Left Handed Vulcan Chess, BB Style

[mayoclinic]

Two very good reads today, one from Jackie McMullan, the other from Greg Bedard:

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story...ill-belichick-new-england-patriots-old-tricks
http://mmqb.si.com/2015/01/19/nfl-afc-championship-new-england-patriots-bill-belichick-tom-brady/

Both have a common theme: how the versatility and complexity of the Pats on both sides of the ball creates tremendous challenges for opposing teams. Rob mentioned as well in his recent post-game thread:

I don't know if I have ever seen a team as versatile as this one. The coaching staff is able to morph this team on both sides of the ball to become whatever they need to be week to week. ... A majority of the teams in this league are what they are and do what they do best every week whether or not it is the best way to beat their opponent.

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england...d/threads/game-thoughts.1115257/#post-4075521

And not just week to week, but within a game, too. The Pats can go from jumbo power to up tempo to unbalanced or short lines, spread it out, use play action, use multiple TE sets ... the list goes on and on. In defense they can play out of any combination of base and sub mixing 3-4, 4-3 and 5-2 hybrid fronts in base and using a dizzying array of zone blitzes, psycho and semi-amoeboid formations, complex coverage schemes, pre- and post-snap adjustments.

All this complexity and versatility comes with a price: a very steep learning curve, and the potential for major mishaps and breakdowns in communication if everyone is not one the same page. But right now it seems like the team is reaping the benefits of a full season of hard work, and everyone is doing their job at a fairly high level. The results are staggering. Yesterday's game was as complete a beat down of a quality opponent as I can remember - and while the Colts fell far short of the media's projections, they are still clearly one of the better teams in the NFL.

As Bedard notes:

Belichick, and aide-de-camps Matt Patricia (defense) and Josh McDaniels (offense), were playing chess against the Colts’ checkers.

Not just chess, but 3-dimensional Vulcan chess, seemingly. And by throwing so many wrinkles and twists at opposing teams, making them play off balance and out of their comfort zone. McMullan used a slightly different analogy:

As Indy's veteran backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who has been around for much of the Belichick/Brady era, noted, "They make you beat them left-handed." One week New England's offense runs the ball a grand total of 13 times and Brady does not hand off the ball a single time in the second half. The next week, with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, the Patriots rush for 177 yards and hand the ball to LeGarrette Blount a playoff franchise-record 30 times.

The players seem well aware of how much confusion all of this versatility creates. Brandon LaFell noted:

"When we do all that stuff, with the ineligible receivers and all this, you see a lot of pointing and fussing," LaFell explained. "We're going so fast, they get confused. But at the end of the day we still have to go out and execute the play."

And Brandon Browner noted a similar situation on the defensive side:

Every team uses different looks and packages. Nobody else throws out the minutiae that the Patriots do. On one play Luck would look out and see a secondary of Revis, Brandon Browner, Kyle Arrington, McCourty and Patrick Chung. On the next the Patriots would trot out Revis, Malcolm Butler, Arrington, McCourty and Duron Harmon. Collins would drop into the hook zone, and then on the next play be at outside linebacker rushing the passer.

Who’s the best matchup? Where’s the rush coming from? Those are the questions that were input into the Luck supercomputer, and it was bound to overload, in the form of late interceptions by Revis and Collins.

"The game plan the coaches drew up enabled us to eliminate their big-threat receiver [T.Y. Hilton]," Browner said, "and also allowed us to mix it up with [Coby] Fleener. Sometimes we used a big guy like myself on him. Then we'd turn around and throw a guy with quickness like Malcolm Butler on him. We kept them off balance a bit.

"It’s very effective,” said Browner, who came from Seattle, where coverages and personnel don’t deviate much. “That’s why the score and outcome was the way it was. It’s a change-up. He’ll see one play or two plays and then he’ll have Malcolm Butler. That posed a challenge to those guys.”

The themes are all similar: off balance, change up, left-handed, chess vs. checkers. The Pats take other teams out of their comfort zone and make them adjust. And few have the personnel or coaching to do so effectively.

