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- - Football Outsiders on Patriots/Brady (http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/10/44552-football-outsiders-patriots-brady.html)

Football Outsiders on Patriots/Brady

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/6122994

Nicely stated :)

"Over and over this year, I notice smart quarterbacks picking apart zone defenses. Remember what Matt Leinart did in the first half of the Arizona-Chicago game? Last night, Tom Brady gave a clinic against the Vikings defense run by former Tampa defensive backs coach Mike Tomlin. Perry Fewell in Buffalo is a Cover-2 guy, and Brady played Terrence McGee like a yo-yo last week. He destroyed Tampa Bay last year, and even when the Colts beat the Patriots with a much-improved run defense, Brady was 22-for-33 with 265 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. Brady's worst games over the last few seasons have come against Kansas City and pre-Saban Miami teams that specialized in man-to-man. In the next four weeks, the Patriots play the two undefeated teams and both of them play the Tampa-2 scheme. Do you see where I am going with this?"

Here's a link to the full DVOA rankings for the week :

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/200...rankings/4480/

The rankings are :

OVERALL : Indy 9, NE 6

Offense : Indy 1, NE 5 (take that, McDaniels bashers)
Defense : Indy 28, NE 14
ST : Indy 25, NE 8

Re: Football Outsiders on Patriots/Brady

Another quote that made me chuckle (from the first link, this time in the Colts' section) :

"This team (Colts) is winning games by narrow margins. Five of these wins were a touchdown or less, and two of those were over bad teams, the Jets and Titans. (Ponder: What defensive scheme does New York play, and why is that significant?) . . . But this team can't stop the run and it can't stop the pass, and eventually some defense will slow down Peyton Manning just a little bit and they will lose."

Re: Football Outsiders on Patriots/Brady

The cover 2 defense is easily exploited by smart and accurate QB's. That is if the QB is given the time to sit in the pocket, survey the field and wait for his receivers to find their open spots. If the QB isn't afforded the time to analyze things and wait for his receivers to get open then it's a very tough go.

I posted this below link in another thread. It's quickly goes over the cover 2 (and Tampa) defenses. I think it's relevant here.

http://www.footballtimes.org/Article.asp?ID=167