My Biggest Conern against NE - Lack of Pass Rush against GB?

[Mindsink]

27. New England Patriots (14th)
PB: 32nd, RB: 13th, PEN: 20th

Stud: The only starter with a positive grade in pass protection is Sebastian Vollmer. That’s not what this line is used to, but it’s all they have right now.

Dud: It proved a bad idea to start Jordan Devey and the 2013 undrafted free agent who struggled in preseason was benched, but not before the damage was done.

Summary: For years New England has had one of the best lines in the league. They dropped off a little last year and have really hit hard times in 2014. They’ve struggled to find the right combination as they try to blend in new players and you get the feeling this is going to be a rollercoaster season for the unit.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2 ... ankings-2/

Those are stats only through week 5.

According to football outsiders, through week 17, it looks like this:

Pass blocking- 2nd (Seahawks are 24th)
Run blocking- 5th (Seahawks are 4th)

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol

 

[Sgt. Largent]

westill managed to win somehow??? But man ZERO- absolutely ZERO pressure?? What the hell is with Quinn, he can't send a few Blitzes???? GQ Brady is going to pick our ass apart!

We did blitz, far more than normal.

It's what we all feared, lack of interior pressure collapsing the pocket so our edge rushers could be more successful.

Both Rodgers and Newton has ample room to step up in the pocket to avoid Bennett and Avril.......and believe it, Brady will pick us apart unless Pete and Quinn figure out how to collapse that pocket.

I know we don't like the exotic blitz packages and we don't like sending extra rushers, but something has to happen.

 

[Hawks46]

New England's tackles are strong . . . but the interior of that line is one of the softest in the league. Must exploit it. I could see Bennett having a huge game while rushing from the interior.

All we need is to start getting Brady to move around. Our DE's will get home with time...KC tore NE up off of the edges.

 

[Basis4day]

So much of what happened on Sunday was predicated on the turnovers, which kept the Defense out there more often and longer than they should have been. Not really surprised that certain areas of the defense struggled.

Even though, after all that, the Defense only gave up ONE touchdown to GB the entire game. Even with the injuries to Sherman and Thomas and a bunch of pre-snap penalties. Good coverage by the DB's gives the pass rush that extra time to get to the QB.

 

[Mindsink]

New England's tackles are strong . . . but the interior of that line is one of the softest in the league. Must exploit it. I could see Bennett having a huge game while rushing from the interior.

What are you basing this off of? It would be great if true.

 

[BlueBlood]

The Patriots have ZERO pass rush and only one athletic LB. Wilson and Lynch are going to be a match up nightmare for the Patriots.

Patriots fans reading this have this fear in them and so they should. Their 3-4 defense is the epitome of mediocre. The talent in the secondary is there but with the threat of a big ground gain should even open the passing attack.

MisMatch!

 

[Sgt. Largent]

The Patriots have ZERO pass rush and only one athletic LB. Wilson and Lynch are going to be a match up nightmare for the Patriots. h!

Err, NE had more sacks than us this year.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/team/ ... asontype/2

It's true they don't really have a pass rush specialist, although IMO Chandler Jones is a beast.......but they scheme well and come up with creative ways to get sacks.

 

[nanomoz]

It is the concern, by far the most troubling thing in the matchup. Without pressure from the front four, Brady will get his shots.

I'd be surprised if this wasn't chief among Quinn's concerns as well. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of the "NASCAR" (or a variation thereof) personnel grouping up front: Irvin, Avril, Bennett, Schofield. Being able to use this package is really dependent on how quickly the Hawks can make substitutions, and how often the Patriots are in hurry-up mode.

If I were the Pats, I'd run hurry-up as much as possible, trying to take my shots when Williams, McDaniel, and/or Cohen are on the field. Those guys just don't get much pressure, and the Hawks are really, really thin up front right now. The Jordan Hill injury has hurt more than I thought it would.

If the Pats can dictate the pace of the game and prevent some substitutions, they'll have more success, and should be able to wear the front seven down.

 

[BlueBlood]

The Patriots have ZERO pass rush and only one athletic LB. Wilson and Lynch are going to be a match up nightmare for the Patriots. h!

Err, NE had more sacks than us this year.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/team/ ... asontype/2

It's true they don't really have a pass rush specialist, although IMO Chandler Jones is a beast.......but they scheme well and come up with creative ways to get sacks.

