No Moss + the bye week: What do the Ravens plan for?

[Reckedtrek]

It's expected by many if not all that our offense will change quite a bit, even if we trade for or promote from within to "replace" Moss in our O. But the Ravens don't have any recent film of the Pats O in action without Moss, so the best they can do is speculate on what BB will do.

Do you think BB will keep the scheme as close as possible with someone playing Moss' role (don't see this working out), do you think it's straight back to 2003 and hope the young D can handle the added pressure of keeping the score close (a lot to ask of them especially at this point) or do you think BB will make some significant changes in the play book and/or players roles to keep the Ravens off balance?

I'm not saying that the Pats will be successful necessarily (although I hope they are), but BB must have a plan on how to work this latest shift to work in his favor to counteract the Ravens likely not having to worry about the long ball nearly as much. For all we know, Price has spent the last 5 weeks becoming a viable deep threat, but without actual game experience what are the chances of that?

I think the Pats will be featuring the TE's as much if not more than ever.

 

[BlueThunder]

I think BB is having a presser this week to let us all know

 

[A.C Vegas]

or they can just use the Miami game when they didn't use moss at all

 

[VJCPatriot]

They gameplan to shutdown Welker by rolling safety coverage onto him. The Pats have unknowns at the outsider receiver positions. It is still unknown whether Tate and Edelman are ready to man the outside positions.

 

[BlueThunder]

I like the options of Gronk,Hernandez and Woodhead. Ravens can't cover everyone. Brady will find the mismatch/open reciever....

I don't see BB trying to pound the ball with BJGE much unless he has some early success...( wishful thinking on the success running)

 

[Reckedtrek]

I like the options of Gronk,Hernandez and Woodhead. Ravens can't cover everyone. Brady will find the mismatch/open reciever....

I don't see BB trying to pound the ball with BJGE much unless he has some early success...( wishful thinking on the success running)

I Think The Pats will try to run the ball only as much as needed to try to keep the D honest. I think the Ravens still have DB issues, which helps us.

 

[Reckedtrek]

or they can just use the Miami game when they didn't use moss at all

To a point, but Moss was still on the field and as a result affected the way the D had to plan for him.

 

[Reckedtrek]

They gameplan to shutdown Welker by rolling safety coverage onto him. The Pats have unknowns at the outsider receiver positions. It is still unknown whether Tate and Edelman are ready to man the outside positions.

This is a big question. And it is unknown to everyone including BB? The Ravens might not see Tate (or Edelman) as a threat and therefore do not spend much time worrying about him. If BB thinks Tate (or Edelman) is ready to stretch the field a bit (not anywhere near Moss' ability obviously) then does he use Tate/Edelman as an unexpected "secret" weapon?

I'm expecting Gronk to have a big game, and AH and Crumpler to figure in quite a bit as well. Hopefully our D can continue to develop and maybe snag an INT or two to keep the score close.

 

[Patriots Nation NY]

Well 31 other nfl clubs don't have Randy Moss, and yet somehow someway those teams manage to score .. Did Brady forget to play football all of a sudden? Did the Pats ever score points prior to Moss? Do any of you remember Troy Brown had a 101 catch season at one point? Did Wes Welker not have a 60 plus catch season on a ****ty Miami team? Geez ..folks around here are so naive.. "ohhhhh who's stretching the field now?" .. gimme a break with that crap .. we will be fine ... I know little off the topic of the op .. Ok, carry on ..

 

[Ron Sellers]

They gameplan to shutdown Welker by rolling safety coverage onto him. The Pats have unknowns at the outsider receiver positions. It is still unknown whether Tate and Edelman are ready to man the outside positions.

Yep, I agree. That would seem to be the most likely way another team would plan to defend against the Patriots right now.

I like the options of Gronk,Hernandez and Woodhead. Ravens can't cover everyone. Brady will find the mismatch/open reciever....

I don't see BB trying to pound the ball with BJGE much unless he has some early success...( wishful thinking on the success running)

And as a result of what VJCPatriot is predicting, then one would certainly expect the Pats to look to Hernandez and Gronkowski quite a bit. Add in a few looks to Edelman, Tate, etc. and it's quite possible the offense quickly becomes the most balanced offense we have seen in several years. By balanced I'm not referring to run/pass ratio since it is extremely difficult to run against Baltimore; I'm talking about distribution with no one player getting more than x% of the plays, and a larger number of players getting at least a few touches or passes thrown there way.

