Miami (away) Breakdown

[Box_O_Rocks]

First Quarter, 15:00, NE 0 Mia 0

Kickoff: Faulk takes the ball at the 2 and returns to the 30 pushing a pile of Dolphins at the end with the help of Woods and Sanders. Hochstein is in as a wedge blocker replacing Neal, I didn’t see if he had any block, but Wright and Banta-Cain in their wedge roles took out three players between them. Sanders had a nice block on the other side and blockers upfield were doing their jobs as Faulk was over the 25 before the first Dolphin got close.

1st and 10: Brady to Faulk for 5 yds. Analysis: Pats started in a shotgun, 4 wide. He threw to Faulk on 4 mississippi, so the WR and TEs were unable to get open as Brady went to his 5th read, a mismatch between Faulk and a LB.

2nd and 5: Brady to Faulk incomplete. Analysis: Brady was hit as he threw. He threw the ball on 4 mississippi which meant the line gave him the time to find an open man, but only Faulk running underneath the LBs was open on his 4-5th read.

3rd and 5: Brady to Brown for 5 yds. Analysis: Pats in a shotgun, 5 wide look. Brady threw on 3 mississippi behind good protection. Brown was between two defenders right at the line to gain - Brady had a clear lane thanks to Kaczur riding his man wide and was able to zip the ball into tight coverage.

1st and 10: Dillon right side for 1 yd. Analysis: Pats had 3 wide, 2 right, with Graham alongside Light. They brought Watson in motion from wide right to inside the slot, putting Caldwell the best blocking WR in slot and a TE outside Kaczur. Jason Taylor was playing OLB and moved up over Watson on the motion Mankins pulled and led into the hole opened by Neal and Kaczur, the MLB (Crowder) filled the hole and met Mankins, forcing Dillon to bounce the run outside where Taylor fought off Watson’s block to make the tackle. Just good disciplined play by Miami’s D, playing their assignments.

2nd and 9: Brady to Caldwell for 12 yds. Analysis: Pats lined up in a 3 wide, 2 left, I formation with Evans. Evans and Dillon both stayed in to block. Miami was in a 3-4 and rushed both ILBs. Brady rolled right to buy a little time and threw on 4 mississippi. Caldwell was on a sideline comeback and made the low and away catch that protected the ball from the defender.

1st and 10: Dillon left side for 1 yd. Analysis: Again the swarming Dolphins forced Dillon outside, running sideways. Taylor beat Graham’s block inside and was picked up by Evans leading Dillon, this left no one to seal the edge and let him get upfield off tackle, instead he was stretched out and run out of bounds.

2nd and 9: Brady to Brown, loss of 1 yd. Analysis: Pats in a shotgun, 3 wide 2 right, TE upright flanked left look. They ran a Flanker screen to Brown in the right slot. Miami’s RDE read the play and fought through a nice blocking effort by Faulk to get out and box Troy between himself and the slot DB. Heads up, smart play by Miami.

Note: CBS shows a graphic on Miami’s defense and the categories they are in the top 10.

3rd and 10: Brady to Caldwell incomplete. Analysis: Pats in a shotgun, 4 wide look. Tommy threw on 3 mississippi with no one close yet, despite the delayed blitz that brought six rushers. His throw was low and inside to Caldwell who had a half step on the defender on a sideline fly - Will Allen was running behind him on his inside shoulder. Reche made a brave grab for the ball, diving enough for finger-tip contact, but Tommy might have done better to lob the ball over his outside shoulder with the defender on the inside. The TV shows the Safety was inside the hashmark and behind the play, so I put this on Tommy to have led Reche more. Cross’ color analysis claims the blitzing S made Brady throw early, though Neal had knocked the guy well outside Brady, leaving a clean pocket - so Brady had time to set and throw.

Note: Jason Taylor is shown working on a eye where Light apparently got a finger in - not that Taylor is any angel, the replay shows him grabbing and twisting Light’s face mask the same time Light is trying to get his hands up.

4th and 10: Walter 37 yd punt. Welker takes it at the 10 and scoots forward between the closing gunners - Willie Andrews working as right gunner makes a diving slap at Welker’s ankles, sending him stumbling forward to fall at the 21. Analysis: Walter put the ball in a good place to be downed inside the 20. Welker defeated that with the help of some good gunner blockers who slowed Andrews and Hobbs enough that he could catch the ball and get moving upfield before the gunners closed in. Miami Special Teams executed better than the Pats this time.

Assessment: Miami looked to be creating doubt in Tommy’s mind right from the start. He didn’t look sharp on this series, and he was forced to use his RB/5th read twice. He had adequate to good protection on passing plays. The Miami linebackers filled well on run plays. Taylor moving around created a hard read for Tommy.

