What, concretely, can the Pats do to ensure that they don't lose again in the same fashion as they did in the Super Bowl? Do the Pats need to make personnel changes? Training changes? Practice changes?
The OL got creamed, Brady got creamed, and the coaches didn't make good adjustments.
I just feel that as of now nothing has changed that would stop what happened from happening again.
What needs to be changed?
It's pretty simple if you get down to it, We got beat in the passing game in the middle of the field. The two biggest plays were Boss over the middle for like 20+ yards and then Tyree, same deal (he rolled a seven on that one). I believe that Harrison was going to blitz and backed out at the last minute on the TE Boss catch. Where was old JS? On the biggest play in the game (the Third down, downer) I believe that Sanders was watching like the 120 million other people were.
The CB's of the Pats play outside technique. This leaves the Safeties and LB's to cover inside the hashes. In 06 we did not have Harrison so James Sanders and Hawkins got beat badly in the middle as well as sub LB Alexander. It didn't make any difference because Adai ran over Sanders anyway during the last fateful touchdown.
This year in the SB, Rodney was back but played in the box some. He did not play coverage that well in the SB either. Sanders needed to step up. James Sanders got killed again! He is terrible and I do not want to hear the words "up and coming" or "breakout year". This guy stinks.
Let me understand this. Correct me if I am wrong. A Safety should be able to tackle and at the least cover. A gimpy leg Tank Williams is a big upgrade over Sanders.
Here is the deal. The Pats biggest D weakness is up the middle the last two years. Yep they need a CB to replace Assante, but I am sure that is to be handled. I am more concerned with the middle back D. I think Merriweather will be o.k. if he gets married to a jugs gun this preseason. Rodney can be still a great player, but in a rotation and pick his spots.
More rush helps. It took 18 and a half games, but I saw A. Thomas getting decent QB pressure from the outside. That will help too.
That still leaves Mr. Sanders. Tank Williams? Who knows. I believe Safety is still an issue and Raiders SS Michael Huff is still available for the right deal. He's young and under contract. I would swap our #7 in round one for the Raiders second rounder and Michael Huff. He can cover. He's bigger than Sanders and could be a great tandem with Merriweather for years. Don't know about his CAP.
Secondly, offensively Neal got hurt in the first half. That is no excuse but Hochstein got creamed. Maroney became a ghost all game. The freakish Ben Watson......Watson....anybody, anybody Beuler? Watson? And if you can tell me why Kaczur was playing RT over O'Callaghan I want to know why. O'Callaghan stoned Strahan in game 17 without help mostly.
It seems to me sometimes that the Pats try to force feed their backups into big games like in 06 with Alexander and this years SB game with DT Moore and LB Woods (big play to lose that ball on the fumble) played in the SB rotation a bit this year. Why wait until the SB? Then they play favorites like Kaczur on a hunch.
People are saying we need a RT. Let's give Ryan O'Callaghan a longer shot and I think Kaczur should be playing guard. I can't see the drafting of a Clady being more ready to start over, say an O'Callaghan right now and Ryan is still young.
We need a quicker ILB. FA Al Wilson comes to mind and is healthy now and available. He has more tread left than Zach Thomas I believe.
How about a rotation DE/LB that can be had during the draft like Jason Taylor? That adds years to Taylors' career. The Tuna is just posturing. Would have liked to have Taylor pass rushing on that third down disaster.
We need a larger CB (HAVE WE LEARNED OUR MIDGET LESSON?) and a playmaking safety. Draft a Safety early or get Huff. Later rounds? I would take B.C. S Jamie Silva over Sanders in a minute. They are the same size and speed but the key word is "playmaker".
Of course giving our D line tazer guns to remove the massive and obvious grabbing and holding by the Giants OL would have helped too (SEE Sports Illustrated main SB pictorial showing a blatant hold for all the world to see on that fateful 3rd down)
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