Content Post Unofficial Offensive Line Analysis Thread, Week 1 Miami 2014

DocHoliday said:

I'm interested to hear what Dan Koppen has to say tonight on CSNNE @ 7 PM. Supposedly he's going over the Xs and Os of the loss with Mike Giardi. If anyone in the media knows what went wrong, it would be Koppen.

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Yes, do post a synopsis.

Zeus said:

Thanks for the great analysis, Unoriginal!

This morning, Gresh & Zolak identified the Wake sack/Brady fumble play as THE turning point in the game. They said that Wendell was injured on the play and could not return and that Devey was overmatched at RG for the remainder of the afternoon.

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Highly relevant if true. I saw Wendell standing on the sideline with his helmet on at points in the 2nd half so I discounted the injury possibility. Also I was flipping through the game so I would have missed any inter-play injury announcements.

Deus Irae said:

One of these years, I may actually decide to set up my computer to TV connection, get the games, and break things down from there with stills, clips and Photoshops (of course, having to learn Photoshop is one of the reasons I've never done this, but still). If I ever do, it'll be in a (no doubt) failed effort to come close to Unoriginal's level of work.

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This comes up from time to time, and I bypass the video capture part by downloading a torrent of the game from tenyardtorrents. You have to be vigilant in maintaining an upload ratio, but for me it reduced the workload somewhat.

Joker said:

IMO this is the best thread on the board today that was started yesterday...one page.

Meanwhile, the space aliens are going "Gun Hoe!!!" gonzo bananas in a bunch of threads about....Danny Amendola.It's either insanity or open trolling but somebody has to step in and put a stop to this. I posted this back in JUNE and it's coming to fruition just as I said it would. Crazy ,open liars are doing exactly what was said would NOT be allowed to happen.

It's a great thread ,Unoriginal...one I would have expected to be 10 pages long by now...the paucity of replies is a pretty sad indictment of the kind of "posts" that pass for discussion this season.

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Keep in mind Joker, a lot of people on this board would have absolutely no idea what unoriginal was talking about even if he was in the room diagramming on a white board.

Thanks for the effort that went into this. We all know Wake gives the Pats fits every time we play them, especially in the Miami heat. RT should have had help on every pass play (even though the extra help doesn't always work against him).

What's alarming for me is that the inside of the line hasn't been corrected. The same issues we've been having for the last few years when we go up against a good defensive front. Center and Guards getting driven right back into Brady's face. I hope Stork is the answer at Center.

Josh McDaniels also deserves a lot of the blame. Every pass Brady should have been in shotgun to give him the extra second. Having Brady do 5 or 7 step drops was suicide in the 2nd half. By the time he got to his spot he was being hit.

unoriginal said:

I think it is safe to say right now there is no hotter topic concerning Patriot football than the current performance and prospectus of the offensive line. Specifically as it pertains to pass blocking.

I invite those who have a little time to spare to join me as I attempt to go into deeper detail of the offensive line's performance against the very good pass rush of the Miami Dolphins.

For those of you who remember my offensive line breakdowns from a few years ago, I will be taking a much more "as I go along" approach here, and may be hampered by time constraints this week, so please feel free to contribute, keeping in mind we are striving for useful, play-oriented details here. I will probably not have time to post picture breakdowns myself but we'll see.
.....

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Thank you very much for taking the time to breakdown the line play and provide us with a balanced and reasonable assessment!

Boomer B said:

RT should have had help on every pass play (even though the extra help doesn't always work against him).

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The biggest problem with that is that the Dolphins were usually only rushing 4 to get their pressure, so it was already 7 defenders covering 5 receivers. Give the RT too much more help, now it's 7 defenders covering 4 receivers. You could almost double cover everyone in that scenario.

I hope that we can get Bryan Stork in at RG as soon as possible and then eventually switch him and Connolly by mid-season. Or even keep Stork at RG his rookie year. Either way we need to get our best five out there.

I also hope Fleming progresses because we desperately need a backup swing tackle now that we are playing Cannon at LG. Cannon could play LT/RT if one of Solder or Vollmer get hurt also I guess.

I was watching the game on a pretty crappy stream, but I notice Shelley Smith (whom the Patriots brought in) is now starting at RG for the Dolphins.

Hard to believe Smith wouldn't have been an upgrade over Devey or whatever else they're trotting out there at OG.

