Should we flip flop Solder and Vollmer?

Honestly, the whole line played so badly that it made me wonder whether Devey should come back next week. Unless there were unannounced injuries or planned rotations, the Patriots benched three offensive linemen during parts of Monday’s game. Tackles Nate Solder and Sebastian Vollmer were each taken out after subpar series before returning, while Fleming was benched for Ryan Wendell (who himself was benched earlier in the year). Fleming was whipped repeatedly by Allen Bailey, most notably on the pressure that produced the first of two Brady strip-sacks. Solder was then left in the dust by Tamba Hali on the second, with Hali jumping the snap count and hitting Brady without as much as a touch from Solder.

Brady was hurried on seven of his 25 drop-backs, and that number was only that low because Josh McDaniels dialed up every bit of smoke and mirrors he possibly could to distract the Kansas City pass rush from eating his linemen alive. There was a shovel pass, an immediate swing pass, a play-action off the jet sweep, and at least four screens. Brady rarely was asked to throw downfield, and even if he had wanted to, he wouldn’t have had the time anyway. The Patriots ran the ball a fair amount early on, but they rarely did much with it, as their seven rushes produced just 24 yards in the first half. The offensive line didn’t look much better on those runs, with a third-and-2 sweep wiped out when a pulling Stork was simply shoved into the backfield

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Froob said:

I don't know if I even want him out there at all anymore. If we didn't trade Mankins (yeah I know) I'd have like to see him start at LT. Solder is as much of a ghost of his former self as Amendola. The good news is the line as a whole was a hell of a letter better for the most part.

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Brady6 said:

Solder is struggling right now and given he is young it is probably not good for his confidence to continue to endure it week-to-week. What do you all think of flipping him to RT? I have also see an OL in a few threads with Solder at LG.

These would be the lines for each scenario:

LT- Vollmer
LG- Connolly
OC- Stork
RG- Fleming
RT- Solder

LT- Vollmer
LG- Solder
OC- Stork
RG- Fleming
RT- Cannon

I want to state for the record that long-term I still think Solder is a franchise LT, right now though he has to work out whatever he has going on, and moving him off LT where he generally faces the other team’s top pass rush threat would likely help.

On a side note I was very pleased with Stork and Fleming last night, I think they both could be long-term answers at OC and RG, if we can work out the LT, LG, and RT spots we should be able to protect the GOAT the rest of the way.

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SVN said:

I dont know much about film watching etc but both barnwell and bruschi werent too impressed with stork and fleming last nite either.

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supafly said:

I was more impressed with Stork than I was Fleming. I'm not sure that Fleming is ready just yet. Then again, I'm not exactly sure that Stork is ready just yet either, but he seemed to be the lesser of the two evils to me.

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1. In dissecting quarterback Tom Brady's first interception, in which he threw into a heavily trafficked area as receiver Julian Edelman broke off his out-and-up route to the sideline, it highlighted how the Patriots were using extra resources to account for protection concerns at the line of scrimmage. They initially kept eight players in to block, with running back Stevan Ridley chipping left outside linebacker Tamba Hali and tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Michael Hoomanawanui staying in on the right side of the line at the start of the play. The Chiefs rushed just five, which meant the Patriots had two receivers in pass-routes against six Kansas City defenders before Gronkowski released out late to make it a three-on-seven numbers game. It's no wonder Brady was throwing into heavy coverage.

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Joker said:

The game was a no brainer running game. Instead they passed from the shotgun until they were so behind they got lapped for krissakes. THAT is game planning, and THAT goes directly on the little "genius" and the "big genius".

I said it yesterday and I still think so today...either McD and BB have suddenly morphed into the **** McPherson twins or there is some ulterior plan being put in effect.

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