Wilson, Harrison, and Sanders

[Seymour93]

These three played together basically the entire game. Sanders was the guy who usually was the FS while the other two lined up against Witten or WR's. I don't think Meriweather played a snap on D (if he did it was in garbage time).

I thought Seau and Harrison are showing their age a bit. Seau always seems to line up over the center, but it looks like he has a hard time shedding blocks. Harrison is still solid against the run, but in coverage, Witten, in particular, ran great routes and Harrison was finding it difficult to keep up.

Marcellus Rivers played quite a bit especially in power formations and around the red zone which is to be expected I guess. Wait... I just checked Reiss's blog and he said Watson suffered an injury so that could explain Rivers' expanded role (I didn't notice Watson was hurt).

 

[Joker]

horse collared by Roy Williams

 

[Fencer]

I guess BB is going to keep trying the Big Nickel until it works ...

 

[reflexblue]

These three played together basically the entire game. Sanders was the guy who usually was the FS while the other two lined up against Witten or WR's. I don't think Meriweather played a snap on D (if he did it was in garbage time).

I thought Seau and Harrison are showing their age a bit. Seau always seems to line up over the center, but it looks like he has a hard time shedding blocks. Harrison is still solid against the run, but in coverage, Witten, in particular, ran great routes and Harrison was finding it difficult to keep up.

Marcellus Rivers played quite a bit especially in power formations and around the red zone which is to be expected I guess. Wait... I just checked Reiss's blog and he said Watson suffered an injury so that could explain Rivers' expanded role (I didn't notice Watson was hurt).

I also noticed that harrison, and seau look slow yesterday. I think Harrisons still coming back and Seau just had a slow day if it can be called that. Watson sustained an ankle injury(looked like a sprain) while being tackled.He walked off at half time early with no noticable limp. So I don't think its that bad.

 

[sebman2112]

These three played together basically the entire game. Sanders was the guy who usually was the FS while the other two lined up against Witten or WR's. I don't think Meriweather played a snap on D (if he did it was in garbage time).

I thought Seau and Harrison are showing their age a bit. Seau always seems to line up over the center, but it looks like he has a hard time shedding blocks. Harrison is still solid against the run, but in coverage, Witten, in particular, ran great routes and Harrison was finding it difficult to keep up.

Marcellus Rivers played quite a bit especially in power formations and around the red zone which is to be expected I guess. Wait... I just checked Reiss's blog and he said Watson suffered an injury so that could explain Rivers' expanded role (I didn't notice Watson was hurt).

Meriweather got some time on D, not that much but he was in there. You didn't notice Watson was hurt either? Did you even watch the game? I'm just sayin'...

 

[Seymour93]

Meriweather got some time on D, not that much but he was in there. You didn't notice Watson was hurt either? Did you even watch the game? I'm just sayin'...

Meriweather was on the sideline, besides on ST, every time I looked. He seemed eager to play, but Sanders, Wilson, and Harrison were always out there. Posters were saying that Sanders gets benched when Harrison returns, but that just didn't happen in Texas Stadium.

Watson caught a pass in the the 1st qtr, and I noticed Rivers was in the game in the 2nd. I assume Watson got hurt late 1st, early 2nd???? EDIT: I remember the play now. Watson was close to the sidelines so it was hard to see, but yeah I remember. Didn't see the horse collar though. Sorry it's been a long day.

 

[nowayback]

wow..i cant believe we won the game

 

[Rob0729]

The weird thing about Meriweather is that he is listed on the depth chart as a back up to Ellis Hobbs AND as the third string SS behind Sanders and Harrison. I don't know if the Patriots are confident where Meriweather will end up fitting in. I don't think that is an encouraging sign.

The used a lot of three safety sets to allow Harrison to cover Witten one on one, but keep two safeties deept to not give up big plays.

 

[PatsFan#37]

wow..i cant believe we won the game

How can you not believe in this team?.....

 

[scout]

How do you keep track of the players coming into the game? Does the radio announce players coming in? I know the tv announcers almost never do, they mention a players name when he makes a tackle or if its a high profile player that comes in or goes out.

