Bills vs. Patriots breakdown/analysis

[PatsChamp88]

I wasn't aware we had signed Curly, Larry, and Moe? Does anyone know if we signed them for the league minimum?

That made my night, now I need to watch the game...

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Thanks but I don't really see it that way. Football is a complicated enough game for there to be several different perspectives on one play. Rodak's views are as legitimate in every way as mine are.

In regard to McCourty, I spoke earlier of the lack of polished technique and being aware of where the ball is at all times is one of them. You need to keep your head on a swivel, while in full speed, and that is something easier said than done.

Despite Rodak's many handicaps (I taught him everything he knows), it's also noteworthy that he's trying to make it as a sports writer in the big bad world of audience and market and editors, at least when someone like you, or I, or pats1, or unoriginal do something here it's for our own enjoyment and the worst that can happen to us is a bad review from the unhappy, unhappy people. :singing:

 

[Patspsycho]

Despite Rodak's many handicaps (I taught him everything he knows), it's also noteworthy that he's trying to make it as a sports writer in the big bad world of audience and market and editors, at least when someone like you, or I, or pats1, or unoriginal do something here it's for our own enjoyment and the worst that can happen to us is a bad review from the unhappy, unhappy people. :singing:

Speaking of which, please feel free to kick in with your observations at any time and I hope that Pats1, Unoriginal, or Jays52 will do the same, although I haven't seen Pats1 post in a long time.

 

[Kasmir]

I wasn't aware we had signed Curly, Larry, and Moe? Does anyone know if we signed them for the league minimum?

Reviewing this game again, just replayed that one a few times. It was a 3rd & 18 play. The announcers were saying Buffalo had failed on 40 consecutive 3rd & 10+, which is almost unbelievable. The principal stooge is Guyton on this one. He was in best position position to make the tackle, facing Parrish head 1 yard away after the reception. Wilhite is closing from behind and Meriweather coming up on Guytons right shouler from deeper. They have Parrish surrounded. Guyton puts his head down and then *ducks* to avoid getting hit by Meriweather rather than making the tackle, taking out Meriweather in the process. (Wilhite took a bad angle as well). Guyton manages to stay on his feet and pursue Parrish and amazingly avoids *another* tackle by jumping over the pile as Chung and Arrington finally bring him down. Guyton is a disaster waiting to happen. I can see understand the staff keeps playing him, he's fast and agile enough to play safety in the big nickle, but watch him closely: he consistently avoids contact. Put him out there with James "Protractor" Sanders and you're going to give up a lot of big plays....

 

[PatsFan37]

Great stuff, PatsPsycho. Box knows how much I enjoy these threads. Looking forward to the Jets breakdown.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Speaking of which, please feel free to kick in with your observations at any time and I hope that Pats1, Unoriginal, or Jays52 will do the same, although I haven't seen Pats1 post in a long time.

I've been unable to set down and re-watch the game, but I'm glad you and others are stepping in to pick up the slack.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Reviewing this game again, just replayed that one a few times. It was a 3rd & 18 play. The announcers were saying Buffalo had failed on 40 consecutive 3rd & 10+, which is almost unbelievable. The principal stooge is Guyton on this one. He was in best position position to make the tackle, facing Parrish head 1 yard away after the reception. Wilhite is closing from behind and Meriweather coming up on Guytons right shouler from deeper. They have Parrish surrounded. Guyton puts his head down and then *ducks* to avoid getting hit by Meriweather rather than making the tackle, taking out Meriweather in the process. (Wilhite took a bad angle as well). Guyton manages to stay on his feet and pursue Parrish and amazingly avoids *another* tackle by jumping over the pile as Chung and Arrington finally bring him down. Guyton is a disaster waiting to happen. I can see understand the staff keeps playing him, he's fast and agile enough to play safety in the big nickle, but watch him closely: he consistently avoids contact. Put him out there with James "Protractor" Sanders and you're going to give up a lot of big plays....

