EVERY team has a weakness - Where is that on this team?

[SVN]

inconsistency of josh mcdaniels's play calling.
inconsistency on o line.
depth at TE.

 

[JR4]

If LBer's stay heathy there is no weakness there IMO.
With AD, they are plenty fast for the 3-4 D PATs use and they are BIG.

I agree with someone who said Oline. ... I need to see consistency.
One other potential weakness is Blitz pickup. Faulk is pretty good but he's not
in there all the time.

Teams that are real good at pressuring the QB will give PATs the most
challenge. IMO.

 

[sieglo]

I am going to say some of the weak-tit performances by the hometown crowd at Gillette. People don't make enough noise. Last year we actually had a home field disadvantage in Foxboro, winning more road games than home games.

 

[mgteich]

bb and pioli disagree with you guys with regard to LT. They are fine with Light as starter, and with Kaczur and Britt as backups. We had an opportunity to add a first round tackle. We chose to trade the pick. Many of us would ahve deafted the tackle.

 

[Mike the Brit]

That is your number one weakness on this team? That sounds kinf of silly.


The number one weakness on this team is the lb corps. Anyone with a HOF qb is screwed if he goes down. If Palmer or Manning went down both the bengals and colts would be totally screwed. While Matt is no Brady, I think he is better then a handful of backups in this leauge.

Rb depth could be an issue. I dont think it is a huge one.

Well, I'm sorry, but I think we need to keep in mind that what looked like good match-ups for the Patriots last season may not be this season, as other teams work on their weaknesses.

 

[Rob0729]

There was Marcus McNeil-played outstanding with SD.

There was also Winston Justice(OK, a RT, but he nonetheless protected Matt Leinart's Blind Side)-he fell to the second round b/c of character issues.

McNeil was a late second round pick. Justice was a second round pick too. My point was drafting a OT in the first round is a big gamble where you are more likely to lose to win at least based on the players coming out of the draft this century so far. The last studs first round LT to come out of the draft were Orlando Pace and Walter Jones (both in 1997). There have been some first round draft picks who became great RTs (like John Tait) or guards (Shawn Andrews), but there has only been a couple of good LTs.

Hence I think drafting a LT in the first round is a huge gamble. You are better off addressing that need in a later round, but it is still a crapshoot.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

i think kicking, both punting and field goals

Without a doubt.

 

[QuiGon]

The Pats seem to be loaded in just about every possible catagory but if you had to pick an area of where it may have a bit of a weak spot then where is it?

Offensive backfield. I know we all love Maroney, but right now he is unproven as a 16 game, #1 guy.

 

[Rob0729]

i think kicking, both punting and field goals

With Chris Hanson as our punter, I will move punting up to the top of the list. I am not concerned about field goals yet. Gostkowski had a very good rookie season and several missed field goals in the preseason (at least one of them being over 50 yards and another in the rain) isn't going to make me panick just yet.

 

[TomBrady'sGoat]

defensive speed, namely at LB and S.

I cringe whenever a opponent catches a ball in stride against the defense. If the defender misses the tackle he's likely gone.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

bb and pioli disagree with you guys with regard to LT. They are fine with Light as starter, and with Kaczur and Britt as backups. We had an opportunity to add a first round tackle. We chose to trade the pick. Many of us would ahve deafted the tackle.

Seems they have reason:

      Sacks/Pass Attempts                      %complete
Losman        11%                                62.5%
Rothlisberger  9.8%                              59.7%
Hasselbeck     9.2%                              56.6%
Bulger         8.3%                              62.9%
Palmer         6.9%                              62.3%
McNabb         6.6%                              57%
Pennington     6.2%                              64.5%
Rivers         5.9%                              61.7%
[b][color=red]Brady          5%                                61.8%[/color][/b]
Harrington     3.9%                              57.5%
Favre          3.4%                              56%
Brees          3.2%                              64.3%
Manning        2.5%                              65%

Yds gained 1557 (3rd AFC)

If you rank AFCE Quarterbacks by sack percentage it goes: Harrington, Brady, Pennington, Losman. That Jason Taylor guy must be pretty good.

You can see where Tommy ranks in terms of the "consensus" elite QBs in the league (I think Rothlisberger and Favre don't belong, but they seem to be in the public/mediot consensus). Add in the fact that Maroney and Dillon combined to rank third in rushing yards in the AFC (the most competitive conference) and you can say that the Pats O-line, including the LT, gets the job done fairly well.

Light and Kaczur are almost interchangeable at LT when you look at the numbers, which suggests the Pats have done a decent job of building depth at LT too.

Source: http://snap.stats.com/stats/nflinfo/index.asp

Regarding the Pats greatest weakness at this point in preseason: kick/punt coverage.

I'm not concerned with: backup QB, backup RB, ILB. I do agree with p8yrts that the O-line/RB familiarity is an issue since Dillon and Maroney combined to match Larry Johnson as the most stuffed RB in the AFC last season...but that is also something that will get better as the season goes on and Maroney gets more comfortable with reading his blockers. I also hope Morris gets more reps in the run game to improve his blocking reads for playoff insurance.

 

[patsox23]

Linebacker depth.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

Here was an exercise I mused over a couple of days ago...

Say you could swap out any player in the starting lineup for a well-above-average but not superstar NFL starter at the postion. What position would you choose?

I found myself thinking left tackle.

Matt Light's been solid, hate to speak ill of him, but I wouldn't be a smidgen surprised to see an OT in round 1 next year.

Bingo!

Our O-line has been inconsistent for the last two years. In my opinion, it is the most unaddressed area of concern on the team. Because I believe that Brady is the bedrock of this franchise.

I would be thrilled if I am proven wrong on this, not based on the Carolina preseason game, but based on a 16+ game schedule, week after week after week.

Here's hoping I am wrong. Here's hoping that the O-line is consistent from start to finish and Brady doesn't take nearly as many late hits.