Good analsys of offensive line play vs. MIA by Football Outsiders

Another (as usual) excellent piece from FO's Ben Muth on Pats OL play.

This one is an overview of the OL performance in the MIA game plus a detailed breakdown of the blocking on the long pass to Hernandez to open the 4th quarter.

Worth the read.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Word of Muth: Appraising the Patriots

He’s always a good read.

I did not watch the Miami game closely as I was working on a few reports for work, but I made an effort to try and focus on Vollmer for a few plays and I agree with his assessment:

It went beyond ineffectiveness: he looked bad moving around the field. He looked stiff and slow out of his stance (hence why he was behind all his blocks), and had trouble redirecting on pass rushes. With how well he’s played all year, it’s easy to write off this performance due to the injury, but it’s still very worrisome. It’s tough for offensive linemen to get healthier during the year if they’re active every week. Add that to the fact that the Patriots play the Texans and 49ers (two very physical defenses) the next two weeks, and it could be a bumpy road for Vollmer the rest of the way.

Dante has this Borg like quality of assimilating backups into the collective offensive line without missing a beat, but I think having a healthy Vollmer is critical for a successful playoff run. I hope he finds some good drugs and gets his body right.

Shut yo'Muth-Vollmer Rusty, Creativity by McDaniels, Solder Solid, Gronkless Hurt Run

Shut yo'Muth-Vollmer Rusty, Creativity by McDaniels, Solder Solid, Gronkless Hurt Run

Nice article:

Here

Vollmer / Gronkless analysis explains why we couldn't get anything going on the ground in that direction all game. I hope it was just rust and not a lingering issue for Vollmer. We will see this week I suppose. I'm sure the rotating guard play didn't help matters as well. He mentions no Gronk hurt the run overall as well, but hey the sky is blue too.

Vollmer has been great all year, but missed Week 12's game against the Jets with an injury. He was a game-time decision on Sunday, and it looked like New England may have made the wrong decision. Vollmer struggled in both the passing and running game against Cameron Wake for most of Sunday.
In the running game he was consistently behind his blocks: his helmet was never on the correct side of the defensive lineman. Generally, if the defender is running towards your side, you want your helmet on the defender’s outside number or shoulder (depending on if the play is going inside or outside). Vollmer never threatened to get outside of Wake. As a result, Wake was never worried about losing leverage and was able to dig his cleats into the ground and hold the point. On backside cutoffs, Vollmer had the same issue. He was unable to get his head across defensive tackles, so he gave up far too much penetration.

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I didn't catch this during the game, but it is interesting to see how McDaniels evolved the play a bit (see these web bloggers are good for something). Maybe BB had some input? I'd love to see the original play. Sounds like the QB got blown the F up!

From a protection standpoint, the problem you have to deal with when faking an outside zone is how to handle the backside edge rusher.

The Patriots found a creative solution. They had center Ryan Wendell take a few steps like he’s running outside zone to the right, then he doubled back outside to pick up any unblocked edge rushers.

Offseason readers and Rams fans may remember this particular strategy from Josh McDaniels' tenure as an offensive coordinator in St. Louis. When I broke down the Rams-Redskins game from last year, St. Louis ran a similar protection scheme that ended in a sack for Brian Orakpo. I wanted to throw up watching this scheme in action, but here I really liked it. So why the change in tune? Because it worked.

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I didn't mention it in the title, but Thomas gets a shout out along with Solder as well. In retrospect, we tried all game to go wide, then realized we could pound it inside to the left. Lights out 'Phins!

The running game finally found some traction on New England's final drive of the game. After getting the ball back, up seven with 8:28 left, the Patriots ran it 11 times (not counting Tom Brady’s centering of the ball) for 54 yards and ate up seven minutes of clock. They primarily leaned on a single back power play to the left side: Nate Solder and Donald Thomas were the keys as they gave a series of strong double teams for Stevan Ridley to run behind.

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Muth's words confirmed what my DVR-watching eyes saw: the right side of the OL sucked bad.

Let's all hope that SeaBass' piss-poor play was the result of rustiness, instead of his turning into the athletic eqivalent of Andre the Giant circa WrestleMania 3.

captain stone said:

Muth's words confirmed what my DVR-watching eyes saw: the right side of the OL sucked bad.

Let's all hope that SeaBass' piss-poor play was the result of rustiness, instead of his turning into the athletic eqivalent of Andre the Giant circa WrestleMania 3.

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From the best RT in the game to the athletic equivalent of Andre the Giant circa WrestleMania 3. Can't get off that bandwagon fast enough, can you, Captain.

I guess what the rest of league says is true. No one panics faster than a Pats fan, and no fan base "eats its own" faster. Its PATHETIC. I can only wonder who's next on the hit list.

captain stone said:

Muth's words confirmed what my DVR-watching eyes saw: the right side of the OL sucked bad.

Let's all hope that SeaBass' piss-poor play was the result of rustiness, instead of his turning into the athletic eqivalent of Andre the Giant circa WrestleMania 3.

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Am I missing your attempt at sarcasm?
Seabass has played excellent all season (when healthy). He then played sub par in his first game back from a serious, nagging injury. That is cause for concern that he has lost his ability to effectively play his position? LOL, that is the very definition of hitting the panic button way too early.....