PatsPropaganda

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What are your thoughts on the O line? I watched the game on Game Rewind and while there were plays where Brady had plenty of time to throw, there were also many plays where he didn’t have a clean pocket. It reminded me a bit of the last two Super Bowls. Reason to be concerned or does the Bills’ D line deserve some credit?

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Very good question. Here’s how PFF graded them out:

  • Vollmer: 3.6 (1 hurry)
  • Solder: 2.8 (4 hurries)
  • Mankins: 2.8 (2 hurries)
  • Wendell: .9 (2 hits, 1 hurry)
  • Connolly: -.7 (1 sack, 1 hurry, 1 hit)
You have to give some credit to Mike Pettine and the Buffalo defense. Pettine knows how to mask his coverages to make life difficult for the o-line. Kyle Williams and Marcel Dareus are especially the kind of players who traditionally give the Pats problems. Considering all that, it wasn’t horrible.
Still, I continue to wonder if Dan Connolly is really a long-term answer at guard. We hoped to see Marcus Cannon compete with him for that job, but for now it looks like they like Cannon best as the swing tackle, who could play guard if necessary.
But outside of him I really like the offensive line and think they fit the Pats playing style extremely well. One thing I would like to see is an improvement from Wendell in pass blocking, he scored a -2.0 against the Bills and was a -4.0 there last season.