HOUSTON -- Patriots offensive linemen Tom Ashworth and Joe Andruzzi were never even drafted. Russ Hochstein and Dan Koppen were fifth-round picks. Matt Light was a second-rounder.
Before this season, Light and Andruzzi were the only linemen for New England to actually start in the NFL.
"What are you saying, we don't have any pedigrees?" Ashworth said yesterday with a smile.
Ummmm, yeah. And so are many others. In going up against the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII, the Patriots' offensive line is being circled in red as the team's No. 1 weakness.
Because of their lack of "pedigree" and the Panthers' dominance up front with Michael Rucker, Brentson Buckner, Kris Jenkins and Julius Peppers some (like Tampa Bay defensive lineman Warren Sapp) are predicting they will be overwhelmed.
That ignores what they've done all year long.
Quarterback Tom Brady, the man they've protected all season, says: "They have a tough challenge this week -- as tough as they've had -- but they've stepped up to every challenge they've had. They've faced Buffalo, Tennessee twice, Miami twice. There have been some tough opponents."
And Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Dallas and Denver. There's no way to quantify it, but the Patriots' offense may have gone against the toughest collection of defenses any team in the league faced this season. And they've done it despite being wracked by injury.
There was no scenario by which to predict that these five men would be starting the Super Bowl. When the season began, Adrian Klemm was the right tackle. When he got hurt against the Jets in the season's third week, Ashworth stepped in. The left guard was Mike Compton. He got hurt against Philadelphia, forcing the Pats to move Damien Woody to his spot and insert rookie Koppen at center.
In the playoffs thus far, Brady hasn't been sacked. Considering that Woody, the team's only Pro Bowl lineman, was lost in the first playoff game, that's astounding.
Offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia was asked yesterday why this group of players who individually can spark so little interest, can be so excellent cumulatively.
"I'll let you guys evaluate that," Scarnecchia said. "That's my answer. I have nothing more to say about it. These are the guys we've got. They're good guys. They work hard. They prepare hard and hopefully on Sunday we'll go out and give our best performance because I think we'll have to for us to be able to hang in with these guys."
Pressed further on the topic, Scarnecchia said finally, "I just care about the guys we got, how hard they prepare and how well they play. I don't care who was drafted where and who wasn't. We have to see this through. See one more day through."
Light said the leader of this line is Andruzzi.
"Our coaches prepare the players as if they're starters, and when three guys go down, three guys step up," said Andruzzi matter-of-factly.
So what is it that makes them so good?
"It comes down to how well you can work together," said Light. "You can have all first-rounders, but if they can't work together, it won't work. We're as good as anybody else at picking up things and communicating."
Brady, who was sacked just 32 times this season, sees it unfold in front of him every week.
"They have some traits that make them even better than most lines," he said. "They're smart. They figure things out without having to talk about it. Things change on the fly out there. Situations come up that you didn't practice or prepare for. They do a great job of deciding what's best or what will work in terms of a blocking assignment or pass protection. They're strong enough, they're agile enough, they're quick enough, they're tough enough to handle anything they're faced with."
Regardless of the pedigree.
