The "Mystique" of the Pats' Offense

Nice read today on the ever-changing Pats' offense:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12039309/experts-makes-new-engalnd-patriots-offense-unique

Nothing new, but a nice read with roundtable discussion from Bruschi, Field Yates and Damien Woody.

Last month Judy Battista on NFL.com had a similar article on what she called "one of New England's most pronounced competitive advantages: its continuing ability to unveil something new even while its opponents are trying to figure out how to stop what they've already seen":

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...-patriots-morphing-into-unstoppable-afc-power

And from ESPN's John Parolin:

When the team has been successful, it hasn’t just reached season averages in play-calling. The Patriots called more than half of their plays to target the opponent’s defensive weakness in 9 of the team’s 11 wins.

Click to expand...

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-.../4774567/pats-make-hay-on-exploiting-weakness

mayoclinic said:

And from ESPN's John Parolin:



http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-.../4774567/pats-make-hay-on-exploiting-weakness

Click to expand...

The problem with this is that the Patriots' average offense has been 39% run/61% pass, so I'm not sure you can really say they're "targeting" a weakness if they're going 44% run/56% pass. [Moreover, the run data is skewed by, for example, the Chicago and LOLphins beatdowns where they switch over to mostly running in the 4Q to just eat up clock and get the shaming over with faster.]

I thought JMcD sucks....

I thought based on the thread title that the Pats offense was employing a stripper.

SVN said:

And Josh McDniels sucks....

Click to expand...

Fixed it for ya.

The Patriots offense is often talked up for how much it evolves and how it fits the opponent. I need to say though I think it is a bit overblown.

The Patriots offense when boiled down is about Brady and what particular weapons he has around him at the time. The key is Brady can work with any personnel he is given cause his overall game lends itself to a lot of flexibility and he prefers to exploit matchups (the only time is has not almost entirely been about Brady and his WRs/TEs was probably 2004)

People talk about the 2 TE offense the Patriots employed and how innovative it was. My answer is meh. It worked cause they had talented TEs. The 07 deep passing O worked cause they had Moss. The dink and dunk worked cause we had Welker. The early 2000s WR based offense worked cause we had Brown/Branch/Givens.

I think being innovative had little to do with player selections the Patriots made. They like most teams; just try to pick the best players. They picked Gronk/Hernandez cause they were good. They signed Moss cause he was good. The short passes to Welker worked cause he was good at it.

I don't think the Patriots went in to the 2010 draft thinking "lets pick up 2 TEs and be innovative". They were in the mind set of "We need some weapons on O. Lets pick the best one available related to value and other factors".

Now do the Patriots game plan more than most offenses? I'd say yes. They like to be able to do a lot of things well so they can exploit weaknesses. However, it is only rarely the Patriots go drastically away from their main bread winners in a game and it usually has less to do when them being able to do something than with an opponent being horrible at stopping something (for instance Indy and Grey).

I find it interesting the Patriots are the only team that tends to get the "innovative" label on offense. How about Philly and the innovative 2 RB pass catching offense? I don't think it is innovative as much as putting your best players on the field.

GB does a very tradition WR based offense and it works great. No one seems to complain they lack innovation. I don't feel the need to "innovate" schematics. The only Parody I want my team to worry about is top talent. I see Seattle's D and don't think I won't that scheme (cause it is simply anyway) I think I want that talent.

Bruschi quote: "Hey, Belichick still remembers the time we wore blue pants with our blue uniforms. It didn't work and we lost, so he made sure it never happened again. If he remembers that, can you imagine the notes he has on past game-plan successes and failures?"

When was this game? I can't remember a blue/blue uniform.

bresna said:

Bruschi quote: "Hey, Belichick still remembers the time we wore blue pants with our blue uniforms. It didn't work and we lost, so he made sure it never happened again. If he remembers that, can you imagine the notes he has on past game-plan successes and failures?"

When was this game? I can't remember a blue/blue uniform.

Click to expand...

vs GB ,2002. Famous lateral pass game which ended up as a backward pass.
I remember some player postgame said they lacked swagger to which BB lashed out according to reports saying its not swagger its bad football execution etc etc.

Also let me say this.

Being able to be a game plan team means you need to have the potential of a good pass game and running game. How many team have that. How many teams can go into a game and say "the plan to have have our QB win this... we are only gonna run 15 times"?

For that you need a good QB. The only teams that can probably pull this off are the Pats, Broncos, Colts, Steelers, Cowboys, ect.... maybe 10-12.

So a lot of NFL teams don't really have the option to be game plan specific cause they don't have a QB capable of consistently carrying a team if a game plan calls for it.

bresna said:

Bruschi quote: "Hey, Belichick still remembers the time we wore blue pants with our blue uniforms. It didn't work and we lost, so he made sure it never happened again. If he remembers that, can you imagine the notes he has on past game-plan successes and failures?"

Click to expand...

Well, wish BB follows that rule for coaches too and never wears a red jersey again for any game in which the Pats play.

