An Achilles’ heel is a fatal weakness in spite of overall strength

[borg]

In 2005, the Patriots achilles' heal was ILB. Bruschi went down in the offseason, and BB replaced him with scrap heap material....Beisel and Brown...with disasterous results.
In 2006, the issue was WR. Givens, Branch, and Johnson moved on and BB once again goes "value" shopping adding Caldwell, Gafney, Gabriel, and drafting Chad Jackson. Brady squeezed out about all he could with this crew, but this group was terrible as a whole and Caldwell's drops are still burned in my mind.
Fast forward to the present and the OLB situation. With the departure of Vrabel, Thomas is the only legitimate starter. Bunta -Cain is a jag third and long situational retread, Woods has only been a sub, and Redd/Crable have yet to make contact.

So here the Patriots stand again with a glaring hole in an otherwise amazing roster of talent. Many may argue that BB addressed the problem by eliminating Hobbs, and adding 4 new faces in the secondary through FA and the draft. Watching games last year, after AD wend down, my eyes told me that even with a few extra seconds of pass rush, no Pats OLB was getting to the QB. They were physically overmatched. Some wil blame the conservative scheme due to newbies at ILB. Didn't change the fact that the OLBs were physically overmatched...no speed, no moves, no power. My eyes were not lying to me.

So, will BB repeat history and allow the team's achilles' heal to derail the ultimate goal, or will he learn from his own recent history and address this hole with ....a legit PROFESSIONAL OLB.

 

[Kontradiction]

We could be seeing a lot of Vince Redd and/or Shawn Crable this year. You may have forgotten about them, but they each just earned praise from BB himself.

 

[BlitzFritz]

Excellent post and thread.
- weakest link in the chain
- obviously mediocre pass rush

ergo threads on Peppers trades, that seem 5% likely to me......
we can always dream tho!!

-- FRITZ

 

[JackBauer]

Obviously BB disagrees with your assessment.

And yeah, obviously your pass rush is going to suck if all your pass rushers are injured. That doesn't mean we don't have the talent to get it done when we're not getting decimated by injuries.

 

[Ghost of Ben Dreith]

The OP does have a viable point though in that there is a weakness in the pass rush.

All teams have weaknesses though and the Pats have less than most and more strengths. The issue isn't necessarily that BB would not have liked to add a quality pass rushing OLB this past weekend, but as has been stated many times....there were none at the value he thought they deserved and/or were any better than what he had already.

With the salary cap, any team will have some weakness. The trick is to adjust for it to minimize it. BB is great at that and has a lot of talent this year to work different schemes....at least I think he does.

Maybe it really isn't a weakness but more a situation as it won't be the strength of the team.

 

[Deus Irae]

The achilles heel last year was Brady's injury. That would be the same achilles heel this year.

 

[borg]

Who's to argue with BB.....but...I listed two examples in the last 4 years where KNOWN deficiencies in the offseason were treated with JAG replacements, and it can be easily argued that the ILBs in '05 and WRs in '06 derailed those teams chances.

 

[Deus Irae]

Who's to argue with BB.....but...I listed two examples in the last 4 years where KNOWN deficiencies in the offseason were treated with JAG replacements, and it can be easily argued that the ILBs in '05 and WRs in '06 derailed those teams chances.

Which receiver gave up 30+ points to the Colts in '06?

 

[Sicilian]

You mentioned conservative play calling due to rookies at ILB. What about conservative playcalling because no one in the secondary could cover one on one?

Remember when we started blitzing Meriweather late in the year? Great pass rush there, right? Well, maybe with a more competent secondary, we can mix up the blitzes a little more because A) The safeties are needed as much for coverage and B) We'll have more confidence in the TACKLING ability of our secondary, thus freeing up linebackers for additional blitzes as well.

 

[borg]

The achilles heel last year was Brady's injury. That would be the same achilles heel this year.

