Felger: Pats moving to a more "aggressive" scheme?

[doesntmatter1]

Gary Guyton sitting on the bench will go a long way for this team. He always gets blown off the line. He was the weakest lb at the combine and it shows on the field. As far as I am concerned, Mcgowan can do everything Guyton does but better. Guyton needs to seriously get stronger. Spikes hopefully will make a huge impact this season. He has shown the ability to blitz up the middle; something we have missed for awhile now.

 

[Patspsycho]

Any time this defense played a good QB, it got sliced and diced for the most part. Hell, Chad Henne made us look silly. Was that due to the lack of pressure and/or scheme OR the personnel and it's immaturity/miscommunication? I think it was a combination of both. Yes the defense blew assignments and showed its inexperience at times, but is that scheme really the best type of D to defend in this new NFL? As I said in the post above, it is a defense playing the percentages relying on the fact that the opponent will eventually make a mistake and in a way "beat themself." It seems like the QB's are getting better and better as an astonishing 10 QB's passed for more than 4,000 yards. That shows me that the passing game is becoming much more prolific and more and more QB's are becoming adept at throwing with precision and making intelligent decisions.

I don't think that "monster" OLB is an absolute need, but I do not see how it can hurt at all. Having a guy of that caliber will demand double teams and, in essence, will open up room for the other pass rushers to operate. I don't think this defense is built for the "elite" OLB type anyway. The Pats are never really going to have a guy with 15 sacks like a Ware because their OLB job is to engage their blocker and read run/pass and then react. Guys like Ware, Merriman, Woodley, Suggs etc. are all just coming after the QB on most plays, not having to worry about 2-gapping.

It specifically got sliced and diced by only one quarterback all season long, and that QB was Brees.

You could argue that Manning had his way late in the Colts game, but the defense was doing well for the most part what with the phantom PI party Polian & Co. seem to elicit every time we come to play, and we did have a chance to win that game.

Look at it this way: we were a very uncharacteristic 1-6 on the road, blew 3 leads (where we used to have just one loss in four or so years of holding onto a 2nd half lead), couldn't score in the 2nd half.

If not for those, we'd be at least 13-3, and at 13-3 would we be having arguments like this?

I get a real kick out of the fact that 10-6 is unacceptable around here. That just tells me how good this organization is, when they've raised the standard so high that 10 wins upsets a lot of people.

10 wins in a transition season, both for the defense and for Brady. How terrible.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Excellent posts by all...

I keep looking at the new Pats personel and keep thinking that a new defensive scheme is coming. If we suppose a 3-4 base the Pats would llok like this:
Warren-Wilfork-Warren/et al
Burgess-Spikes-Mayo-TBC/Cunningham
Bodden-Meriweather-Chung/Sanders-Butler

What if BB went 4-3 and did this?
Warren-Wilfork-Brace/Wright-Cunningham
Mayo-Spikes-Burgess/TBC
Bodden-Meriweather-Chung/Sanders-Butler

I think that Spikes is going to be the key. The kid was the true leader of that Florida defense for a few years. He just seems to be there to make big plays. Either way, he is going to free up Mayo to be much more of a penetrator. Guyton has no business playing on running downs, he will make a decent obvious passing downs sub for Spikes. What about McKenzie? Where does he fit in? Do we dare even mention Crable? The Pats seem to have a ton of POTENTIAL. Cunningham is the wild card. He has the skills to be a force at OLB or 4-3 DE, obviously you have to think with the closeness of BB to Urban and UF program, he knew what he was doing when he took Cunningham over Dunlap. You have to be excited about Butler's play last year. I thought that he kept getting better. Hopefully he can make a Meriweatherian leap in year two.

Some things I think will happen:

Either Sanders or McGowan will be traded before the season starts.
Spikes will take over at ILB and lead the defense.
Meriweather will continue to emerge as an elite player.
Kade Weston will be the Myron Pryor of this year, and will suprize a few people.
Pierre Woods will not make this team (thank God Almighty!)

Again, like everyone is saying, the defensive backfield has plenty of talent. The ILB corps seems to be set. Warren and Wilfork and as steady as evah, the real question remians at the other DE and OLB, which is of course, the pass rush.

I wish that the Pats could have come out of the draft with a Running back. I loved the two new TEs and think that Endleman is going to have a great year. The offense seems to have plenty of weapons, maybe Maroney will finally be the back that we hoped for. I just don't get the doom and gloom predictions of the national mediaits. This team has added some serious young talent at WR, TE, ILB, CB, S, & OL over the last few years. They still have the best QB on the planet and hoepfully not playing with broken ribs this year. And perhaps the biggest improvment, WE HAVE FINALLY DRAFTED A PUNTER!!!!!