New England Patriots Game Grades: Offensive Line Struggles

Here are this week’s New England Patriots game grades:

Passing Offense: B

Tom Brady and the wide receivers were excellent, but the offensive line struggled all day long. Brady was frequently pressured and hit, and as a result of that, New England never got in a rhythm offensively.

When number 12 had time to throw, he had no trouble finding open receivers. Yes, Green Bay did a decent job of bottling the Pats up, but they really had no answer for Rob Gronkowski, Brandon LaFell, and Julian Edelman, specifically in the red zone. Gronk gets all of the credit for being a red zone stud, and rightfully so. But LaFell has emerged as a legit threat near the end zone, as his route-running, and big frame sets him apart from the defenders.

The Patriots ended up totaling 236 yards through the air on Sunday, but it should have been a lot more. Brady had plenty of matchups to attack, but his line just didn’t hold. He only went down once, but they hit him six times, and got after him from start to finish.

Rushing Offense: B-

It’s hard to fault this area too much, simply because the Patriots refused to stick to the ground attack as the game wore on. They finished with 18 running plays to 36 pass plays, which is just unacceptable against the 30th ranked run defense in the league. The offensive line wasn’t on their game, but as LeGarrette Blount showed on a few runs, Green Bay could be exposed, and if they had stuck to the run more, the outcome might have been different.

Blount was the leading rusher once again, as he totaled 58 yards on 10 carries. Brandon Bolden gained 17 yards on three attempts, while Shane Vereen and Jonas Gray combined to run the ball four times for 10 yards.

Pass Defense: B-

The secondary played awesome. I don’t care what the numbers say, Darrelle Revis and the rest of the defensive backs did all they could against this high-powered attack. Bill Belichick and the Pats did exactly what they set out to do, which was force Aaron Rodgers to win with his third and fourth options. And for the first time all year against the Patriots, the opposing team had enough weapons to win without their top guys dominating.

But we all know the big difference in this one was the pressure, or lack thereof on Rodgers. Now, part of this was by design, as the Pats didn’t want Aaron Rodgers scrambling all day long, but giving him up to 12 seconds in the pocket was ridiculous. It doesn’t matter if you have three Darrelle Revis’ and three Deion Sanders‘ covering, a quarterback with that much time all game long will find open receivers.

In my opinion, if Chandler Jones had been healthy and winning his 1-on-1 matchups, the Pats win this ballgame.

Run Defense: B+

New England gave up a few big plays on the opening drive, but aside from that, I thought they were solid in defending Eddie Lacy on the ground. The Pats’ run defense has come a long way since that debacle against the Jets, and the three players I want to single out are Vince Wilfork, Jamie Collins, and Dont’a Hightower. These guys have really stepped up their game, and they have negated one of the biggest weaknesses on this team.

Special Teams: B

Stephen Gostkowski missed a big 47-yard field goal at the end of the fourth quarter, but he has been money this year, and that missed kick was not the reason New England lost this football game. Overall not a big day for the special teams.