Deus Irae said:

One of these years, I may actually decide to set up my computer to TV connection, get the games, and break things down from there with stills, clips and Photoshops (of course, having to learn Photoshop is one of the reasons I've never done this, but still). If I ever do, it'll be in a (no doubt) failed effort to come close to Unoriginal's level of work.

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unoriginal said:

Yes, do post a synopsis.
This comes up from time to time, and I bypass the video capture part by downloading a torrent of the game from tenyardtorrents. You have to be vigilant in maintaining an upload ratio, but for me it reduced the workload somewhat.

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I can provide full games & all 22 videos for all of the games of the last 4-5 years at any point, without the need for you to go through torrents. Just let me know if you need any of them and I can put them somewhere convenient for direct download.

Sicilian said:

The biggest problem with that is that the Dolphins were usually only rushing 4 to get their pressure, so it was already 7 defenders covering 5 receivers. Give the RT too much more help, now it's 7 defenders covering 4 receivers. You could almost double cover everyone in that scenario.

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The help could have been RB or TE chips, etc...doesn't have to be a double team.

Truly epic post by Unoriginal and great thread by all. I'm an O-line junkie and this stuff is like a med-rare prime rib to a starving rottweiler.

Boomer B said:

The help could have been RB or TE chips, etc...doesn't have to be a double team.

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That's kind of what I was getting at in my question, although again...I haven't gone back and re-watched the game, so for all I know they may have been trying their damnest.

Thanks for the response though--much appreciated.

Anyone catch the CSNNE bit tonight? Couldn't watch it unfortunately :/

Really want to know what Koppen had to say

DocHoliday said:

I'm interested to hear what Dan Koppen has to say tonight on CSNNE @ 7 PM. Supposedly he's going over the Xs and Os of the loss with Mike Giardi. If anyone in the media knows what went wrong, it would be Koppen.

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I too would be very interested in hearing Koppen's opinion. I just checked CSNNE.com, but did not see anything up there with him yet.

If a video or audio is not available, a synopsis from anybody that might have heard what Koppen had to say would be most appreciated.

Edit: found the video with Koppen. It's only a minute long, but here it is:

Koppen: 'I don't buy it' | CSNNE.com





On the topic of the offensive line, the site did have this column from Tom Curran:

Long week for Pats new offensive line coach | CSNNE.com

O line continuity is an NFL axiom...this better get settled this month or we're skeee-rewed

Thank you for the thread, Unoriginal. It's good to note that Devey was the big offender in the ballad of the collapsing pocket. His size is intriguing, but he looks like someone who is going to need a lot of work to turn that size into playing strength. It was obvious that his footwork wasn't all it could be when he inexplicably managed to step on Brady on a routine snap in pre-season. After your analysis, I'll be stunned if he isn't replaced next week. Kline seems to be the likely choice, although he is their smallest lineman, so he may not offer much of an upgrade over Wendy. Hopefully, Stork can get ready quickly, and we can settle-in to a rhythm that works.

On the bright side, the Miami DL is as good as they come. Starks, Wake, and Odrick were dominant, and Vernon is no slouch either. Still, it's no good having the long established plan to beat Brady and the Pats (4-man rush and man coverage) tested out and found to still be as valid as it was in February 2008. Not every team will be able to execute it as well as Miami, but most of them will try and some of them will be successful, if things don't improve substantially.

Thanks for the breakdown- fantastic stuff.

This seems to be the perfect place to pose this question. I know the team has more problems along the interior but would it make sense to switch Vollmer and Solder?

Despite Week 1's bad outing I think Vollmer would hold up better than Solder who's play has never been all that impressive imo. Vollmer has experience playing the position since he adequately filled in for Matt Light when he was injured in '09.

If the change was made I'd like to see a line of: Vollmer-Cannon-Connelly(Stork)-Kline(Connelly)-Solder

This has been such a great thread to read through every day. Thank you for your analysis, Unoriginal, and thanks to everyone else posting insight here. This whole thread has been a gem to read through every morning.

I'm interested to know if anyone has any crystal ball insight on Stork. I know we haven't seen much of him, but from what little we have, does anyone have any insight on his level of NFL readiness? I was disappointed that he was not a part of the rotational oline that Belichick claims was all in the plan for the Miami game and I'm curious as to why Stork was conspicuously absent from that.

This thread is the one of the few good things about this loss ....

I'd imagine BB has been on the phone to Scar for his thoughts. The loss of Scar is the big problem with our OL.