Pats offensive line ranked 9th

Have they been perfect? No

As God awful as some here want you to believe? No

NFL Offensive Line Rankings - Week 8 | NFL News, Rankings and Statistics | PFF

I think sometimes the offensive line gets the blame for things, that in reality are inefficiencies with the whole operation. If the protection is set assuming the ball is coming out quickly, but a new receiver isn't where he's supposed to be and Brady has to hold the ball longer than expected, it looks bad for the line, but really it was the receiver. In fairness, this can work the opposite way too, where Brady's ability to read defenses and get the ball out quick has made the OL's job easier.

There's been a lot of in-season turnover, both on the line and in the skill positions this year. I'm not with PFF in saying they're the 9th best OL right now (far from it), but I think if we could get 3 straight weeks of relative stability in the personnel, we'd start to see a much smoother looking operation across the board.

Eye test confirms: Awful!!!!!!!!!!

They weren't great Sunday but i also agree the line has not been terrible. Before Sunday, as it relates to sacks, QB hits allowed and time to throw, they were on the same pace as prior years (except 2015 which was awful)

That said Wynn represents a significant upgrade over Newhouse. Shaq needs to play better. Hopefully he can get healthy. Karras has been ok in pass protection but very average in run blocking. Cannon has been spotty. Thuney has been very good as usual.

Ivan publicly stated Sony needs to run downhill more and break some tackles.

The run game has been awful that's all you have to know.

borg said:

Eye test confirms: Awful!!!!!!!!!!

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Newhouse but Dante is sticking with him. Karras is prone to the rolling snap at times.

ChrisR2223 said:

The run game has been awful that's all you have to know.

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How much is Sony to blame?

Scar is not happy ...
Which makes me feel hopeful for improvement.

A lot of that has to do with Brady. Not only does he move well in the pocket, but he's also outstanding at communicating with his offensive line before the snap to adjust the pass protection.

WATCH: Dolphins frustration with Patriots QB Tom Brady caught on tape

I loved seeing this defensive line coach's frustration.

“Look how they slid, picked that s— up. He’s called the right protection every f—ing time.”

(At 3:20 of video)

How many great defenses have we faced? Just Buffalo? Pittsburgh is decent.

Scar himself said they aren't playing well.

But i would imagine if Scar was doing an AMA here and said they weren't playing well you'd have posters here argue with him and call him a chicken little.

condon84 said:

Scar himself said they aren't playing well.

But i would imagine if Scar was doing an AMA here and said they weren't playing well you'd have posters here argue with him and call him a chicken little.

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Has anyone informed Scar that PFF disagrees?

OL is actually not terrible in league wide comparison.

There are 2 issues:

It really doesn't matter how good they are compared to other offensive lines. It matters how they fare against defenses.

The pass blocking is good despite Newhouse. The run blocking is not. Especially Mason and Cannon can't block.

Triumph said:

How much is Sony to blame?

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IDK...watching it he doesn't have a lot of space to get going.

This is like a couple years back when people were using advanced stats to try and say that the Red Sox bullpen was actually good.

Triumph said:

How much is Sony to blame?

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Ivan says he needs to run downhill more, quit taking risks bouncing it outside and break more tackles.

Read into that what you want.

It's part of the puzzle. We have no fullback and no decent blocking TEs (though Watson offers some hope), and those positions have been critical in the recent past, both for our running game and for pass protection. Since no decent fullback or blocking tight end figures to walk through that door anytime soon, the line needs to be "great" to get results that approach "good". Need Wynn dominating to get there, and Shaq at 100%, IMO.

PFF simply has this one wrong. Claiming "4 of the top 60 run blocking grades are on the Patriots. One of only 11 teams".

The Pats RBs average 3.3 Michel, 4.3 Burkhead, 2.9 White, 3.6 Bolden, 3.0 Harris. The only RB who has had success behind this line is Burkhead and with a very low sample size of 27 runs and a lot of that came when Wynn was healthy. Also this isn't even counting the Develin goal line runs which would lower it even more. (2 for 3 yards)

Average it all out and that is 208 rushes for 705 yards from our RBs. That averages out to 3.4 YPA. That is REALLY bad. Maybe some of that can be blamed on the TEs not being great run blockers and not having a full but back lets be honest. Most teams don't have a true full back and really good blocking TEs are getting harder to come by these days.

To say a line that averages 3.4 YPA has good run blocking from it's backs is just not true. And that is being generous give them a 3.4 as their overall average is lower at 3.2 which ties the lowest YPA with the Jets, Bengals and barely above the Dolphins.

To claim this line has run blocked well is just not true. They are among the worst. As far as pass blocking they have been okay in large part due to always being in the right spot and no rushers coming free due to coaching and Brady.

robertweathers said:

Ivan says he needs to run downhill more, quit taking risks bouncing it outside and break more tackles.

Read into that what you want.

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Didn’t come across as a ringing endorsement.

so off topic but watching that clip...

what's michael floyd doing these days?