So....what happened to the O-line?

[Success]

They've been pretty magnificent since the 2nd half against the Bucs.

 

Today was amazing.  Allen had time in the pocket on almost every throw.  They were opening holes for the running game.  They were depleted & lost a guy during the game - and played just as well.  And that front for NE is no joke.

 

They're the key. If they keep this up, it will be very tough to stop this team.

 

[Buffalo Barbarian]

The bad players weren't playing

 

 

[Saxum]

It appears it got dire enough that they needed to let Bates play continuously rather than coming in short term substitute.

He is the lineman who knows how to play every position including LS I heard. 

[Nextmanup]

BB chose to hang back and not press on defense, which was probably a mistake.

 

 

[Warcodered]

[StHustle]

One word...

 

Chemistry.

 

I know it makes no sense how that lineup worked the best together but there appeared to be some natural chemistry working in favor of that group.

[EmotionallyUnstable]

They were pretty much what they want at the front 5 when they were Dawkins-Ike-Morse-Williams-Brown

[NewEra]

Helluva performance vs a bunch of dudes that aren’t very good pass rushers.  It looked like Belichick was super bland and never blitzed.  The OL reads seemed very basic.  Played into our hands. 
 

This is our offense when our OL plays well.  Hopefully we can make the proper moves this offseason to make this type of performance the norm.  

[John from Riverside]

They decided to play an offensive guard it’s been languishing on the bench the whole year

[Coach Tuesday]

Dawkins was forced to play after the injury and actually may have had his best game.  Such an odd season.

[poblano]

17 minutes ago, EmotionallyUnstable said:

They were pretty much what they want at the front 5 when they were Dawkins-Ike-Morse-Williams-Brown

Today that was not the case, Dawkins only saw action when Boettger went down. 

Brown-Ike-Morse-Williams-Doyle started (during first series they changed to Bates-Williams on the right side) and after Ike injury we saw Dawkins-Bates-Morse-Williams-Brown

[oldmanfan]

Well, I would say they were pretty bad last week.  But today we saw that Bates gave them better inside blocking, Brown was much better at RT than LT, and Dawkins was back at LT.  I hope going forward they keep Bates in there, and let Feliciano be the C/G backup.

Edited December 27, 2021 by oldmanfan

[The Wiz]

They weren't force to play Ford at any position.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

No offense to all You good posters, but none of the above explanations make any sense. 
 

Bates doesn’t miraculously make the other guys better. Cody Ford has been playing decently lately. There is more too what happened today.
 

Even when Brown was at LT today, they were looking great at every position. A few weeks ago Darryl Williams didn’t even move at the snap— now he is playing great at both guard and tackle? 
 

Morse has been getting blown off the ball at the snap, and suddenly held his own today. 
 

i have no idea what happened, except all 5 guys played out of their minds today. 

[Turk71]

Kudos to the line, they dug deep and really came through today.

Proud of the whole teams' effort, they played with a lot of heart and a cohesive will. Great game.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

22 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Dawkins was forced to play after the injury and actually may have had his best game.  Such an odd season.

Agree. He looked like he was having trouble moving but he was stout at the point of attack and just stoned the pass rushers. Monster effort by Dawkins 

[Iiiiiiiiive Got a Feeeelin]

Ryan F-n Bates is what happened. granted he tripped up moss on that clear lane to the end zone

bout time for Bates though. O line looked great

[BillsShredder83]

15 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

No offense to all You good posters, but none of the above explanations make any sense. 
 

Bates doesn’t miraculously make the other guys better. Cody Ford has been playing decently lately. There is more too what happened today.
 

Even when Brown was at LT today, they were looking great at every position. A few weeks ago Darryl Williams didn’t even move at the snap— now he is playing great at both guard and tackle? 
 

Morse has been getting blown off the ball at the snap, and suddenly held his own today. 
 

i have no idea what happened, except all 5 guys played out of their minds today. 

sounds like an ass chewing of sorts, combined with a tough competitive / physical week of practice.  have no way to prove this, but most reasonable explanation to me

[bigK14094]

8 minutes ago, BillsShredder83 said:

sounds like an ass chewing of sorts, combined with a tough competitive / physical week of practice.  have no way to prove this, but most reasonable explanation to me

Maybe they even practiced outside, immagine!

[Big Blitz]

The pass pro was fantastic.  Best it's been all season.  

 

Run blocking was OK but there were a handful of playcalls where you could tell they don't trust the run game.  

 

Singletary was 12 for 39 and a TD.  Moss 3 for 12.  So 15 carries 51 yards.  The Patriots are not a good run D. 

 

But Allen was on another level today.  And the oline giving him time was a big deal.  

 

Allen 12 carries 64 yards btw.