Dante Scarnecchia looked miserable when he met with the media on Monday. Everyone's favorite offensive-line curmudgeon looked like he hadn't slept much, and appeared pretty frustrated with the state of his troops.
Now we know why.
The Patriots beat the Browns 27-13 on Sunday without much help from their offensive line. It was, perhaps, the worst performance of the Scarnecchia Era.
Not only did the Patriots allow an astronomical pressure rate of 53.7 percent on Tom Brady, but the season-long struggles on the ground continued, as the Patriots were stuffed for runs of 1 yard or less on 39.3 percent of their runs.
And this isn't just about a lack of talent, or just about left tackle Marshall Newhouse — although his nine total QB pressures allowed (two sacks, two hits, five hurries) were among the highest I've ever recorded.
The line just isn't close to executing to the level that Scarnecchia demands or expects.
There are simple missed assignments and players just getting overwhelmed physically. There's confusion about who to block and when. And they aren't very good at finishing plays, even on the backside. It just doesn't look like a Scarnecchia crew, and you can tell that's bothering him.
"I think the frustration for me personally is I'm not doing a good enough job with the guys we have," he said. "I'm just not doing a good enough job and that's my frustration personally. I think everybody's trying to do what we want them to do in the manner that we ask them to do it, and we just need to do it better."
(Adam Richins for BSJ)