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I'm going to try and stay away from the hot button topics and let the haters take apart our players in other threads....but I doubt I'll manage it since I'm starting this so late in the AM.
1 The broad issues
A. It is simply so much fun watching this offense run. Its important to remember that it will even be more efficient when Hernandez and Edelman return. If you noticed on several occasions on Sunday, Denver was able to completely shut down our receivers from both the spread and empty formations. That will be much more difficult to do when Hernandez returns.
B. I'm not worried a bit about the 4 sacks the Broncos recorded. 3 of them were literally concession sacks by Brady who turtled when he didn't have anyone open and his internal clock had reached 12. I know it looks bad as it was discussed in the "ghost" thread, but I think its just Brady saying, "I got nothing. Lets get on to the next play and not risk me turning it over in a strip sack." Denver has as good a pass rush as we are going to see the year both in quality and numbers, and I think we handled it well
C. When its 3rd and less than 5 I don't EVER want to be in an empty backfield. We now have such a great running presence, it is foolish NOT to have a running threat to challenge the defense on virtually every play. I don't care as much if we end up running it, but I think its a mistake to line up in an empty backfield and give the defense a free ride from defending the possibility of that run.....ESPECIALLY when we have shown how explosive the running game is with so many 10+ yd runs this season by so many different runners.
Play action makes it almost impossible for teams to cover our receivers well. IIRC most of those pass plays where Brady had no one to go to and was sacked occurred against the empty backfield.
D. We continue to be better than average against the run (currently 7th). Very surprising to me since we have 2 rather undersized DE's and are new to playing the 4-3 alignment. Jones and Ninko are doing outstanding work setting the edge and the DTs and LB are just shutting people down. I'm thinking that the relative failure in Baltimore was a combination of too many guesses by Spikes and an overall poor game by Hightower.
The fact we were "good enough" against the run vs Denver was impressive without Hightower there. We are still thin at LB and can't afford any long term injuries to any of the "SEC LBs" I miss Dane Fletcher. Hightower gives us a level of physicality and athleticism that turns 4 yd gains into 2 yders. Given that Seattle relies on the run with that rookie QB it will be a big help if he's back.
E. As a whole the defense is just so much better than last season. Its not great by any means, but if you can't see the improvement then your only purpose here is to complain. Manning is a big time QB and Thomas is a big time WR and he's going to get his yards, but it wasn't until it was 31-7 and almost the 4th quarter before he put up half close to half his yards and most of his points.
We also didn't have Hightower or Gregory this week. I know he is one of those that the clique want to completely dismiss, but if he'd been the guy on Thomas along with Moore instead of Chung, I suspect the results would have been much better. Don't forget that it was Gregory who was the guy doubling Fitzgerald most of the time vs AZ. If Gregory had played Chung's night would have gone better too since he'd have played much more in the box rather than in space. Instead Wilson played the box safety for the most part
F. No one defends McCourty more than I do, but he HAS to get his head around more often than he does. There is really no excuse for it. Its so frustrating because when he does it, he seems to be in position to make a play on the ball all the time. Its to the point where I'd rather see him lose his man a bit looking back for the ball and recover than just blindly run into him
He doesn't deserve nearly the invective he gets on this board, but he's not without fault either. I think that single technique is all that is keeping him from being a true #1 CB. He has always been one of the better run support CBs in the league. He has vastly improved his man to man skills since last year. Even when he doesn't look for the ball, he's in close proximity. He's also improved his jam off the LOS. All he needs to do now is to learn when to turn to find the ball. He does it some of the time. He just needs to do it more.
Don't forget that he came to the Pats playing strictly zone at Rutgers and then played mostly zone his first season where he saw most of his success. Now he is being asked to play more man. Last season he didn't do it well at all. This season its better, but still a work in progress
G. Serling Moore can't cover people one on one and shouldn't be on the field in any man to man situations. Fortunately Dennard looks like he CAN cover one on one and will hopefully take some his snaps in those coverages. God is Dennard short. His build reminds me of Bob Sanders the former Colts great Safety who had such brilliant yet injury plagued career
H - I still hope Dowling can resurrect his career, either by getting healthy or getting better. I'm not sure why he isn't seeing the field. Every now and then I notice him on the field, and he doesn't look bad. Having a CB his size would be a big help against teams with big WR's He needs to get better.
I - I was shocked when the DC dialed up that biltz that led to the Pats first sack, and equally shocked when it wasn't used again until the 4th quarter. I'd settle for a overload FAKE blitz once in a while, if Matt isn't going to actually call one. I'd wouldn't mind seeing the DLmen cross or use an up and under combo move, just to test the OL's we play SOMETHING, but a straight 3 or 4 man rush.
J - Chandler Jones is the most impactful Patriots defensive lineman since Richard Seymour. I still can't get over how good he is against the run. He would have had at least 2 more sacks if the Denver OT's hadn't been allowed to just tackle him several times without penalty.
He isn't JJ Watt impactful, but give him a year to get stronger and more knowledgeable and it wouldn't shock me if he becomes that good. BTW - Watt is clearly the most disruptful DLman in the league. It will be very interesting to see how BB tries to defend him.
