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Offensive line ranks highly

Email|Link|Comments (6) Posted by Mike Reiss, Globe Staff June 3, 2008 06:00 AM

CBS Sports.com's Pete Prisco ranks the offensive lines of each NFL club in his most recent piece, and he likes the Patriots at No. 3.

Prisco targets left guard Logan Mankins as the unit's best player, with right tackle Nick Kaczur the weak link.

"This is a unit that took a beating for the way it played in the Super Bowl loss," Prisco writes. "They struggled in pass protection. But Dante Scarnecchia, the best line coach in football, should get this unit back on track. Mankins is one of the game's best and center Dan Koppen went to the Pro Bowl last season. Left tackle Matt Light needs to play better. Right guard is a concern."

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6 comments so far...

This analysis(?) is not very convincing. RT is weak, RG is a concern, Light needs to play better - other than that they are fine.

Posted by Pat June 3, 08 07:13 AM

we have the greatest qb ever to live and play the game. our o-line needs to start playing with that in mind.

Posted by Alex June 3, 08 09:39 AM

I'm tired of people talking about Kaczur being a weak link. The guy's pretty good. He gets beat for a sack now and then, but if you look at the stats he doesn't get beat much more often than Matt Light. Sure he plays on the right side and doesn't always face the same rushers as Light, but he's been pretty solid on a line that produced the greatest offensive passing attack in history. He's not that bad... and if you watch the super bowl (if you can) it wasn't him who let them down on the line, it was Mankins, Koppen, Neal and Hochstein... Much of the pressure was from Justing Tuck... i can't go on.

Kazcur's not that bad.

Posted by Eric June 3, 08 12:04 PM

Thank you. Can people stop blaming them for the Super Bowl now?

Posted by Jayemel June 3, 08 12:30 PM

Kaczur's not that bad...but he's not that good either. I'd say the same about Neal too -- he's great in open space, pulling, or out in front on screens, but as an on-the-line blocker, he's pretty average. There's a reason that they got him for relatively short money last time he hit free agency. Light does a pretty good, but perhaps inconsistent, job on the left side, but I wouldn't call him a top 5 tackle, despite the recent pro-bowl appearances.

All in all, I think they're a good but not great group. I'd probably have them closer to #10 than #3. Brady makes them look better than they are in pass protection. Brady may very well have the best pocket awareness in the history of the game, yet the line gets all the credit for the low sack totals. It's funny how the opposite is true when a back like Adrian Peterson runs wild -- his blockers get no credit. But when Brady doesn't get sacked very often, all the praise goes to the OL.

Posted by MarkZ June 3, 08 09:40 PM

How could you not blame the O Line for the loss? They were outmanned by the front 4 of the Gents.

It wasn't just Tuck that was dominant. But it was the whole O line not just Kaczur. They all looked like human turnstiles.

Posted by #4 in 2008 June 4, 08 03:18 PM