 

[PatsChamp88]

playing against the New England Patriots?

 

[VJCPatriot]

Well 31 other nfl clubs don't have Randy Moss, and yet somehow someway those teams manage to score .. Did Brady forget to play football all of a sudden? Did the Pats ever score points prior to Moss? Do any of you remember Troy Brown had a 101 catch season at one point? Did Wes Welker not have a 60 plus catch season on a ****ty Miami team? Geez ..folks around here are so naive.. "ohhhhh who's stretching the field now?" .. gimme a break with that crap .. we will be fine ... I know little off the topic of the op .. Ok, carry on ..

Despite your ranting, Troy Brown was a very, very good receiver in his prime. He wasn't some scrub who accidentally had 100 passes stick to his mitts.

Tate is in his second season and is a relative unknown. Is he an explosive kick returner? Hell, yes. He's already proven that. Is he ready to slide over to the #1 receiver position? That's a big Question Mark.

As for teams scoring without Randy Moss. Sure and they might also happen to have Andre Johnson, Reggie Wayne, Marques Colston, Larry Fitzgerald, Brandon Marshall or Calvin Johnson on their roster or any of a dozen other proven #1 WR guys.

When Marvin Harrison was let go from the Colts, they had Reggie Wayne ready to take his place. With the Pats there is No Clear Cut heir apparent to take over for Moss. But the Patriots do have a diverse number of offensive weapons to fall back on although these are more of the 'paper cut' variety.

Expect to see the Pats offense to revert to dink and dunk with more double TE sets to take advantage of the mismatches that Hernandez and Gronkowski can exploit. As for the true 'deep threet' or field stretcher receiver. That's really unknown and I don't see how you can assert otherwise.

We've got a lot of weapons left and as long as Brady can continue to spread the ball around this offense will make plays. What remains uncertain is if the Pats can pose enough of a vertical threat to prevent defenses from collapsing down to blanket the shorter routes/patterns. If defenses can effectively cover Welker without having to account for a Moss-level threat with 2 defenders, how will that affect the Pats offensive efficiency? How much did the Randy Moss factor mean to this offense in terms of opening things up for other playmakers? We'll be finding out after the bye week.

 

[TBradyOwnsYou]

Woodhead. No one will see him running up the field so he won't get covered.

 

[emoney_33]

Well 31 other nfl clubs don't have Randy Moss, and yet somehow someway those teams manage to score .. Did Brady forget to play football all of a sudden? Did the Pats ever score points prior to Moss? Do any of you remember Troy Brown had a 101 catch season at one point? Did Wes Welker not have a 60 plus catch season on a ****ty Miami team? Geez ..folks around here are so naive.. "ohhhhh who's stretching the field now?" .. gimme a break with that crap .. we will be fine ... I know little off the topic of the op .. Ok, carry on ..

What exactly are you responding to? I have not read a prior comment in this thread that said the Patriots couldn't score without Moss. If I'm not mistaken this thread is about the Ravens' potential gameplan for the Patriots.

 

[Patriots Nation NY]

What exactly are you responding to? I have not read a prior comment in this thread that said the Patriots couldn't score without Moss. If I'm not mistaken this thread is about the Ravens' potential gameplan for the Patriots.

Well 31 other nfl clubs don't have Randy Moss, and yet somehow someway those teams manage to score .. Did Brady forget to play football all of a sudden? Did the Pats ever score points prior to Moss? Do any of you remember Troy Brown had a 101 catch season at one point? Did Wes Welker not have a 60 plus catch season on a ****ty Miami team? Geez ..folks around here are so naive.. "ohhhhh who's stretching the field now?" .. gimme a break with that crap .. we will be fine ... I know little off the topic of the op .. Ok, carry on ..

just a little rant .. seems to be the popular theme on the board ..

 

[Patriots Nation NY]

Despite your ranting, Troy Brown was a very, very good receiver in his prime. He wasn't some scrub who accidentally had 100 passes stick to his mitts.