Guyton may not be as physical as an NFL liunebacker should be, but I blame Merriweather on that one. He expected Parrish to dive forward between Wilhite and Guyton to pick up an extra yard and put his helmet down to get in the classic-U cheap shot at the spot where he thought Parrish would hit the ground. Only problem is Parrish wasn't there, and Merriweather knocked Wilhite off the tackle completely and helped Guyton lose his grip on the man as well. I do think Guyton should have had the tackle anyways, but if Merriweather had just done his job as a safety, like Sanders would have, the play would not have gone for a first down. He may have a more appealing style than Guyton, but stupid overaggressiveness directly led to both that first down and Spiller's first TD. There's probably no hope for making Guyton tougher. He is what he is and fills a role, but Merriweather needs to get his head screwed on straight and do his job consistently.

 

[Calciumee]

Great breakdown Thanks.

 

[Kasmir]

Guyton may not be as physical as an NFL liunebacker should be, but I blame Merriweather on that one. He expected Parrish to dive forward between Wilhite and Guyton to pick up an extra yard and put his helmet down to get in the classic-U cheap shot at the spot where he thought Parrish would hit the ground. Only problem is Parrish wasn't there, and Merriweather knocked Wilhite off the tackle completely and helped Guyton lose his grip on the man as well. I do think Guyton should have had the tackle anyways, but if Merriweather had just done his job as a safety, like Sanders would have, the play would not have gone for a first down. He may have a more appealing style than Guyton, but stupid overaggressiveness directly led to both that first down and Spiller's first TD. There's probably no hope for making Guyton tougher. He is what he is and fills a role, but Merriweather needs to get his head screwed on straight and do his job consistently.

My guess is that Meriweather aggressively assumed that Guyton -- who was in perfect position -- would engage Parrish and then he (Meri) would finish him off. Problem was that Meriweather "distracted" Guyton who turtled and didn't lay a hand on Parrish, who then spun around him to get the first down. At least Meriweather was being aggressive. Guyton's play in this case couldn't be worse, has no excuse, and is part of an unfortunate pattern of non-aggressive play on his part.

Sanders would have blown the angle no doubt, as he does alarmingly often. On the 3rd quarter 17 yard run around right end he was unblocked for a tackle at the LOS and dove and whiffed as he tends to do. The contrast with Chung (who made the ultimate tackle) is amazing. Chung is a deadly tackler. Sanders misses a tackle or two per game, and when he's at free safety, that usually means points.

Sanders and Guyton are both smart players, which no doubt has a lot to do with why they're on the field. But Belichick can't be surprised that these guys give up big plays consistently, as they did last year and they continue to do this year.

 

[PatsfanGlo]

Thanks for in-depth analysis. Thank god for posters like you who actually put up posts with some kind of substance. Please keep them coming!:rocker:

 

[Mainefan]

This hardly needs to be said, but I'll say it anyhow: It is for threads like these that I come to Patsfans. I am in awe of the football knowledge on display and even a pass-catch-touchdown fan like me can't help but learn things.

 

[p8ryts]

This hardly needs to be said, but I'll say it anyhow: It is for threads like these that I come to Patsfans. I am in awe of the football knowledge on display and even a pass-catch-touchdown fan like me can't help but learn things.

Amen to that.
I have a question for psycho. Someone mentioned McCourty not turning on the Keller TD. It seems to me that Butler for example frequently is in position to make a play on the ball but doesn't turn for the ball. McCourty has done the same thing a few times. Does BB teach them this technique. I know they should watch the receiver but at some point they need to look for the ball. When they do, there will be some picks.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Amen to that.
I have a question for psycho. Someone mentioned McCourty not turning on the Keller TD. It seems to me that Butler for example frequently is in position to make a play on the ball but doesn't turn for the ball. McCourty has done the same thing a few times. Does BB teach them this technique. I know they should watch the receiver but at some point they need to look for the ball. When they do, there will be some picks.

I'm sure they are taught at some point to look for the ball, but they are also being taught to not stare down the QB because good QBs will redirect them to open up the throwing lanes. I believe they are coached to read the WR and then turn to look for the ball, Randy Moss tries to wait until the last moment to raise his arms, I imagine he and other good receivers work on techniques which will limit a CB's ability to read the play off their body language. Rookies like McCourty haven't watched enough tape or played in enough game situations to make all the reads.

 

[Horace's Ivories]

I love your breakdown and your points about the Jets very well taken. Rewatching the Bills game gives me more hope than pessimism - and for sure this D will continue to improve.

