Re: Pats offensive line... Best ever?
I would have to say that the starting point of the best OL ever is the team that scored the most points ever. Then include for the argument others that were close to the most points. From there you can argue one OL vs another based on who the skill position guys were, etc.
I would have to say, unless the difference is small in point scored you would have a hard time convincing me that the best isnt the team that scored the most.
After all, no offense can do anything without the OL.
So I'd say, yes, since the Pats are well on their way to the all-time scoring record, this OL belongs in the argument as best ever.
The funny thing is after 3-4 games, someone on this board was arguing that they didn't belong in the discussion of best OLs THIS YEAR>
Actually, I believe that person stated on record that the Pats needed to play more games this year before we try to draw any conclusions. After three games with a TE on either side of the line most every snap, it is hard to leap to any conclusions. Especially when the history of the line in question was one of wild inconsistency. Acknowledging that the Oline played consistently (thank god) for three games in a row was a hell of a lot more rational than suddenly giving out Oline of the year awards after three games.
Funny, I remember you telling us that we had won the superbowl last year in some long thread you started after the Chargers game.
Amazing how people can be ass backward by leaping to conclusions, like you last year, and then trying to draw attention to yourself the moment you think you are on to something.
You can count your chickens before they hatch, and for once in your life you will be correct this year because the team is that good. Doesn't take a genius to make predictions this year. Try not to use the team's success as some kind of prop for you to say 'I told you so' when you are only right once in a while. Especially when it requires that you purposely misconstrue somebody else's point of view. The fact is that nobody but a kneejerk fanboy talks about the best Oline of the year after three games. Especially when the rep of the line is toward drastic inconsistency.
I would love to know what predictions you made after the third game of the year in 2002.
And for what it is worth, I think that the best Oline of all time could have handled the Colts better with five on four. But I am not about to compare our Oline to every other Oline in history that played on every team in the last 88 years (since the fail safe method of some around here is to make a bold subjective statement with not a shred of proof and then ask you to do their legwork to prove them wrong, otherwise their opinion simply has to be truth even without anything to actually back it up).
I think our Oline is doing a great job this year and that the evidence so far is that they are the best Oline through mid-season in pass protection. I have a harder time assessing our run blocking ability since we don't run much against an 8 man box, and we don't have a running back that carries the ball 25 times a game. Certainly looks good in the YAC category, but I personally find it hard to objectively assess our run game at this point except to say that our pass game sets up our run game really well.
As far as judging an Oline by how many points the offense scores, you are simply discounting the level of QB play and skill player talent by doing something so mind-numbingly basic. The Oline is one part of a big picture, and the best Oline in history could well have protected the worst QB in history for all we know. I don't currently consider Maroney in the conversation of best running back of all time, but he does happen to play on this offense. So I guess your logic doesn't seem all that logical to me.
The Rams of 2001 had one of the more overrated Olines in history simply because of the amount of points they scored. Turns out that only one of those guys was really elite, and they simply hadn't faced a good shut down defense in a while. They didn't play particularly well together in the superbowl when their back was against the wall.