A year ago, the Seahawks dominated a record-setting Broncos offense in the Super Bowl by simplifying things so that they could play faster and more aggressively.

http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/story/...ks-walloped-denver-broncos-with-simple-scheme

I'm not sure that will work against the Patriots. The Pats do a superb job of causing other teams to play off balance, and take advantage of whatever is offered. It all depends on how well they execute, but right now I certainly get the sense that they are firing on all cylinders. It's a beautiful thing to behold.

 

[mayoclinic]

I think it will be extremely important for the Pats to try and make the Seahawks play "left handed" and keep them off balance. How they will try to achieve this will be one of the more interesting story lines for the game. The Seahawks have a great defense, but no team has really stressed them this season.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

I'm more interested in seeing them make the Seattle offense play left-handed. I think Seattle will have to get out of their shell zone and come-up to the line to defend the run and the short passing game. That puts the Pats in a bit of a left-handed situation, but as Bedard story implies of McMullan's analogy, the 2014 Pats are ambidextrous.

 

[mayoclinic]

I'm more interested in seeing them make the Seattle offense play left-handed.

I'm eager to see the All-22 analysis of the Colts game. The Pats played a much more aggressive pressure approach than they have in the past against mobile QBs like Luck and Rodgers. Darrelle Revis noted:

“I think somebody told me the stats right after the game on Andrew Luck. They weren’t that pretty good,” Darrelle Revis said. “We did a good job. We stuck with the game plan. The game plan was very unique and complex. The guys had a lot of jobs to do and guys stepped to it.”

http://www.providencejournal.com/sp...-game-patriots-d-took-it-to-another-level.ece

It will be interesting to see if they can take away the run and still get pressure on Russell Wilson. I think that they can definitely match up with the Seahawks' receivers.

 

[IllegalContact]

the seahawks have the lightest DL the pats will play or have played since the bears game.

I think the basics of the running game with the extra OL could be something that the seahawks could struggle with

as for the seahawks offense, the best answer is to work on defending broken plays. not sure how much changing up defenses would do with wilson since he appears to play with his eyes closed

 

[fourhour]

the seahawks have the lightest DL the pats will play or have played since the bears game.

I think the basics of the running game with the extra OL could be something that the seahawks could struggle with

as for the seahawks offense, the best answer is to work on defending broken plays. not sure how much changing up defenses would do with wilson since he appears to play with his eyes closed

Last week my buddy and I commented on Flacco doing that and then yesterday we both noticed that Wildon did it too!

 

[DarrylS]

Points to why you need "intelligent players" on the Patriots, and why many we have high hope for did not work out..

 

[ctpatsfan77]

OTOH, Jackie did get one thing badly wrong:

Last Saturday in a divisional-round win over Baltimore, the "trickery" revolved around ineligible receivers lined up in the backfield,

 

[The Gr8est]

Well I guess those us who felt Brady was becoming too dependent on just a couple of receivers can consider our concern has been adequately addressed.

 

[mayoclinic]

Points to why you need "intelligent players" on the Patriots, and why many we have high hope for did not work out..

It may also explain why we are seeing some delayed progress from players such as Tavon Wilson. Everyone progresses at a different rate, and the complexity of the Pats' system doesn't make it any easier for new guys to contribute out of the gate.

 

[BTTA]

I wonder if Carroll and his coaches will just say, "Hey, we are the champs, we are the better team, we are just going to crank it up a notch and play even faster than we have, and not give the Patriots a chance to execute." Strength against strength.

 

[BHSL2]

The Seahawks front 7, physically, isn't very big and I believe can be whammed and trapped

 

[mayoclinic]

I wonder if Carroll and his coaches will just say, "Hey, we are the champs, we are the better team, we are just going to crank it up a notch and play even faster than we have, and not give the Patriots a chance to execute." Strength against strength.

I'm sure Seattle believes that they are the better team, and I think there's a good chance they will indeed try to "crank it up a notch". It will be interesting to see which team can throw the other one of their game.