 

[Seymour93]

How do you keep track of the players coming into the game? Does the radio announce players coming in? I know the tv announcers almost never do, they mention a players name when he makes a tackle or if its a high profile player that comes in or goes out.

I was behind the Pats bench, around the 40 yard line.

 

[scout]

I was behind the Pats bench, around the 40 yard line.

Dang, you lucky SOB. Forgot you lived in Tx.

That must have been awesome.

 

[Seymour93]

Dang, you lucky SOB. Forgot you lived in Tx.

That must have been awesome.

It was. Especially at the end when all the Cowboys fans left and the Pats fans stayed and cheered the team.

 

[sebman2112]

It was. Especially at the end when all the Cowboys fans left and the Pats fans stayed and cheered the team.

Seemed there was a lot more Pats fans than I expected. When Donte cought that TD pass you could hear all of the Pats fans cheering and it seemed like a good number of fans.

The Cowboys got Keith Davis back from injury just in time for this game which helped their ST coverage units a lot.

I don't know if you could see it from the stands or not but on the Cowboys long KR Rodney Harrison took a text book block to the back that went uncalled.

As for Meriweather he did get in the game on defense and he's listed in the official game book as being a "substitution"

K 3 S.Gostkowski, P 6 C.Hanson, WR 10 J.Gaffney, WR 15
K.Washington, WR 18 D.Stallworth, CB 21 R.Gay, DB 23 W.Andrews,
DB 26 E.Wilson, DB 31 B.Meriweather, RB 33 K.Faulk, FB 38 K.Eckel,
RB 44 H.Evans, LB 52 E.Alexander, LB 53 L.Izzo, LB 55 J.Seau, LB 58
P.Woods, LS 66 L.Paxton, T 68 R.O'Callaghan, TE 82 M.Rivers, DL 90
L.Smith, DL 97 J.Green

He wasn't in for that many plays though.

 

[patchick]

The weird thing about Meriweather is that he is listed on the depth chart as a back up to Ellis Hobbs AND as the third string SS behind Sanders and Harrison. I don't know if the Patriots are confident where Meriweather will end up fitting in. I don't think that is an encouraging sign.

I wouldn't put too much stock into the online depth chart. I believe it's compiled by the Patriots.com staff, not the coaching staff, and I don't think it's updated regularly. As far as I can tell Meriweather practiced at CB in camp until Samuel arrived as a just-in-case measure, but was drafted to be -- and is -- a safety.

 

[Rob0729]

I wouldn't put too much stock into the online depth chart. I believe it's compiled by the Patriots.com staff, not the coaching staff, and I don't think it's updated regularly. As far as I can tell Meriweather practiced at CB in camp until Samuel arrived as a just-in-case measure, but was drafted to be -- and is -- a safety.

I am pretty sure that every team needs to put out an official depth chart and I think they need to update it every week. Granted, it doesn't preclude the Pats or any team to completely ignore the depth chart when substituting players.

The thing is that I am pretty sure that Meriweather started the season as a back up at FS. So far, Meriweather has seen the field mostly as a dimeback and, the few times he has seen safety reps, replacing Sanders.

 

[Rob0729]

A cavot the one on the Patriots page is not the official one. I think the one on ESPN.com is though and they have him at CB. But I could be wrong.

 

[patchick]

A cavot the one on the Patriots page is not the official one. I think the one on ESPN.com is though and they have him at CB. But I could be wrong.

Ah, ok. I think I was recalling seeing some real oddities on the Patriots.com chart in the past, but of course I could just be flat-out wrong!

Of course, realistically, there's no way Meriweather would start at CB over Gay whatever any depth chart says. Maybe the real take-away message isn't that the Patriots haven't settled on a role for Brandon but that the CB corps only runs 3 deep, not a pleasant thought.

 

[Seymour93]

As for Meriweather he did get in the game on defense and he's listed in the official game book as being a "substitution"

I'm not really trying to dump on Meriweather here, if that's how it's coming off as. He's a rookie and he has quality DB's all around him. If one of them gets injured Meriweather gets the call. It was striking to me to see three safeties play basically the entire game though. And Sanders was the FS. Fans in Foxboro may notice this all the time, but it was the first time I saw it because the TV doesn't usually show the defensive backfield.