oldrover

Other major point made was that on top of the injury, Corey was running behind five guys named Moe. Light was down, Koppen down, two rookies plus a guy who's not played much at center (Hochstein)... even if he's in top form, they weren't gonna be blowing teams off the line.

bucky

Actually, Oakland's defense was pretty good against the run most of the year. Take away the pathetic last game of the season when they quit and Tiki ran for over 200 yards, and they allowed a respectable 3.88 yards/rush. That's actuallg good when you consider they played 2 games each against SD, KC and Denver.

Lloyd_Christmas

They had Ted Washington at NT and a bunch of other big bodies and suposedly good run stoppers like Hamilton. The conventional wisdom, at least at the beginning of the season, was that they were going to be tough to run against.

Consequently, our game plan heavily emphasized the passing game.

The fact that Oakland's run D turned out to be STATISTICALLY mediocre is misleading. Look at the ups and downs of our own defense and realized that defenses are often not the same throughout the year. Oakland may have had a decent Run D at the beginning of the year. Did injuries play a part? Did their offense contribute to the other team exploiting their defense? (ie. couldn't score enough points or didn't keep their D off the field for sufficient time). Was their a weakness in their pass defense that they had to adjust to that may have weakened their otherwise good run defense.

There are a lot of variables is the point. Just because they were statistically mediocre by season's end does not mean that on game 1 that they didn't field a good run defense or that the Patriots didn't come out with a scheme that deemphasized our own run offense THINKING that their run D was formittable.

Sorry for the length.

AzPatsFan

Mankins at LG was starting his first professional game. Don't you think that might have had some effect on the power running game which requires consistent and repetitive blocking to go?

BelichickFan

I hope so. All I know is :

Dillon sucked last year even before he was hurt.
Brady was yelling at him on the sideline Week 1.
Belichick drafted a RB in this first round.
2+2+2=6.

I know all of the above are true. How he does in 2006 we will have to wait and see on.

patsox23

Oakland's front 7 played the run VERY well on opening night. I don't care how they did the rest of the year.

zippo59

Yes BB did chose to draft a RB this year which could mean he doesn't have much faith in Dillon anymore. However, there are other possibilities like BB knows he's getting up there in age and he's not going to last forever, and he would probably had to do it eventually. Why not draft the kid now when you can ease him and not be heavily leaned on as a rookie. In addition perhaps they looked ahead a few years and did not see a guy in college that they really liked, but they really liked Maroney. A bunch of things can acount for the drafting of Maroney.

__________________
"What Tom Brady just did gives me goose bumps."-John Madden after final drive in SB 36


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Unofficial Kevin Faulk supporter.

BelichickFan

Indeed. And, like I've said, I would like nothing more than the 2004 Dillon with Maroney spelling him for 10 carries, or so, a game. I'm saying nothing other than I want to see it before I get my hopes up.