December 19th, 2006
Tale of the Tape
Posted by
Albert Breer at 5:26 pm
Wrapping up the Patriots’ 40-7 win over the Texans Sunday:
– For the most part,
Mike Wright was OK on the nose, though the Patriots played an awful lot of nickel and he was far from
Vince Wilfork-level dominant. But one drive stuck out as an exception: The Texans’ only touchdown march of the day, at the outset of the second half. On the first play of the drive, Wright was sealed off by a combo block to the right, allowing
Ron Dayne a 13-yard run. Three plays after that, he was pushed 7 yards downfield on a 4-yard Dayne scamper. And on consecutive plays, preceding Dayne’s 1-yard touchdown, Wright was pancaked and driven to the ground on 10- and 3-yard runs by Dayne. Given that this wasn’t happening consistently the rest of the game (except for a second-quarter 19-yarder by Dayne that went right by him) and that Wright was in there for the first time as a starting nose tackle, the off series is excusable. But it does stand as another example of why the Patriots need Wilfork to go anywhere in the playoffs. There’s a good chance if Ellis Hobbs hadn’t returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown and put Houston down 34-7, the Texans would’ve kept picking on Wright, which they really neglected to do early in the game.
– Even with a woefully shallow secondary — one that has just one honest-to-God solid starter in
Dunta Robinson — the Texans dared the Patriots to throw. As the Dolphins, Colts and Jets have, Houston sent a safety,
Glenn Earl in most cases, crashing toward the line just before the snap on most early downs. Earl wound up with 11 tackles and the way the Texans employed him was a big part of an effort that held New England to 68 rushing yards on 28 carries (2.4-yards per carry) after the Patriots’ first two drives of the game (and excluding
Vinny Testaverde’s four kneeldowns.) The problem, as it has been all year, was an inability to make the Texans pay for moving the safety up the way they did.
– Part of this too was the way that the Texans played the Patriots receivers. It was a little different than what the Dolphins did. Houston played off the line a bit and was content to give up the short gainers, with an emphasis on getting the receiver to the ground quickly after those hitches, slip screens and slants. And that worked too: The Patriots’ long pass of the day, aside from the 43-yard screen to
Kevin Faulk, was a 12-yard screen to
Corey Dillon. Next was an 11-yard catch-and-run drag from
Tom Brady to
David Thomas.
– Speaking of the screens, the only real success New England had on them came early, with the 12-yard to Dillon on the first play from scrimmage and the 43-yarder to Faulk. But they did have an impact otherwise. On the Faulk touchdown, the Texans sent six rushers, with an overload to Brady’s right, which sprung Faulk all alone on the left. After that, the Texans sat back much more and, by our count, never rushed more than five defenders and didn’t dial up anything real exotic. And that, in turn, made pass protection an easier proposition, with no one on the Texan front four an even remotely fearsome presence.
– Give credit to
Heath Evans for becoming a key cog as a lead blocker, something that hasn’t always been his forte. On Faulk’s 11-yard touchdown run, Evans guided the scatback through the hole and crushed Houston star rookie MLB
DeMeco Ryans, in the process also cutting off S
Jason Simmons‘ path to the ball. And near the end of the second quarter, again in the red zone, Evans again cut loose a big run by sealing off Ryans, paving the way for a 5-yard jaunt by Dillon. The Patriots scored on Brady’s 6-yard strike to
Jabar Gaffney on the next play. What Evans emergence in this role does, too, is give the team more tight end/fullback flexibility, which is valuable with
Benjamin Watson banged up.
– DE
Richard Seymour was New England’s lone representative in today’s Pro Bowl selections and, while he may not be having his best year, he’s still deserving. And the reason why is as much for the plays where he doesn’t bring someone down as the ones where he does. Houston clearly targeted Seymour for double teams all game. In fact, his tip-and-pick came on one. And two more plays in such situations also really stand out. The first was Wright’s sack, where the nose was left unblocked and Seymour was occupying two linemen. Another was
Tully Banta-Cain’s second sack. That one came when the linebacker looped around Seymour to the inside, and the guard chose to help block on the defensive end, rather than get Banta-Cain, who came free for the sack.
– CB
Ellis Hobbs was simply outstanding against Houston. Something you may have missed on the kick return, when he was rocketing up the wedge, was a subtle move he threw at Simmons. It happened at about the 35 and froze Simmons just long enough for
Willie Andrews to come in and crush the Texans special teamer/DB to spring the touchdown jaunt. But maybe most impressive was the way that he stepped up to crack
Andre Johnson underneath twice and bring the Texans’ Pro Bowler down without giving him any extra yardage.
– It’s also worth noting that the Patriots mixed their fronts quite a bit, and spent a pretty substantial amount of time in 4-2 and 3-3 nickel looks. In the 3-3 look,
Ty Warren played the nose and did a very solid job when Houston ran at it. But the feeling here is that the Patriots would be very reluctant to put Warren there in the base defense and move him away from the position where he’s been so effective this year.
