In Your Opinion - What is the impact on the defense re: Spikes being out?

[The Boston Patriot]

The Bears game especially, but also the remaining schedule.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Gary Guyton should see more tackles and Dane Fletcher more reps.

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

Unlike the trading of Seymour, the retirement of Bruschi, the year long injury of Brady and needing to rely on a kid who hadn't played since high school, the mid season trading of a HOF WR, the loss of Branch, the loss of Seau, the lose of Asante, this will be the loss that finally kills the NEP. We are done. We go 0-4 all because of his suspension. :bricks:








Next man up! We will be fine. We still win the AFCE.

 

[unpreDITKAble]

Unlike the trading of Seymour, the retirement of Bruschi, the year long injury of Brady and needing to rely on a kid who hadn't played since high school, the mid season trading of a HOF WR, the loss of Branch, the loss of Seau, the lose of Asante, this will be the loss that finally kills the NEP. We are done. We go 0-4 all because of his suspension. :bricks:








Next man up! We will be fine. We still win the AFCE.

LOL easily wrapped up.. You guys lost a Rookie LB.. not that guy.. uhh Bill Belichick who can probably work with dog **** and make them one of the best.

 

[Kontradiction]

LOL easily wrapped up.. You guys lost a Rookie LB.. not that guy.. uhh Bill Belichick who can probably work with dog **** and make them one of the best.

Spikes is important to our run defense. That will take a bit of a hit. I expect a steady dose of Fletcher and Guyton.

 

[HomerSchooled]

Of all our starters or near starters, I feel like Spikes might be among our most dispensable. Not to diminish his contributions or anything, but he's a rookie in a fairly deep unit. Plus, he'll be back for the post-season. I'm not too worried.

 

[JSn]

Guyton an Fletcher will play well and Spikes will return but have to work his way into confidence during a playoff push. Remember Guyton filled in a bunch for Mayo and did pretty good. He's got skills and knows the system really well.

Good thing the Pats were able to intall the game-plan knowing about this, however.

 

[Haley]

I'm more concerned about Chung and whether or not he is in an appeals process for something similar.

I'm sure we'll notice Spikes absence but I can't imagine it would be the difference between winning the division vs not.

 

[Deus Irae]

Unlike the trading of Seymour, the retirement of Bruschi, the year long injury of Brady and needing to rely on a kid who hadn't played since high school, the mid season trading of a HOF WR, the loss of Branch, the loss of Seau, the lose of Asante, this will be the loss that finally kills the NEP. We are done. We go 0-4 all because of his suspension. :bricks:








Next man up! We will be fine. We still win the AFCE.

The absence of Brady coincided with a season missing the playoffs. The absence of Seymour coincided with a pummeling at the hands of the Ravens, at home, in the wild card round.



Sometimes the smartass route is not the best way to go.

 

[unpreDITKAble]

The absence of Brady coincided with a season missing the playoffs. The absence of Seymour coincided with a pummeling at the hands of the Ravens, at home, in the wild card round.



Sometimes the smartass route is not the best way to go.

LOL, but are you really going to compare brady and seymour to spikes? nooo wayy. I think that's what he was trying to point out. Compared to them spikes is miniscule in your loss.

 

[sbpatfan]

The loss of Spikes is disappointing more than anything. I imagine we'll be seeing the three safety nickel a bit more.

 

[Deus Irae]

LOL, but are you really going to compare brady and seymour to spikes? nooo wayy. I think that's what he was trying to point out. Compared to them spikes is miniscule in your loss.

But when you're trying to belittle the loss, it behooves you to avoid putting in players that actually HAVE resulted in the team being significantly impacted in a negative manner when you've got others on the list that just don't reach that same sort of level. I mean... the loss of Seau?

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

We lost Ted Johnson to sudden retirement and we lost Bruschi to a stroke for awhile....we still won games

....and Spikes is no Bruschi or Johnson...yet

 

[sarge]

The absence of Brady coincided with a season missing the playoffs.

You are correct, the first 11-5 team in over 20 years to miss the playoffs

 

[convertedpatsfan]

While Spikes came off the field a lot and didn't play in sub packages, he was still extremely productive, second on the team in tackles. As an example, he played only 23 snaps against the Jets (out of 65), but still finished with 7 tackles, plus the INT at the goal line. He's solid against the run, and Guyton hasn't been very good in this area in the past.

Guyton has really improved, but there will be some level of drop-off here. Hopefully he has made significant strides in this area because we're going against one of the top running backs and weather conditions are probably going to mean both teams run the ball a lot.

 

[Trocadile]

In my opinion, there's a significant drop-off from Spikes to Guyton when you are talking about run defense. So, if there really are 30 mph winds in Chicago, his loss becomes more important given the likely greater emphasis on the run.

As for Fletcher, I haven't seen enough of him against the run to judge.

 

[unoriginal]

Of all our starters or near starters, I feel like Spikes might be among our most dispensable. Not to diminish his contributions or anything, but he's a rookie in a fairly deep unit. Plus, he'll be back for the post-season. I'm not too worried.

That unit isn't all that deep when Dane Fletcher is the first guy off the bench.

One possibility might be to go with a heavy base line of Wilfork at DE, Kyle Love at NT and someone like Brace or Deaderick at the weakside spot in order to keep guards off of Guyton and Fletcher. But then again I don't think Love has been as effective controlling his gap as his size says he should be.

Maybe they just say **** it and go back to a 2001 vintage 4-3 on base downs. Maybe they got Eric Moore just for this situation. Who knows?