Triumph

You swallowed it, hook, line and sinker.

In the same interview, to paraphrase, Belichick also said that there was a group of Cbs that NE rated all the same. If the first one was taken, NE would then just choose another CB just like him.

But, prior this interview, BB told Bob Kraft he was never more sure that McCourty was the player he wanted. NE only traded down when they were sure none of the teams ahead of them were going to snag McCourty.

If BB really sees this new trend, why did he draft two more pass catching TEs? But, no RB or FB? Why another CB, when the NFL is seeing this new running trend?

And, shouldnt the Pats be changing the offense?

The NFL is a passing league and you pass to get ahead and run to win. Not, the other way around. Manning and the Colts ripped Fat Rex a new one spreading them out with multiple receiving targets and passing those Frauds to death. New Orleans, did what the Jets cannot do and passed the ball all over the Colts defense to win it all.

Belichick is never going to sit down and tell anybody what he actually thinks. He'll say just enough to confuse everyone.

fair catch fryar

Great post, but as long as Peyton and Na'Polian are in Indy they'll just keep changing the rules to suit their boy.

Deus Irae

1.) BB was talking about the trend. He didn't say that he was heading in that direction.

2.) The Patriots have Moss & Company for passing vs. Maroney & Company for running. It should come as no surprise that the team is still going to be pass first.

3.) The Patriots have essentially sacrificed part of the running game on 1st and 2nd downs by not using fullbacks. However, they use other personnel to fill the fullback role. The problem is that the personnel they've used has not been up to the job.

4.) Daniel Graham was a pass catching tight end. How'd that end up translating on the Patriots?

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"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
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PATSYLICIOUS

You've made some good points in this thread, but I have to disagree overall. 9 times out of 10, games are won in the trenches even despite the rule changes. You provided a good example of your side of the argument, but I can provide several examples of the other side post rule change. Just a few off the top of my head:

sb42 - not even going to get into that
2004 Colts-Pats divisional round Samuel(pre shutdown Asante)/Gay/Troy Brown vs. Harrison/Wayne/Stokely in their peak and we hold them to 3 points.
2008 Steelers - won the SB against Zona with great offense but their offense was subpar for a vast majority of the season, defense carried them.

I'm not saying the spread will go away, but I'd love to see alot less of it from our side. I'd prefer just using it in situations where we're in a total funk, or just using it here and there to throw teams off.

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Organized madness
The young Gott-stra
Young Frank Sinatra

Patspsycho

Condon, you're missing the point here. The game is always going to evolve, no matter what. That's the name of the game- you either evolve or get left behind in the dust. That's what it takes to stay at the top.

Polian is nothing new.. he's just the latest incarnation of the same thing that has existed since the day the NFL was born. Rule-bending or changing has always been part of the game.

Passing will always be part of the game, but the spread will eventually die, and then come back in a decade or so. It's just the law of evolution.

patriot lifer

i clicked on the last page of this thread thinking it was about TE's. Hah!

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2013 Season:

Nate Solder (6'8" 320 lbs)
Seabass (6'8" 320 lbs)
Rob Gronkowski (6'6" 265 lbs)
Jake Ballard (6'6" 275 lbs)
Logan Mankins (6'4" 320 lbs) (100% recovered)
Dan Connolly (6'4" 320 lbs)
Marcus Cannon (6'5" 340 lbs) (Switch to Guard??)

RB: Ridley, Vereen, Washington, Bolden

condon84

I understand the evolving, cyclical theory, but I just see the rule changes to have a permanent effect on how offenses are being played and will be played. I'm sure someone will take the basic concept of the spread attack that is used now and take it to a different direction where it's going to be something "new." The point I'm trying to make is that teams are built based on the rules of the game, which is now favoring passing offenses. It doesn't mean that some teams won't run a run-oriented offense (Jets last year) and some of those teams will probably be successful at it. You're also going to get teams that have a either a horrible QB, awful receivers or OLs that can't pass protect and they'll be forced to run the ball. Realistically, we're never going to see 32 good QBs all playing at the same time in the NFL so some teams will be forced to have a run heavy offense. But my point is that I just don't see the league as a whole go back to the mentality of run run run, then pass.

A prime example of how rules have completely changed a game is the "hand checking rule" in the NBA. More than ever, the NBA is now dominated by perimeter players because guys can't put their hands on a player when they're guarding them. It's impossible to guard someone like LeBron or Kobe. The back to the basket player is now almost gone (Dwight Howard is the last great player) and everyone wants to play facing the basket. And why not? Defenders can't put their hands on you. It's similar to the NFL chuck rule. After five yards, defenders can't touch receivers, and now, defenders can't even nail receivers as they go for catches. Not to mention the ever evolving rule changes they put in place to protect QBs.

So while I agree that offenses will continue to evolve, the evolution will be predicated on how the game is being officiated and if the rules continue to skew in favor of the pass, the league will continue to be pass heavy. Majority of the successful teams now are pass heavy offenses and even though teams are building their defense against the spread more and more, the rules are just too skewed.

I guess we'll see in a couple of years where this will all go. Maybe if the Jets win a SB with a run-first offense, majority of teams will copy that formula.

larryo

haha I know right. Did you know Aaron Hernandez has the same size hands as Dez Bryant? Well he does according to the combine numbers. That's all I got.

Patspsycho

Even in the NBA with all the rule changes, it still goes in cycles. The trigger-happy, showtime offenses of the 80's (think Doug Moe's run and gun offense in Denver) gave way to defense in the 90's after the Detroit bad boys came along and sold everyone on intimidating defense. Then you had that low point in '95 or so with the Knicks and Houston mauling each other in the finals. Then along comes the great Chicago run, then LA and things are fine and dandy.

condon84

The showtime offenses of the 80s got killed by the physical play of the Pistons' bad boy teams. Then Chicago came along with an unstoppable force in Jordan, took Detroit's physicality and still won anyways. Then the Riley Knicks came along and took the physical play to another level and just mugged teams. Chicago kept winning anyways because Jordan was Jordan. But when Jordan retired, the rough play the Knicks started stayed in the league and killed offenses and thus precipitated the hand-check rules, which really evolved the game to what it is now, a perimeter game dominated by Guards and Point Guards. So unless they change more rules to curve the perimeter players advantage and force teams/players to change the way they play, we're going to see perimeter players dominate.

Same thing in the NFL, unless they change rules to allow more physical play against receivers and QBs, I don't see why the league would go back to being run oriented.