in short: a lack of attempting to hit intermediate routes (15-30 yds downfield from the line of scrimmage)
in essence the pats passing attack, from coaches to Brady have created a mentality of a short passing game, and that mentality is so strong that it is hampering the possibilities of the offense
my point is that its this mentality that is the prob, not the personnel, or the talent
though a short passing game that is efficient and quick in the NFL is an absolute killer, it should NOT be your primary objective, an intermediate passing game should be, with the short passing game existing as what you run most routes on, but only if the intermediate is not available
this is even more so when we have a run game, b/c a short pass game and a run game essentially serve the same purpose, a 4 or 5 or even 6 yd route is almost the same thing as running the ball for us (this past season when we ran so well), but it has so many more points of failure (protection, pass, deflection, INT, PD, easy drop, bad throw, DB coverage, miscommunication) whereareas a run will maybe net you less yards, but will have the effects of having many less points of failure (and has positives such as establishing dominance at the line and tiring out a defense, fumbles are also less likely than INT's, also sets up PA)
in order to achieve this we need to look at the types of routes our receivers are asked to run:
Wes: as a slot receiver who is quick, yet slow he is best suited in the 4-10yd range of passes, and that's good, because that is where he absolutely dominates, no one else in this league can do what he does in that area, and he should be the either the only, or one of two routes run in this space, his size also makes him better in this space
Aaron: can be used as an intermediate weapon, though we have not done that very much, he has the speed and size to accomplish this, especially if covered by LB's
Gronk: ULTIMATE intermediate route weapon, just heave it up when he runs either a slant, post or streak/go and you will be golden, he is also fast enough to be an intermediate target
Lloyd: the primary problem with Lloyd is the routes he has been asked to run, early on in the season he ran the comeback route a LOT, and got 10-15 yds on it, where did that go? in the playoffs he ran mostly slants, well what exactly do you expect? he is not allowed to do anything, of course hes not gonna be able to get to the intermediate space, but that is not because he cannot, he has simply been tasked with running routes that attack the same depth of the field, but just outside the hash marks
those are our 4 main weapons, an edelman or RB can run either an intermediate or short route (preferably short), Aaron can run both, though I would use Gronk as almost solely an intermediate target, why throw it to him 5 yards out? it makes no sense
the biggest problem recently with attacking the intermediate portion of the field is this: the gameplan makes brady get rid of the ball TOO fast, our O-lines have struggled in games, but if you take their work over a season they have been quite good, in these playoffs brady usually had all day to throw the ball, yet still got rid of it within 3 seconds...b/c of the gameplan, and its focus on short routes
let Brady take deeper drops, let him hold the ball longer, and let him survey the field, and not waste that effort on a 5yd pass, but on a 15-30 yd pass
this is what happened in the Texans games (both) where we absolutely manhandled a very good team, this is what did NOT happen in the Balt. game, where we got absolutely manhandled by an OK defense
MAKE THE INTERMEDIATE PASSING GAME YOUR PRIORITY, AND YOU WILL WIN IN THE PLAYOFFS
