Some exciting clips of the defensive plays for Min game:

I cannot take the credit for making these but they are impressive.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Patriots/comments/2gmgb2/made_a_few_gifs_from_sundays_defensive_performance/

Enjoy!

Oh, I did! Thanks!

Beautiful. Chandler was absolutely beasting!

Unless something's changed, Ellison was supposed to be a bruising TE whose forte was run blocking. Jones practically pushes him back 5 yards from the initial contact.

A couple points that I think are worth noting:

Re: Hightower's pass rushing. It was very good, but there was also one play where he got his hands on Cassel and couldn't bring him down, leading to Cassel running down the sideline where Hightower most likely had contain responsibility. He's a great athlete, and I'm not trying to diminish the overall game that he had, but for a guy with his size and strength I think he should be doing a better job finishing tackles in that situation. Separately but kinda related, on that weird QB keep run by Cassel early in the game, it was Hightower who came flying around the edge and vacated the area where Cassel ended up running.

Conversely, check out Hightower in coverage on the Arrington strip sack GIF. he does a good job of picking up Rudolph's route and staying with him.

That 1-4-6 dime blitz was a combination of a good playcall and terrible pass protection. The stunt that Easley and Mayo ran completely baffled the RG, and the LG was just standing around with nothing to do. Looks like he was ready to double team Jones if he went inside, but Jones went outside instead. The RB (McKinnon) was useless in pass protection (it really shows that he's a rookie, and a notably raw one at that: this is why rookies rarely play on third down). What I thought was most impressive about that play was how much Chandler Jones just physically dominated Kalil.

The last gif, in addition to showing Hightower and Jones annihilating Cassel, is also one instance of Ebner playing a quasi-linebacker on the other side. IIRC, he actually had pretty good coverage on Gray on this play.

Danger Zone said:

Unless something's changed, Ellison is supposed to be a bruising TE whose forte was run blocking. Jones practically pushes him back 5 yards from the initial contact.

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That play was one of the best examples I've seen of Jones winning with length. It doesn't matter how strong Ellison is once Jones gets his hands on him and gets fully extended like that. If you rewatch the play, it looks like Ellison basically has t-rex arms compared to Jones (3+ inches shorter than Jones'). Hard to block a guy if you can't get your hands on him.

That's why all the scouts were going apeshit over his 35 and a half inch arm length when he was drafted.

BradyFTW! said:

Re: Hightower's pass rushing. It was very good, but there was also one play where he got his hands on Cassel and couldn't bring him down, leading to Cassel running down the sideline where Hightower most likely had contain responsibility. He's a great athlete, and I'm not trying to diminish the overall game that he had, but for a guy with his size and strength I think he should be doing a better job finishing tackles in that situation.

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When was that play? I don't remember that.

Marqui said:

When was that play? I don't remember that.

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It happened at 14:13 in the 2nd quarter, on 1st and 10.

http://www.gfycat.com/RecklessCelebratedGlowworm

This one, nice play design and poor #71 for the Vikings doesn't half get himself all turned around trying to figure it all out!

Revis in on a Blitz....wow

BradyFTW! said:

It happened at 14:13 in the 2nd quarter, on 1st and 10.

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Eh, Hightower barley grassed him with one hand. He had no chance of bringing Cassel down there, it was just a good play by him to sidestep HT at the last second.

Lost amongst the excitement over Chandler Jones... was Dominique Easley's performance.

Not much on the stat line, but he's getting decent pressure on some snaps. To think he's still gaining his confidence back, still conditioning himself and getting his legs underneath him. He's doing alright out there. I like the one play where they rushed Easley, Chris Jones, and Chandler Jones, and 2 out of the 3 got to the QB and forced him to throw the ball away. I didn't even think Easley would be playing this early in the season so I'm impressed he's doing this well so soon.

On Easley's INT, he jumps and tries to swat the pass down. This blocks the view of the receiver and causes him to miss the pass and have it deflect off his shoulder. The ball then fell into Easleys hands for the pick. Good hustle and concentration. As advertised, Easley doesn't give up until the whistle is blown. A lot of other DLineman would've given up after the swat attempt, and wouldn't have even turned around to look for the ball.






Chandler Jones hand fighting and technique has improved so much. On some of his pressures he smacks the OLineman's hands off him like it's nothing.

Getting sacked by Hightower looks painful. Must knock the wind out of QBs. I remember him destroying Sam Bradford one year too. QB's always seem to get up slow after he hits them.




Love the gifs. Big kudos to whoever made them. It gives you a chance to notice things that you didn't see initially. Like Wilfork dropping into coverage lol



Please tell me we blitz this much against the Forehead.

Marqui said:

Eh, Hightower barley grassed him with one hand. He had no chance of bringing Cassel down there, it was just a good play by him to sidestep HT at the last second.

