Offensive Pass Protection Breakdown (EXCELLENT READ) - New England Patriots Forums

unoriginal · 02-07-2008, 12:41 AM

Well, really, what is there to say about this game other than the obvious? Here now is the obvious, in colored ink:

Code:

1st Drive
04:52	1 & 10	4 man rush	(RB screen)
		Brady: knockdown	(Umenyiora)
		Light: knockdown	(Umenyiora)
		Mankins: knockdown	(Cofield)

03:30	1 & 10	4 man rush
03:24	2 & 10	4 man rush
02:37	3 & 3	5 man rush	(Mitchell blitz)
		Koppen: pressure	(Tuck)

01:24	2 & 8	4 man rush	(RB bubble screen)
00:37	1 & 10	4 man rush
00:32	2 & 10	4 man rush
		Mankins: pressure	(Tuck)

00:29	3 & 10	4 man rush
		Kaczur: knockdown	(Strahan)

2nd Drive
11:53	1 & 10	(RB screen)	(Brady + Kaczur)

3rd Drive
07:55	2 & 9	5 man rush	(Ross + Mitchell blitz, Umenyiora drops)
		Mankins: sack	(Mitchell)
		Kaczur: sack	(Strahan)

07:19	3 & 17	4 man rush
		Light: pressure	(Umenyiora)
		Mankins: sack	(Tuck)
		Koppen: sack	(Alford)
		Kaczur: pressure	(Strahan)
*Neal injured on play

4th Drive
01:47	1 & 10	5 man rush	(Wilson + Dockerty blitz, Umenyiora drops)
		Hochstein: knockdown	(Wilson)

01:35	3 & 13	4 man rush	(WR screen)
01:11	1 & 10	4 man rush
		Mankins: knockdown	(Tuck)
		Light: knockdown	(Umenyiora)

00:59	2 & 13	5 man rush	(WR screen)
00:35	3 & 4	4 man rush
		Light: pressure	(Umenyiora)

00:28	1 & 10	 5 man rush
		Kaczur: pressure	(Strahan)

00:22	1 & 10	4 man rush
		Mankins: sack	(Tuck)

5th Drive
14:53	1 & 10	5 man rush	(Pierce + Wilson, Umenyiora zone blitz)
		Hochstein: knockdown	(Strahan)

13:41	2 & 3	4 man rush	(RB screen)
		Kaczur: tipped pass	(Strahan)

13:36	3 & 3	3 man rush
		Light: knockdown	(Umenyiora)

12:18	2 & 12	4 man rush
		Hochstein: pressure	(Tuck)

11:38	3 & 5	5 man rush	(Kaczur + Watson)	(Wilson + Dockerty blitz, Strahan drops)
		Pressure, overload left	(Wilson)

11:00	1 & 10	4 man rush	(RB screen)
		Light: pressure	(Umenyiora)

10:08	2 & 11	4 man rush	(WR screen)
09:26	3 & 13	4 man rush
		Kaczur: pressure	(Strahan)

08:10	2 & 10	4 man rush
07:23	3 & 7	4 man rush
		Kaczur: sack	(Strahan)

06:49	4 & 13	4 man rush

6th Drive
03:04	1 & 15	6 man rush	(Mitchell + Pierce blitz)
		Koppen: knockdown	(Mitchell)
		Mankins: pressure	(Tuck)

03:01	2 & 15	4 man rush
01:03	1 & 10	4 man rush
		Mankins: pressure	(Cofield)
		Koppen: pressure	(Cofield)

00:17	1 & 10	5 man rush	(Tuck drops, Pierce and Butler blitz)
00:14	2 & 15	4 man rush	(play action)
		Kaczur: knockdown	(Tuck)

00:06	3 & 15	6 man rush	(WR screen)

7th Drive
10:59	1 & 10	4 man rush	(play action)
10:26	1 & 10	5 man rush	(Pierce blitz)	(WR screen)
09:41	2 & 7	4 man rush	(Tuck drops, Dockerty blitzes)	(Kaczur + Watson)
		Light: pressure	(Umenyiora)

09:36	3 & 7	4 man rush	
		Light: pressure	(Umenyiora)
		Koppen: pressure	(Tuck)

8th Drive
07:54	1 & 10	5 man rush	(Umenyiora drops, Ross + Pierce blitz)
07:19	2 & 5	4 man rush
06:14	2 & 1	4 man rush
05:27	1 & 10	4 man rush
05:01	2 & 6	4 man rush
		Mankins: pressure	(Tuck)

04:15	1 & 10	4 man rush
04:12	2 & 10	4 man rush	(play action)
03:31	1 & 10	4 man rush
02:55	1 & 6	4 man rush	(double play action)
02:49	2 & 6	7 man rush
02:45	3 & 6	3 man rush	(Tuck drops)

9th Drive
00:29	1 & 10	6 man rush	(Dockerty + Wilson blitz)
		Mankins: pressure	(Tuck)
		Koppen: pressure	(Tuck)
		Faulk: pressure	(Dockerty + Wilson)

00:25	2 & 10	4 man rush
		Hochstein: sack	(Alford)

00:19	3 & 20	4 man rush	(Watson + Kaczur)
00:10	4 & 20	4 man rush

Though every armchair coach and coordinator on this board has been complaining about McDaniels' un-Weisian dislike for the screen game, we still ran screen plays approximately 1 out of every 6 pass plays.

