Why can't this offense be as explosive as 2007?

Three things stopped the 2009 offense from being as consistently explosive as it was 2 years prior: an inexperienced offensive coordinator, health of its big 3 (Brady, Moss, Welker) and a lack of weapons.

The OC now has a year and the upcoming offseason under his belt. We added Holt, Price, Tate, Hernandez, Gronk and Crumpler. Welker will hopefully be back to 100% sometime during the season.

If Brady and Moss stay healthy, then what's stopping this team from putting up 35 points a game again? Nothing.

Stop being such a homeristic optimist.. I mean.. really


*LOL*

J/K....I think it will be explosive..

I see a couple things that could stand in the way...
1) Health of Neal/ lack of competent back-ups.
2) Mankins Contract status.


If those two come in and play well, then things should be good.. Otherwise, the Pats are going to have a hard time.

BradyManny said:

Three things stopped the 2009 offense from being as consistently explosive as it was 2 years prior: an inexperienced offensive coordinator, health of its big 3 (Brady, Moss, Welker) and a lack of weapons.

The OC now has a year and the upcoming offseason under his belt. We added Holt, Price, Tate, Hernandez, Gronk and Crumpler. Welker will hopefully be back to 100% sometime during the season.

If Brady and Moss stay healthy, then what's stopping this team from putting up 35 points a game again? Nothing.

Click to expand...

I think with a little health there is no reason that offense cant be one of if not the best in the game this year. I would caution in comparing to 07 because those numbers were just ridiculous and to expect that is asking alot but I do think this offense could be almost as hard to handle even if doesn't put up numbers that come close.

Using 07 as a slate you are minus a few years on Moss, plus a Serious injury to Welker, minus the guys that rounded out the passing attack, and minus some years on the RBs. You have potential for more from the TE, you have potential for a better o-line though some would need to remian healthy and those some are only older now, you have an added back although he is 30something, and you do have plenty of options to replace the guys rounded out the passing attack.

To me when you do all the math you are left with potentially a similar skill level but can they put up the same numbers. And I say even if/when they don't they likely will be close to as tough to defend.

The Randy Moss of 2010 is not the Randy Moss of 2007.

That's not his fault...father time spares no one. Speed, strength, flexibility, leaping ability, capability to ignore "minor" injuries... all that leaves, gradually.

I just want a BALANCED offense this year.

Brady has commented on what made 2007 almost an anomaly offensively.

Many elements of the spread offense implemented that year had not really been seen before in the NFL, especially not with those skill players performing in the prime of their careers (Brady, Moss, Welker, Gaffney, Stallworth (for the first half anyway).

I don't want to say there is a 'blueprint' to stop that offense, but the scheme requires execution to be at an incredibly high level, and if it's not, you'll be faced with a high percentage of long down and distances (like we saw this past season).

You also need to be able to force teams to respect the spread to be able to run the ball consistently. When the execution comes down a notch, teams can more easily focus on shutting down the run game, and those quick passes and easy conversions become a lot harder to get done.

Like Brady said in an interview, 2007 was special for more than a few reasons, and it is ridiculous for fans to expect the team to 'return' to that style of play in the future. The rest of the league knows how to defend it better. The players are older. The coach who essentially created it and understood how to keep changing it is now with a different team.

Well said.

tobias funke said:

Brady has commented on what made 2007 almost an anomaly offensively.

Many elements of the spread offense implemented that year had not really been seen before in the NFL, especially not with those skill players performing in the prime of their careers (Brady, Moss, Welker, Gaffney, Stallworth (for the first half anyway).

I don't want to say there is a 'blueprint' to stop that offense, but the scheme requires execution to be at an incredibly high level, and if it's not, you'll be faced with a high percentage of long down and distances (like we saw this past season).

You also need to be able to force teams to respect the spread to be able to run the ball consistently. When the execution comes down a notch, teams can more easily focus on shutting down the run game, and those quick passes and easy conversions become a lot harder to get done.

Like Brady said in an interview, 2007 was special for more than a few reasons, and it is ridiculous for fans to expect the team to 'return' to that style of play in the future. The rest of the league knows how to defend it better. The players are older. The coach who essentially created it and understood how to keep changing it is now with a different team.

Click to expand...

Brady can't be explosive when he's on his back. As DaBruinz mentioned, the health of the offensive line will be the most important thing this season. I hope Mankins' contract sorts itself out and I'm praying for a Stephen Neal 16 game season.

Because I said so

because a blitzing defense has proven a fairly effective weapon against it.

I believe the 2 TE offense of years past would also be more effective at keeping the defense off the field for longer periods.

the TE's need to be more involved so the offense can be more physical

As was said before, Moss is probably not the same player he was in 2007, even when healthy.

That offensive line, save for the Super Bowl, was also pretty solid throughout the year.

I'm not really concerned with the offense being explosive. I want the offense to be EFFICIENT. I want to see us avoiding 3rd downs, unless they are 3rd and short. I want to see drives that wear down the defense, rather than striking quickly. Ball control (which does not necessarily mean running the ball, just controlling the tempo), low turnovers, and field position.

If we have that, it will help our defense a great deal.

DaBruinz said:

Stop being such a homeristic optimist.. I mean.. really


*LOL*

J/K....I think it will be explosive..

