For the **** of it, we'll drop some more evidence down the pike:
Unfortunately, when Long is on the left side, protecting Pennington, he doesn't look so natural.
Pennington was never sacked on Sunday, but there were a few plays when Long left him vulnerable. On one Pennington pass in the first quarter, Long was at left tackle with Seymour to his inside and Vrabel to his outside. He gave a quick shove to Seymour and then turned toward Vrabel, but it was too late: Vrabel was already past him. Fortunately for the Dolphins, Brown stayed in for pass protection and kept Vrabel from getting to Pennington, with Long eventually coming over to help Brown. I can't say for sure what the Dolphins' protection assignments were on the play, but it looked like Brown bailed Long out by blocking Vrabel when Long should have.
On another pass play, a second-and-12 in the third quarter, Long was at left tackle with Patriots outside linebacker Adalius Thomas to his outside. At the snap, Patriots safety Rodney Harrison blitzed to Long's inside, and Long let him go to block Thomas. That was a mistake; if Long had to let someone go it should have been Thomas, who had a longer route to get to Pennington. Fortunately for the Dolphins, Pennington got his pass off just before Harrison hit him, and it was complete for a 12-yard gain to Williams.
Two plays later Long made a similar mistake: When Thomas looped to the inside to blitz, Long got caught flat-footed and let Thomas go when he should have followed him. But, again, Pennington escaped the pressure and passed for a first down. Any of those plays could have resulted in Pennington getting sacked, but since Pennington got the passes away despite the pressure, no one will remember how Long screwed up.
One of the good things about having a weak-armed quarterback like Pennington is that the Dolphins are going to throw mostly short passes, meaning they don't need the offensive line to hold its blocks quite as long as they would if Pennington were throwing downfield more often. And most of the time, Long at least got in the way of the guy he was pass-blocking for long enough that Pennington could get a short pass away. On the first play of the Dolphins' second offensive series, for instance, Long was matched one-on-one with Vrabel, who blitzed as Pennington dropped back to pass. Vrabel got a fairly good first step and appeared to have Long off balance for a moment, but Long quickly recovered and stayed in front of Vrabel long enough to allow Pennington to get the pass off.
Of all the Patriots who rushed Pennington with Long blocking them, the one who was the most effective was probably defensive end Jarvis Green, who almost disrupted one of Pennington's first quarter passes simply by pushing Long straight back toward Pennington. The knock on Long coming out of college was that he would struggle with speed rushers, as he did with former Ohio State defensive end and current Jets linebacker Vernon Gholston. But on Sunday it was the bull rush that seemed more effective against Long.
When
I was at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, I talked to several NFL people who thought Long, a left tackle at Michigan, should move to the right in the NFL. Based on the way he played Sunday, I'd have to concur. He's as good as they come at opening holes in the running game, but I'd be worried if I were a quarterback counting on Long to protect my blind side.
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