Grades

OL B+ no missed assignments, they got a hat on a man, they just couldn’t reopen holes once the LBs had filled.
RB/FB A-blocking, A-receiving, C-running
TE C Taylor is a tough block, but he beat both TEs to make or force plays - and neither got open for a pass.
WR B- Brown and Caldwell got first downs, but people weren’t getting open. C-blocking.
QB B- Looking uncomfortable on the first series is not good.
OC B The plays looked appropriate for the down and distance.
Special Teams
KR Unit A
Punt Unit B The gunners needed to break free sooner and get down under the punt.

 

[pats1]

Reiss beat me to the formations and personnel counts - I collected the data but never calculated anything:

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/

December 12, 2006
Offensive groupings

The Patriots used seven positional groupings on Sunday against Miami. A look at what groupings they were in most:

3 WR/1 TE/1 RB -- 24 times
2 WR/2 TE/1 RB -- 20 times
2 WR/1 TE/1 FB/1 RB -- 7 times
1 WR/2 TE/1 FB/1 RB -- 2 times
3 WR/2 TE -- 2 times
3 TE/1 FB/1 RB -- 2 times

Posted By: mreiss | Time: 08:24:55 AM

December 11, 2006
Offensive participation

The following are the unofficial participation stats for skill-position offensive players (not including quarterbacks) in Sunday’s 21-0 loss to the Dolphins:

WR Reche Caldwell – 54 of 58 plays (93.1 percent)
WR Troy Brown – 51 of 58 (87.9 percent)
TE Daniel Graham – 47 of 58 (81.0 percent)
TE Benjamin Watson – 24 of 58 (41.3 percent)
RB Corey Dillon – 24 of 58 (41.3 percent)
RB Kevin Faulk – 21 of 58 (36.2 percent)
WR Jabar Gaffney – 20 of 58 (34.4 percent)
FB Heath Evans – 16 of 58 (27.5 percent)
TE David Thomas – 12 of 58 (20.6 percent)
WR Doug Gabriel – 10 of 58 (17.2 percent)
RB Patrick Pass – 6 of 58 (10.3 percent)
OL/TE Russ Hochstein – 2 of 58 (3.4 percent)
OL/TE Wesley Britt – 2 of 58 (3.4 percent)

ANALYSIS: Caldwell and Brown were the top receivers and combined for four catches, which is simply not enough production from receivers playing that many snaps. They were both struggling to get consistent separation from defensive backs. At running back, the majority of snaps were almost an even split between Corey Dillon and Kevin Faulk, a sign of how the Patriots weren’t asking Dillon to carry the full load. The Dillon-Faulk mix was one of the bright spots in the game.

Posted By: mreiss | Time: 08:06:21 AM

 

[pats1]

Albert Breer's 'Tale of the Tape:'

http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/patriots/?p=712

December 12th, 2006
Tale of the tape
Posted by Albert Breer at 7:10 pm

Here’s more from the Patriots’ 21-0 loss to Miami (and be sure to scroll down and check in on the release of WR Doug Gabriel):

– Clearly, the Patriots playing more 4-3 was a product of matchups, rather than managing their own personnel. Without Ronnie Brown, New England dared the Dolphins to run the ball and didn’t need the run-clogging 3-4 to stop Miami from doing so early on. On most first downs and obvious running situations — aside from very short yardage and goal-line — New England lined up in over and under fronts. In this look, DL Richard Seymour was used as a 3-technique tackle (lining up in the ‘B’ gap), while Vince Wilfork was playing some 1-technique (A-gap) and some 2-up on the guard. Meanwhile, the Patriots would have a linebacker, usually Rosevelt Colvin on the line, and Tedy Bruschi and Mike Vrabel in their normal inside spots. They also ran some even fronts with Vrabel and Colvin on the line at the edges and Bruschi in the middle. They used their nickel package quite a bit, and on a lot of second downs, with a four-man line and some 3-3 fronts mixed in.

– Seymour drew constant double teams in pass protection in the Warren Sapp-type 3-technique role. On Ty Warren’s sack, the impact of Seymour playing the position was crystal clear. Miami center Rex Hadnot slid to help on Seymour, freeing Wilfork and Warren to defeat single blocks. Wilfork did it first, bearing down on Joey Harrington and knocking him off the spot, allowing Warren come off the edge and finish the job.

