Good ESPN Article: "Halting the New England steamroller" - Page 4 - New England Patriots Forums

Kid~Brady · 12-21-2010, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NE39

If they didn't have the right players, all those formations wouldn't mean jack.

The fact they have versatile player like the young TE's, allowing them to change things up and show a lot of different stuff while still being able to execute the run or pass is the key, IMO.

That... and Brady. He is kind of why the offense is so good as well.

Right. But you think, that many formations and subs? How can you possibly adapt to that type of play? Every play different people coming in and formations all over the place. That has to be tough. I think in the playoffs, it'll get worse. BB will pull out the playbooks on them!

I wonder how many times other teams do this?

PATSYLICIOUS · 12-21-2010, 01:23 PM

Unpredictability, I think that will make this offense tougher to shut down in the playoffs than 2007. Hopefully Connolly is okay, or will be okay in a few weeks and we have the OL at full strength when it matters.

Tate has gotten real close on a few deep balls this year too in addition to catching a few. If he can become a consistent downfield threat for this offense, look out.

Patspsycho · 12-21-2010, 01:27 PM

Not just the formation, but the personnel changes have been tremendous as well. Last year it was mostly Posse (311) but this year it's been wide-varying, jumbo, ace, posse, tank, etc. So it's actually a force multiplier- (formation) x (personnel) x (alignment) x (play) = huge combination.

So when you try to counter this by trying to outthink or outguess the offense, like Rex Ryan did, you are going to lose big time. I wrote a while ago that it was like trying to outguess three slot machines lined up to each other.

Ryan would have been way better off if he'd just left his two best corners in man on Welker and Branch. It wouldn't have stopped them but would have at least slowed them down.

The one critical factor here is and has always been Brady. Stop or confuse him, and you stop or sabotage this offense. Ryan confused Brady in week two by how often he was dropping people into coverage (after faking blitz), and when we played Cleveland, their D did such a great job in disguising coverages pre-snap that he just couldn't get them to tip their hand. Their roaming LB's also helped to complicate trying to establish the Mike.

Ochmed Jones · 12-21-2010, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patspsycho

The one critical factor here is and has always been Brady. Stop or confuse him, and you stop or sabotage this offense. Ryan confused Brady in week two by how often he was dropping people into coverage (after faking blitz), and when we played Cleveland, their D did such a great job in disguising coverages pre-snap that he just couldn't get them to tip their hand. Their roaming LB's also helped to complicate trying to establish the Mike.

Granted when ever Brady sees something new, it is cause for confusion, however it shouldn;t take a whole game to make adjustments. The OC needs to jump on this new stuff and get the Pats offense in plays that Brady can make positive yardage on.

Come the playoffs teams will have a new strategy against our offense and out coaching staff will need to pick up the pacce and make adjustments quicker.

Turnovers by an offense are killers, new schemes by defenses are merely an obstacle and we have the talent to overcome those obstacles, we just need quicker and better guidance.