Best O-line groupings begin to emerge: a look at the advanced stats

With another strong offensive performance, it looked like the Patriots had found an offensive line grouping that they could finally depend on. But with a string of injuries towards the end of the game, the putrid units that took charge in weeks one through four were reunited, and instantly looked awful again.

As I wrote last week after the Bengals victory, the individual performances on this offensive line are not going to be what influences wins. However both this week and last, the Patriots have been able to put together a line that clicks and can protect Brady long enough for him to make the throws he needs to make. The Pats offensive line was ranked 7th in pass-blocking efficiency this week, with only a single sack given up (allowed by the continously underperforming Nate Solder), and a mere four hurries.

The starting group of Solder, Connolly, Wendell, Kline and Vollmer (sans Kline, who posted a PBE of -2.2) performed admirably, and when Marcus Cannon subbed in, they only grew stronger. Swap Kline for Stork and you can expect that this will be the preferred personnel grouping trusted with keeping Brady upright. Vollmer continues to be the star man, allowing only a single QB hurry with no sacks or hits on TB12. Dan Connolly (who has had his own tormented spells of play this year) also stepped up with a strong performance in relief of Jordan Devey. However, it was when Connolly was forced to depart with a head injury that the line became visibly weak again.

Connolly was replaced by Jordan Devey, who continues to play high-snap counts and simultaneously contribute very little protection, much to the ire of Patriots fans - seriously, search his name on Twitter. Only Josh Kline posted a lower PBE rating than Devey, who actually played less than two-thirds of the snaps (49) compared with Kline's 75. It seems that while Vollmer is propping up the line on the right side with a rotating cast at guard, the combination of the faltering Solder and Devey on the left side means that the protection is never entirely stable.

The trends would suggest that with this duo on the left side of the line, do not expect decent protection - Solder and Devey combined have allowed 5 sacks, compared with a shared total of 5 sacks among all other Patriots linemen that have taken snaps this year. Solder has been the biggest surprise this year, given the development he has shown over the last couple of seasons, and his standard of play has to improve to enable this offensive line to maintain stability even throughout injury situations. In the meantime though, any protection that allows the offense to put up 37 points cannot be faulted too heavily, especially against yet another talented defensive front.

Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

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