If I had one criticism of him, its that sometimes he's not entirely set when the ball is snapped and loses a fraction of a second. Its kind of a pet peeve of mine. I think most DLmen can learn to get off the snap more quickly It was perhaps greatest asset as a 200 lb NT in college, and by an large its a learned skill needing only practice, preparation and concentration to get very good at it.
It would make him that much more difficult to block. If you watch JJ Watt tonight you would see he's a rocket off the snap. Usually the first defensive guy to move on the snap.
L - Interesting that the Pats let Dan Koppen off the hook for the most part leaving him uncovered for most of the game, where I thought he did very well.(as he usually does when left uncovered) I remember one play where the Pats had Ron Brace head up on him. Ironically he knocked so deep into the backfield he created a small seam where the RB got about 7 yds. If he'd had just controlled him on the LOS he'd have stopped it dead.
M - I think people's blood pressures would be a lot lower if we concentrated to looking for the defense to keep improving rather than expecting it to be something great right out of the box. Still a lot of moving parts that aren't close to being finished products. We are very far from the "survival mode" the defense and especially the secondary was in most of last season.
N. Forget about Chandler Jones, who would have thought that Brandon Cunningham would be the player that would make me feel OK about Andre Carter not being back with the Pats. (even though I think his maturity alone would bave been a benefit for this overly young group) However I would like to start seeing Scott and Bequette force Patricia to give them some snaps. I'm not sure I'm very comfortable having Jones and Ninko taking so many of the snaps. I don't want Jones hitting that rookie wall
THE SEATTLE GAME -
A. Playing in Seattle is no joke. Its the best home field advantage in the league.
B. It will definitely hamper our speed offense. It will be interesting to see how Josh will form this week's offense plan since he will not only have to create player the match ups, he will have to figure in the communications issues that field creates.
That ability to have clear communications to run the speed offense as its maximum efficiency definitely adds to the home field at Gillette and makes getting home field advantage even more important this year.
C. Right now Seattle has the best D in the league, so we have one of those immovable object hitting that irresistible force, as the Pats are the top offense. Again not a good week to meet Seattle on the road, especially since I still doubt we see Hernandez this week.
D. IIRC Seattle is another team that has more than its share of big CBs which seems to be a problem for the Pats. I think this will be a good week for Daniel Fells to make an impact on the offense
This will likely end up being a very close game, which even if we win, won't be good enough for the professional complainers around here. A game where we can win by 10 and still get bashed for giving up too many yards or not gaining enough.
OK, I think that's enough to get you through your coffee and bagel this morning. Enjoy
1 The broad issues
A. It is simply so much fun watching this offense run. Its important to remember that it will even be more efficient when Hernandez and Edelman return. If you noticed on several occasions on Sunday, Denver was able to completely shut down our receivers from both the spread and empty formations. That will be much more difficult to do when Hernandez returns.
B. I'm not worried a bit about the 4 sacks the Broncos recorded. 3 of them were literally concession sacks by Brady who turtled when he didn't have anyone open and his internal clock had reached 12. I know it looks bad as it was discussed in the "ghost" thread, but I think its just Brady saying, "I got nothing. Lets get on to the next play and not risk me turning it over in a strip sack." Denver has as good a pass rush as we are going to see the year both in quality and numbers, and I think we handled it well
C. When its 3rd and less than 5 I don't EVER want to be in an empty backfield. We now have such a great running presence, it is foolish NOT to have a running threat to challenge the defense on virtually every play. I don't care as much if we end up running it, but I think its a mistake to line up in an empty backfield and give the defense a free ride from defending the possibility of that run.....ESPECIALLY when we have shown how explosive the running game is with so many 10+ yd runs this season by so many different runners.
Play action makes it almost impossible for teams to cover our receivers well. IIRC most of those pass plays where Brady had no one to go to and was sacked occurred against the empty backfield.
D. We continue to be better than average against the run (currently 7th). Very surprising to me since we have 2 rather undersized DE's and are new to playing the 4-3 alignment. Jones and Ninko are doing outstanding work setting the edge and the DTs and LB are just shutting people down. I'm thinking that the relative failure in Baltimore was a combination of too many guesses by Spikes and an overall poor game by Hightower.
The fact we were "good enough" against the run vs Denver was impressive without Hightower there. We are still thin at LB and can't afford any long term injuries to any of the "SEC LBs" I miss Dane Fletcher. Hightower gives us a level of physicality and athleticism that turns 4 yd gains into 2 yders. Given that Seattle relies on the run with that rookie QB it will be a big help if he's back.
E. As a whole the defense is just so much better than last season. Its not great by any means, but if you can't see the improvement then your only purpose here is to complain. Manning is a big time QB and Thomas is a big time WR and he's going to get his yards, but it wasn't until it was 31-7 and almost the 4th quarter before he put up half close to half his yards and most of his points.
