cstjohn17

Both need to improve down the stretch to get the team truly play-off ready. The good news is the Pats play teams like the Ravens & Steelers which for the most part are one dimensional.

Gutsy win, for the most part I though the Patriots were flat out dominated through 3 quarters. Indy was by far the more physical team, I would like to see the defense play with a little bit more of an edge.

It really goes to show that winning in the NFL is a team effort (Defense, Offense, Special Teams) plus the cliche 'you must play for 60 minutes...'

How about some props for our red zone defense?

SVN

i think the rush defense is really about tackling. i think they were allowing the colts to run and playing the pass.
Rushing offense is good but lacks the 'closer' push which dillon provided for us. maroney is dynamic and all but i am yet to see when we can give him 5 times in the end of the game to close it out. maybe the o line is still figuring it out how to block for him.

cstjohn17

It is a good point about the defensive formation, they used a similar look against Dallas but this was really the first time they used it for extended periods. It took a couple of quarters for it to sink in.

I also think the Pats were a little surprised by Indy's speed on both sides of the ball. In a re-match, minus the crowd noise and having experience against the Colts the Pats should be able to execute at a higher level. IMO the rushing attack and run defense (out of the base 3-4) will have to improve, it looks like they will play the Titans, Jaguars, Steelers or SD in the first playoff game. All these teams are built off a power running game. On the other side of the ball bad weather will slow down the passing attack, although if Brady is locked in it doesn't matter**.

A big play was when Green (I think) tackled Addai for an 8 or 9 yard loss. Those plays are drive killers.

Also reviewing the stats it is interesting to see how the penalties \ Indy sacks killed drives. Their defense in general doesn't give up big chunks of yardage*, so negative plays are very costly.


* except in the 4th quarter or the most important game of the year
**see both 4th quarter throws to Welker as an example of Brady being in the zone and how smart is Welker to fall down before going out of bounds on that last play.

psychoPat

Boston Boxer

i think the pats had to choose what they were going to stop...and the chose Clark and the pass. when you play a team like the colts, you cant shut them down completely, so you have to choose. I agree, we need to work on tackling, because that was brutal

chrisfx811

I was surprised that our o-line while still solid, seemed to be out of sorts compared to the other games this season.

Solaris

Of course you do realize that the rushing success was a factor of the Patriot's defensive scheme? They were in Nickel most of the day playing with only 2 linebackers playing off the line (which is why AD was on the sideline). Given that, they still let up just 115 on the ground and considering the personnel on the field, that's not bad.

On offense, they managed to rush for 105 yards Not really sure why you feel it was so bad yesterday.

cstjohn17

Run Defense - It is not so much a concern as a point of emphasis in upcoming games, I think there is room for improvement against the run. Some of it is scheme, some of it was lack of tackling and some of it was being blown off the ball. In general stopping the run is something that can improve as the season progresses.

Rushing attack - 105 yards sounds like an ok day, but using the eyeball test it was woefully inconsistent. Faulk had a good day with his draw plays but when the Pats lined up in a running formation they did not have great success even against 7 man fronts. Again nothing to panic about but something that will have to be improved as games tighten up and weather worsens.

Metaphors

I'm with you on this one. In addition to the 73 yd pass play (fluke), there was a 21 yard Addai run that for some reason the Pats were really slow to close the cutback lane (had outside containment). That's it. Other than those two plays, I don't know how the Pats play any better. Even the 17 yd Clark reception on 3rd-and-15 was seemingly covered well by 2 players, who just didn't make a play on the ball.

I saw some concentration lapses above but nothing to suggest that the run defense needs any kind of adjustment. As for the running game, I believe you, me and others have tried to shoot this down for a while now. If it hasn't sunk in yet, it probably won't any time soon.

Dagg

I was just going to satart a similar thread here are my observations.

Our Rushing Offense:
1. Looked ok in the 1st half maybe a bit predictable on some runs when they knew we were going to.
2. In the second half why the hell did we abandon Maroney and the I formation or the single back runs??? This was driving me nuts all we did was run the same damn shotgun draw/delay over and over. Running from the Shotgun is so limited to begin with.
3. Do we even have a counter in playbook?, they work great against fast over pursuing defenses.

Rushing Defense
1. We got owned hard on the stretch play in the first half. Linebackers flowing over to make that off tackle stop (since the ends were so far upfield) were getting picked up and often the tackles were made down in the secondary.
2. We stopped it a few times in the second half with good gap control but honestly Indy just didnt run it that much. I was very suprised they went away from it after the great early success.

We definately need to work more on the stretch. I cannot believe we werent more prepared I mean thats basially Indys only running play.