spacecrime

I don't understand. Were we that aggressive last preseason? Was our D exotic and confusing and well-disguised last preseason?

It seems to me that we are playing exactly the same way we did last year at this time.

Weird and inappropriate defensive positioning for the situation seems to be the norm for BB in preseason. Maybe he thinks it gives him a better chance to judge how players do when they have to adjust on the fly, to better see how they will do during the regualr season when inevitably teams will disguise thier intent and catch the Pats out of position at times.

Surely BB doesn't intend to play the entire regular season with a vanilla defense, so what conclusions can be drawn from preseason?


Will Seymour-Wilfork-Warren-Green-Thomas-Bruschi-Mayo-Vrabel-Harrison-Sanders-Meriweather-Lynch-Hobbs-Wheatley-Bryant be savvy and heady enough? How many teams in the NFL would you flat our exhange our entire defense for their entire defense? 20? 25? All 31?

Raffy15

breeer has a lisp people! haas this kid ever played football?

BelichickFan

Last pre-season Brady had thrown 48 passes through 3 games. 16 per game. That's the biggest difference between last preseason and this. Get Brady and Light back and things will look very different.

MoLewisrocks

I'm not talking about the change from last pre season to this, or even last season to this. I'm talking about the change from 2001,3,4 to 2005,6,7... We remained oddly vanilla comparatively speaking over much of the last 3 seasons due I believe to lack of healthy, sufficiently savvy talent to run the kind of chameleon defense that helped us win 3 Lombardi's...

Brady to Brown

I happen to like Breer, your post is in bad taste.

Anyone remember what our O-Line looked like last pre season?

Belichick will fix the many problems this team has shown over the past 3 weeks.

MoLewisrocks

Most of Raffy's posts are like that. I think he's either 15 or that's where his maturity process topped out.

PatsFan37

This doesn't counter spacecrime's point. All you said was that they seem vanilla and that you believe that's because they lack the savvy talent to execute complex schemes. You didn't dispute that the players he named were sufficiently savvy to digest a complex playbook.

If you did dispute the players' savvy, you'd have to explain why you think Eugene Wilson, Tyrone Poole or Earthwind Moreland are savvier than Meriweather, Hobbs or Samuel. From interviews I've seen, Poole in particular never struck me as a rocket scientist.

Instead, you should consider whether Pees or Mangini are as savvy as Crennel, since Crennel is clearly the biggest difference in defensive scheme since the '04 season. And once that occurs to you, since coaches scheme and players play, the addition of Capers should give you reason to hope.

If it doesn't, then maybe you're looking for reasons to worry.

Sicilian

No! It's an ingenious plan! We get Laurentitis with that pick and have him and Mayo for years to come!

Rob0729

Breer talks about the third preseason game is where the Pats turn it on, but typically the Pats don't have an away game half way across the country on Sunday night for the second game and then have the third game Friday night against a team that had a over a week to prepare for them since they had a home game last Thursday. That is a huge piece of information that people choose to ignore. If you have seven days to prepare against a team that has four, you have a real advantage.

Reid installed a game plan (although not as complex at would be if it was a real game). Belichick really didn't and said as much the Monday before the game. Even a horrible team could crush a great team if they have some gameplanning the the great team didn't. The Eagles aren't a horrible team.

belichickaholic

Or it could also be that dinosaurs don't blitz very well.