On offense the Patriots are now basically on Plan E

JMarr · Dec 16, 2013

Plan E is to run the ball. (Although relying on a running game to open up the passing game doesn't seem to be in Josh's vocabulary

) Would it be predicable a lot of the time? Yes. Will there be 8 in the box a lot of the time? Yes. But there are two guys named Steven Ridley and LaGarrett Blount who (especially when using a fullback) are more than capable of imposing their will on the other team, regardless of how banged-up the O-line is.

Spreading it out and airing it out even more is about as boneheaded an idea as I've heard in awhile. I'm hoping a light bulb will go off in McD's head and he'll realized that the RBs are his best and final weapons at this point.

hwc · Dec 16, 2013

KontradictioN said:
Teams with a Super Bowl pedigree make those stops. The Pats were doing exactly that at the beginning of the season.

The Pats aren't playing with the same defense they had at the beginning of the season. With Wilfork, Kelley, and Mayo on IR, they've lost the entire middle of the defense. They are playing guys off practice squads and couches. It's not going to be the same...

mgteich · Dec 16, 2013

My bad on Cannon.

Frankly, I did not think that Svitek and Cannon were both healthy when Mankins was moved to LT.

Sicilian said:
Did something happen to Cannon that I missed?

And as a side thought, assuming Cannon and Svitek are healthy, do you play Svitek or Mankins at LT? I don't think Cannon is an option there, doesn't have the athleticism, but I'm not sure I trust Svitek on the blindside for a full game. But with Mankins there, it leaves us even thinner up the middle.

There's no clean solution to the OL problems at the moment.

Kontradiction · Dec 16, 2013

hwc said:
The Pats aren't playing with the same defense they had at the beginning of the season. With Wilfork, Kelley, and Mayo on IR, they've lost the entire middle of the defense. They are playing guys off practice squads and couches. It's not going to be the same...

That's not why the Pats weren't able to stop that drive. The secondary is all banged up and the pass rush wasn't coming anywhere near Tannehill. It wasn't JAGS and guys off the practice squad that were getting toasted.

mgteich · Dec 16, 2013

The offense played fine. We need to have Dobsoin or Thompkins back. Amendola might have caught his TD pass. PI could have been called and given Brady an additional try at the end. Edelman and Amendola played fine.

Sicilian said:
Plan A: Run a two tight-end offense with Gronk and Hernandez as the center pieces. Then you just need Edelman and Amendola to be solid, with hopefully some contributions from one of three rookie WRs.

Plan B: Okay, Hernandez was a scum bag, but we can still run a single TE set once Gronk is healthy. We'll need another WR to step up, but that's still a solid formation to go along with a deep running game.

Plan C: No Gronk... ok, well the rookie WRs are coming along, so we can go four wide and spread the defense out. Dobson, Thompkins outside giving us deep/intermediate routes, Edelman, Amendola as two great slot options. Vereen as the back you can kick out wide in empty sets. This is still pretty good.

Plan D: No Thompkins or Dobson, eh? Well... okay... we play more clock control, ride the running game which has depth, talent, and versatility.

Plan E: So our starting tackles are out, plus one of the reserves? We're kicking our best interior, run blocking lineman outside in desperation? I guess... I mean I guess we can... ******! I'm out of ideas.

Still within a throw of winning a road game against a playoff caliber team, but I think at this point the injuries have handcuffed us in every possible way offensively.

mgteich · Dec 16, 2013

I presume that BALT will take Vereen out of the game as MIA did. He is our top threat.

manxman2601 said:
Screens and draws to Vereen please.

mgteich · Dec 16, 2013

1) With Thompkins and Dobson healthy, we would likely have won by 10 or more. So, for me, that means that the defense is playing well enough to win with an offense that scores more than 23, and does better than 13 points in four trips to the red zone.

2) How exactly does a defense get an "F" for being in the top 10 in points allowed going into the game (still at least in the top half)?

3) What conclusion should we make when Brady has 5 chances to throw into the end zone from within the 20 at the end of the game in order to win? What conclusion should I draw when a circus catch is the only touchdown in four red zone trips?

My conclusion is that we lack enough red zone threats.

letekro said:
And what plan are we currently operating under on defense? F?

With Gronk and Dobson, we win that game by 2 touchdowns.

Sicilian · Dec 16, 2013

mgteich said:
The offense played fine. We need to have Dobsoin or Thompkins back. Amendola might have caught his TD pass. PI could have been called and given Brady an additional try at the end. Edelman and Amendola played fine.

Oh, I agree they played fine, and could have played great if not for a few red zone stalls. My point was that they are now arguably running their fifth choice of offensive base and still hung in there to the very end on the road in a place that historically gives them trouble. It was more a comment on how ridiculous the injury situation has gotten, not an indictment on how they played.

jbb9s · Dec 16, 2013

What happened to the plan where you run your 24 yr old, 1300 yard, 4.5/att, 12 TD horse 20 times a game instead of benching him for half the season for a few fumbles?

Yes they need to teach him a lesson. No they don't bench Hightower or Arrington when they play horrible.

On offense the Patriots are now basically on Plan E

JMarr

In the Starting Line-Up

hwc

In the Starting Line-Up

mgteich

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Kontradiction

On my retirement tour.

mgteich

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mgteich

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mgteich

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Sicilian

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jbb9s

In the Starting Line-Up

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