Viewing the o-line through a different lens

It would be interesting to know on those "push backs", who the running back was. It seemed like Laurence Maroney was tackled for a loss more often. He ended up on IR, so I wonder if my perception matches the numbers. That is, he was tackled for a loss most often and that the line got better as the season went on.

For some reason Steve Neal grades out significantly better than Logan Mankins in the ESPN article -- 94.0% to 91.0%. However, Mankins got twice as many rushes.

Usually the Patriots want to eat the clock in the fourth quarter. I don't know if the other team's defense gets exhausted after several long Brady-Cassel drives, or if the other team's defense is concentrating on the Patriots' running game when they're way behind in the fourth quarter. Watch out for both variables.

Do you think that Mankins has more stamina for late in the game?

Mike, great find. So what I read here is that Light, Neal and Mankins all had very strong performances this past season, Kazcur is hit or miss and Koppen has been getting smacked around by all the massive NT's in this division.

Paul: I recall Steven Neal was out at the beginning of the season and then when he returned he played about 50% of the time until around mid-season, so his yards at the Point of Attack should be lower. Also I recall one of Neal's rare outright blunders in pass-blocking occurred last season when he got so distracted assisting Koppen block that he allowed a defender to come in unblocked directly on Cassel, who fortunately wasn't injured in the hit.