First, allow me to preface this by saying this is a post where I talk about actual football. Not trading Captain Awesome for half of the EU, not hypothetical situations, not horrible parody threads posted with offensive excess. No, this is football.
Sorry. I needed to get that off my chest. Ok, so in front of me is my DVR of the game, it's not game tape, but it's the best I got. I'm going to try to do a breakdown of the offensive play first, then describe what the pat's did and how/why it was effective/ineffective. Ok, let's dig in. One last note: please forgive my horrible drawings. I'm on my backup laptop and only can do this with Microsoft Paint.
1st and 10 6:43 inside Patriots 30. 6:40 in the 1st.
Heavy wing formation. Twin tight ends, Pennington farthest out on the farside, Williams the farside wingback, Brown under center. Williams comes in motion towards the nearside, snap to brown, handoff to williams who slips. Play would have been snubbed anyways. Some pretty complicated blocking going on here as well. It would probably just be easier for me to diagram this up. So, here is the basic assignments from the first play. They left Bruschi unblocked. Don't know if it was mental, but the diagram is the executed play.
Regarding the playside tackle doing a pseudo-pull in the diagram. It was a kickout, but the tackle took a full bucket step to allow Vrabel upfield. He then tried the execute the kickout and got nowhere. Interesting design though.
The way it was defended was as anticipated. Wilfork simply dominated Satelle all game, and this play was no different. Hands in his pads, full extention perfect technique. Seymour initially crashed the b gap, then scraped down the line. Warren extended the tight end, Vrabel blew up the kick-out block from the tackle. Had Williams not slipped, the play would have been turned in and Bruschi was attacking the C gap quickly enough to meet Williams at the LOS
Play #2: 2nd and 13 from inside Patriots 30. 5:56 in 1st.
This is the same play as the previous one, with the Brown keeping the direct snap and following his pulling guards. Playside tight end downblocks and seals Mayo, playside tackle posts on Seymour, playside guard kicks out and pancakes Pierre Woods. Center gets slapped by Wilfork. Backside guard attempts to find the backside linebacker, lands a glancing blow at Bruschi, slowing him down just enough to allow a greater gain.
[IMG]
Seymour was sealed by Long. Woods was knocked down, but recovered fast enough to be a nuisance to the play. Had Woods remained stout in this situation, the play would have been turned inside. Mayo was also sealed by the cracking tight end. This play had a very counter-trey feel to it. Hobbs came in to fill, couldn't make the tackle. James Sanders was in the backfield on the backside, clearly faked badly by the exchange.
Play #3: 3rd and 2 from inside the Dolphin 30. 14:09 in the 2nd. "Seymour is over the hill"
Williams comes in motion, Brown takes direct snap and tries to hit the 3 or 5 hole. The playside guard doubles Wilfork with the center and Long attempts to block Seymour 1 on 1. Terrible mistake. By the time Brown has planted his foot, Seymour has driven Long a yard into the backfield. Wilfork has also driven the doubleteam back a yard. Seymour recognizes the play is going to the 3 hole and drives long into Wilfork to stop the play for a slight loss.
These three are all I have right now. Need to get some rest, but I will try to get the rest of the wildcat attempts up by tomorrow night this time.
Defending the Wildcat breakdowns
Linear Mode
