently to keep Arizona honest. This opened up longer plays downfield like the 37 yard heave to Chris Hogan.

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Patriots Injury Buzzkill Sunday

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After two off days, the Patriots had media access on Sunday morning and the Boston Globe’s Jim McBride broke a trio of bad injury news updates concerning Shaq Mason, Dion Lewis and Sebastian Vollmer.

These are the first significant injury blows of the 2016 season with potential long-term ramifications.

Let’s break them each down one by one.

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Patriots-Saints: Offensive Line Film Review

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As part of this film review I will look at every single offensive play from the first preseason game. The ultimate goal is to highlight some of the accomplishments, failures, and features of the Patriots offensive line play during the game. We’ll also take a peek at some of the rotation details and grade their overall play.

-Joe Thuney played an outstanding game

–Nate Solder looked terrible early, improved as game went on

–Marcus Cannon was surprisingly good, one of most consistent lineman in this game. I was shocked.

–Shaq Mason looked pretty bad throughout the entire game. He wasn’t technically sound and made mental errors. Very disappointed.

-Andrews and Stork were both pretty strong. Andrews was probably slightly better.

–Josh Kline was solid playing both tackle and guard in the first preseason game

-Waddle was slightly better than Fleming, but neither were very impressive

-It’s evident that Barker feels more comfortable at guard than tackle

–Ted Karras was okay. Good to see that he can play center as well as guard.

-Not enough playing time to judge Halapio, Kerbyson, Milton.

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