Pats/Dolphins tape breakdown

[pats1]

Alright, it looks like I'll be stepping in by popular request for unoriginal this week, taking a look at the OL play in the Dolphins Debacle. I had originally been doing some +/- tape work, just going player-by-player, play-by-play and giving +/-'s where earned. I did about a half of that before starting with this OL work, and made the following observations (in Bert Breer "Tale of the Tape" style):

1) Poor inside pass coverage: for the most part, Hobbs and O’Neal held their own against the Dolphins’ WRs on the outside and contained the dink-and-dunks in front of them, even fighting through blockers on screens. However, the Dolphins found the most success using the middle of the field with their slot receivers (usually tight ends – Anthony Fasano and David Martin) in the seams. In one case, the Pats had J. Sanders playing a very deep man-free, and the Dolphins just sent a RB underneath and a TE over the top to high/low the Mayo/Bruschi zones. In another case, Sanders and Meriweather played so wide a cover 2 that they left the entire middle of the field open. A TE lined up in the slot against Thomas, and while Thomas is a good athlete, he can’t be called on to stick man-to-man with a TE in the seam with no safety help. There was yet another case where the Dolphins came out with 4 WRs on the left, and the Pats countered with a 3-3 setup, with Harrison and Thomas initially on two of the slots and Vrabel rushing from the other side. One of the slots motioned right, prompting Thomas to get in a three-point stance and rush, while Mayo shaded to the offensive right on the snap to cover the receiver (Brown in motion). That, however, left the inside slot on the left (Fasano) free to hit the middle of the field and split the safeties. This looked to be an obvious miscommunication between Thomas and Mayo.

2) Inconsistent OL play: specifically, the guard play was pretty bad, which might be expected with Yates in there for Neal, but not from Mankins. The Pro Bowler had a tough time all day containing rushers (usually Phillip Merling) one-on-one, although he evened out once Koppen came over to help later on. In the running game, Mankins slipped while pulling to send one play to hell, but was decent in getting to the second level to block, as was Yates. The running game wasn’t as terrible as the stats made it look – those seemed to be a result of the large deficit the Pats faced most of the game; generally Morris got some good holes to hit, and it was just one slippage on a block that doomed the play.

3) Cassel adequate: despite the claims otherwise, Cassel executed McDaniels’ game plan well and did a good job of staying in the pocket and finding a wide range of receivers for modest gains. In part because of the OL’s failure (usually Mankins’ or Yates’) to stop a Dolphins rusher’s push on most pass plays, the offense never really seemed to spread things out and open up plays down the field. Most of the time the routes were short and Cassel was accurate, but the Dolphins saw it all coming and were able to prevent the shorter routes from turning into big gains. The lack of any deep game in the first half also kept SS Yeremiah Bell in the box on most plays, causing some problems in the running game. Cassel even pitched in on the long Welker reverse play, making a key block (along with some good ones downfield) that helped spring Welker.

4) Mediocre day for DL: particularly in the case of Warren, who uncharacteristically was overaggressive on a number of plays, shooting the edge on one draw play or on the first “Wildcat” play, to find himself wildly out of position, while in-turn opening a sizeable gap. However, Mayo did an excellent job of attacking the guard and (unlike Bruschi), not losing ground to help fill these holes. Wilfork and Seymour both had their ups and downs, with Seymour getting manhandled by Long but also tipping a Pennington pass on the same drive.

Here are some relevant links:

Gamebook
Reiss offensive participation numbers
Reiss offensive formation numbers
Reiss defensive participation numbers

I've only had time thus far to look at the first half action; at some point I will look at the second half as well.

Here is the 1st half log:

14:51    1 & 10    Kaczur (pressure)
14:15    2 & 4     Yates (wrong block on pull)
13:40    3 & 4

11:51    1 & 10   (moving pocket pass)
11:22    2 & 4    
10:44    1 & 10   (offsides)
10:36    1 & 5     Light (false start)
10:21    1 & 10
9:45     1 & 10   (double OT cut blocks)
9:11     1 & 10   (double OT cut blocks)
8:52     2 & 4
8:12     3 & 1
7:34     1 & 7     Watson (sack), Light (pressure), Yates (pressure)
7:07     2 & 12    Mankins (sack)
6:20     3 & 16    (fake screen/bubble screen), entire line: Mankins (knockdown, missed block downfield), Light (pressure), Kaczur (pressure), Koppen and Yates (missed blocks downfield)

