Originally Posted by convertedpatsfan

I agree that the shotgun is overused. I know Brady is more comfortable out of it, but it's one thing to use it, it's another to rely on it. I'd like to see more balance with the packages, though I wouldn't go so far as to say almost all plays should be run from under center.

The OL was awful last night. Part of it was Light coming back, part of it was Kaczur sucking, but they were allowing consistent pressure on 3-man rushes. I even saw the back chip a few times with only 3 rushers and still they got near Brady. I like the idea of Vollmer replacing Kaczur, or Vollmer taking the LT spot and moving Light over to RT.

Offensive play-calling, I don't have a problem with the individual play-calls. But as Payton showed us last night, when you have a talented OC, you use plays to not only gain yards, but set up plays down the line. Throw the screen one way, then later on in the game, fake it, and throw it down the field. I haven't seen too many efforts from the Pats offense to take advantage of a defense based on previous plays. Like one person wrote last night, we're playing checkers, they're playing chess.

Wilhite needs to sit. Not much more to say about that.

And as for the defense, I understand the bend-but-don't-break philosophy, but it's not working. The red zone defense is atrocious. There's no pass rush, so 3rd downs are easily converted. And last night they started giving up the huge play as well. So basically, the things it should stop, it isn't stopping. So I think there are a lot of things we can talk about defensively, but the bottom line is I think pretty much any suggestion would be an improvement right now.

Originally Posted by maverick4

We're entering the last 5 games, where we find out what kind of team we'll have for the season. What adjustments would you make, playing armchair coach?

I'll start:

1. Stop using shot-gun so damn much. Why are we passing out of shot gun for 75% of our passes. We should be running almost all plays from under center, keeping defenses honest, forcing DE's and CB's to respect the run, unless it's in a blatantly obvious passing situation.

2. Utilize tight ends more in the passing game, especially in the red zone. Start using tight ends in red zone packages off of play action. Use the middle of the field more with Baker and Watson. Everyone knows that Welker is pretty much the only guy Brady looks at right now over the middle.

3. Stop using Welker so damn much. For two reasons. First, he's being over-used so much that he'll be cheese by January. Second, teams know exactly how he's being used now since we don't deviate. This past game he had 6 catches for 30 yards - teams know where he'll be and is getting stuffed the moment he touches the ball.

4. On defense at least PRETEND to blitz. Have a bunch of guys line up close to scrimmage more often so the O-line and QB have a hard time figuring out who to block. Almost every play we have corners and linebackers playing off the line, making it easy to set blocking schemes and leaving now chance of confusion for the QB.