Young Guards Keying Patriots Resurgent Ground Attack

Save for two terrible plays on special teams, the Patriots put forth their best overall effort of the season Monday night against Baltimore, led by a defensive effort unrivaled by anything we have seen out of this unit thus far in 2016, and, of course, Tom Brady and his 406 yards passing and three touchdowns. But an after-thought of sorts of the performance was the Patriots ability to run the football against the best rush defense in the NFL. Entering the Week 13 contest, the Ravens defense led the NFL in yards allowed, rush yards allowed, and rush yards allowed per game – not to mention they led the NFL in points allowed per game. In short, running the ball figured to be a tall task for the Patriots Monday night, especially considering it has been a long time since the Patriots have had a rushing attack of a high enough caliber to have success against the best rush defenses in football.

Prior to the matchup, the Ravens allowed only 3.4 yards per carry and just 75.5 yards per game on the ground. The Patriots rushed for 94 yards on the ground, and averaged 3.7 yards per carry, and while an uptick of only 0.3 yards more per carry doesn’t seem like a lot, consider this: the Ravens held Lesean McCoy and the Bills to a mere 2.7 YPC, Latavius Murray and the Raiders to just 3.3 YPC, and Leveon Bell and the Steelers to only 2.0 YPC. In fact, LeGarrette Blount averaged 4.0 YPC against Baltimore on Monday, more than all three backs I mentioned. He even put up a higher average than NFL rushing leader Ezekiel Elliot did against the Ravens  in their matchup earlier this season (Elliot averaged 3.9 YPC).

A good amount of the credit for that success must go to Blount himself; after all, he is the one gaining the yards, but one must look to the play of the offensive line to see who creates the space for Blount to operate, with an emphasis on the Patriots two guards, Shaq Mason and Joe Thuney. Mason, out of Georgia Tech, is in his second year, while Thuney, a product of North Carolina State, is just a rookie, yet the two young interior lineman are driving the Patriots rushing attack. I say this because the impact they have on the line of scrimmage when one of them pulls across it to overload one side of the line to create a numbers advantage for the running back is incredible.

This is evident by the fact that, in plays when either Mason or Thuney pulled, the Patriots averaged 5.6 YPC, and racked up 50 yards on just nine carries. Compare this stat to when neither pulled, in which the Patriots averaged just 2.8 YPC and only accumulated 39 yards on 14 carries, and you begin to see just how tremendous the two have performed in the run game this season and how indicative that is to the success of it.

A couple plays from last night further show the affect Mason and Thuney pulling have on the run game. This play, from the Patriots second scoring drive, was actually highlighted by announcer John Gruden during the game, and desires to be mentioned again because it shows just how effective the guards can be when they pull across the formation.

Mason, lined up at his position of right guard, comes across the formation and, along with fullback James Develin, creates a giant hole for Blount to run through. With Mason there to take linebacker Zachary Orr out of the play, Develin is free to move on to the second level and shield off safety Eric Weddle from the play, giving Blount a gargantuan lane. Blount would pick up 13 yards on the play.

Another example of the Mason and Thuney’s impact occurs on the very next play.

This is the same exact formation, and same exact play, just flipped to the other side. It is Thuney this time who pulls across the line of scrimmage and walls Orr off enough to allow Blount to run through the hole to pick up nine yards and set up a 2nd and 1.

Sean McDonough mentioned during the broadcast that Josh McDaniels viewed Mason as a player with the potential to be the best guard this group had ever coached, which tells you a lot about how the Patriots view Mason and his future. While we haven’t heard something like this from the coaching staff about Thuney, his playing time speaks for itself: he is the only Patriot on the entire team to have played every possible snap in 2016. While each have excelled in New England in the early part of their careers, they do not share much else in common.

Mason was one of the best run blockers in the country by his senior season for the Yellow Jackets, who run an offense predicted on the run that requires their guards to be able to pull and get to the second level. While he is not the most athletic of lineman, he makes up for it with tremendous strength and can drive defenders off the spot with ease. His glaring weakness when he first arrived in New England was in pass protection; at Georgia Tech, he was rarely asked to pass protect (and it showed in his technique and talent level at it), but he has adjusted fairly well for the most part in the early stages of his NFL career, particularly this season.

Thuney, on the other hand, was one of the most athletic lineman in the nation in his senior year for the Wolfpack, and played every position on the offensive line in his tenure in Raleigh, culminating in playing left tackle his senior year. He was fairly even in terms of his abilities in the run game versus in the passing game, and only real weakness coming into New England was his lack of size, both weight-wise and arm-length, but he has translated very well thus far to the NFL game. Each figures to be prominent parts of the Patriots offensive line for the foreseeable future, and both have played huge roles in the resurgence of not just the offensive line, but the running game as a whole, in 2016.