2:22     1 & 10    Thomas (missed tough second-level block on biting in-box safety)
1:47     2 & 10
1:13     3 & 5     (reverse)
0:29     1 & 10    Mankins (blown assignment, triple team to leave man free)
0:10     2 & 9     (illegal contact, no play)
0:02     1 & 10    Mankins (fell down while pulling/missed block)
15:00    2 & 11    Yates (beaten, forced dumpoff)
14:26    3 & 11    Koppen and Yates (knockdown after losing double team)
13:43    4 & 2     Mankins (pressure)
13:08    1 & 10    (screen)
12:33    2 & 12
12:11    3 & 6     Yates (beaten, but defender slipped)

8:11     1 & 10
7:41     2 & 3     (bad run by Jordan, who bounced it outside when he had Moss and Yates pulling through the hole to meet the SS, causing Thomas to lose his angle)
6:59     3 & 2     Yates (late pressure), Kaczur (knockdown)
6:18     1 & 10    Yates (late pressure)
5:37     1 & 10    Gaffney (missed block on FS)
5:06     2 & 8     Yates (late pressure)
5:03     3 & 8

0:54     1 & 10
0:49     2 & 6     Kaczur (sack)
0:11     3 & 14

Total 1st half demerits:

Name        Sack        Knockdown    Pressure    Bad Run    Penalty
Light          0        0            2            0        1
Mankins        1        1            1            2        0
Koppen         0        1            0            0        0
Yates          0        1            6            1        0
Kaczur         1        1            2            0        0

Watson         1        0            0            0        0
Thomas         0        0            1            0        0
Gaffney        0        0            0            1        0

Here's a few plays that I'll break down further, the first three of which came one after another in the first quarter (sack, sack, INT):

On this one, the Pats run a play action to the right with Morris, with Mankins pulling to the right as well. The Dolphins were in a 3-4, leaving Watson and Light against ROLB Porter and RDE Merling on the backside. Watson was useless on this one, allowing Porter to blow by on the snap before falling to his knees afterward. Light didn't fare much better with Merling, but at least kept his footing and didn't allow Merling to get by him until Koppen came over to help and sent Merling to the ground.

 

[SVN]

last nite collinsworth said he watched tape of the fins game and 3 or 4times moss was deep down the field and raised his hand but wasnt thrown to because cassel was under pressure or running...did you see any of this in your observations ?

 

[Zeke_Mowatt]

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to break down some knowledge for those of us less "chock full 'o smarts"! What I find funny is how little I catch in real-time, I swear I saw tons of pressure coming off Nick's side of the ball, but it looks like it was more Yates than Kaczur, which I totally didn't see when watching live. Also good breakdown on Mankins, and also good to see it was a bit unusual (though a bit scary that the rookie Merling got over on one of our pro-bowlers, hope it turns out to be more of an anomaly/bad game than trend/shortage). Here's to hoping it was a combo scheming and bad day that gets corrected for San Fran.

Alright, it looks like I'll be stepping in by popular request for unoriginal this week, taking a look at the OL play in the Dolphins Debacle. I had originally been doing some +/- tape work, just going player-by-player, play-by-play and giving +/-'s where earned. I did about a half of that before starting with this OL work, and made the following observations (in Bert Breer "Tale of the Tape" style):



Here are some relevant links: Gamebook Reiss offensive participation numbers Reiss offensive formation numbers Reiss defensive participation numbers I've only had time thus far to look at the first half action; at some point I will look at the second half as well.

Here is the 1st half log:

14:51    1 & 10    Kaczur (pressure)
14:15    2 & 4     Yates (wrong block on pull)
13:40    3 & 4

11:51    1 & 10   (moving pocket pass)
11:22    2 & 4    
10:44    1 & 10   (offsides)
10:36    1 & 5     Light (false start)
10:21    1 & 10
9:45     1 & 10   (double OT cut blocks)
9:11     1 & 10   (double OT cut blocks)
8:52     2 & 4
8:12     3 & 1
7:34     1 & 7     Watson (sack), Light (pressure), Yates (pressure)
7:07     2 & 12    Mankins (sack)
6:20     3 & 16    (fake screen/bubble screen), entire line: Mankins (knockdown, missed block downfield), Light (pressure), Kaczur (pressure), Koppen and Yates (missed blocks downfield)

2:22     1 & 10    Thomas (missed tough second-level block on biting in-box safety)
1:47     2 & 10
1:13     3 & 5     (reverse)
0:29     1 & 10    Mankins (blown assignment, triple team to leave man free)
0:10     2 & 9     (illegal contact, no play)
0:02     1 & 10    Mankins (fell down while pulling/missed block)
15:00    2 & 11    Yates (beaten, forced dumpoff)
14:26    3 & 11    Koppen and Yates (knockdown after losing double team)
13:43    4 & 2     Mankins (pressure)
13:08    1 & 10    (screen)
12:33    2 & 12
12:11    3 & 6     Yates (beaten, but defender slipped)

