For an offensive line to be effectively blocked, it will have to serve as a coherent unit than as five individual players.
It is difficult to do so when a team loses 3 starters and a number one booking. When the team has trained slightly in two weeks, it is almost to upgrade new bodies without a drop in performance.
The New England Patriots can attest to this after Sunday’s 18-12 loss to the Denver Broncos at Gillette Stadium.
The Patriots entered this game without starting half David Andrews (reserve of the injured), the titular right guard Shaq Mason (reserve list / COVID-19) and the half/guardian James Ferentz (reserve list / COVID-19), and then lost Jermaine Eluemunor’s right initial shot to an ankle injury overdue in the first quarter.
As a result, the Patriots had to scrape the back of their O-line intensity table and several players in the middle of the game.
Isaiah Wynn began as a left guard for the first time in his career, then returned to the same position as always in the left shot after half-time. Joe Thuney, a left guard, walked the distance to the center. Sixth-round recruit Mike Onwenu played as a right guard, take right and left guard. His sixth-round colleague Justin Herron played the two-point shot. Hjalte Froholdt saw the first offensive action of his NFL career, entering as a right guard after Eluemunor’s injury.
New England’s second half offensive line included (left to right) Wynn, Onwenu, Thuney, Froholdt and Herron. On Monday, Onwenu said the five-man organization had never worked in combination in one’s positions.
“I wouldn’t say ‘reunited,'” Onwenu, the Patriots’ impressive end-of-round rookie, said in a video conference. “But yeah, certainly, it would have been great to exercise and have those reps and do that rehearsal. ” But that’s football. The five most sensible men, evidently on the offensive line, will be put there. We have to be competitive and do our job. “
The Patriots stayed well despite defeats at O-Line in Week 3 (Andrews) and Week Four (Andrews and Mason), but Sunday was too much for that unit. New England allowed four catches of the season, some of which can simply be attributed to Quarterback Cam Newton, and 12 general pressures and fought to execute the ball effectively, with Damien Harris, Rex Burkhead and James White combining for just four1 yards into 15 hauls.
Between their October 5 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and Sunday’s game against Denver, the Patriots practiced twice while passing a series of positive COVID tests. Head coach Bill Belichick said the lack of fieldwork had obviously hurt his team in the lead.
“It’s a big challenge,” Belichick said after the game. “Playing without a player, hurting the boys, moving, there were guys who didn’t play much together, who hadn’t practiced much together. So we have to pass out on the field, we have to train, we have to expand some continuity as a team, but especially there.