Tate is in his second season and is a relative unknown. Is he an explosive kick returner? Hell, yes. He's already proven that. Is he ready to slide over to the #1 receiver position? That's a big Question Mark.

As for teams scoring without Randy Moss. Sure and they might also happen to have Andre Johnson, Reggie Wayne, Marques Colston, Larry Fitzgerald, Brandon Marshall or Calvin Johnson on their roster or any of a dozen other proven #1 WR guys.

When Marvin Harrison was let go from the Colts, they had Reggie Wayne ready to take his place. With the Pats there is No Clear Cut heir apparent to take over for Moss. But the Patriots do have a diverse number of offensive weapons to fall back on although these are more of the 'paper cut' variety.

Expect to see the Pats offense to revert to dink and dunk with more double TE sets to take advantage of the mismatches that Hernandez and Gronkowski can exploit. As for the true 'deep threet' or field stretcher receiver. That's really unknown and I don't see how you can assert otherwise.

We've got a lot of weapons left and as long as Brady can continue to spread the ball around this offense will make plays. What remains uncertain is if the Pats can pose enough of a vertical threat to prevent defenses from collapsing down to blanket the shorter routes/patterns. If defenses can effectively cover Welker without having to account for a Moss-level threat with 2 defenders, how will that affect the Pats offensive efficiency? How much did the Randy Moss factor mean to this offense in terms of opening things up for other playmakers? We'll be finding out after the bye week.

So Wes is not at Troy's level? .. Who "stretched the field", and commanded a double team back in the glory days?

 

[VJCPatriot]

So Wes is not at Troy's level? .. Who "stretched the field", and commanded a double team back in the glory days?

You can't look at any roster in a vacuum. Troy was the #1 receiver in '01 but he was more of a brandon marshall type who made a lot of 1st down catches (Compare Brown's 2001 to Marhsall's 2009). The guy who stretched the field back then was Patten. That year the Pats were also much more of a run first team that passed when it had to. Antowain Smith had his best year for the Pats as he wore teams down and usually took over in the 4th quarter with his punishing runs.

2001 New England Patriots Stats

The Pats offense in 2001 only averaged 23.2 ppg. The defense is what really carried that team to a championship.

Did you have another other point in your ranting outside of trying to tear down both Troy Brown and Randy Moss because right now there appears to be no rhyme or reason to it.
Wes Welker is what he is - the best slot receiver in the game today. He's not Randy Moss, he's not Troy Brown, he's Wes Welker.

 

[Patriots Nation NY]

You can't look at any roster in a vacuum. Troy was the #1 receiver in '01 but he was more of a brandon marshall type who made a lot of 1st down catches (Compare Brown's 2001 to Marhsall's 2009). The guy who stretched the field back then was Patten. That year the Pats were also much more of a run first team that passed when it had to. Antowain Smith had his best year for the Pats as he wore teams down and usually took over in the 4th quarter with his punishing runs.

2001 New England Patriots Stats

The Pats offense in 2001 only averaged 23.2 ppg. The defense is what really carried that team to a championship.

Did you have another other point in your ranting outside of trying to tear down both Troy Brown and Randy Moss because right now there appears to be no rhyme or reason to it.
Wes Welker is what he is - the best slot receiver in the game today. He's not Randy Moss, he's not Troy Brown, he's Wes Welker.

Actually I didn't tear anyone down .. I was making a comparison to Wes and Troy of 2001 .. Both comprable players, Troy didn't have that "stretch the field" WR helping him. Patten! Really? .. Ok .. On another note, update your sig pic fellow Pats fan ..

 

[shirtsleeve]

Just an FYI,

Tate CAN stretch the field. Has he learned the O significantly to handle all the routes, reads, and sight adjustments? I dunno. Time will tell. But if any team leaves him alone and lets him get behind them, or plays him soft, its an easy 6. So contrary to popular belief, that element of this Offense is not completely gone.

Carry on...

 

[Reckedtrek]

What exactly are you responding to? I have not read a prior comment in this thread that said the Patriots couldn't score without Moss. If I'm not mistaken this thread is about the Ravens' potential gameplan for the Patriots.

Yes- this is correct. What do they (Ravens) plan for and in turn can BB create a game plan that might catch them off guard?