SVN

it would be interesting to see what the skins do this week. so far most teams have tried to pressure brady and failed. Few teams have played coverage and forced us to run. i think washington with its secondary will play more coverage dropping back DB's and making us run the ball. I really think it will be a big test for our patience on offense to see if we still try and run the ball or force it with our passing game. Not to forget Gregg williams knows the pats a little bit.
Thoughts ?

Mack Herron

Interesting angle. I would follow the BB philosophy and take away what they want to do (pass) and make them beat you wiht something they are not as comfortable with (run). Since you cannot get to Brady consistently with pressure and take huge risks downfield, my strategy would be to come out on first down and play with about 6 defensive backs, 3 linebackers, and 2 lineman. Make them run. That way I might hold them under 30 points. The longer this run continues, the more extreme the defenses we will see.

xmarkd400x

Take away the pass? How? Drop 9?

patchick

Totally agree, assuming their secondary is healthy. I believe both starting CBs were banged up yesterday...anybody heard word on them?

BelichickFan

Also, how well we can run the ball with Morris out and Maroney still feeling his way back. The defense will have to step it up against their banged up OL and it'll be an interesting test for our passing game as I don't think we'll be able to just run the ball 35 times like we could if Morris and Maroney were both reasonably healthy.

Flying Fungi

The pass is to Welker in the slot.

The screen pass to Kevin Faulk.

The pass completed to Heath Evans.

The pass is to Welker in the slot.

The screen pass to Kevin Faulk.

The pass completed to Heath Evans.
The pass is to Welker in the slot.

The screen pass to Kevin Faulk.

The pass completed to Heath Evans.
The pass is to Welker in the slot.

The screen pass to Kevin Faulk.

The pass completed to Heath Evans.
The pass is to Welker in the slot.

The screen pass to Kevin Faulk.

The pass completed to Heath Evans.

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solman

I think this is the nearly unanimous view of former coaches. To beat the Patriots you have to adequately pressure them with your front three or four, then keep everybody else in coverage without making yourself too vulnerable to the run and screens.

As if we needed further proof of this, Brady's passer rating against the blitz has been astronomical.

Of course, maintaining sufficient pressure with your front four is not a trivial task against our O-line.

Plus, I have a feeling that BB has a counter strategy ready to be employed once an opponent successfully executes on this.

But you can't game plan against the Patriots by assuming they are invincible. You have to assume there is some way to stop our offense and work from there.

SVN

i think the key to try beat the pats or other prolific offenses is to be flexible enough and bold enough to take chances. That is BB's strength. He will play 9 DB's if he thinks he wants to try it although other people in the league will scoff at it and other D coordinators might be scared to try it.
Thats how we beat the colts in the past when other defenses were still trying to "get to manning" by rushing 5/6 and getting burned.

spacecrime

Drop back in coverage: Doable.

This does not follow that we cannot complete passes and will be forced to run.

Are you going to double Moss, Stallworth and Welker? That's six DB's. A LB on Watson (or Brady/Rivers). That's 7 men in coverage, and four men in the box.

That might force us to run. But I don't think it is a recipe for beating the Pats.

SVN

well..of course it needs good DB's and LB's to play safety at times ,and a bold enough coach to try it .
But i think cleveland tried this and it worked for a while initially in that game.