Will Moss become a very high-paid decoy?

[Satchboogie3]

Moss won't be a decoy. Ideally we'll want to create some sort of mismatch of pulling the S down to account for one of our TE's allowing Brady to have the pick of the match ups he sees. Either way, I don't think Belichick will want us to have super quick drives (see 2007) unless its necessary. I think he prefers the time crunching, methodical drives.

I don't agree with this at all (The quick drive part). Quick drives can be extremely useful. They great early in the game if you can get a couple of quick scores and take a big lead. You put pressure on the other team and allow your offense to be run heavy. It's also helpful to have an offense that can score quickly when it comes to the end of halfs. The more weapons and more ways to score, the better. It's all about match ups. If your matched up with a weak passing D, throw all over them!

 

[Nikolai]

When was the last time Brady connected with Moss on a deep ball?

YouTube - Tom Brady 63 yard TD pass to Randy Moss Week 10 vs.Indianapolis Colts

There might be something later, but that one came to mind first.

 

[RayClay]

If a receiver is good enough to be a decoy, it doesn't make sense to use him as a decoy all season.

If a receiver is not good enough to be a decoy, you can't use him as a decoy.

Of course you wouldn't all season. That makes as much sense as going to him continuously, allowing defenses to adjust and learn from each other, then expect him to be open late in the season (2007).

The purpose of your offense should be to put the defense on the off balance, make them pay for overplays, then make them pay when they adjust by going back to your strength.

Teams that win Super bowls almost always have multiple threats and use them, burning defenses whether they overplay or whether they don't.

I'd like to see Moss get single coverage and be wide open occasionally. Only one way that's going to happen.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

I wouldn't say he underthrew him much if at all. In Moss's earlier days he would have made that catch by leaping above the CB's. Now at this stage in his career esp in the preseason he doesn't want to risk injury and didn't try for the ball.

Uh...actually it was underthrown. It looked pretty, but Moss had to slow down.

 

[tuckeverlasting]

Uh...actually it was underthrown. It looked pretty, but Moss had to slow down.

and it was pi, and i don't mean 3.14159265

 

[LoganMankinsPancakeBlocks]

YouTube - Tom Brady 63 yard TD pass to Randy Moss Week 10 vs.Indianapolis Colts

There might be something later, but that one came to mind first.

I don't have video of it right now, but Brady also hit him on a bomb the first drive of the game that we lost @ Miami later in the year. Not sure if he had any others later in the year or not, but that one immediately came to mind for me.

As for the topic, I don't see what would make anyone believe Moss will be a decoy. He's our most important WR (Love Wes, but Edelman can do a poor man's Welker impression, no one on our roster can do what Moss does, drawing so much attention on the outside and still being incredibly productive) and he is coming off a 1,264 yard and 13 TD season when we had absolutely no weapons aside from Welker to draw any attention off him.

He'll continue to beat double teams like he did last year (even while hurt) and his entire career, and he'll likely see less of them with a TE that looks like he can stretch the field and be a consistent factor in the passing game in Hernandez and all the other weapons we have now.

 

[DarrylS]

If Moss becomes a very high priced decoy, which I doubt, and the rest of the WR/TE corps run wild who cares????

 

[Fencer]

If Moss becomes a very high priced decoy, which I doubt, and the rest of the WR/TE corps run wild who cares????

Exactly. Only way it happens is if it's a very good thing, since forcing the ball to Moss isn't exactly a catastrophe scenario.

 

[SanAngeloState]

lately, as in last year, brady seems to be always looking for moss. He throws into double coverage a lot and it never seems to work. I don't think brady has the deep ball to consistently hit the open receiver which is hard because often moss is double covered and not really open. That and brady puts a lot of air under the ball giving the safety time to come over.

Hopefully they'll hit moss on more crossing patterns and such instead of always looking for him deep.

 

[Uncle Rico]

With the exception of that one bomb, it does look like Brady is hitting Moss more with those crossing patterns this pre-season.

I guess I'm struggling with the word "decoy" here. To me that implies you don't actually throw to him. They'll throw to him; they just don't HAVE to throw to him, which will be nice if it turns out that way. Last year there were basically two receiving weapons - -Moss (playing with injury, double-teamed, still a pretty good year) and Welker (123 catches while missing essentially three games).

The bottom line is that Moss and Welker will still have to be accounted for. But there are signs that there might be other guys (TEs, Tate, Edelman) who will have to be accounted for too. Moss won't be a decoy, but the Pats will be happy to let teams over-cover him and let the other weapons be open -- then go back to Moss when the time is right, which will be a lot. Options = nice.

 

[RayClay]

If Moss becomes a very high priced decoy, which I doubt, and the rest of the WR/TE corps run wild who cares????

Are you implying getting easy touchdowns is more important than long pretty passes for highlight films? For shame!

 

[RIP#40]

I am having trouble parsing the logic here. Why use the best WR in the history of the game as a decoy instead of letting him score touchdowns?

I like Moss, but Rice is by far the GOAT.

 

[FredFromDartmouth]

Brady definitely underthrew him. Moss had to slow down so the ball could reach him which gave the DBs the change to catch up to him as he way ahead of them. Even then, the ball was still behind him.