The QB sub played a hell of a lot better than the OLB subs.

 

[supafly]

Who's to argue with BB.....but...I listed two examples in the last 4 years where KNOWN deficiencies in the offseason were treated with JAG replacements, and it can be easily argued that the ILBs in '05 and WRs in '06 derailed those teams chances.

I agree with you, both it could be argued that in '06 it was still ILB more than the WR's--as we blew a huge lead in the AFCCG and would've crushed the Bears in the SB.

Alexander and the inability to cover Dallas Clark hurt us more than the WR's in 06, but both are good points nonetheless

 

[Deus Irae]

The QB sub played a hell of a lot better than the OLB subs.

The QB sub played better than a lot of the starters in other positions. However, the QB starter gets the team into the Super Bowl.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Another guy I'd like, if he can't come to terms with his team, is Terrell Suggs. And he has proven he can play in a 3-4 OLB position.

 

[eom]

Re: An Achilles’ heel is a fatal weakness in spite of overall strength

the achilles heel in the superbowl was the offensive line, and we drafted some of those.

would it be possible to create a subforum for these threads?

 

[Synovia]

Which receiver gave up 30+ points to the Colts in '06?

Reche Caldwell.


The patriots lost that game because their offense couldn't stay on the field. They had several chances where a firstdown would put the game away, and they could not do anything.


At one point, it was 1st and 5, with less than 3 minutes left, and the colts were out of TOs. A first down would have ended the game.

 

[supafly]

The achilles heel last year was Brady's injury. That would be the same achilles heel this year.

Yes, without any doubt. THE only thing that would truly derail us from having at the very least, a really good chance this yr.

This point is probably understated, as many continue to argue over LB, who'll start at RB, etc. Can we improve this position/that position, etc. The most important piece of the puzzle by far is protecting Brady, I can't see how we wouldn't have a shot, otherwise. We're totally fine at everything else, maybe not 100 % dominating, (OLB) but fine at every other position.

 

[BradyFTW!]

People just don't seem to get it around here. There was NOBODY in the draft that we could have taken that would have immediately fixed any perceived problems with the pass rush. It takes time to develop 3-4 OLBs. That's why the Patriots took guys like Crable and Redd in the past, and it's why you never saw anything out of them before now: because OLB is hard to play, and guys coming out of college don't have the body or technique for it. Belichick talked at length about this in an interview yesterday.

If you want to see an impact made at OLB, you don't demand that Belichick go draft one and plug him in right away- you look at the guys he drafted a year or 2 ago and hope that they've been coached up enough that they're ready to step in. What I read into all of this was that Crable's likely to have a significant role this year.

Of course, the other explanation is that you know more about how to build a good defense than Belichick does. That totally makes sense, let's go with that.

 

[borg]

Miguel states that the Pats have $6.7 in cap room as of yesterday. Factor in the costs of the draft picks offset by dropping salaries out of the top 53, BB has plenty of $$$ to add experience via FA or through a trade (lots of #2s). I won't go into the names but I argue the need is there. Call me greedy, but I want a perfect team, not 2 minutes from perfect.

 

[Deus Irae]

Reche Caldwell.


The patriots lost that game because their offense couldn't stay on the field. They had several chances where a firstdown would put the game away, and they could not do anything.


At one point, it was 1st and 5, with less than 3 minutes left, and the colts were out of TOs. A first down would have ended the game.

The Patriots lost because the defense collapsed and the officials made a terrible call. Blaming the offense is just a way for people to feel better about bashing the receivers all season long.

 

[Synovia]

The Patriots lost because the defense collapsed and the officials made a terrible call. Blaming the offense is just a way for people to feel better about bashing the receivers all season long.

The offense's job is to get firstdowns. The couldn't even do that in the 2nd half. They were terrible.


The defense wasn't great in the 2nd half either, but they really needed the offense to put together one long drive against a terrible defense, and they couldn't do that.