8:11     1 & 10
7:41     2 & 3     (bad run by Jordan, who bounced it outside when he had Moss and Yates pulling through the hole to meet the SS, causing Thomas to lose his angle)
6:59     3 & 2     Yates (late pressure), Kaczur (knockdown)
6:18     1 & 10    Yates (late pressure)
5:37     1 & 10    Gaffney (missed block on FS)
5:06     2 & 8     Yates (late pressure)
5:03     3 & 8

0:54     1 & 10
0:49     2 & 6     Kaczur (sack)
0:11     3 & 14

Total 1st half demerits:

Name        Sack        Knockdown    Pressure    Bad Run    Penalty
Light          0        0            2            0        1
Mankins        1        1            1            2        0
Koppen         0        1            0            0        0
Yates          0        1            6            1        0
Kaczur         1        1            2            0        0

Watson         1        0            0            0        0
Thomas         0        0            1            0        0
Gaffney        0        0            0            1        0

(graphics to come, just working out some code problems)

 

[pats1]

Continuing on with the first play, Merling may be out of the picture, but Porter is still coming unblocked on Cassel's blindside. It's unlikely that Cassel would have had time to step-up and avoid Porter, but any chance of doing so was negated by NT Jason Ferguson. When Koppen peeled off, Yates lost his inside help with Ferguson, who then had free passage to give Porter a hand with the sack.

 

[pats1]

OK, so Cassel gets up, brushes off, and goes on with the next play. This one is better known as the "sack" where Cassel scooted free and scrambled for a "touchdown." This time, the blocking was good, except for one guy: Mankins. Merling blew him back on the snap and took him for a ride into the backfield, before jumping off the wagon and getting Cassel "in his grasp."

 

[Lifer]

thanks.

Is there a frame where it clearly breaks down the fact the Patriots SUCKED on both sides of the ball for 60 minutes?

 

[pats1]

OK, so Cassel's pissed this time. He thought he had the touchdown, but the play was whistled dead. So he jogs back to the huddle, and now it's third down. McDaniels gets creative. He sends Welker in motion from the right slot to the left flat, and has Cassel fake a screen to him. From there, Cassel was supposed to hit Faulk underneath in a bubble screen as the defense was still figuring out what was going on. That didn't happen.

Mankins gets manhandled at the snap again by Merling, and Merling has a lot more penetration than Mankins would have liked before he released to block downfield on the bubble screen. In the meantime, Dolphins DE Starks diagnoses the play and gets in the passing lane of Cassel, who is forced to throw off his back foot because of Merling's pressure.

 

[pats1]

All three of Mankins, Koppen, and Yates pulled to block on the screen, yet none of them, uh, blocked. Starks could have been taken out of the area by a blocker, and even if Starks hadn't been there to pick off a pressured Cassel, Faulk would have been whalloped (and actually was). LB Crowder had dropped back considerably on the snap, but still came up uncontested to give Faulk a good lick from behind with neither Yates nor Mankins to stop him.

 

[ALP]

mankins played like he did in the SB, and this time against a rookie no less...

unacceptable

 

[cstjohn17]

Thank you for doing this, the pictures are great.

Personally I would rather watch the Superbowl than the Dolphins game. So far you have focused on the, pardon my french "blocking"... I can hardly wait to see what the tale of the tape says about the ILBs.

 

[pats1]

What do you do to counter an aggressive defense? You keep them honest with plays such as this finely-executed reverse. On this one, Porter is allowed free passage into the backfield, only to find himself over-committed and out of position once Faulk reverses it to Welker. Cassel's ensuing block on Porter doesn't exactly match up to Brady's in the January 2004 Titans game, but it still does the trick, and helps Welker get downfield for a 19 yard gain.

 

[richpats]

I'm glad you talked about Cassel - he didn't do anything to screw up NE's chances. In SB42 the o-line played just as bad (if not worse) and they got all the blame for the offense's struggles. In the Miami game, Cassel gets the blame from NE fans b/c he's Matt Cassel. Hilarious.

 

[emoney_33]

Bump this wonderful thread.

 

[PatsDeb]

Thanks for this good stuff!

 

[DefenseRules]

Thanks for the breakdown. You have confirmed my concern about this OL. I pray to the football Gods that they improve.

 

[nashvillepatsfan]

Thanks Pats1. I appreciate all your work on this.

 

[ausbacker]

Thanks Pats1. Makes life a little easier being in Australia and not having football nous around you explaining problematic issues etc.

 

[DarrylS]

Thanks for the intelligent, well thought out post, in what sometimes seems to be an abyss of..

 

[PatsFan24]

do you actually break this game films down yourself? if so that is really impressive. did you used to be a football coach?

 

[Pats726]

Great break down..really solid...THANKS!!!