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He got his left arm wrapped around Cassel, and the fact that he didn't get his right arm on him too is kinda what I'm talking about, because I see a bit more of this from him than I'd like. it's certainly not a size/strength issue; it was a form issue on this specific play. He came in hard off the edge, ignored what I assume was his contain responsibility (granted, it's possible that I'm wrong there), and as a result gave up a lane for Cassel to step up and run through for a 13 yard gain.

Notice that once Cassel shrugs Hightower off,there's nobody else in frame to his left. He ends up in a footrace with Siliga and Skinner trying to chase him down from behind (which they obviously fail to do, because they're Skinner and Siliga).

@BradyFTW! Hightower just over pursued and ran himself out of that one. It can be corrected. Not a big deal. He isn't perfect, but it's something that can be improved. I don't think we should cut him over it.

and the opposite side of the same coin @BradyFTW! when Hightower connects with a big hit, he makes sure it counts and the QB remembers it for the rest of the game. You gotta take the good with the bad. He might over pursue at times, but other times he'll destroy a QB. Overall I think he had a damn good game against the Vikings.

Watching Hightower last week leaves me to wonder if he has more potential as a pass rusher than I imagined. Do you guys think he's capable of putting up 10+ sacks? He's looking awfully effective in his new position this year.

MrNathanDrake said:

@BradyFTW! Hightower just over pursued and ran himself out of that one. It can be corrected. Not a big deal. He isn't perfect, but it's something that can be improved. I don't think we should cut him over it.

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I don't think anyone's even remotely suggesting that he should be cut over it. I said pretty much the same thing you're saying: it's a form / discipline issue that is correctible and definitely needs to be corrected. Especially if he's going to be a regular at OLB with contain responsibility on mobile QBs.

@BradyFTW! It was sarcasm bro lol



Other random thoughts:

Chandler Jones best-case projection when being drafted was "Jason Pierre-Paul but not as good" after JPP had that one monster year. Looks like Jones is going to surpass that projection. JPP has regressed since then, and it looks like Chandler Jones will actually end up being BETTER than JPP in the long run.

MrNathanDrake said:

@BradyFTW! It was sarcasm bro lol



Other random thoughts:

Chandler Jones best-case projection when being drafted was "Jason Pierre-Paul but not as good" after JPP had that one monster year. Looks like Jones is going to surpass that projection. JPP has regressed since then, and it looks like Chandler Jones will actually end up being BETTER than JPP in the long run.

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I'd say that jones has already surpassed JPP, but to be fair those comparisons were made when JPP was coming off of his monster year, so saying that JPP was his ceiling was pretty much the ultimate compliment.

I think it was an apt comparison- both freak athletes with inhuman length, a ton of burst, and deceptive strength that let them play as a penetrating DT or an edge rusher. Now we just have to hope that Jones is better at staying healthy than JPP has been.

BradyFTW! said:

He got his left arm wrapped around Cassel, and the fact that he didn't get his right arm on him too is kinda what I'm talking about, because I see a bit more of this from him than I'd like. it's certainly not a size/strength issue; it was a form issue on this specific play. He came in hard off the edge, ignored what I assume was his contain responsibility (granted, it's possible that I'm wrong there), and as a result gave up a lane for Cassel to step up and run through for a 13 yard gain.

Notice that once Cassel shrugs Hightower off,there's nobody else in frame to his left. He ends up in a footrace with Siliga and Skinner trying to chase him down from behind (which they obviously fail to do, because they're Skinner and Siliga).

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He didn't have his arm wrapped around Cassel. He had one hand on his arm. He wasn't going to bring down Cassel with one hand on his arm.





And he was flying towards Cassel who made a good move sidestepping HT at the last second. There's nothing HT could really do better there. The other team just made a play, it happens.

Marqui said:

He didn't have his arm wrapped around Cassel. He had one hand on his arm. He wasn't going to bring down Cassel with one hand on his arm.

And he was flying towards Cassel who made a good move sidestepping HT. There's nothing HT could really do better there. The other team just made a play. It happens.

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Those screenshots appear to be after Cassel started breaking away. Go back a few frames.

And yes, I agree with the overall point that he wasn't going to bring Cassel down like that, which is why I brought up that play I'm the first place. He needs to be aware that he's the only thing keeping the QB from scrambling for an easy 15 yard gain there. This means two things: 1) he needs to do a better job of wrapping up the QB when he gets to him, and 2) he needs to be careful not to get too far upfield in pursuit of the QB.

Flying around the edge like that, failing to wrap up the QB, and leaving a huge gap for a mobile QB to escape through is a bad play.

I agree that it happens and isn't the end of the world--as I said in the post where I brought this up, it doesn't change the fact that overall he had a great day--but it is an issue that warrants mentioning.