I was horrified when he wore one all of a sudden for the most important game of the 2007 season, and if I am right, also during the recent playoffs when the Jets beat us at home.

mayoclinic said:

Nice read today on the ever-changing Pats' offense:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12039309/experts-makes-new-engalnd-patriots-offense-unique

Nothing new, but a nice read with roundtable discussion from Bruschi, Field Yates and Damien Woody.

Last month Judy Battista on NFL.com had a similar article on what she called "one of New England's most pronounced competitive advantages: its continuing ability to unveil something new even while its opponents are trying to figure out how to stop what they've already seen":

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...-patriots-morphing-into-unstoppable-afc-power

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing those. They were great reads.

I have a question: If Team A knows that Team B is going to attack their weakness, doesn't that make team B more predictable?

1960Pats said:

Thanks for sharing those. They were great reads.

I have a question: If Team A knows that Team B is going to attack their weakness, doesn't that make team B more predictable?

Click to expand...

Good question. I suppose it depends on how specific that knowledge is, and how you are able to adjust. Having the ability to do multiple things gives some added flexibility in terms of adjustments.

A lot of the time we've tried to guess the offensive game plan, and haven't always been successful. For example, a lot of people (myself included) thought that we'd use the 2-TE set more against Denver, Green Bay and San Diego, and that we'd run the ball down Miami's throat. Game-specific scheming isn't necessarily easy to predict, and it's quite possible that the Pats could throw a different gameplay at one of those teams if they meet down the road.

There is some predictability, but it's not absolute. It was fairly easy to predict that the Pats weren't going to go run-heavy against Detroit, but they did run the ball more than a lot of people expected.

mayoclinic said:

Good question. I suppose it depends on how specific that knowledge is, and how you are able to adjust. Having the ability to do multiple things gives some added flexibility in terms of adjustments.

A lot of the time we've tried to guess the offensive game plan, and haven't always been successful. For example, a lot of people (myself included) thought that we'd use the 2-TE set more against Denver, Green Bay and San Diego, and that we'd run the ball down Miami's throat. Game-specific scheming isn't necessarily easy to predict, and it's quite possible that the Pats could throw a different gameplay at one of those teams if they meet down the road.

There is some predictability, but it's not absolute. It was fairly easy to predict that the Pats weren't going to go run-heavy against Detroit, but they did run the ball more than a lot of people expected.

Click to expand...

I like that the Pats are unpredictable on offense, but sometimes I just wish they'd be more aggressive instead of trying to outsmart the other team as much.

1960Pats said:

I like that the Pats are unpredictable on offense, but sometimes I just wish they'd be more aggressive instead of trying to outsmart the other team as much.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure if I'd use the term, "aggressive" but I agree that most of the time when I have a play calling issue, it is the team eschewing something that appears to be working in an effort to surprise the opponent.

1960Pats said:

Thanks for sharing those. They were great reads.

I have a question: If Team A knows that Team B is going to attack their weakness, doesn't that make team B more predictable?

Click to expand...

bresna said:

Bruschi quote: "Hey, Belichick still remembers the time we wore blue pants with our blue uniforms. It didn't work and we lost, so he made sure it never happened again. If he remembers that, can you imagine the notes he has on past game-plan successes and failures?"

When was this game? I can't remember a blue/blue uniform.

Click to expand...

Yeesh. It just doesn't look right at all.

One of the things I was surprised they didn't mention was the importance of language and semantics in the ability of the Pats to utilize widely varied game plans on both sides of the ball. To be able to communicate all the information the players need to make the correct reads, you need to be able to communicate on a universal level a wide variety of complex information in the minimum amount of words. Its like being able to duplicate what I wrote above by simply saying "its about words" , and have everyone understand all the nuances and subtle meanings

More than most teams the Pats value communications and often talk about how important it is. Often when things go wrong the reason often given is some kind ofj failure in communications. I think the importance of the "language" of a system is a fascinating and under reported part of the game we follow

patfanken said:

One of the things I was surprised they didn't mention was the importance of language and semantics in the ability of the Pats to utilize widely varied game plans on both sides of the ball. To be able to communicate all the information the players need to make the correct reads, you need to be able to communicate on a universal level a wide variety of complex information in the minimum amount of words. Its like being able to duplicate what I wrote above by simply saying "its about words" , and have everyone understand all the nuances and subtle meanings

More than most teams the Pats value communications and often talk about how important it is. Often when things go wrong the reason often given is some kind ofj failure in communications. I think the importance of the "language" of a system is a fascinating and under reported part of the game we follow

Click to expand...

You mean more than "Omaha" is required?

Often a team does not know they have a weakness until we exploit it.. often we provide the blueprint for teams who play a team we beat in future games..

One of the things not mentioned is our ability to control the clock, aside from the debacle closing the first half last Sunday, this is done masterfully by our brain trust.. when I watch other teams play, am amazed how poorly this is done across the league...

The whole half time adjustment thing makes me wonder, Zolak mentioned this before, that there are 12 minutes at the half.. they have to get to the dressing room, some use the bathroom, maybe grab something to eat or drink, and be back on the field in a very short period of time. Do they really have time to discuss adjustments?? Or are most of these done during the game??