Can New England Patriots go 19-0 with 19 different starting offensive line combinations?
New England Patriots’ 2-0 start has provoked virtually insane conversations about the likelihood of Patriots going undefeated this season. I guess the reasoning is that since Patriots have won two big victories another 17 are practically in the bag already (Bill Belichick’s take: “That’s so ridiculous.”). I’d worry more about the next game, against Buffalo Bills, than about the team’s minute chances of going undefeated. Patriots have five interior offensive linemen on the 53-man roster: Dan Koppen, Stephen Neal, Logan Mankins, Billy Yates, and Russ Hochstein. Three of them - Neal, Hochstein, and Yates - have already lost playing and practice time because of injuries.
In the first game Patriots started tackles Matt Light and Nick Kaczur along with Mankins, Koppen and Neal. In the second game Yates replaced the injured Neal. Hochstein took some snaps and then finished the game after Yates left injured. There’s nobody on the team right now to step in after Yates and Hochstein. Brian Barthelmes is gone. Gene Mrczukowski is with Miami Dolphins. This year’s draft picks Mike Elgin, Clint Oldenburg, and Corey Hilliard (who all played tackle in college, although Oldenburg and Elgin got plenty of playing time during the preseason as interior linemen) have been cut and - let’s be honest here - none of them are nearly as good as Yates or Hochstein to begin with. There’s no offensive lineman on the practice squad [Actually, that's not true. Patriots added Dan Connolly on September 12. ]. I don’t think back-up tackle Wesley Britt has much if any experience playing interior lineman. The offensive linemen situation is not a crisis one going into the game against Buffalo, but all it takes is another man down and there you are. I don’t think Tom Brady will be throwing many touchdowns from behind, say, Chris Patrick.
I think the offensive line situation may already have affected Patriots’ play calling. I think back-up tackle O’Callaghan played fewer snaps as tight-end against San Diego than he did in the first week against the poorly coached New York Jets because of the overall injury situation on the offensive line. Not so much in the first half, where the game plan clearly was to spread out the Chargers and pick them apart, but perhaps in the second half, when it was more a matter of ball control and clock killing.
[The official NFL so-called game book for the September 9, 2007, game between New England Patriots and the poorly coached New York Jets undercounts the number of snaps O'Callaghan took as eligible receiver. Immediately after publishing this post I got this nagging feeling that maybe I was wrong about the number of offensive plays O'Callaghan was in on against the poorly coached New York Jets. When I looked it up the game book said two snaps, compared to eight against Chargers. Fortunately, I still have the Jets game on DVR, so I just manually counted the plays until I had tallied a number that corresponds with with my theory. I do it all for you, dear reader, all for you.]
