The last time the New England Patriots were in a Super Bowl, the offensive line was clearly outmatched by the Giants' pass rush, which caused all sorts of problems for Tom Brady and company. Four years later, All-Pro guard Logan Mankins and the rest of the line are ready for redemption.
While Dan Connolly, Brian Waters and Nate Solder were not on the 2007 18-1 Patriots team, he and left tackle Matt Light were, and are ready to try and contain the three-headed monster of Justin Tuck, Jason Pierre-Paul and Osi Umenyiora that is the New York Giants pass rush. Mankins was asked about how legitimate the new group of pass rushers are.
"It's very good. They have good pass rushers across the board and when their backups come in, they're good too. You can always have four guys that are very good pass rushers in the game." (via Patriots.com)
Mankins, who's been to three Super Bowls with the Patriots, knows the pressure the Super Bowl can bring to you. For Mankins, anything less than perfection won't be good enough come Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.
"It is going to be a big challenge. We're going to have to play our best game of the year, probably the best game of some of our careers. That's when you want to play your best game, is in the Super Bowl. You want to do everything perfect which we know that's not going to happen, not everything is going to happen the way we want it but as many plays as we can, we want them to go the right way." (via Patriots.com)
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