Rob0729

It wasn't the route itself, it was the pass to Moss that I thought was great. Besides, the play was designed with Moss having the option of going deep. It was one of the designed presnap reads for the play. Moss saw it and decided to run the route. That is what Moss praised Cassel about that they both saw the same thing and made the same presnap adjustment.

maverick4

Brady was getting slammed to the ground way more than after McDaniels was coordinator, remember in 2005 how much of a beating he was taking? McDaniels is too in love with these slow-developing plays of multiple WR sets and not enough protection.

I see McDaniels as kind of like Norv Turner in that they were blessed to coach world class individual talent, but on their own they're no good.

maverick4

Cassel should be given the green light to run if he sees an opening.

Also, in the McDaniels era screen passes and quick outs have all but disappeared. Time to bring them back.

upstater1

I agree with Maverick's contention that McDaniels is too predictable.

With Brady out there, he can get away with it.

I also agree that the spotlight is on McDaniels now. Weis was a genius at giving his O an advantage by being unpredictable. We need that sense and creativity right now.

I'm not sure about the conventional offense argument. As long as we mix things up and keep the defense off balance, we can be as unconventional as we like. With players like Welker and Moss and Faulk, we have that luxury.

Rob0729

Yeah, I do have to agree that he did use Reche Caldwell and Doug Gabriel as a crutch in 2006. My biggest fear is that we don't have those guys to carry Cassel during this tough time.

Play action isn't the only way to keep teams off guard. Weis was never a huge play action guys and only used it a lot in 2004 because they had Dillon as a dangerous threat. Besides, even in a shotgun, the Pats have done play action passes.

The Pats were in the shotgun a lot last year, but had running plays out of the shotgun, did playaction out of the shotgun, and did deception plays like reverses out of the shotgun. Just because you are in the shotgun a lot doesn't mean that you are definitely passing and teams knew that when facing the Pats.

Besides, they ran so much of the shotgun because that was where Brady performed best. Brady has been lobbying to do a lot more out of the shotgun since his early days because Brady feels he can see more of the field out of shotgun. So with Cassel in there, they will probably tone down the shotgun plays. He isn't Brady.

Rob0729

That's because Weis didn't run a verticle offense. Weis liked the short passing game which meant Brady got rid of the ball really quickly.

As for 2005, the defense was arguably the worst or second worst of the Brady era. Brady was forced to carry the team a lot more than in other years without the talent he had last year.

Hey we can back to the 2003 three and out offense that Weis liked to run if . We had the worst third down offense of the Brady era that year (37% effectiveness where as McDaniels has never had the offense drop below 42.3% effectiveness on third down). But at least Brady didn't get hit as much.

Rob0729

Weis' creativity wasn't always a good thing. As I pointed out in my last post, the offense suffered in 2003 because they couldn't convert third downs. The Pats had a lot of three and outs that season.

Besides, Weis wasn't always that unpredictable. He always went for a long bomb on the first play after a turnover. On third and short, he typically ran a FB draw that rarely worked (unfortunately, McDaniels ran that play twice yesterday with a 50% success rate which I hope he doesn't pick up for Weis).

I still think the legend of Weis is far greater than the actual guy. I think people are far too critical about McDaniels about things they perceived Weis did in the past too. Not saying your post is like that per sea, but I am talking about people in general who are critical of McDaniels. Sorry to single you out on this.

upstater1

I just disagree. I saw Weis turn a horrible Jets offense into a very good one simply by being completely unpredictable. The guy had the magic touch. When BB came over to the Patriots, I was praying that he would bring Weis with him.

Rob0729

Huh? Screen passes have all but disapeared? Really?!? Are Faulk and Welker gone deep all these times when I thought they were catching screen passes. This is almost as untrue of an argument than the argument that the Pats didn't try any screens in the Super Bowl until the fourth quarter last February when the first play of the game was a screen.

The Pats beat the Jags in the division round of the playoffs and held onto the ball for most of the 4th quarter against the Charger in the AFC Championship game with primarily screen passes.

Also, with Cassel in there, they did throw quite a few screens. Both Welker's best (a 13 yard gainer) and worst plays (his fumble) of the game were WR screen passes.

Rob0729

Such a magic touch that Parcells stripped him of his play calling abilities while at the Jets? Sorry, the Jets turn around came from the fact that Kotite's poison was gone and Testeverde was added to the system to go along with Weis' gameplanning and strategy.

Weis was still the same guy who insisted that Bledsoe throw WR screens eventhough he kept on hitting 5 foot nothing Troy Brown in the shins whenever he tried. Instead of trying to make the offense work for Bledsoe, he tried to force Bledsoe to run his offense.

Weis was a very good coordinator. I am not taking that away from him, but people have blown what he has done out of proportion. He had his worts and a lot of them at times. People were killing him in 2002 and 2003. His 2004 performance along with the Super Bowls have erased people's memories of the negatives.