The tight ends stayed in to pass block more than is usual, but no more than Watson and Wesley Britt did the last time the Pats played the Giants.

The Giants pass rush tired out during the 8th drive in the 4th quarter, which I think is the primary reason our offense starting clicking. The offense ran no screens, and no more short plays than was customary on other drives.

Brady spent approximately 4 out of every 5 passing plays in the shotgun.

The Pats usually had Faulk running a route because, like in the 2nd half of Week 17, the linebacker covering him would often convert to a rusher if Faulk stayed in to block. It's not like the Giants were routinely sending overload blitzes anyways.

Code:

Name		Sack	Knock	Press	Tip	False
Light		0	3	5	0	2
Mankins		3	2	5	0	0
Koppen		1	1	4	0	0
Hochstein	1	2	1	0	0
Neal		0	0	0	0	0
Kaczur		2	2	3	1	0

Neither Kyle Brady, Ben Watson, or Kevin Faulk are included, as they didn't pass block enough to be significant. It is noteworthy how poor Kyle Brady's blocking was on the night, however.

Of the linemen, Logan Mankins in particular had his worst game of the season. Several times he took himself out of position, and when he was in position he was often straight-up beat, usually by Justin Tuck. Overall I'd say he had the worst game of the linemen.

Russ Hochstein may not have been as bad in general, but when he was bad he was very bad. Consider the following:

It wasn't just Tuck doing it to him either:

That's Tuck, incidently, sandwiched in that Mankins-Koppen double team up top. Here's Tuck, again, in the same double team on the play previous:

Tuck defeats Mankins' arms before he can pass him off to Koppen, then splits them both and drags them into the backfield, leaving Faulk to block both Kevin Dockerty and Gibril Wilson on the blitz, an oft-repeated theme on the night. In what I interpret as an act of defiant protest, Faulk proceeds to block neither.

What do you do, as a coach, when you can't even slow a guy down with a double team, or hit blitzers when they're running two-abrest? You can't triple-team everybody.

Here's another play to the above point:

Basically everyone except Stephen Neal straight-up lost to the lineman they were blocking. Every Giants rusher got to the quarterback on this play. All 4. Neal is only spared a demerit because he didn't have anyone to block, just chipped in on double teams.

The first failure is Justin Tuck beating Logan Mankins and bumping Osi Umenyiora off of Matt Light's block. Light recovers and shoves Umenyiora just wide of Tom Brady, but Mankins trails Tuck all the way on this play and Tuck is the first to reach Brady. On the other side, Neal comes off a double team on Jay Alford to help Kaczur with Strahan. Strahan also goes wide of Brady, but Alford quickly powers through Koppen's upfield shoulder and gets to Brady just after Tuck.

Brady's drop is at 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage so its not like he's not giving the interior of the line space to work with. Any farther back and the defensive ends would have a straight shot at him.

unoriginal · 02-07-2008, 12:42 AM

This is the Justin Tuck sack at the end of the 1st half that resulted in a forced fumble:

Again, Mankins loses Tuck from the snap of the ball, and Tuck then pinballs off Matt Light's block on Osi Umenyiora, knocking Light to the side. Koppen doesn't block anyone as Tuck beats Mankins away from Koppen's help.

Tuck was the catalyst for a lot of these breakdowns up front in this game.

Besides simply being beat, both Patriots guards had a lot of trouble identifying blitzes and honoring their responsibilities, which I attribute to something of a football panic reflex. Here the victim is Russ Hochstein:

You can't see it, but on the far side of the line Osi Umenyiora is dropping into coverage. Justin Tuck stunts outside to take his place.

Hochstein is in fact joining a triple team with Koppen and Mankins on Hall of Fame hopeful Jay Alford. Presumably he doesn't see Gibril Wilson, and is leaving Kevin Dockerty for Kevin Faulk to block.

You can see how far from where he's needed Hochstein ends up being.

Faulk picks up Dockerty just behind the line, but there's no one to block Wilson. The silver lining on this play is that the triple team did a pretty good job of stopping the dangerous Jay Alford.

unoriginal · 02-07-2008, 12:42 AM

In the foreground you can see Jabar Gaffney running a dig or curl. He's open, but its hard to find an open receiver right over an unblocked blitz.

