Josh McDaniels failure to make adjustments

[MrNathanDrake]

There was very little help for the Offensive Tackles all game, even though they obviously needed it. This was pure stubbornness and arrogance from Josh McDaniels.

They were counting on Brady getting the ball out in 2 seconds every snap. They thought they could come in with the exact same game plan they had against the Chiefs and impose their will. It failed from the very first possession and the coaches never made adjustments.


Even after Ware and Miller abused our OT's, the Patriots failed to adjust and give the OT's any help in the 2nd half from TE's and RB's. Whats the point of having a 285lbs TE like Michael Williams if we never use him to help block? Why did we pick up Scott Chandler if we aren't going to use the 2 TE set?

Even after showing that we couldn't establish a run game, we still didnt get James White active in the passing game until the 4th qtr. That's when our offense finally started moving, but it was too late. Did we forget how big of a role Vereen played as a pass catcher against the Seahawks in SB 49? He was the x-factor that night and White could've provided a spark earlier on.

It seemed Brady was locked on Gronkowski from the first snap throughout the entire game. Why not get Keshawn Martin more involved? Why was LaFell even on the field (0 catches, 0 yards)? All LaFell did was take up a spot that could've been used to help block for Brady.

Far too predictable. Far too vanilla. No trick plays. No end arounds. Straight runs up the middle failing every time. No runs off tackle. No pitches. No screen plays. Nothing. The way I will remember that game is Brady getting killed and forcing it to Gronk every chance he got. Worst offensive game plan ever?

 

[letekro]

I would have loved to have seen more end arounds, would've been cool to see Miller and Ware take the handoffs directly and walk in for touchdowns.

 

[SVN]

They won the SB last yr by calling a great game. They get a pass for the whole yr IMO .

 

[I.M. Fletcher]

Not sure where to begin. When you have no protection and no running game, you are going to lose. Every time. The fact this still came down the last play of the game is a miracle of epic proportions.

James white lead our team in targets. If white comes down with 1 or 2 more throws, we win the game.

I am not sure how you can blame Brady for throwing it to Gronk when he was the only receiver who showed anything all day.

If you have to keep 7 guys home to block 4 rushers, it means there is going to be 7 defenders on 3 receivers. You lose that battle every time with the secondary Denver has.. The reason why White lead our team in targets is because that is the only safety valve you have when you have no protection and your top receivers are getting double or triple teamed. The problem is, you need time for plays to develop for running backs down field. We had time zero percent of the game.

What trick plays did you want to see? Double passes? you need time and space and at least the threat of a run for that to have a chance. Jet sweep? Did you see any elusiveness at all from Edelman yesterday? Or Amendola? You cant jet sweep if you cant trust your receiver to make it around the corner.

We played a team whose strength completely matched up against our biggest flaw, and they exploited it. Brady missed some throws early, and got hit a lot as the game went along. No amount of trick plays or extra men blocking would have changed that.

 

[danmateus]

There was very little help for the Offensive Tackles all game, even though they obviously needed it. This was pure stubbornness and arrogance from Josh McDaniels.

They were counting on Brady getting the ball out in 2 seconds every snap. They thought they could come in with the exact same game plan they had against the Chiefs and impose their will. It failed from the very first possession and the coaches never made adjustments.


Even after Ware and Miller abused our OT's, the Patriots failed to adjust and give the OT's any help in the 2nd half from TE's and RB's. Whats the point of having a 285lbs TE like Michael Williams if we never use him to help block? Why did we pick up Scott Chandler if we aren't going to use the 2 TE set?

Even after showing that we couldn't establish a run game, we still didnt get James White active in the passing game until the 4th qtr. That's when our offense finally started moving, but it was too late. Did we forget how big of a role Vereen played as a pass catcher against the Seahawks in SB 49? He was the x-factor that night and White could've provided a spark earlier on.

It seemed Brady was locked on Gronkowski from the first snap throughout the entire game. Why not get Keshawn Martin more involved? Why was LaFell even on the field (0 catches, 0 yards)? All LaFell did was take up a spot that could've been used to help block for Brady.

Far too predictable. Far too vanilla. No trick plays. No end arounds. Straight runs up the middle failing every time. No runs off tackle. No pitches. No screen plays. Nothing. The way I will remember that game is Brady getting killed and forcing it to Gronk every chance he got. Worst offensive game plan ever?

There's enough of a sample size under Josh to see how and why he failed as a head coach.

 

[JMC00]

I can't **** on him. How about the OL block halfway decent or Ghost make the XP or Brady not force it to Gronk that set denver up at the 15 or BB take the FG with 6 minutes left and 3 TOs with his defense absolutely stifling the denver offense in the 2nd half.


Ya let's forget about the game plan last week that rolled over the team that was being hailed as the best defense since mid-season

 

[blackglass3]

Edelman was (is) more hurt than he was letting on, IMHO. I wouldn't be shocked if he rebroke his foot bone very early on, but refused to come out. Amendola is also hurting, and that just equaled our team looking really bad for most of the day.

I don't think Josh refused to change the game plan, I think we were running on empty and it finally caught up to us. We just have to hope that next year we don't get ravaged by injuries. And credit Denver, they did a great job.