Exactly. And Brady does it a lot unfortunately.

Pat Jew is exactly right; Moss is the most under appreciated player in the Patriots franchise history. David Givens is up there also but not the extent that Moss is under appreciated. You can thank the jackals in the press such as Felger and Callahan for that but luckily it seems as if the average fan is more intelligent than Felger and understand Moss.

The whole key for Moss is Tate. The Patriots simply must get the ball to Tate more often to keep the safeties honest. I am disappointed that this is not happening in PS.

 

[BTTA]

I think it is a process of developing each of the new weapons, with Tate being the last one in the sequence. First get Edelman fully established. Then the TE's. Then Welker back. Then Tate or whoever is going to be the speed threat on the other side.

The word "decoy" then comes to mean whichever of these options the defense picks to give primary attention to.

Jeepers, this could be a lot of fun this year.

Exactly. And Brady does it a lot unfortunately.

Pat Jew is exactly right; Moss is the most under appreciated player in the Patriots franchise history. David Givens is up there also but not the extent that Moss is under appreciated. You can thank the jackals in the press such as Felger and Callahan for that but luckily it seems as if the average fan is more intelligent than Felger and understand Moss.

The whole key for Moss is Tate. The Patriots simply must get the ball to Tate more often to keep the safeties honest. I am disappointed that this is not happening in PS.

 

[BelizePats]

2 helpful things to ask yourself before posting a new thread.

1) Am I thinking rationally?
2) Is what I'm writing coherent?

 

[emoney_33]

Of course you wouldn't all season. That makes as much sense as going to him continuously, allowing defenses to adjust and learn from each other, then expect him to be open late in the season (2007).

The purpose of your offense should be to put the defense on the off balance, make them pay for overplays, then make them pay when they adjust by going back to your strength.

Teams that win Super bowls almost always have multiple threats and use them, burning defenses whether they overplay or whether they don't.

I'd like to see Moss get single coverage and be wide open occasionally. Only one way that's going to happen.

The original post is about using him as a decoy (implying all season). I know everyone likes to nitpick, but I trust Brady making the decisions over all the armchair QB's who think he needs to just ignore Moss unless he's wide open.

 

[emoney_33]

lately, as in last year, brady seems to be always looking for moss. He throws into double coverage a lot and it never seems to work. I don't think brady has the deep ball to consistently hit the open receiver which is hard because often moss is double covered and not really open. That and brady puts a lot of air under the ball giving the safety time to come over.

never seems to work to the tune of second best completion percentage, TD, yards, QB rating of his career... Against a difficult pass defense schedule, with Moss hurting for a good chunk of the year and no other receivers apart from Moss/Welker to speak of...

 

[emoney_33]

With the exception of that one bomb, it does look like Brady is hitting Moss more with those crossing patterns this pre-season.

I guess I'm struggling with the word "decoy" here. To me that implies you don't actually throw to him. They'll throw to him; they just don't HAVE to throw to him, which will be nice if it turns out that way. Last year there were basically two receiving weapons - -Moss (playing with injury, double-teamed, still a pretty good year) and Welker (123 catches while missing essentially three games).

The bottom line is that Moss and Welker will still have to be accounted for. But there are signs that there might be other guys (TEs, Tate, Edelman) who will have to be accounted for too. Moss won't be a decoy, but the Pats will be happy to let teams over-cover him and let the other weapons be open -- then go back to Moss when the time is right, which will be a lot. Options = nice.

I agree with this, we'll have less stalling drives and struggles when good teams over-commit to Moss and/or Welker because there are other capable weapons. Moss and Welker are still going to be the go-to guys and barring injury should both have tremendous seasons.

 

[RobertWeathers]

The core principal of this offense (well, almost every offense) is to throw to the open man. Count me as one of those people who think that the Pats didn't have many guys that got open often enough (for whatever reason being knowing the O, sight adjustments, skill, etc.) last year which made the passing offense predictable sometimes. Seeing that the offense was still very effective (most of the time) that is to the testament to the skill of Brady, Moss, Welker, Faulk and others..

With that said, I don't think you will see Moss as a decoy, but as opposed to TB forcing the ball to RM and WW (which at times he did do just that), with seemingly more talented offensive threats and an additional year of experience for O'Brien, I do think that the O will be a bit more efficient. More options make the D defend more threats which create more 1:1 matchups.

Going out on a limb here, but I don't see Moss putting up gaudy numbers, but his effectiveness per-play should still be outstanding. 65-70 catches 900-1000yds 10 TDs?

 

[RayClay]

The original post is about using him as a decoy (implying all season). I know everyone likes to nitpick, but I trust Brady making the decisions over all the armchair QB's who think he needs to just ignore Moss unless he's wide open.

Obviously that's stupid.

However, designing plays based on the coverage we expect, based on film study which would destroy the areas deserted by those overplaying Moss and covering Tate, designed to go for the end zone (open field runs), not dump offs or sideline patterns, is not.

Would that be intentionally using Moss as a decoy? Yes it would. Would it lead to him being open more often, yes it would.

Going back,I would suggest you read complete posts instead of headlines and you would see Fencers proposition is not much different from mine. I happen to know he is a very smart guy, so you should reread.