This is on the O-line
what game were you watching this is all on the oline, brafy sisnt have time to throw screens taylor was in the backfield all day. He ate both Light and Kaczur
...chart it out for us, show us what was called, let's try and be more than talking heads more concerned with how many words we can get out while on air.
I can't chart it out for you, but hopefully I can start a more edifying discussion.
If you can win one matchup convincingly, you can use it as leverage to turn the entire game in your favor. When the Pats play Miami, the Dolphins almost always succeed in turning the speed rush game to their advantage.
Today was the story of Nick Kaczur and Matt Light being molested. The speed rush from Taylor, Roth, et al was so good it consistently kept protection in and caused a guard to move outside just to keep Brady perpendicular to the ground. Miami's defensive strategy is built around succeeding in this fashion, because while the obvious solution against the speed rush is to either step up in the pocket or call draw plays, if you can't just block it right, Miami was sniffing out these counters by blitzing safeties and linebackers through the guard gaps. Bell in particular was in the backfield frequently by pausing a second to let his guard slide outside before rushing through a hole. If the guard lingered inside too long, Taylor in particular would repeatedly school whichever tackle he was lined up on. The representative passing play I recall is a replay where he outside-inside swam past Matt Light so quickly he achieved the pocket before a diving Mankins could even be seen. A representative running play was the own-end-zone stop of Dillon in the third quarter where Light bucket-stepped to Taylor's outside shoulder on a stretch play left, but Mankins got held up inside by both the tackle and by eyeing the linebacker lined up over him, so Taylor simply split the two and met Dillon head up on the New England 2. That was the part where Randy Cross noted "Dillon is only 10 pounds light than Taylor," if you remember that comment. That Taylor made that initial move look so easy, and then beat Dillon down like a paper mache pinata is a clear indication of how good he is and what he means to that defense.
This is how Miami rushing five or six consistently made six and seven pass blockers look like fools. Those speed rushers are good enough to dominate one-on-one battles against the drive-blockers the Pats favor at the tackle positions, and when the Pats compensate by keeping running backs and tight ends in to block, and sliding guards outside, Miami blitzes Bell and Thomas up the middle and more often than not they get there. That Miami defense has noticeably improved since Bell was promoted to the starting line-up, and its because he is an excellent blitzer. He makes the coverage responsibilities for the rest of the defense that much easier by taking time away from the quaterback.
The rest of the secondary is the weakness of the Miami defense, but because of the mismatch up from they are difficult to exploit without Joey Harringtoning it up and throwing sideline fades while falling off your back foot. The receivers are going to catch a lot of flak on the internet this week because "they couldn't get open," but I imagine that if Brady had time and clear sight lines he could fit the ball into the proper places and we'd all be talking about how the receivers were doing well to make difficult catches. I mean, we all loved Patten, right? Brady used to throw the ball right at the numbers on his back on seam routes, because he was covered in the front and to both sides. You try doing the same with Ben Watson when Kevin Carter, Jason Taylor, and Yeremiah Bell are converging on you.
The best way I can think of for the Pats to solve this problem is to change their offensive line philosophy. Instead of big driving tackles and quick pulling guards, they'd need to go with quick pass-blocking tackles like Ferguson or Walter Jones and big fat mauling guards to keep the defensive tackles nearer the original line of scrimmage. That would go along way to making the matchup more even across the board, but it would also effect the Pats ability to run the ball.
The other way to hurt the up-the-field pressure defense is to gash them for long runs, like the Jags did to the Colts today. Of course, the Colts don't have big fat D-tackles like Traylor and Wilkerson hogging up that middle, nor are the Dolphins incompetent when it comes to tackling, like the Colts are, with the notable exceptions of Cato June and Bob Sanders. That said, if Maroney were active and were to, say, break two for touchdowns like other big-time backs seem to do with regularity, the game would turn out different. Because of the speed rush, and the ability of our quick guards to trap block, the off-the-tackle run play was there most of the time, but Dillon and Pass just can't seem to hit a home run - they are double and single type backs. Long of the day was 17 yards by Dillon. Miami and other teams can afford to rush up the field against the Pats because we haven't demonstrated the ability to make the big play with the ground game.