Personally, I think the Pats have better talent, depth and versatility than the Seahawks. The defense that we saw against Andrew Luck was every bit as dominant as any effort the Seahawks have put up, and against a top QB and scoring offense: 209 total yards, 126 passing yards, 12/33 passing with an average of 3.8 YPA, 2 INTs, 23 QB rating, 3/11 3rd down conversion, pressure on 47% of the pass attempts, and 0 2nd half points. Dominant.

Seattle's defense has been together much longer than the Pats', and they play a simpler system, so they have their team defense pretty much fine tuned. The Pats have taken most of the season to get everyone up to speed and on the same page, but I think they are just as good at this point. On offense, there's no comparison which team has more weapons and versatility.

It will come down to which team wants it more and executes better, but I think that the Seahawks could be surprised if they expect to win a straight up "strength against strength" contest.

 

[slash83]

Seattle's front 7 loves to attack, their front line is all about getting up-field especially their DE's. I think the screen game can be effective versus them.

 

[DarrylS]

It may also explain why we are seeing some delayed progress from players such as Tavon Wilson. Everyone progresses at a different rate, and the complexity of the Pats' system doesn't make it any easier for new guys to contribute out of the gate.

Darius Butler, Sergio Brown, James Inhedibo(sp), Brandon Meriweather to name a few had issues here but seem to have done ok elsewhere.. not going to be all pro, but seem servicable..

Maybe it is not the draft pick, but the inability to grasp this defense and offense...

 

[PScottman]

It will be interesting to see if they can take away the run and still get pressure on Russell Wilson.

It's likely to be frustrating early to fans as we see more zone looks to start to (hopefully) better contain Lynch and set the tone.

 

[PScottman]

I think the screen game can be effective versus them.

Too fast and smart. The days of screens being a large part of any offense are over. That deception (whoops, sorry) has been so well diagnosed (even the bubble screens) that at best they can be used sparingly as a change of pace, but not that often.

 

[ausbacker]

I'm eager to see the All-22 analysis of the Colts game. The Pats played a much more aggressive pressure approach than they have in the past against mobile QBs like Luck and Rodgers. Darrelle Revis noted:


http://www.providencejournal.com/sp...-game-patriots-d-took-it-to-another-level.ece

It will be interesting to see if they can take away the run and still get pressure on Russell Wilson. I think that they can definitely match up with the Seahawks' receivers.

If New England takes the run away from Seattle, I have a hard time seeing how Seattle gets within 2 scores of the Patriots. The problem is, Seattle's run game is so good teams compress the box to stop it leaving over the top throws for Wilson. Incidentally, long, accurate throws appear to be Wilson's passing strength. This is where our now elite secondary will prove their worth. Stop the run, play tight coverage and force Wilson to be accurate underneath. To me, that feels like a winning formula for the D.

On O, we have the cattle to do what Green Bay did to the Seattle D. A fully fit Rodgers shreds that D. That's not debatable. It really comes down to the performance of the OL. If they win against the Seattle front 7, the Pats O puts up 30+.

I'm really looking forward to this game. Both sides should feel good going into this game and whoever wins, it will be well deserved.

 

[mayoclinic]

Darius Butler, Sergio Brown, James Inhedibo(sp), Brandon Meriweather to name a few had issues here but seem to have done ok elsewhere.. not going to be all pro, but seem servicable..

Maybe it is not the draft pick, but the inability to grasp this defense and offense...

Some of that may be true. But the converse may also be true - without players with the skill set and ability to grasp a complicated scheme, BB has kept things more vanilla. Many have protested the vanilla defensive schemes and BBDB approach in the past, but I think that BB wasn't comfortable dialing things up until he got the right personnel in place.

This is another reason why I am so strong on re-signing the key FAs this off-season. It's not easy to learn the system, and guys like Ayers and Vereen are not easy to replace.

 

[patchick]

This is another reason why I am so strong on re-signing the key FAs this off-season. It's not easy to learn the system, and guys like Ayers and Vereen are not easy to replace.

It also fits with the way the Patriots have been willing to deliver big second contracts to young players who delivered on their first. A proven PATRIOTS player is worth a lot more than a comparable FA from another team. (I'd be shocked to see McCourty leave, for instance.)