I see a couple things that could stand in the way...
1) Health of Neal/ lack of competent back-ups.
2) Mankins Contract status.


If those two come in and play well, then things should be good.. Otherwise, the Pats are going to have a hard time.

Click to expand...

i think bill o'brien's inxperience or incompetence (whichever way you wan to look at it) will be an even bigger problem. he needs to make the offense less predictable as that was a big reason why we lost to teams we should have beaten last year.

TommyBrady12 said:

i think bill o'brien's inxperience or incompetence (whichever way you wan to look at it) will be an even bigger problem. he needs to make the offense less predictable as that was a big reason why we lost to teams we should have beaten last year.

Click to expand...

Our offense was explosive last year, we relied on the big play. We could get 60 yard TD passes. What we couldn't do was complete on short distance downs. And that's what I want to see.

Why can't ________ offense be as explosive as the best ever? Because it isnt.

TommyBrady12 said:

i think bill o'brien's inxperience or incompetence (whichever way you wan to look at it) will be an even bigger problem. he needs to make the offense less predictable as that was a big reason why we lost to teams we should have beaten last year.

Click to expand...

This

Last year our playcalling stank. ShotGun-Throw to Wes, Shotgun-Throw to Wes, Shotgun-Draw to Faulk. Repeat for the entire second half

Whether it was a personnel thing, an O'Brien/Brady thing or what we need much more variety as teams knew what was coming. We ran that draw play so often Baltimore even knew the signals

We need to do the following

• Use Moss more creatively and get him in the game
• Use the running game more and get better OL run blocking
• Use RB's in the passing game, esp Maroney and Morris as well as Faulk
• Get the new TE's involved
• Get Brady under center more often
• Hope Wes is fit soon and that Tate, Holt and Price are a big step up at #3 and #4 (assuming Edelman is #2 start of the season)

Simple answer? Wes being injured/gone is why we can't be as explosive as 2007.

I'd much rather win the last game of the season by one point.

It's funny, just yesterday I was watching an NFL network replay of our home game last year against the Dolphins. Not a great game, but we were driving down the field the whole game almost without effort. Playcalling-wise it was basically spread offense/shotgun the whole way and no apologies about it, and it was working pretty easily.

The problems; they kept getting bogged down in the red zone, and Sam Aiken was usually the uncovered guy. I was thinking to myself, "If Brady wasn't throwing to special-teamers, and was just a little sharper, this would be the same offense as 2007."

It seems to me this offense, by the end of the year, could be right up there with 2007 -- maybe not quite as prolific (some luck went into all those TDs instead of field goals), but just as dangerous. I'm especially excited about the young tight ends because that potentially addresses a big problem they had last year -- they just weren't getting over the hump inside the 20. One play in particular from the Dolphins game caught my eye; a third down inside the 20 where Green-Ellis was lined up in the backfield split wide like an H-back and sprinted out to the end zone wide open, where he dropped a diving catch. Result: 3 points instead of seven.

You put a big pass-catcher like Hernandez in that formation and a) you've got a better blocker if it's a blitz and b) he's less likely to drop that ball. And from what I've seen of Hernandez, he's probably just as dangerous as a back on a swing pass.

I'd feel even more confident if they had upgraded at running back, but adding those two tight ends, plus a great hands guy in Holt, makes me feel a lot better about the red zone. Between the 20s, they may have some new issues while they wait for Welker to get back. But once he does, if they fix that red zone problem, they should be much improved I think.

As you pointed out, One the key factors is health. Another issue is the contract situation of Mankins. Please post again when Neal, Mankins, Welker are all back and playing at 100%.

Many here may believe that Mankins will be playing at 100% with no training camp reps and no preseason. I don't believe that this is possible. I think we need to extend him or sign him to a one-year deal as we did for Samuel. I don't think Mankins will sit out of the season, but he won't be 100%. He might even sit out a game or two of he isn't signed.

===========================
Personally, I do believe the OL can be as good as in 2007. We have added Vollmer and expect to have blocking tight ends.

BradyManny said:

Three things stopped the 2009 offense from being as consistently explosive as it was 2 years prior: an inexperienced offensive coordinator, health of its big 3 (Brady, Moss, Welker) and a lack of weapons.

The OC now has a year and the upcoming offseason under his belt. We added Holt, Price, Tate, Hernandez, Gronk and Crumpler. Welker will hopefully be back to 100% sometime during the season.

If Brady and Moss stay healthy, then what's stopping this team from putting up 35 points a game again? Nothing.

Click to expand...

While Bill O'Brien was a problem, a bigger problem last year was Brady's propensity to audible. And it cost them on numerous occasions.. One of the biggest was when LeVoir was sent on as a eligible receiver to block in a running formation, Brady audibled out of it, LeVoir didn't hear it and LeVoir got called on a penalty..

That stemmed from Brady not having confidence in O'Brien.. We can only hope that there is more confidence in the play calling.

As for being predictable. How can a formation, where there are literally hundreds of different possibilities in terms of the route running, be predictable?

Were there parts that were predictable? Yes.. Like running the ball with Maroney 90% of the time he was on the field.. But, that's not a bad thing.. As long as they mix in the Play-action with it.. Which they didn't do a lot of.. Because they never stuck with the run enough..