Oswlek
Veteran Starter w/Big Long Term Deal
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2006
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- 9,086
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I am even more how anyone could be down on Maroney. He was very good, even better than I originally thought. I admittedly missed a couple of his runs, but here is what I saw:
* He was very imvolved in the pass offense, on numerous plays shifting out of the backfield and lining up wide. Three times Brady tossed him the ball, one was an overthrow of an easy 10 yard completion, one was a two yarder where he was immediately hit. The third was a catch and Welker-like run where he juked out one defender and then slid through two others to convert a 2nd and long. Considering how little NE used him in the passing game before, this is a significant improvement.
* On the 4th down stop, Buffalo's defense both killed NE's surge and had a couple guys in the backfield. As Maroney approached the LOS, there were two defenders in front of him (one who had the angle to the sideline) and a pileup to the inside. Showing excellent situation awareness, LoMo realized the best chance to get the yard was to just ram into the defenders and push them back. The two defenders stood Maroney up, but it wasn't until an OL fell into LoMo that he went down.
* Maroney put a little shot into the defender as he ran out of bounds on the initial kickoff - something few returners do.
* Two of Maroney's longer runs, 11 and 8 yards, involved Maroney reading that the primary hole was blocked but a cut back lane was available. Once through the line he put on some nice moves to create more yardage.
* On the 4 yard loss, Maroney took a toss and ran toward the outside (where the play is supposed to go) and saw immediately two unblocked defenders, one in front and another taking away the edge. He planted to cut back and then saw two more unblocked defenders coming from inside. At that point it was 4 on 1 and LoMo went into full ball security mode.
Ultimately, Maroney had two other options on that play. He could have just run directly into the first pair of defenders had he assumed the inside would not be there, accepting the 2 yard loss. Of course, that would have drawn jeers of "he can't read his blocks" or "he has no instincts", and beyond that, why should he ever assume if one option is gone that all are?
The other decision he could have made was to go into Barry Sanders mode and start running backwards and towards the other sideline. Of course, this goes against everything BB preaches and LoMo would have taken flack from more important people than the fans had he done that. Not only that, but as poorly as the blocking was, odds are he would have lost 7-8 yards instead of 4.
* The other run I saw was a 6 yarder that I initially had felt was a bit tentative. After rewatching it, I realized that Maroney held up because Watson hadn't blocked his man yet. If Maroney just rammed it up there like people want, it would have been a 2 yard run instead of a 6.
* Not once did the first defender bring him down. Not once.
So Maroney showed toughness by initiating contact, he showed excellent situational awareness with his decision making and he showed power and shiftiness in his runs schooling single defenders and forcing multiple guys to bring him down.
Isn't that what a RB is supposed to do? :confused2:
* He was very imvolved in the pass offense, on numerous plays shifting out of the backfield and lining up wide. Three times Brady tossed him the ball, one was an overthrow of an easy 10 yard completion, one was a two yarder where he was immediately hit. The third was a catch and Welker-like run where he juked out one defender and then slid through two others to convert a 2nd and long. Considering how little NE used him in the passing game before, this is a significant improvement.
* On the 4th down stop, Buffalo's defense both killed NE's surge and had a couple guys in the backfield. As Maroney approached the LOS, there were two defenders in front of him (one who had the angle to the sideline) and a pileup to the inside. Showing excellent situation awareness, LoMo realized the best chance to get the yard was to just ram into the defenders and push them back. The two defenders stood Maroney up, but it wasn't until an OL fell into LoMo that he went down.
* Maroney put a little shot into the defender as he ran out of bounds on the initial kickoff - something few returners do.
* Two of Maroney's longer runs, 11 and 8 yards, involved Maroney reading that the primary hole was blocked but a cut back lane was available. Once through the line he put on some nice moves to create more yardage.
* On the 4 yard loss, Maroney took a toss and ran toward the outside (where the play is supposed to go) and saw immediately two unblocked defenders, one in front and another taking away the edge. He planted to cut back and then saw two more unblocked defenders coming from inside. At that point it was 4 on 1 and LoMo went into full ball security mode.
Ultimately, Maroney had two other options on that play. He could have just run directly into the first pair of defenders had he assumed the inside would not be there, accepting the 2 yard loss. Of course, that would have drawn jeers of "he can't read his blocks" or "he has no instincts", and beyond that, why should he ever assume if one option is gone that all are?
The other decision he could have made was to go into Barry Sanders mode and start running backwards and towards the other sideline. Of course, this goes against everything BB preaches and LoMo would have taken flack from more important people than the fans had he done that. Not only that, but as poorly as the blocking was, odds are he would have lost 7-8 yards instead of 4.
* The other run I saw was a 6 yarder that I initially had felt was a bit tentative. After rewatching it, I realized that Maroney held up because Watson hadn't blocked his man yet. If Maroney just rammed it up there like people want, it would have been a 2 yard run instead of a 6.
* Not once did the first defender bring him down. Not once.
So Maroney showed toughness by initiating contact, he showed excellent situational awareness with his decision making and he showed power and shiftiness in his runs schooling single defenders and forcing multiple guys to bring him down.
Isn't that what a RB is supposed to do? :confused2: