One of the main objectives when starting a 37-year-old immobile quarterback is to keep him upright. Of course, another is to win. Tennessee managed to do one of the two last Thursday night, ultimately grading out with a Week 14-best 100.2 in the New York Life Protection Index after a 30-28 defeat to Indianapolis.
Collins, making just his fourth start of the season, wasn’t sacked a single time and was only knocked down once. He threw three touchdowns – including two in the fourth quarter during Tennessee’s late rally – but the Titans still lost their sixth straight game.
“I’m proud of our guys the way we came back,” the 16-year veteran said. “I thought the guys fought their butts off. It’s unfortunate the way it ended up.”
The New York Life Protection Index is a proprietary formula created by STATS LLC which measures a team’s pass protection by using metrics such as length of passes, penalties by offensive lineman, sacks allowed and quarterback hurries and knockdowns.
Despite its struggles, Tennessee, which is winless since Week 8, is actually seeing some recent improvement from its line. The Titans have an average NYLPI of 77.1 in the last six games after recording an average of 53.7 in going 5-2 to start the season.
The Houston Texans’ offensive line played a big part in helping Matt Schaub lead a 15-point fourth-quarter comeback in Monday night’s 34-28 overtime loss to Baltimore, grading out second at 93.1. Schaub, who was sacked twice, threw for 393 yards – 261 of which were in the air, before a catch – the seventh-best total in the NFL this season.
Drew Brees’ front five finished just behind Houston at 92.4 in Sunday’s 31-13 victory over St. Louis. New Orleans bounced back nicely from a season-low 55.5 posted in a 34-30 win at Cincinnati last week. The Saints, who rank second overall on the season at 81.4, have only allowed Brees to be sacked five times in the last five games.
Brodie Croyle has not been as lucky. Kansas City knew things weren’t going to be easy at San Diego on Sunday with starting quarterback Matt Cassel out after having an emergency appendectomy, but it probably didn’t envision its offense sputtering like it did behind its backup.
In the Chiefs’ 31-0 loss, the offensive line finished with a minus-38.2, the fourth-lowest ranking in the 208 games played this season. Croyle was sacked four times, hurried on three occasions and knocked down nine times as the team gained just 67 yards, second-fewest in franchise history.
“Make no mistake, it was an 11-man offensive operation and it was not Brodie Croyle,” coach Todd Haley said. “It didn’t matter who was in there, with how the 11-man operation went the result was not going to be good.”
Miami’s offensive line also had a forgettable weekend performance, grading out at a minus-17.6, but the Dolphins still managed to win 10-6 against a sloppy New York Jets team whose struggles extended far beyond just the line play.
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