Halifax_Pats_Fan
In the Starting Line-Up
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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.Brady's been sacked a few times. He's never sacked a lot.
He's taken a few licks. That's what varies more. In other years he's taken a lot of hits.
Defensive adjustments may lead to him taking more hits as the year progresses. If they can't cover the receivers anyway, opponents may do more heavy blitzing.
I love it when unsung squads like the OL get some kudos... but let me just point out a few things worth considering...
Last season I was like a broken record, taking a break from the Kool-Aid much to the disdain of many longtime posters around here, preaching why the lack of quality WRs and a deep threat specifically was hindering many aspects of the offense.
It hurt our running game, it hurt pass protection, it hurt Watson's ability to catch passes, it hurt Brady's time in the pocket and literally hurt him in terms of sacks and pressure - and in the end I'm convinced it prevented us from gaining another Lombardi
Effectively it allowed opposing defenses to stack the line of scrimmage bringing up safeties to blitz without worry about anyone beating them deep
Quite frankly I think the O Line last year, with all of that working against them, deserves a ton of credit that was never given.
And not to take any credit away from the O Line this season either but they're not doing it alone... Ryan O'Callahan seems like a regular addition as a blocking TE, along with Kyle Brady - which effectively gives the team 7 O Linemen on the field giving Tom Brady all the time in the world...
Given all the time in the world, Brady's picking defenses apart, finding any one of many many quality receivers
And because he's consistently finding mid range and deep threats, teams can't put the same pressure on him that they did last season...
So, while its in vogue to give "props" to the O Line each week, let's take a step back and realize what a HUGE domino effect having good or bad deep threat WRs can have on a team... and recognize that football is truly a team sport... without the deep threats we have at WR there'd be a helluva lot more pressure on the O Line and we might be giving them about as much credit as we gave them last year, while taking on a much tougher job.
I know EXACTLY what you are saying about the O-Line. Yeah, we are a seven man O-Line in many situations.
But I won't complain about it this year because for the first time we actually have some great skill players.
Props to everybody just as long as we win, and Brady doesn't get hit every time he throws the ball.