JackBauer

True. But I'm pretty sure if they get back to the Patriots championship model of old, they'd survive marginal talent at one of the OG positions. I mean, they have won it all with guys like Tom Ashworth/Brandon Gorin on the line before.

Of course, none of this changes the fact that I agree Connolly could and should be upgraded. Either him or Koppen, or ideally both.

JackBauer

Thank you for recapping the game for me, I was heretofore unaware of the outcome.

You seem to believe Connolly should be ridden out of town. I believe he's a decent reserve lineman. We'll see what the FO thinks soon enough.

ATippett56

In 2004, the New England Patriots starting offensive guards were Joe Andruzzi and Stephen Neal. Neither one of them were considered marginal unlike Dan Connolly.

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robertweathers

In the last several years, Big Ben has been sacked more then almost any Qb in the NFL. The main reason is that he does not sit in the pocket and trust his protection and also waits for his receivers to run their routes.

That was party attributed to Connolly & Koppen as Ellis and Pouha had a total of 3 and Coleman and Pace came in on a LB/DB rush/blitz.

It was also attributed to the Jets confidence that they could move the ball offensively and not worry about the Patriots running the football. They decided not to and going all-in on the pass rush and flooding the passing lanes with 7-8 DBs and LBs.

I think 2-3 of TBs sacks were "coverage sacks" but I'd need to go back and look at the game again,.

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Deus Irae

The last team to win using the old Patriots model was the 2005 Steelers, just the first year after the rules changes for coverage. I don't think that's coincidental.

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ATippett56

That's what the Colts did to Ryan Lilja after the Super Bowl loss to the Saints. Send a message to the marginal players currently on the New England Patriots roster that failure is not an option.

You can find a better backup interior offensive lineman in the fourth or fifth round of the 2011 NFL Draft.

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The End of the Chad Ochostinko Era!

JackBauer

You realize in retrospect that was a poor decision by the Colts, right?

Like Rich Ohrnberger?

bucky

This is a truly ridiculous statement. Yes, Connolly was the worst OL on the team this year. Still, he started almost every game on the best offense in the NFL. Where was Connolly in the playoffs a year ago when Brady was getting spanked by the Ravens? He was on the bench, so you can't blame that one on him. In fact, the OL performed much better in this playoff game than in the last one.

You cannot overreact to 1 game. The Pats lost because they got outplayed. The Jets played a great game. That Pats did not make any plays defensively and made critical mistakes (dropped passes, botched fake punt, fumbles, penalties, protection breakdowns). You are overlooking the obvious problem - our team is overly reliant on Brady to be great in order to beat good teams. We need to concentrate on building a more balanced team with more playmakers on both sides of the ball, instead of thinking we can build an impenetrable OL.

Shelterdog

And how did dumping Lilja work for the Colts? He was a decent starter for the Chiefs and the Colts had a grab bag of awful at his spot.

Connolly was good enough to earn the job and hold onto it. Pro football focus has him ranked as essentially average. He got blown up a few times but he didn't get penalized. He's a meh player; he's not going to win you any games and if you have a bunch of Connollys playing then you're not going to win a ton of games, but every team has weak spots and the Pats were good enough with him playing to go 14-2 and beat every team that made the conference championships.

I also don't think that your fourth or fifth round rookie is likely to be a better guard than Connolley for the 2011 Patriots. No one is saying he's great but he's had seven years on NFL teams, seven years of strength training, four years in the Patriots' system, 19 pro starts. You might get lucky and get a fourth rounders who's better than him right off the bat but that would take a whole lot of luck.

If you want a good chance of improving on Connolly in the draft in 2011 you probably have to use a first or a second.

Deus Irae

Connolly is not a starting caliber offensive lineman. This is not because of one game. This is because of his entire NFL career.

Cutting Lilja was a mistake that the Chiefs were happy to see the Colts make. But, that's what happens when you're willing to throw everyone under the bus in order to keep your QB happy. However....

Connolly did not earn a starting job. The starting line would have been Light/Mankins/Koppen/Neal/Vollmer, but Mankins was holding out. That resulted in Kaczur replacing Mankins. It was only when Kaczur went down that Connolly got the spot. He was the #3 choice for the job. He got the job by default.

__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius