2009 NE @ DEN, Week 5 breakdown

[pats1]

1st Broncos drive
1st and 10 – wild horses vs. 4-3, direct snap run, Wright gets doubled and killed at POA, Adalius fills and destroys filling LG, Meriweather reads and fills (beats WR) but whiffs on tackle, McGowan gets stiff-armed and Guyton has to make pursuit tackle

1st and 10 – 3 WR vs. 4-3, soft man – WR takes short hitch, Orton misses upfield, Bodden comes up to make stop

2nd and 9 – 2 WR vs. 4-3, zone – Marshall in slot motion to wing, hi/lo Springs outside zone w/ other WR – Springs peels but misses tackle, Adalius (inside zone) pursues and whiffs, Meriweather pushes OOB

1st and 10 – wild horses vs. 3-4- Meriweather gets low again and beats WR, gets inside to make play – Adalius had beat RG but whiffed, Warren blew up the pulling LTE behind play

2nd and 5 – 2 WR vs. 4-3 – obvious miscue, Woods released LTE to flat (Bodden’s zone), but Bodden manned on LWR and took him deep – oops…then gets hurdled on tackle – double oops

1st and 10 – wild horses vs. 4-3 – Guyton misreads play and runs into backside blocks – Warren plays textbook 2-gap DE, peels off inside to make stop, but still needs McGowan’s help

2nd and 5 (after Pats timeout) – wild horses vs. 4-3, Warren (LDE) and Wilfork (RDT) overpower and pinch backfield – Meriweather beats WR again and blows up play in backfield

3rd and 6 – 3 WR vs. 3-2 dime – no blitz, just 3-man rush vs. 6-man protection – BMx2 low in zones w/ Guyton, Mayo rabbit (man) on RB – McGowan stays tight on slot WR in zone, breaks up pass

4th and 6 - missed field goal

1st Patriots drive
1st and 10 – 2 WR vs. 3-4 – aggressive Nolan DL, backside cuts take care of that – playside blocks by Welker on low SS and Koppen on ILB fail, Morris needs to cut back into pursuit

2nd and 4 – 3 WR vs. 3-3 nickel – Faulk (WR) lines up on wrong side, Brady notices and fixes – Watson FB – NB ignores Faulk (who fakes screen at snap) on “motion,” leaves only CB outside on Welker+Faulk – Brady should have noticed and sight adjusted/look passed – Watson blocks down, NB comes in from behind and catches Morris in backfield

3rd and 4 – 3 WR vs. 3-3 nickel blitz look – Edelman and Welker cross and freeze the inside zone LB – Brady sits and waits in clean pocket and hits Edelman when he clears for FD

1st and 10 – 2 WR vs. 3-4 – double play action (Morris, Welker end around), then rollout – OL release timing perfect – Brady hits Morris on screen, Mankins and Neal take out 3 guys with cuts, Koppen gets upfield to block LB, Morris gets deep into secondary and red zone

1st and 10 – 2 WR vs. 3-4 – double TE right, pitch right – no calamities, Pats just get beat by power and speed – a slow pitch doesn’t help and defenders swarm to ball

2nd and 9 – 4 WR vs. 3-3 nickel – misdirection run, blocks develop just in time to let Morris through – side pursuit kept at bay (Moss block), safeties need to come up to make stop – Morris gets a head of steam but runs into a brick wall – defender got low and upended him

3rd and 3 – 3 WR vs. 3-3 nickel – 5 v. 4, OL wins – Welker sits outside LB zone – Brady waits for LB to make first move, Welker cuts upfield and beats LB, Brady steps up and threads it between Welker and other LB (pinching) – Welker splits them and falls into end zone…bottom line: no way Galloway or Aiken makes this play, unlikely Edelman has concentration to catch short bullet while darting upfield between two LBs ready to sandwich you…TOUCHDOWN

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Tedy Bruschi's thoughts on the New England Patriots' Week 5 loss to the Denver Broncos - ESPN Boston

Updated: October 12, 2009, 2:44 PM ET
Bruschi on Tap: Missed opportunities
Thoughts on Sunday's Patriots loss to the Broncos

By Tedy Bruschi
ESPNBoston.com

Observations from the Patriots' 20-17 overtime loss to the Broncos at Invesco Field:

1. Hold your "Wild Horses": Josh McDaniels' knowledge of the Patriots' defense was clearly the difference in this game. His plan to take away the aggressiveness of defenders by making them think and adjust to multiple offensive formations was brilliantly executed. The "Wild Horses" formation used by the Broncos put the Patriots' defense in the same audible they would call versus the Wildcat formation used by the Miami Dolphins. Whatever defense is called in the huddle is trumped by the audible that is called by the signal-callers of the defense once the Wild Horses formation is recognized. The problem with this adjustment occurred when Kyle Orton motioned back to the quarterback position from the receiver position and ran traditional plays. Once it recognizes that the offense is in a traditional set, the defense must go back to the original defense called. Recognizing and adjusting to those gadget offensive formations is one thing, but getting back to the original defense called is one of the most difficult checks a defensive signal-caller has to make. So difficult, in fact, that the Patriots burned three timeouts during the game to settle themselves down -- two in the first quarter and one in overtime. The result was that the Patriots played on their heels most of the game in vanilla zone coverages that the Broncos' offense had no problems recognizing and executing against.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Thanks for brining the analysis thread back, Pats1.

1st and 10 – 2 WR vs. 3-4 – double play action (Morris, Welker end around), then rollout – OL release timing perfect – Brady hits Morris on screen, Mankins and Neal take out 3 guys with cuts, Koppen gets upfield to block LB, Morris gets deep into secondary and red zone

Best-looking offensive play of the game. I thought we were destined for more creative play-calling and misdirection this game, but the success of this play wasn't convincing enough for the offensive brain trust. Of course, there were several vanilla plays that were successful strategically where execution broke down, but I'd like to see a few more schemes designed to slow the defense down.

 

[pats1]

2nd Broncos drive
1st and 10 – 2 WR vs. 4-3 – Broncos relied on TE (Graham) blocking down on LDE (Green) on an inside run, while LT pulled to take SLB…Green easily beat the block, leaving the lead blocker (H-back) to face Green, Adalius, and McGowan…easy stop

2nd and 7 – 2 WR vs. 4-3 – excellent playside 2-gapping from DTs (Wilfork got good push, too) and edge set by Guyton on TE – problem was Warren, who pushed RT back at snap but fell forward onto his face – Moreno had to bounce outside b/c of DTs, but Guyton tried to fill Warren’s hole – lost edge, Moreno turned corner, Springs got sealed, and Guyton+BMx2 had to make tackle after FD

1st and 10 – 3 WR vs. 4-3 – 5v5 rush – AD blitzes off RT, C (Wiegmann) reads and displays great footwork, shuffling outside and beating AD to the spot – Mayo and Guyton cover sideline-to-sideline, zoning between slot WR (left), RB (underneath), and TE (right); Orton feels some pressure from Wilfork and dumps it off to Moreno - Mayo squares well and swallows Moreno, who fumbles – McGowan recovers

2nd Patriots drive
1st and 10 – 1 WR (3 TE right) vs. 3-4 – 1TE->LT blocks down on DL/weak LBs, Mankins pulls but SILB shot gap – lets him over-commit and Morris to evade – 2TE and 3TE seal SOLB and SCB outside, SS protects outside gap, allowing Morris to cutback inside, pounding through backside pursuit for extra yards and FD

1st and 10 – 1 WR (2 TE left) vs. 3-4, SS (Dawkins) late blitz, after CB pointed to backfield – playside (right) protection good, backside was a disaster – Mankins got trucked by LDE into backfield, Light belly-flopped cut on SILB, TEs doubled SOLB, letting Dawkins blitz untouched into backfield and blow it up

2nd and 12 – 3 WR vs. 3-3 nickel – quick drop, Light cut LDE but not well enough – LDE stood up and Brady had to hesitate before Mankins shoved him away – threw timing off on Welker quick-out, NB recovered and broke it up – throw was to NB, not open side though, behind Welker

3rd and 12 – 3 WR vs. 3-3 nickel zone blitz – Faulk and Baker stay in to pick up zone blitz, good pocket – Broncos safeties blew coverage, both took same zone while LCB released Moss deep to no one – Brady overthrew him (wide open) by a good 5 yards, was upset afterwards…mechanical?

4th and 12 – Gostkowski 53-yard field goal

3rd Broncos drive
1st and 10 – 2 WR vs. 4-3 – play action, both WR right – cover-2 look at snap, then Meriweather comes down on slot and Wilhite drops at snap for cover-3 – BW releases slot deep, outside WR catches and turns corner, BW and Wilhite leverage him OOB

2nd and 2 – 2 WR vs. 4-3 – Wilfork beat LG inside – RG pulled but ignored Wilfork, turned corner – Wilfork blew up run in backfield

3rd and 2 – (after two timeouts – Pats had substitution problem ) – 3 WR vs. 4-3 – 5v5 rush, no pressure – Pats played off and protected deep part of field; slot WR (Marshall) ran drag along FD line, tried to turn corner but Mayo came up and wrapped him up short of FD

4th and 1 – punt – Edelman avoided first free man

3rd Patriots drive
1st and 10 – 5 WR vs. 3-2 dime – 3v5 rush, clean pocket – Edelman and Welker crossed through low zones again – Brady waited until Edelman beat LB outside, Edelman slowed to make his move on oncoming CB but forgot about LB, who caught him from behind – you could also make a case that Brady didn’t lead him enough, allowing LB to catch up

2nd and 4 – 2 WR vs. 3-4 – Mankins had tough block on NT, who shot backside A gap – Koppen chipped to help at snap, but had to peel to grab WILB – FB dive to Morris other A gap – Mankins had no chance of getting inside leverage on NT, easy stop

3rd and 1 – 1 WR (3 TE right) vs. 4-4 – misdirection, run right – SILB shot playside B gap untouched, Mankins pulled but had no chance of beating him to spot – Morris wiggled free in backfield, but SS and WILB filled quickly to make the stop – LDE split Kaczur and Matthews to help

4th and 1 – punt – Aiken avoided blocker and make first hit to start pile – returner fumbled, Ingram was there to stop him

4th Broncos drive
1st and 10 – 3 WR vs. 4-3 – 4v5 rush, no pressure – Woods stuck with TE beyond zone, Guyton released crossing slot WR to empty zone – Woods could have made up for it by coming up to make the stop, but instead he over-ran the guy outside and forced McGowan to fill and tackle

1st and 10 – 3 WR tight vs. 4-3 – LT should have called for illegal formation for being off line, that’s been a popular call this year – Wilfork manhandled the LG yet again, backed him up into RB – Guyton evaded C and Warren shed RT to fill and stop for no gain

2nd and 10 – 3 WR vs. 4-3 – quick hitch to outside WR – Bodden was playing off and came up to make solid stop

3rd and 6 – 4 WR vs. 4-1 dime – 5v6 rush, Green drove LG into Orton to help force throw – 55 coverage (man under) – McGowan stayed tight on TE crossing route, got a hand in but Scheffler dropped it anyway

4th and 1 – punt – touchback

4th Patriots drive
1st and 10 – 4 WR vs. 3-3 nickel – 4v5 rush, clean pocket – LCB cleared deep, Welker quick-out on NB – throw came in low and behind Welker, but got down on his butt to get it

2nd and 4 – 4 WR vs. 3-3 nickel – 4v5 rush, clean pocket – Brady first looked for Welker on similar route, but instead checked down to Edelman sitting underneath the zone – had 2 LBs and NB to avoid after catch, no FD

3rd and 1 – 3 TE/FB vs. 4-4, CB box – backside cuts sealed behind run – good edge blocks by TEs – Morris (FB) sealed SILB outside after he shot C gap – gave Maroney hole, hit it – Kaczur over-extended on LDE, fell forward – LDE and SS made stop after FD

1st and 10 – 3 WR vs. 3-3 nickel – Broncos DL and SLB shot inside gaps, TE blocked down on SLB – outside run off TE, Mankins pulled and kicked out aggressive MLB – Kaczur sealed WLB in second level – Maroney stayed square to line and hit hole – followed Kaczur’s block into secondary for FD

1st and 10 – 4 WR vs. 3-3 nickel – Welker solid block on bigger SLB – Morris hit RG hole – WLB stayed home and patient, read play, avoided Mankins – NT spun out of Koppen block and made stop with WLB

2nd and 7 – 3 WR vs. 4-3 blitz look, SS off LWR – screen to Welker – Aiken ignored CB and went for SS – Welker stiff-armed CB and broke into secondary before LB caught up – 12 men penalty, declined

1st and 10 – 1 WR (3 TE right) vs. 3-4 – play action – buzz c-3 zone (LB flat, CB deep) – Maroney in BP on SILB – tries to cut him low, LB spins to avoid, pressures Brady – no dumpoff option (designed deep pass to Moss, but already CB and FS deep zones), so throws away

2nd and 10 – 4 WR vs. 3-2 dime – 3v5 protection, close call behind Brady w/ Koppen and NT – looks like 55 coverage, Brady goes for Baker quick-out on SLB, lots of contact, then slow break…Baker dives and makes “catch” – actually hit ground, McDaniels challenges and wins

3rd and 10 – 4 WR vs. 3-3 nickel – 4v5 rush (WLB blitz, LDE wide rush) – draw to Faulk, Neal seals NT, but MLB still free – Watson runs around Welker/NB inside to get to SLB, just a pointless chase – MLB and SLB converge to make stop…and for kicks, Mankins throws in an unnecessary roughness penalty after some questionable playcalling

4th and 23 – punt – fair catch inside 10 yds