PP's Rich Hill claims Bills used Brady's protection calls against him

[Uncle Rico]

I heard it right away and also heard Gruden say that it would be a run to the right.

Makes sense.

Remember when Brady called "LINDA" at the LOS a year or two ago? My guess is he has license to call out an "L" name or an "R" name if the play is switching from left to right, or vice versa. So "Rex Ryan" and "Linda" are probably not in the playbook, but byproducts of Brady's improv skills.

 

[PP2]

Rich Hill goes into a little more details here, but still not clear enough what he means by his tweet:

Week 11 Patriots vs Bills: Poor Communication Leads to Offensive Line Struggles Against Buffalo

 

[Betterthanmost]

Rich Hill goes into a little more details here, but still not clear enough what he means by his tweet:

Week 11 Patriots vs Bills: Poor Communication Leads to Offensive Line Struggles Against Buffalo

PP2, you are too smart and maybe overthinking this, there is something I have always wondered about the Ravens and how they use to confuse Brady and I think Rex's hex over Brady is all about using Brady's pre snap identification against him. They all come and line up at the LOS. When Brady points people out, these guys fake like they are rushing and then drop into coverage. Different players rush and Brady kills the play shortly after. They don't have to know any special code. They just wait and listen to the numbers he calls.
That simple and the rest is communication and swaps with LBs and safeties.
It is that simple.
Edit: I think even Ray Lewis said this pregame without actually giving out the small secret. He said it was all about the communication. Guys knowing each other roles. Lewis is good at football but having Ed Reed help them tremendously. It will behoove Brady to stop guessing against Rex's defense and just play like how QBs like Bortles handles them. Let the OL block who ever is rushing instead of telling them to watch out for people who are not rushing in the first place and confusing them. I must add that the OL lost some one on one battles to add to Brady's frustration. They basically use Brady's smarts against him. The ultimate "Give him a pre snap look and change it up". Playing against a defense that is amoebic is always difficult if you are intelligent. I will say just hacking it can get you better results.

 

[BradyFTW!]

It sounds like he's implying the Bills deciphered what Brady's protection calls are, and would adjust who blitzed based on who he called out? It's possible, especially since it wouldn't surprise me if the calls had to be simplified due to all the flux on the O-Line.

Yeah, that's my take too. Hill is presumably saying that the Bills knew Brady's protection calls, and were responding to them by blitzing from wherever at play's protection call would yield an unblocked rusher.

If that is indeed the case, then I can only imagine how nuts people would go if the Pats were revealed to be doing the same thing to another team. But since we're not a bunch of crybaby losers here, I think we can agree that if so it's on the Pats to do a better job switching up their protection calls and making them more difficult to decipher. Although I do understand that there were likely some limitations there due to the inexperience and general fluidity of the line as a whole.

 

[Deus Irae]

Rich Hill goes into a little more details here, but still not clear enough what he means by his tweet:

Week 11 Patriots vs Bills: Poor Communication Leads to Offensive Line Struggles Against Buffalo

Rich is guessing, which means that he might just as well be posting that in this thread.

 

[supafly]

The way I interpret it is that when Brady calls out 53 is the Mike it sets a certain protection and blocking scheme. The defense has to have some idea how the offensive line is going to adapt based on this due to film study coupled with the broadcast audio. So what if the defense is predicated upon Brady's calls? If Brady calls 53 is the Mike the defense switches from one scheme but if 55 is called another. Later in the game I heard Brady say 53 and 55 are the Mike and another time I thought I heard him say 53 is the Mike and 55 is the Will. I couldn't remember Brady doing this in the past and I had wondered during the game if they picked up on Buffalo shifting upon their line calls and this was how they dealt with it on the fly.

First off if true credit Rex for coming up with it. I had actually wondered if teams did this for a long time and if not why the hell hadn't somebody thought of it. Second if the Pats picked up on it that fast it probably did mean somebody has tried this in the past but if not that just lends to the legend of TB/BB/JM for so quickly coming up with a countermeasure. Likely the Patriots themselves have employed similar especially against very predictive foes.

At one point I heard him call out the protections for THREE different positions. It wasn't just Mike, Will, and Sam though. I'm pretty sure I heard "Jack" on at least one or two plays.

Any way you look at it, I give credit to both teams for being involved in this chess match. I know that some here don't take Ryan seriously for obvious reasons, and I don't think he's a good "overall" coach. I do think that he's one of the better defensive minds in the NFL though. I respect him in that manner, as much as I dislike him.

 

[supafly]

Rich is guessing, which means that he might just as well be posting that in this thread.

I hate to be a ****, but I don't really find Rich Hill's analysis all that helpful--in general. I realize that sounds a bit arrogant, but I'm just being honest.

 

[supafly]

I intend to go broke betting that KC immolates the turd party from Barfalo.

There's an old rule to sports betting involving a losing MNF team who then has to go on the road again on a shortened week.

Although you don't see it very often, it has shown that the team losing on MNF rarely wins in an away situation the following week. It's been awhile since Ive seen the overall record, but last I checked it was under 20%.

This is strictly straight up without the spread, but it's still a fairly accurate predictor, historically speaking. As always, I'm not meaning to steer anyone, just pointing out a trend since you mentioned it.

 

[PP2]

Rich is guessing, which means that he might just as well be posting that in this thread.

I hate to be a ****, but I don't really find Rich Hill's analysis all that helpful--in general. I realize that sounds a bit arrogant, but I'm just being honest.

That's what I'm leaning towards, but wasn't sure if I had missed something with his claim.

The working theory that I have right now is that it simply was just a high speed, high level game of chess between Brady and Rex, and the weakest point was the OL, which just couldn't keep up with all the tweaks and adjustments.

 

[PatsDeb]

But, but, but... that would be cheating!!!

 

[Triumph]

There's an old rule to sports betting involving a losing MNF team who then has to go on the road again on a shortened week.

Although you don't see it very often, it has shown that the team losing on MNF rarely wins in an away situation the following week. It's been awhile since Ive seen the overall record, but last I checked it was under 20%.

This is strictly straight up without the spread, but it's still a fairly accurate predictor, historically speaking. As always, I'm not meaning to steer anyone, just pointing out a trend since you mentioned it.

Put your money on KC.