New England Patriots Thread Mod Warning Post #253

I always felt that Denver D gave them a chance, particularly against our OL, but I didn't think they would just open the floodgates and allow Brady to get smashed all night.

Credit to Denver as they were beasts in the trenches, but a 2pt loss after Brady suffered the worst OL protection seen in the NFL this year, showed that even a decent performance by the OL would have been enough.

The Gost miss was a factor at the end, but the OL (in terms of protection and the inability to help in the running game) is the glaring weakness that had to be addressed in the off season. When you see the cap hit Canon has, and the way he played, he may be a cut candidate.

Kind of feel bad for him.

On one hand, sure there wasn't much improvement in individual performances compared to last year. But not sure how you can blame that on the line coach, especially when he's forced to give Cannon and Kline so many snaps when really they should just be relief guys. You're also putting Vollmer at a weaker position as a result.

Tough break for him but I guess the silver lining is that Bill knows the offensive line is an area of urgent attention and he's trying to do something about it. Sucks for Dave to be made culpable though.

How much better could get have done though?

After some initial concerns in preseason and the first few weeks of the season last year, the line settled really well and had a good year. Obviously we ended up winning the Super Bowl with them, so he was doing something right. Goes to show that with a healthy selection of players to choose from, he can get that line performing to a championship standard.

Then this year, Solder goes on IR to start the year. So you have to move Vollmer out to left tackle, a position you yourself have claimed he struggles in. He's the only one you can put there because of Cannon's left foot injury meaning he can't play out left.

Then you've got Cannon himself who is a greased up turnstile at right tackle. He filled in admirably but unspectacularly on rotation last year, but now you're asking him to play the majority of snaps, so the only advantage he may have held in games - being able to come in with full strength and stamina on occasion - is taken away from him.

You've got Bryan Stork who had a very good rookie year going out with an injury and not looking anywhere near as good when he comes back. David Andrews looked impressive in his place, so why isn't Dave getting credit for that? If that was Scarnecchia plugging in an undrafted rookie at center (a position that oddsmakers give more importance to than any other except QB) and getting the performances out of him that he did, he'd be praised left, right and center about what he does with limited and unknown players. But I don't hear any praise for DeGuglielmo on that one.

Ryan Wendell was also put on IR after looking good last year. So you've got Josh Kline and rookie Shaq Mason trying to guard Brady and rum block.

It was a disaster of a year on the offensive line injury wise, I don't know DeGuglielmo can be blamed for that considering what he had to work with. The only investment we made in the line this year was 2 fourth rounders, one who struggled with injury, and a free agent in Waddle halfway through the year who wasn't good enough for Detroit.

I don't know what was expected tbh. Your going up against Miller, Ware, Wolfe, Barrett etc. It's not as if you can pick one to double block.

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tHB

eagle eye wrote: »

The Patriots don't use scapegoats. The man was sacked because they don't think he is a good enough coach, it's that simple. We've had very poor years on defense and none of the coaches got the boot.

Figure of speech but you cannot blame coaching on the mess and rotation that we have had as Oline personnel. What was he supposed to do? You can't turn sh1t into gold. We have some very poor linemen and no coach would do any better.

Having said that it's very hard to replace the best and not look like you haven't a clue I'd imagine.

Exactly and Scar probably wouldn't have gotten much better out of them this year.

We've had a lot of problems over the two years with the OL, wasn't just this year.

Have we though? We won a bowl last season. This seasons mess would make any coach look awful at his role. Injuries and having to rotate nothing but average guys in there made his job impossible

Vandango wrote: »

I agree with everything you said there, but I didn't say anything about Googe being garbage. I just feel he had to go after the terrible OL performances and the AFC title game was probably the straw that broke the camels back. He was pretty unlucky with injuries and some of the crap talent he inherited, but I don't think Bill is interested in hard luck stories.

I take it you meant Gug and I never said you did.

I actually don't think the draft pick loss will have much impact. The odds of getting players 100% ready and up for the challenge to help Brady see out his career is going to be slim in this draft. We will have a better chance building our weaknesses in the FA anyways especially for a Bowl push next season and worry about the future next season.