There's been a lot of criticism about the lack of screens. As I mentioned earlier, 1 out of every 6 pass plays was some kind of screen. Here in a picture is why they weren't always successful:

While the Giants front 4 often mounted an aggressive pass rush, they were for the most part aware of the danger of the screen game. The very first play, in fact, saw both Fred Robbins and Strahan stop their rush and attempt to find the screen in the backfield. They failed because the screen was being set farther downfield (and in the case of Fred Robbins and Reggie Torbor, on the other side of the field), but because it took so long to set up both Umenyiora and Cofield knocked Brady down before he could get off an accurate pass.

Essentially, the screen game didn't work because the Giants were too fast for the Pats' linemen to leave unattended. Quick screens were all that were feasible, and they were of limited success, as above.

You can see in the above screen shot how close the linebackers and corners are playing the line of scrimmage. There's not a lot of space in the flats to run screens.

Basically the Giants bet all night that, unlike Week 17, Brady would never have enough time to throw an accurate deep pass to make them pay from crowding the short zones, and that Maroney would never break a long one on the same. They won that bet.

EDIT: Forgot to include Reiss' player information.
Positional Groupings
Offensive Participation

Reiss indicates that in the 2nd half the Pats went more to a 2 TE base set. He also states the Pats had their greatest success and greatest failures out of 3 wide, depending on whether the Giants were tired or not.

TheSparks1 · 02-07-2008, 12:50 AM

I am speechless. Amazing work.

How about our Pro Bowler Logan Mankins?
3 Sacks, 2 Pressures, 5 QB Knockdowns

It's amazing how much pressure the Giants got with 4 guys - Blitzed only 13 of 53 plays, and that included some screen plays. WOW!

Again, amazing work.

nickelbolt · 02-07-2008, 12:54 AM

Brilliant presentation. All of those fancy pictures & such. Kudos to you for spending god knows how many wasteful hours on that.

Yet, the real problem was actually the Patriots refusal to establish a power running game. This is why the game was lost. Talk about screens, draws, delays, and all of those other finesse plays that supposedly negate a good pass rush.

But the best remedy for this is always a physical running game. Especially in a game this close. That Giants D line would have been completely beaten down by the 4th quarter had the Patriots just kept feeding Maroney and pounding away with a two back set.

Belichick should have known better than to stick with the pass-happy approach after seeing his QB getting pounded.

unoriginal · 02-07-2008, 01:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickelbolt

But the best remedy for this is always a physical running game. Especially in a game this close. That Giants D line would have been completely beaten down by the 4th quarter had the Patriots just kept feeding Maroney and pounding away with a two back set.

Agreed, but we did try that approach earlier in the year, and all it did was get our running backs injured.

In the AFCCG last year we lost in large part due to the fact that we ran out of healthy running backs.

I personally would have stuck a jumbo package on the field, but lets not kid ourselves, the Giants are an NFC East team and they know how to play that kind of game. Instead of banking on the big pass play you're hoping Maroney breaks one long to get the Giants to back off the line of scrimmage. It's the same deal as our problem with the passing offense.

Ultimately players need to make plays, and that didn't happen for the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

unoriginal · 02-07-2008, 01:13 AM

For those who are interested, here is my breakdown of Week 17 line play aagainst the very same Giants:

Offensive Line Play for Giants, Week 17

And others from the playoffs and regular season:

Jaguars and Chargers
Steelers, Dolphins, and Jets
Ravens
Eagles

RayClay · 02-07-2008, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unoriginal

Agreed, but we did try that approach earlier in the year, and all it did was get our running backs injured.

In the AFCCG last year we lost in large part due to the fact that we ran out of healthy running backs.

I personally would have stuck a jumbo package on the field, but lets not kid ourselves, the Giants are an NFC East team and they know how to play that kind of game. Instead of banking on the big pass play you're hoping Maroney breaks one long to get the Giants to back off the line of scrimmage. It's the same deal as our problem with the passing offense.

Ultimately players need to make plays, and that didn't happen for the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

I've got to disagree unoriginal (unbelievable analysis, though).

We got beat up physically and there's nothing to energize a line better than to let them dish it out for a while. The giants were cramping up, we could have played a few series of smashmouth and even passed out of the max protect.

If a couple series with a jumbo lineup would have helped get us off the defensive, I can't think of a better strategy other than what we did, which was to feed right into their pressure at all costs strategy.

Running backs injured? It's the Super Bowl

***Gunnails*** · 02-07-2008, 01:25 AM

Unoriginal,

That was awsome, Guy's like you are why I come here.

***MoLewisrocks*** · 02-07-2008, 02:03 AM

Great analysis Unoriginal. Confirms what my disbelieving eyes knew they saw.