by Ben Muth

The Patriots are heading back to the Super Bowl for the second consecutive year. New England needed to come from behind to win the AFC Championship Game, but to me at least, it seemed almost inevitable. Bill Belichick and Tom Brady simply did what it is they seemingly always do, and found a way to win a close game late.

For me, the story of the AFC Championship Game was New England's ability to protect Brady. The Patriots didn't have much of run game (and seemingly didn't plan to have much of one), so this game was going to come down to how well their offensive line could hold up in pass protection. They certainly did their part.

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This is just a four-man rush from Jacksonville (the Jaguars didn't blitz too much on Sunday), but that's as nice of a pocket as you'll see. I really like what left guard Joe Thuney (62) is doing here. He's going with a one-handed punch, which sacrifices power for accuracy. He sticks his inside hand right on the defensive tackle's inside number and stops his momentum before he can get going. After that he just has to shadow him side to side.

I also think left tackle Nate Solder (77) is playing smart here. He knows he has help from the back, so he can take a really conservative set and feel confident that the defensive end isn't going to be able to beat him to the outside. The end sees the back coming and tries to bull-rush Solder, but that's exactly what Solder set to prevent. Being effective in pass blocking is so much about using the protection scheme and teammates around you to make your job easier. Here, the veteran took full advantage of his help from the back to make his job as simple as possible.

Because the Jaguars didn't seem to want to blitz much, they ended up running a lot of games and twists. The Patriots were able to pick them up consistently, and with the exception of one sack, really didn't allow any defensive line stunts to hurt them.

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That's a really nice job by the right side of the line. I love Shaq Mason (69) here at right guard. He's really the one that makes the pick-up happen. He gets a very good punch on the defensive tackle without lunging at all. That widens the defensive tackle so right tackle Cameron Fleming (71) can slide in and take over the block. And because Mason didn't lunge, he's in good balance and can redirect inside on the looper. That's clinic tape. Fleming recognizes his man is coming inside quickly and makes sure to take advantage of Mason's nice punch. This is a nice job on the twist, especially considering they're the two-on-two here.

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This is a much easier twist to pick up because the Pats outnumber the Jags three-to-two, as they're sliding into the twist. Still, you might be surprised how often the center will still get beat by the defensive end (Yannick Ngakoue, 91) just because he's not used to blocking that type of athlete, particularly one with a head of steam. But center David Andrews (60) does a nice job of picking it up here.

One thing Andrews does really well -- that New England's whole offensive line does well, in fact -- is keep his head out of the block. I didn't see a lot of lunging going on last week, and as a result New England's entire line played with good balance. It certainly made picking up twists easier.

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The Patriots were just as effective against interior games, and once again Mason was a big reason why. A twist is comprised of two roles, a penetrator who drives into the offensive line to get them on separate levels (almost like a pick), and a looper who comes around. A key to stopping any twist is to flatten the penetrator (Malik Jackson, 97). One way to do that is to jack him up on one leg and knock him into his own guy. That is one helluva punch by Mason, and it stops the stunt before it can even get started. I came away from this game really impressed by Mason.

I know I said the Patriots running attack wasn't a big factor in the game, but there was obviously one big run that officially ended the game. I wanted to talk about here because it was a great play, but particularly since we ended last week's column picking on a skill guy.

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This is just an outside zone with a BOSS concept (back on strong safety), but holy crap is Dwayne Allen (83) good here. Actually, good is an understatement -- Allen is perfect here. First he knocks the defensive end (Jackson, 97) onto Solder, but he does it without getting his outside hand involved so he can still climb quickly to the outside linebacker (Telvin Smith, 50). Then he blocks the outside linebacker so well that the middle linebacker (Paul Posluszny, 51) can't get around the block despite being unblocked himself.

And that is not a hold on the linebacker. It just isn't. I am as tired of New England winning as anyone, but that simply isn't a hold. It's great blocking.

That'll do it for this week. Come back next week for a review of the Eagles' offensive line in the NFC Championship Game.