Curran:Loss all on McCourty

[supafly]

Shame on our defensive coaches for allowing Flacco to sit back and pick apart our substandard defensive backfield.

From what I understood, the clear cut approach to defending him was NOT to blitz and to try to make him hit the open targets.

Flacco has excellent #'s vs the blitz, and much lesser #'s when attempting to throw into coverage.

It was a choice not to blitz as part of the gameplan, although there were likely times when it could have been used too.

The CB's are what gave this game away. The gameplan was working as Gregory made a nice pick in the beginning, which likely only intensified their approach.

 

[supafly]

Ty Law had a lucid observation ... why can't a guy get up near the LOS and bump somebody off his route, or at least TRY when they have safety help over the top? McCourty was not even trying to get that contact and that is mystifying. Ty says they are playing PREVENT all the time. Why?? Can they distrust both safety and corner that much to blow it on a single receiver?

No wonder we never blitz. This is like a No Confidence approach that is a gift to the QB when the front four can't get the pressure.

As I said in the previous post, the gameplan was not to blitz. Flacco has incredible numbers vs the blitz that dramatically fall off when you make him throw into coverage. This approach worked to perfection when Gregory made the easy pick, and McCourty dropped 2 others.

Unfortunately, you can't take horrible PI penalties, and you also have to cover the WR. That's what they lacked at crucial times.

And I'm not sure what Ty Law is talking about, as the NBC cameras regularly showed the DB's smacking the WR's right off the line of scrimmage.

McCourty may not have been doing that, but it's no surprise there. He was probably the only one not bumping the WR's off the line though, at least from what they continuously showed.

 

[BananaRepublican]

Why is he is one-on-one most of the time?

He's not according to Ty Law. He's playing soft even with safety help. Ty says they are playing PREVENT all the time, no contact in the five yards is even attempted. Bizarre stuff if you ask me. It's obviously not McCourty's decision to play soft. If the coaches wanted him to play up in somebody's face then he would. They must fear that the receiver will get by him, but there is a safety over the top so what is this all about? It's nothing I will ever figure out, so I'm just asking an empty question that can't be answered even by Ty Law.

 

[Deus Irae]

As I said in the previous post, the gameplan was not to blitz. Flacco has incredible numbers vs the blitz that dramatically fall off when you make him throw into coverage. This approach worked to perfection when Gregory made the easy pick, and McCourty dropped 2 others.

Unfortunately, you can't take horrible PI penalties, and you also have to cover the WR. That's what they lacked at crucial times.

And I'm not sure what Ty Law is talking about, as the NBC cameras regularly showed the DB's smacking the WR's right off the line of scrimmage.

McCourty may not have been doing that, but it's no surprise there. He was probably the only one not bumping the WR's off the line though, at least from what they continuously showed.

As one analyst put it, on that last PI, McCourty missed the jam, fell behind on the play and ran up the back of the receiver trying to catch back up without looking for the ball.

 

[supafly]

Ty says they are playing PREVENT all the time, no contact in the five yards is even attempted.

That's just flat out incorrect, BR.

Maybe they didn't do it enough, but there were plenty of times that the defense smacked the WR coming off the line, and handed him over.

The NBC crew went into great detail about the Pats pushing the envelope with what they deemed being past 5 yrds (not that I agree, or that they were even saying that it was necessarily wrong, only that they were pushing the limit).

 

[supafly]

As one analyst put it, on that last PI, McCourty missed the jam, fell behind on the play and ran up the back of the receiver trying to catch back up without looking for the ball.

That's probably a pretty accurate description in my opinion too Deus, at least on that last play anyway.

I am disagreeing though, that they did not attempt to, or even jam/smack the WR's coming off the line, as we saw them doing that and the announcers even pointed it out.

Maybe Ty Law is talking about something entirely different than me, in which case I may be incorrect, but I swear we saw them jamming the WR's at times. Maybe they just did not do it enough, and that is what Law is referring to?

 

[Deus Irae]

That's probably a pretty accurate description in my opinion too Deus, at least on that last play anyway.

I am disagreeing though, that they did not attempt to, or even jam/smack the WR's coming off the line, as we saw them doing that and the announcers even pointed it out.

Maybe Ty Law is talking about something entirely different than me, in which case I may be incorrect, but I swear we saw them jamming the WR's at times. Maybe they just did not do it enough, and that is what Law is referring to?

Ty was probably generalizing based off of the past. The style he's mentioning is what the Patriots have been playing mostly since about 2006. They tried more bump and run man last year, but got killed with it and switched back. They seem to be trying again this year, unfortunately to similar effect.

 

[Easywolf32]

I thought Arrington had a much more worse, disastrous even, game than Mcourty, helloooooooo mcflyyyyyyy we need cornerbackssssss been 4 seasons now without one hellllllllllllloooooooooooooooo

 

[sly24]

Chandler Jones was invisible last night for the most part, but you have to expect games like that from a rookie vs elite LTs.

To be fair to Jones, I thought he was being held by Oher on almost every play.

 

[Sciz]

To be fair to Jones, I thought he was being held by Oher on almost every play.

Oher is a movie away from being called a complete bust. Pretty much nothing he did last night was legal.

