MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Patriots streak of bad luck with their offensive line continued on Sunday.
The team lost three offensive linemen to retirement during the summer. Two of those players (Jared Veldheer and Brian Schwenke) would have provided experienced depth on the 53-man roster.
On Sunday, the Pats came into the game against the Dolphins without their starting center David Andrews (blood clots in lungs) and starting right tackle Marcus Cannon (shoulder). [...]
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Patriots streak of bad luck with their offensive line continued on Sunday.
The team lost three offensive linemen to retirement during the summer. Two of those players (Jared Veldheer and Brian Schwenke) would have provided experienced depth on the 53-man roster.
On Sunday, the Pats came into the game against the Dolphins without their starting center David Andrews (blood clots in lungs) and starting right tackle Marcus Cannon (shoulder). Things got worse during the game as they lost starting left tackle Isaiah Wynn to a foot injury in the first quarter. That forced the coaching staff to move Marshall Newhouse from right tackle to left tackle. Korey Cunningham then came off the bench to play right tackle.
“Yeah, it's a real challenge there,” Bill Belichick said. “Marshall and Korey really stepped up and that's what we have depth for. We had to use it today. It was a tough day out there but they battled through it.”
Newhouse has been in the NFL for 10 seasons. The Patriots are his seventh NFL team and Sunday's game was the 73rd start in his career. The 31-year-old signed with the Patriots only last week and had three practices before playing the entire game.
“I’m a pro. There’s not much I haven’t seen at this point,” Newhouse said. “It’s kind of like, go with the flow. There’s not much else to do. You can’t panic. You can’t overreact, under react, it’s just like, all right, this is the next thing. I felt like I was in the playbook good enough. Help from the guards. Help from Marcus over the week. Help from coach Scar (Dante Scarnecchia). I’m going to take it as it goes.”
Cunningham was traded to the Patriots before cut-down day. This is his second season in the NFL. Last year, the 24-year-old made six starts for the Cardinals. He said it’s been challenging to catch up since the Patriots run a different system than Arizona.
“Oh man, it’s definitely been crazy. Definitely been a whirlwind,” Cunningham said. “It’s a whole different system from what I ran last year. Just coming in, have a great coach in coach Scar with extra meetings, hammering us to get us to learn all the new terminology, new players and things like that so we’ll be ready for stuff like that, that happened today.”
Overall, Tom Brady was only sacked twice on Sunday. The Patriots also ran for 126 yards and scored two touchdowns on the ground. The situation hasn’t been ideal, but the Pats made it work with their makeshift offensive line.
“Very crazy. Chaotic, but a controlled chaos,” Newhouse said. “It was good. Everyone is positive, communicated well and helped me get up to speed. It took me early mornings, late nights.”