We also didn't have Hightower or Gregory this week. I know he is one of those that the clique want to completely dismiss, but if he'd been the guy on Thomas along with Moore instead of Chung, I suspect the results would have been much better. Don't forget that it was Gregory who was the guy doubling Fitzgerald most of the time vs AZ. If Gregory had played Chung's night would have gone better too since he'd have played much more in the box rather than in space. Instead Wilson played the box safety for the most part
F. No one defends McCourty more than I do, but he HAS to get his head around more often than he does. There is really no excuse for it. Its so frustrating because when he does it, he seems to be in position to make a play on the ball all the time. Its to the point where I'd rather see him lose his man a bit looking back for the ball and recover than just blindly run into him
He doesn't deserve nearly the invective he gets on this board, but he's not without fault either. I think that single technique is all that is keeping him from being a true #1 CB. He has always been one of the better run support CBs in the league. He has vastly improved his man to man skills since last year. Even when he doesn't look for the ball, he's in close proximity. He's also improved his jam off the LOS. All he needs to do now is to learn when to turn to find the ball. He does it some of the time. He just needs to do it more.
Don't forget that he came to the Pats playing strictly zone at Rutgers and then played mostly zone his first season where he saw most of his success. Now he is being asked to play more man. Last season he didn't do it well at all. This season its better, but still a work in progress
G. Serling Moore can't cover people one on one and shouldn't be on the field in any man to man situations. Fortunately Dennard looks like he CAN cover one on one and will hopefully take some his snaps in those coverages. God is Dennard short. His build reminds me of Bob Sanders the former Colts great Safety who had such brilliant yet injury plagued career
H - I still hope Dowling can resurrect his career, either by getting healthy or getting better. I'm not sure why he isn't seeing the field. Every now and then I notice him on the field, and he doesn't look bad. Having a CB his size would be a big help against teams with big WR's He needs to get better.
I - I was shocked when the DC dialed up that biltz that led to the Pats first sack, and equally shocked when it wasn't used again until the 4th quarter. I'd settle for a overload FAKE blitz once in a while, if Matt isn't going to actually call one. I'd wouldn't mind seeing the DLmen cross or use an up and under combo move, just to test the OL's we play SOMETHING, but a straight 3 or 4 man rush.
J - Chandler Jones is the most impactful Patriots defensive lineman since Richard Seymour. I still can't get over how good he is against the run. He would have had at least 2 more sacks if the Denver OT's hadn't been allowed to just tackle him several times without penalty.
He isn't JJ Watt impactful, but give him a year to get stronger and more knowledgeable and it wouldn't shock me if he becomes that good. BTW - Watt is clearly the most disruptful DLman in the league. It will be very interesting to see how BB tries to defend him.
If I had one criticism of him, its that sometimes he's not entirely set when the ball is snapped and loses a fraction of a second. Its kind of a pet peeve of mine. I think most DLmen can learn to get off the snap more quickly It was perhaps greatest asset as a 200 lb NT in college, and by an large its a learned skill needing only practice, preparation and concentration to get very good at it.
It would make him that much more difficult to block. If you watch JJ Watt tonight you would see he's a rocket off the snap. Usually the first defensive guy to move on the snap.
L - Interesting that the Pats let Dan Koppen off the hook for the most part leaving him uncovered for most of the game, where I thought he did very well.(as he usually does when left uncovered) I remember one play where the Pats had Ron Brace head up on him. Ironically he knocked so deep into the backfield he created a small seam where the RB got about 7 yds. If he'd had just controlled him on the LOS he'd have stopped it dead.
M - I think people's blood pressures would be a lot lower if we concentrated to looking for the defense to keep improving rather than expecting it to be something great right out of the box. Still a lot of moving parts that aren't close to being finished products. We are very far from the "survival mode" the defense and especially the secondary was in most of last season.
N. Forget about Chandler Jones, who would have thought that Brandon Cunningham would be the player that would make me feel OK about Andre Carter not being back with the Pats. (even though I think his maturity alone would bave been a benefit for this overly young group) However I would like to start seeing Scott and Bequette force Patricia to give them some snaps. I'm not sure I'm very comfortable having Jones and Ninko taking so many of the snaps. I don't want Jones hitting that rookie wall
THE SEATTLE GAME -
A. Playing in Seattle is no joke. Its the best home field advantage in the league.
B. It will definitely hamper our speed offense. It will be interesting to see how Josh will form this week's offense plan since he will not only have to create player the match ups, he will have to figure in the communications issues that field creates.
That ability to have clear communications to run the speed offense as its maximum efficiency definitely adds to the home field at Gillette and makes getting home field advantage even more important this year.
C. Right now Seattle has the best D in the league, so we have one of those immovable object hitting that irresistible force, as the Pats are the top offense. Again not a good week to meet Seattle on the road, especially since I still doubt we see Hernandez this week.
D. IIRC Seattle is another team that has more than its share of big CBs which seems to be a problem for the Pats. I think this will be a good week for Daniel Fells to make an impact on the offense
This will likely end up being a very close game, which even if we win, won't be good enough for the professional complainers around here. A game where we can win by 10 and still get bashed for giving up too many yards or not gaining enough.
OK, I think that's enough to get you through your coffee and bagel this morning. Enjoy
