Excellent article.
"The perfect example of how the Patriots adjust and adapt can come with the obvious — in the multitude of formations they’ve run this year — or the more subtle. Coming out of college, Maroney was thought to be a good fit for a zone running system. And that generally hasn’t been the Patriots’ way of playing offense, they’ve been more of a power running team. But it’s clear, again, that they’ll always adapt to their personnel, rather than the other way around. You won’t see as much of the outside zone runs (or stretch plays) with Maroney, because the Patriots’ offensive line isn’t built to do that consistently. But what was clear on Sunday was that when the rookie was in, the Patriots were dealing the Jags a heavy dose of inside zone runs, where the line influences the defense one way to create a backside cutback lane in the other direction. Though his touchdown came on what looked like a power off-tackle play, most of his other carries seemed to come on inside zone plays."
Good coaching & game plan by the OC.
And this...
"The bunch formations, out of the spread, that the Patriots ran made it tough for Jacksonville to matchup and the receivers did a good job of clearing out coverage for an underneath target. The Jaguars linebackers simply couldn’t break on the ball quick enough after recognizing where the receivers were going. So credit goes to Josh McDaniels, for creating those matchups with Jacksonville’s plodding ‘backers"
It's nice to read observations and critiques on the coaching and techniques by someone who has an understanding of football.
