Bobo (Boston)
Mike, the biggest disappointment in the loss was the Oline. Wendell and Connolly were both subpar this season. If they could have effectively run, the game would have been different IMO. As such, I think wendell has to walk and connolly needs to restructure. Then I would look at signing a guard (Schwartz from KC) and moving connolly to Center or signing Alex Mack and having connolly and Cannon compete for the RG spot. I prefer the latter. Your thoughts?
Mike (11:32 AM)
Right on the money in terms of what went wrong in the AFC Championship Game. It's remarkable to me how the narrative of "Brady needs more weapons" has picked up steam over the last three days when I don't think that was the main issue in this game. I watched every snap live and then over again on tape and I thought the main issue started at center. They couldn't block Terrance Knighton. Look at the first two drives. On first down, two completed passes to set up manageable second downs. But then runs of 1 and 0 yards as the Broncos controlled the heart of the line of scrimmage. The line basically crumbled. Add in a fourth-down sack given up by your best lineman (Logan Mankins), another sack given up by your second-best lineman on an inside rush (Nate Solder beaten by Robert Ayers), and I saw the foundation of the offense splitting at the seams. This doesn't even touch on Tom Brady missing two deep balls to wide-open targets. So while we could make a case for "Brady needs more weapons", the question I'm trying to figure out the answer to is this: "Why did the offensive line, once again, not rise up in the big game?"