How the Patriots Offensive Line Could Tip the Scales in Super Bowl 49

Cliches become cliche for a reason. Like it or not, they often hold true.

One of the most tired cliches in football is the idea that the game is won and lost in the trenches. If the New England Patriots are to exit Arizona with their fourth Lombardi Trophy, it will be thanks to a strong performance by their men up front on both sides of the ball.

Forget the fact that any time the Patriots have been bounced out of the playoffs lately, it's been thanks to a fierce pass rush—the New York Giants (times two), the New York Jets and the Baltimore Ravens can all tell you tales of their success getting after Brady.

The Patriots offense has been at its best this season when the offensive line is at its best. It's not a coincidence that the offense finally started to take off when Bryan Stork, Dan Connolly and Ryan Wendell were inserted as the starters on the interior of the front line.

But even offensive tackles Nate Solder and Sebastian Vollmer had moments this season where they were among the problems up front. 

Regular season games	First 4	Last 12
Dropbacks	147	556
Pressured	52	146
Sacked	9	15
Pressure %	35.4%	26.3%

Early in the season, the Patriots offensive line had more turnstiles than a subway station. As the season wore on, those turnstiles turned into brick walls. In the first four games of the regular season, Brady was sacked nine times. In the final 12 games, he was sacked only 15 times.

Specific to the Seahawks, it seems that the best way to attack their defense is to spread them out. We've seen the Patriots employ this tactic already this season when facing the Detroit Lions in Week 12 and the Ravens in the divisional round of the playoffs.

The Patriots have done well at neutralizing top-notch defensive ends when they spread the field and employ an offense that allows Brady to get the ball out of his hands quickly. Brady dropped back to throw 53 times in each of those games, completed more than 66 percent of his passes and posted more than 340 yards. He was sacked a total of two times—both against the Ravens.

In terms of pure sack production, the Seahawks are not one of the most frightening teams. Their 37 sacks as a team rank 20th in the NFL for the 2014 season. That being said, stats website Pro Football Focus ranks Seahawks defensive ends Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett among the top 10 4-3 defensive ends in pass-rush productivity in the NFL this season. On a per-snap basis, Avirl and Bennett are among the best pass-rushers in the league.

Player	R. Sherman	B. Maxwell	M. Burley	T. Simon	J. Lane
Cov snaps	592	438	217	199	140
Targeted	65	71	45	19	31
Comp	31	45	34	10	21
Comp %	47.7	63.4	75.6	52.6	67.7
Yards	422	567	395	93	167
Y/C	13.6	12.6	11.6	9.3	8.0
TD	1	1	1	0	0
INT	4	2	1	1	0
PBU	4	7	1	2	2
Rate	48.4	81.1	99.8	44.4	81.0

Besides neutralizing a strong pair of defensive ends, a spread attack would also help neutralize Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman by giving quarterback Tom Brady more options in the passing game and potentially exposing the bottom of the cornerback depth chart rather than trying to attack the top of the food chain.

There may be some opportunities to target Sherman, and the Patriots would be silly not to test his injured elbow with one or two screen passes to see how effective he can be as a tackler. That being said, Brady's chances of exposing Sherman are far worse than his chances of exposing the likes of Byron Maxwell, Jeremy Lane and others in the Seattle secondary.

In fact, Pro Football Focus' Steve Palazzolo has an interesting theory on why Brady may have an advantage against the Seahawks defense:

This season, Brady has completed 116 of his 179 pass attempts (64.8 percent) to his left, compared to 58 completions on 102 pass attempts (56.9 percent) to his right. Not only does he attempt a higher volume of passes to his left, but he is more efficient throwing that direction as well. 

For the Patriots, it may not be a bad idea to leave a lesser receiver on the right side—across from Sherman—for a majority of the game to allow Brandon LaFell and Julian Edelman to make hay on the left side with the more favorable matchups.

But that becomes infinitely easier to do when the Patriots spread out the field with multiple receivers. And they can only execute that kind of offense if the offensive line is playing at a high level.

So, like it or not, sometimes it comes back to the tired cliche of winning the battle up front.