New England Patriots: Offensive Line, You the Real MVP

By Matthew Rewinski | Jan 19, 2016

Jan 16, 2016; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) throws the ball for a touchdown against the Kansas City Chiefs during the second half in the AFC Divisional round playoff game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports /

After weeks of awful performance, the New England Patriots’ offensive line stepped up in a huge way for the postseason.

After Andy Reid bungled away his only chance to win a game in which the Chiefs never held a lead, the New England Patriots are sitting pretty and getting ready for their fifth consecutive AFC Championship game.

And if we’re going to bag on ’em when they play poorly, the offensive line sure as heck deserve credit for keeping Tom Brady protected on Saturday and giving Brady time to slice and dice the Chiefs in a game that decisively put to bed any notions that this AFC Divisional game was in any way, shape, or form going to be a repeat of the Kansas City Barbecue of 2014.

That Kansas City defense, BTW, finished the 2015-2016 regular season with:

47 sacks (4th most in NFL)

22 interceptions (2nd most in NFL)

290 yards lost due to sacks (6th most in the NFL)

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Kansas City also racked up 3 sacks and 4 picks against the Houston Texans in the wild-card round.

(Insert Brian Hoyer joke here)

That same rockstar defense that helped Kansas City close out the regular season on an 11-game win streak rolled into Gillette Stadium and, well, didn’t show up. Here’s how they fared against TB12:

Zero sacks, four quarterback pressures on 43 dropbacks, and just one measly legal quarterback hit (there was one other hit on Brady, but it turned into a costly roughing the passer penalty for the Chiefs).

Of course, fair is fair: the Chiefs pass rush that was so gnarly throughout the second half of the regular season really felt the absence of stud linebacker Justin Houston, who racked up a ridiculous 29.5 sacks in his last 27 regular-season games and signed a bookoo-bucks $101-million dollar contract over the summer. Houston only played eight snaps on Saturday, and obviously didn’t show up in the sack column, just like the rest of the Chiefs.

And after the last few weeks of watching Brady take shot after shot, sacks, hurries, knockdowns, and every other type of pressure in the book, the Patriots offensive line deserves massive credit for their work.

On paper, this line doesn’t look like anything special – actually, if we’re being honest, a couple of these starters might not make fans go “Oh boy!” so much as “Ooooh boy…(gulp)”: Sebastian Vollmer, Josh Kline, Bryan Stork, David Andrews, Shaq Mason, and Marcus Cannon aren’t exactly the ’07 Patriots lineup with three Pro Bowlers.

But they allowed Brady to unload his passes right in his sweet spot of an average 2.16 seconds, per Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald, and Brady’s release time when throwing to Julian Edelman was an absolutely rifle-bolt quick 2.0 seconds.

Put another way, if the offensive line could hold off the Kansas City pass rush for as much time as it takes you or I to count “One Mississippi, two Mississippi”, there was no sacking Brady. Period.

Some people might note that with Julian Edelman back in the lineup at what sure looked like full strength, unloading the ball that quickly gets much easier. Sure is, but if the O-line’s job is to hold rushers off long enough to get Minitron the ball, and they came through, that’s still a job well done. One might say that is literally doing your job, if one was so inclined.

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On a more intangible note, Brady wound up moving up and down and all around in the pocket on several different occasions, and in those situations, the Patriots line didn’t allow any sacks either.

Not too shabby for a position group that TONS of people thought would be the Pats’ Death Star exhaust vent weakness coming into today’s game.

Now all the Patriots need is a repeat performance against the undisputed heavyweight champion defense of the NFL – the Denver Broncos – at Denver – and they’re on to…

Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. It is Brady-Manning again, after all. Let’s enjoy it.

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