 

[Horace's Ivories]

Got another look at that Meriweather play that allowed the CJ Spiller TD, and it confirmed my initial suspicion that he chose to go inside and underneath for the interception (freelancing) rather than playing it safe and staying on top. It was a poor decision right from the start and he knew it, but got caught and couldn't do anything about it.

Ok - thanks for that- I probably rewound that play about 6 times trying to figure out WTF Merriweather was doing as it seemed completely illogical .. downright stupid

 

[Patspsycho]

I'm sure they are taught at some point to look for the ball, but they are also being taught to not stare down the QB because good QBs will redirect them to open up the throwing lanes. I believe they are coached to read the WR and then turn to look for the ball, Randy Moss tries to wait until the last moment to raise his arms, I imagine he and other good receivers work on techniques which will limit a CB's ability to read the play off their body language. Rookies like McCourty haven't watched enough tape or played in enough game situations to make all the reads.

Couldn't have said it better.

Most vets are pretty good at not selling their hands until the last minute, and any QB that's any good, will not telegraph his throw or lead with his eyes.

BB does teach you to read the player then look for the ball. I forgot where I read about this.

 

[sg14]

I thoroughly enjoy this analysis, can't get this anywhere but here,,

But can someone expand on the Jets collection of "talented but troubled vets"? Going down hill??

I can see Rex's ability to deal with all players, in some ways his strong personality reminds me of Parcells, in his own way. Right now I don't see all that negativity with the Jets team/ talent.

I also don't mind seeing the Jets start out hot because it is pretty hard to maintain, am hopefull we will pass by them by later this season.

Thanks

Too many people want short term results, and that is just not going to happen.

The Jets opted to go all in for this year, we didn't. We opted to build slowly from the ground up, not to build our house on sand, the way the Jets did. I am one of the very few posters here who did not have a problem with them beating us. Why wouldn't they? They have a collection of talented but troubled players, and all of them are vets with their bags of tricks. Are they going to get better next year? No. Are we? Yes. We're building for the next five years, they aren't. They're already going downhill.


The bottom line is that we will get better. We are going up, not down.

 

[Patspsycho]

3rd quarter, we came out with empty sets against the Bills but they voided that by playing cover 0 press on the 3rd and 4 that gave them the ball back. On the next offensive series, we came back with the Ace package, using Taylor as the RB, but he was ineffective so we took him out and plugged BJGE in, and never looked back. Just hammering in there and grinding away the clock. A good argument could be made that BJGE was the catalyst that got this offense clicking in the 2nd half because we were really in control by then, just producing clock-eating drives after that point, grinding downfield.

Looking at the interception by Chung, at first it seems like a badly thrown ball by Fitzgerald, but as you look closely, you see his first read is his TE on a seam but he has been double-teamed, and the important thing is that while he is reading his TE, he can see in his peripheral vision that Cunningham is absolutely crushing his flank, so he knows he has no time and just lets fly at his next read. A vet QB would have just thrown it out of bounds, but thanks to the pressure by Cunningham, Fitzgerald panicked.

 

[Kasmir]

3rd quarter, we came out with empty sets against the Bills but they voided that by playing cover 0 press on the 3rd and 4 that gave them the ball back. On the next offensive series, we came back with the Ace package, using Taylor as the RB, but he was ineffective so we took him out and plugged BJGE in, and never looked back. Just hammering in there and grinding away the clock. A good argument could be made that BJGE was the catalyst that got this offense clicking in the 2nd half because we were really in control by then, just producing clock-eating drives after that point, grinding downfield.

Looking at the interception by Chung, at first it seems like a badly thrown ball by Fitzgerald, but as you look closely, you see his first read is his TE on a seam but he has been double-teamed, and the important thing is that while he is reading his TE, he can see in his peripheral vision that Cunningham is absolutely crushing his flank, so he knows he has no time and just lets fly at his next read. A vet QB would have just thrown it out of bounds, but thanks to the pressure by Cunningham, Fitzgerald panicked.

From the second replay angle it looks like Cunningham might have actually got his left hand on Fitzpatrick as he was releasing.

 

[sbpatfan]

Is it just me or does Cunningham seem to get himself involved in a lot of important plays, even if doesn't count on the stat sheet?