– Let’s be clear here: This team is in trouble if Wilfork is out for any amount of time. There’s not another player on the roster who can play the nose and occupy blocks the way he can, whether he’s playing just off the center or on him. After Wilfork’s departure, Mike Wright played the majority of the snaps in his spot and the Dolphins running game really got going. That’s not Wright’s fault, by the way. He’s simply out of position there. What Wilfork’s absence would do is make it very, very tough for the team to play 3-4 anymore. The logical solution, in that case, would be to run more even fronts and, even then, it would be difficult to play two-gap defense and keep Vrabel and Bruschi clean. Or you could play Seymour on the nose, which the team seemed reluctant to do since it hardly puts him in the best spot to make an impact.

– One more thing on the defense: the Patriots seemed to play conservatively with their pressure. Playing mostly four-man fronts, the team rarely brought extra men or mixed much with who was coming, which is one of the handicaps of going away from the 3-4. The idea, it seemed, was to keep from giving Joey Harrington easy reads. Harrington, surprisingly enough, handled it pretty well, not forcing anything and playing a smart, efficient game.

– It’s not exactly a news flash that the Patriots’ pass protection wasn’t great. What you may be surprised by is that it didn’t really get that bad until the fourth quarter. That’s when the Dolphins started dialing up more exotic rush packages to throw Tom Brady off in the same manner that the Jets did. On a drive that started with 10:50 left, Brady seemed to misidentify where the rush was coming from on consecutive plays, forcing a pair of throwaways (maybe a product of Miami’s resourceful study of the Patriots’ protection calls.) On his next two throws, poor blitz pickup forced Brady to get rid of the ball too quickly and miss Gabriel deep and Kevin Faulk underneath. Then, came the crusher: Yeremiah Bell coming free through the middle for a strip-sack that finished off New England.

– That said, two more factors played a role in all this. First, the Dolphins sent a ton of pressure up the middle to force tackles Matt Light and Nick Kaczur (who still doesn’t look 100 percent recovered from his shoulder injury) into one-on-one matchups with outside rushers Jason Taylor, Matt Roth and Kevin Carter, which turned out to be big mismatches. Second, the Patriots’ receivers failure to get off the line and get open quick enough gave the rush time to get there. That forced the team, in a lot of cases, to send tight ends and backs out instead of keeping them in to block.

– Jason Taylor had a very, very good game. Let’s make that clear. But the Patriots certainly took advantage of him in the running game some. Taylor’s frenzied moves upfield opened lanes for Corey Dillon and Kevin Faulk to get to the second level on several occasions. The backs ripped off respective runs of 7 and 11 yards in the third quarter by running right by the aggresive hybrid end. Colvin, as you may know, has had similar problems.

– Two tough things to swallow: the careless fumble by Daniel Graham and the punting of Ken Walter. There’s no way Graham should’ve allowed Channing Crowder to punch that ball loose from behind and Walter’s lack of hang time and distance helped the Dolphins maintain a huge field-position edge for most of the game.

 

[pats1]

But here is some data I did collect:

Patriots' Offensive Play Breakdown:

Rushing: 25
Passing: 33
Total: 58

Dolphins' Defensive Formations Breakdown:

4-3 - 20 (34%)
4-2 - 15 (26%)
3-4 - 12 (21%)
4-1 - 7 (12%)
3-3 - 2 (3%)
3-2 - 1 (2%)
5-2 - 1 (2%)

-Their 3-4 set consisted of Taylor standing up, where he sometimes blitzed, but other times dropped back in coverage.

...

Also, out of the Patriots' 33 passing plays, the Dolphins blitzed (LB or DB) 19 times, or 58%.

The blitzes:

-1 ILB, 1 S ('Pentice')
-1 ILB ('Pentice')
-1 OLB (Thrice)
-1 CB (Thrice)
-2 ILBs (Twice)
-2 ILBs, 1 S (Once)

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

But here is some data I did collect:

Patriots' Offensive Play Breakdown:

Rushing: 25
Passing: 33
Total: 58

Dolphins' Defensive Formations Breakdown:

4-3 - 20 (34%)
4-2 - 15 (26%)
3-4 - 12 (21%)
4-1 - 7 (12%)
3-3 - 2 (3%)
3-2 - 1 (2%)
5-2 - 1 (2%)

-Their 3-4 set consisted of Taylor standing up, where he sometimes blitzed, but other times dropped back in coverage.

...

Also, out of the Patriots' 33 passing plays, the Dolphins blitzed (LB or DB) 18 times, or 55%.

Looking at this I'm back to my impression from the game that the Pats should have run more.

 

[mikiemo83]

thank you for this info, I didn't realize the depth to which you study these games - great job

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Digger44, PatsWickedPissah, turn on your PMs you introverted dinosaurs, send me a note when your up.

 

[The Gr8est]

Box, send me a PM too when your are able.