 

[Joker]

To be fair to Jones, I thought he was being held by Oher on almost every play.

well...nice thinking...what my eyes told me was he WAS held continuously...and my eyes told me he had a clutch 13 yard sack late in the game...negated by phantom bullcrap...AFTER the game is when I started thinking...and then I started getting real angry...I'm better today, though...especially now, in the wake of this preposterous Vince McMahon-like farce tonight.

 

[goheels22002]

As I watched the game last night I saw a secondary that looked eerily similar to the one we saw last year. I believe this team is going to reel off a nice winning streak starting with Buffalo but we won't win the superbowl unless the secondary can get it together.

Put any secondary back there you like. If the front seven do not touch the opposing quarterback nor sack him even once, they'll get picked apart.

The Patriots secondary was gassed at the end of the game while Joe Flacco was fresh as a daisy. I'd like to see lots more uneven pressure packages and safety blitzes to smack the QB around a little. You risk the big play, but in a game like this, it's worth the risk.

Somebody quoted Ty Law or Tedy Bruschi on this thread or another one saying the pass rush was limited to the front four all game. Part of what required that approach was Ray Rice. Clearly, the plan was to contain him. That leaves the DBs on their own back there.

Baltimore did a great job with a balanced attack. The Ravens' offensive line did an excellent job all night long.

 

[Nunchucks]

I thought Arrington had a much worse game than McCourty.

As for Chandler Jones, I am surprised that his Jersey is still in one piece after being held so much.

 

[Kontradiction]

Put any secondary back there you like. If the front seven do not touch the opposing quarterback nor sack him even once, they'll get picked apart.

The Patriots secondary was gassed at the end of the game while Joe Flacco was fresh as a daisy. I'd like to see lots more uneven pressure packages and safety blitzes to smack the QB around a little. You risk the big play, but in a game like this, it's worth the risk.

Somebody quoted Ty Law or Tedy Bruschi on this thread or another one saying the pass rush was limited to the front four all game. Part of what required that approach was Ray Rice. Clearly, the plan was to contain him. That leaves the DBs on their own back there.

Baltimore did a great job with a balanced attack. The Ravens' offensive line did an excellent job all night long.

1. If the game plan was to contain Ray Rice, then the mission was a miserable failure.

2. Baltimore's O-Line only looked that good because they were raping our DE's the majority of the time.

 

[Kontradiction]

I thought Arrington had a much worse game than McCourty.

As for Chandler Jones, I am surprised that his Jersey is still in one piece after being held so much.

Both of them had off games. The secondary couldn't stop the Baltimore arial attack to save it's life. In essence, they were left out to dry by the front seven's inability to get pressure. How much of that was due to how much they were held is up for debate.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I wouldn't say that the loss is all on DMc, but the fact that if he made the plays (and did not get called for the PA) down the stretch, they most likely would have won the game.

The guy simply is not a very good man-to-man defender and is incredibly inconsistent. His ball skills are also sub-standard. I also assume that there is a confidence issue. I can't even explain that sorry attempt of a tackle...ug

The guy should be playing FS full-time. End of story. BB has a pretty good sample size to judge from now. The results are clear.

 

[FredFromDartmouth]

To be fair to Jones, I thought he was being held by Oher on almost every play.

Yup. Jones had some good moves but he was held every time. And it was way more obvious than the chicken-bleep holding call on Gronk in the triple TE set that destroyed the Patriots momentum.

Traditionally holding calls are the way refs influence games but have seen few games as blatantly rigged as this game. The integrity of the game (such as it was) has been destroyed.

How much was bet on the game? 50 million...who knows. How much are the scabs paid? A few thousand a game or so?

 

[Ring 6]

So you're saying you don't have a problem with the fact that McCourty screwed up, just when he screwed up? He probably screwed up both times. For some reason McCourty can't play man defense anymore. Never turns his head around. And the dropped interceptions were pretty bad as well. Not sure how you can defend this player. He needs to learn to step it up, because right now he is a weak link on defense. I'm not gonna blame the whole loss on him, it's always a team loss but he was definitely a weak link.

Well, if thats what I was saying, I would have said that.
Frankly in the situation of the DPI, I would want them to try to throw it 30 yards downfield, so I can undertand a corner overplaying short routes.
Of course, I accept that no player never gets beaten, and don't search to place blame to make me feel better, so maybe we just have different angles on the topic.

 

[Ring 6]

As one analyst put it, on that last PI, McCourty missed the jam, fell behind on the play and ran up the back of the receiver trying to catch back up without looking for the ball.

He really didnt attempt a jam.
Right or wrong it appears he was playing expecting a route run near the sticks on 3rd and 9 at the 34, which is a reasonable assumption.

 

[Rob0729]

Ty Law had a lucid observation ... why can't a guy get up near the LOS and bump somebody off his route, or at least TRY when they have safety help over the top? McCourty was not even trying to get that contact and that is mystifying. Ty says they are playing PREVENT all the time. Why?? Can they distrust both safety and corner that much to blow it on a single receiver?

No wonder we never blitz. This is like a No Confidence approach that is a gift to the QB when the front four can't get the pressure.

They showed on the broadcast (at least early), both McCourty and Arrington were bumping receivers off the line of scrimmage. Collinsworth pointed it out and they showed highlighted tape of both sides doing that. Maybe they did it less and less as the game went along.

I don't get where Law is saying this because at least at times the Pats were playing press coverage. Towards the end they got soft and went into a deep shell.