There was some understandable apathy surrounding Super Bowl X this weekend. Anyone paying attention to the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks in the postseason has seen the obvious: These two teams are essentially playing on two completely different planes of existence.
The Seahawks pulled the 49ers’ pants over their heads for an emphatic victory that felt like it was over from Game 1, then set up a true heavyweight showdown with the Rams in the NFC Championship Game. The Patriots, on the other hand, had some tough battles but didn’t have the high-end flash that the Seahawks showed.
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The Patriots have one key weakness in this game, like in all of their other games: the offensive line.
That’s not to say the Patriots have the worst offensive line in the league, because they certainly don’t. However, in a more competitive environment like the playoffs, where the best team is the only one on the schedule, New England’s defensive line was forced to run the best defense in the league and largely underperformed. Through three playoff games so far, the Patriots’ offense has been successful on just 33 percent of their offense, and Derek Meyer has been sacked at a 16.3 percent failure rate. The flip side is that the defense also took advantage of the poor weather conditions in their game, but conditions may be different on Sunday.
New England has a chance in this game if The offensive line may disrupt the established standards of the role. The Patriots certainly don’t have the same level of talent up front that teams typically find themselves in this situation — and hell, even seahawksThe offensive line, while not an elite unit, does feature at least three starters: Charles Cross, Gray Zabel and Abe Lucas. More than 42 percent of the Patriots’ possessions have yielded negative yardage so far, and their first downs per possession (1.14) are the worst among teams in this year’s playoffs. The offensive line has been battered by some of the best defensive lines in the league, and it’s hard to see how that will change this week against the vaunted Seahawks front.
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One of the great things about this offensive line is that Meyer is one of the best quarterback athletes in the league and has proven that his athleticism can make a huge difference for the Patriots in the Super Bowl. However, they still need to give him and the running backs behind them a chance to win this game. It really comes down to the Patriots’ ability up front to stop arguably the most cohesive front seven in the NFL.
Hopefully they will, because it’s better not to let the Super Bowl become the anti-hype that has fueled discussion of the game so far. New England’s front five will need to perform exceptionally well against another defensive line that’s more talented than them.
If they can do that, this Patriots team could become one of the most unlikely teams to win a Super Bowl in this era.