I know their stats. Their sack numbers are fine but their secondary is causing most of their sacks and with the mobility of Wilson and the threat of the beast I would expect Russell to have an MVP type game.

 

[bostonhardo]

I agree. We did not get the pressure on Erin like I thought we should. We still did very well for ourselves considering. I wonder how the Pats O line stacks up against the Green Bay O line. If we can get pressure on a regular basis then we should do well. Although all bets are off after the last game.

Maybe some of the Pats fans on our boards can help here.

I think my Pats O line may have trouble. that is my biggest fear. They tend to struggle against physical front sevens like yours and the Ravens. But on the other hand they did handle the Bills front four which is one of the best in football. Now that I think of it they dominated the Lions also.

Still our O line can struggle at times.

Does the Hawk front four create pressure without help from the backers or safety?

 

[hawk45]

I agree. We did not get the pressure on Erin like I thought we should. We still did very well for ourselves considering. I wonder how the Pats O line stacks up against the Green Bay O line. If we can get pressure on a regular basis then we should do well. Although all bets are off after the last game.

Maybe some of the Pats fans on our boards can help here.

I think my Pats O line may have trouble. that is my biggest fear. They tend to struggle against physical front sevens like yours and the Ravens. But on the other hand they did handle the Bills front four which is one of the best in football. Now that I think of it they dominated the Lions also.

Still our O line can struggle at times.

Does the Hawk front four create pressure without help from the backers or safety?

They haven't created pressure yet in the playoffs (Carolina and Green Bay).

With Carolina it could have been we were playing to contain Newton more, and Green Bay has a well-rated offensive line, but this lack of pressure also coincides with losing Jordan Hill in the middle of the DL (after losing Brandon Mebane earlier).

I have a hard time picturing enough front-4 pressure to bother a Brady who gets the ball out so quickly. I fear if we want to bother him we will have to blitz, and deal with the consequences of blitzing which can also be not-so-great vs a Brady.

 

[Schadie001]

I think that Rodgers only throwing for 178 yards says it all. Pressure doesn't always have to result in sacks. I know I'm always yelling at the TV to "get him!!!" But pressure also makes a QB get rid of the ball quick and usually for short yardage or an in-completion. He was 19/34 passing against us, with only 3 passes over 10 yards. Pretty dang good against a Aaron Rodgers led offense. If we had all of our injured guys back I think we would be AWESOME on the Dline, but we are still pretty dam good with what we have right now. Who else rushes 4 guys as much as we do and still only give up 178 yards to an "elite" QB?

 

[SirTed]

It is the concern, by far the most troubling thing in the matchup. Without pressure from the front four, Brady will get his shots.

I'd be surprised if this wasn't chief among Quinn's concerns as well. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of the "NASCAR" (or a variation thereof) personnel grouping up front: Irvin, Avril, Bennett, Schofield. Being able to use this package is really dependent on how quickly the Hawks can make substitutions, and how often the Patriots are in hurry-up mode.

If I were the Pats, I'd run hurry-up as much as possible, trying to take my shots when Williams, McDaniel, and/or Cohen are on the field. Those guys just don't get much pressure, and the Hawks are really, really thin up front right now. The Jordan Hill injury has hurt more than I thought it would.

If the Pats can dictate the pace of the game and prevent some substitutions, they'll have more success, and should be able to wear the front seven down.

Not only are we going to see a lot of hurry up, but they're going to run a lot of "bigger" packages with multiple backs, but probably only one in the backfield and a ton of TE's and H-backs. We'll either combat that with the nickle (and they'll run the ball) or go big and have zero pass rush (to which NE will run / play action and kill us). This is my biggest fear in the game.


IF we can figure out how to successfully stop the run with our nickle group, I think we have a shot. Tall order, though.

 

[kearly]

Brady gets the ball out quick a lot like Manning does. He throws a lot of shorter passes. Seattle is a tough matchup because they are they best team in the NFL at punishing the short pass.

Seattle will probably have to blitz occasionally even if they think Brady will beat it just to get a few QB hits in. Getting Brady out of rhythm will be a big deal for Pete. Like the last SB, our opponent is going to end up passing the football A LOT.