 

[Sciz]

How the hell do you adjust to three individual offensive linemen consistently losing their matchups? Sticking a tight end on the field doesn't fix that.

 

[ausbacker]

- Their best OL on IR
- Their best bruising RB on IR
- Their best scatback RB on IR
- Their best young guard inactive

So, you've got 2 offensive linemen, their thumper and one of the most in form RBs in the league all sitting this one out and people are wondering why the offense sputtered against a very good defense yesterday? In light of all of that, the Patriots had the opportunity for 6 easy points which they passed over and had the opportunity to tie the game with a 2 point conversion.

I was disappointed with the lack of variety yesterday (especially the poor use of the snap count) but the more I think about it, the more impressed I am by the defensive performance of Denver, especially Von Miller. It wasn't anything spectacular or scheme impressive, they simply executed and made plays. You can't blame McDaniels for that.

 

[TeamFirst]

Losing Dion Lewis and not having a replacement hurt this offense big time.

James White was a huge disappointment yesterday and was targeted something like 16 times.

They didn't replace the important pieces they lost to injury and thought they could get by.

The lack of replacing the key injuries cost this team the win yesterday and a few others during the season not JM.

 

[pctronics0072]

Does not work that way. We lost because the OL catastrophically failed. Period.

Denver was pressuring Brady in < 2 seconds by rushing 3 people against our 5 man OL. That means they blanket the field with 8 players. McDaniels had one choice to counter and that was to go 5 wide. This means 3 of the 5 will be double covered and the other 2will be single covered.

Let's say he kept TE Williams in to block. That means 4 receiving threats, 1 qb, and 6 OL/blockers. Assumption: Williams is not going to take a double team to beat. That means rushing 4 they will pressure Brady in less than 2 seconds. Only now we have 4 receiving threats versus their 7 players meaning only one is going to be single covered. Gronk and edel person are obvious doubles. You think Martin or Dola-dude can beat double coverage in 2 seconds reliably?

McDaniels did adjust by going 5 wide every time, essentially. It was not enough. Not every flaw can be fixed by game plan and this was one that we could not fix.

Ironic because I never thought that when Solder went down, that would be the injury that did us in.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Edelman was (is) more hurt than he was letting on, IMHO. I wouldn't be shocked if he rebroke his foot bone very early on, but refused to come out. Amendola is also hurting, and that just equaled our team looking really bad for most of the day.

I don't think Josh refused to change the game plan, I think we were running on empty and it finally caught up to us. We just have to hope that next year we don't get ravaged by injuries. And credit Denver, they did a great job.

yesterday had nothing to do with edelman or amendola. it had everything to do with protection, of which there was none.

if there was a personnel failure on the part of belichick it was not having depth at offensive tackle.

 

[tombonneau]

Pretty damning that they only ran one swing pass all game to counteract rush. As people said though, players need to execute. The OL was just not up to task.

I'd actually like to see more rushing attempts in thee games where pass rush is insane. I mean at least a shovel. Anything to try to make the ends not be 100% sure all they have to do is get to Brady.

 

[TB_Helmet]

How the hell do you adjust to three individual offensive linemen consistently losing their matchups? Sticking a tight end on the field doesn't fix that.

They had five O-linemen blocking three players, but the tackles were often 1 on 1 against Ware and Miller who would just run around them. Who are the guards blocking in that situation? I would have liked to see double team on Ware or Miller more frequently. The one time they brought Fleming in, he was then 1:1 with Miller, not even a double team with Cannon.

I thought they should have gone to the scheme they used against JJ Watt in the Houston game, even though he was hurt they were almost always double-teaming him. Would that have been effective against Miller? Sure you still have Ware on the other side, but seemed like Miller was the most disruptive.

Full disclosure: I don't know much about pass protection complexities so what I said could be wildly off-mark

 

[ivanvamp]

Not sure where to begin. When you have no protection and no running game, you are going to lose. Every time. The fact this still came down the last play of the game is a miracle of epic proportions.

James white lead our team in targets. If white comes down with 1 or 2 more throws, we win the game.

I am not sure how you can blame Brady for throwing it to Gronk when he was the only receiver who showed anything all day.

If you have to keep 7 guys home to block 4 rushers, it means there is going to be 7 defenders on 3 receivers. You lose that battle every time with the secondary Denver has.. The reason why White lead our team in targets is because that is the only safety valve you have when you have no protection and your top receivers are getting double or triple teamed. The problem is, you need time for plays to develop for running backs down field. We had time zero percent of the game.

What trick plays did you want to see? Double passes? you need time and space and at least the threat of a run for that to have a chance. Jet sweep? Did you see any elusiveness at all from Edelman yesterday? Or Amendola? You cant jet sweep if you cant trust your receiver to make it around the corner.

We played a team whose strength completely matched up against our biggest flaw, and they exploited it. Brady missed some throws early, and got hit a lot as the game went along. No amount of trick plays or extra men blocking would have changed that.

Guys, we need to keep in mind a few things.

1. The Broncos' defense played a game for the ages. Really. The most hits on a QB in 10 years? Incredible.

2. Peyton Manning played a very clean game. Not a great game, but at this stage of his career, he played as well as he could play.

3. Home field very much favored Denver here, as they teed off on the snap and Brady, due to the crowd noise, couldn't make snap call adjustments.

4. Denver got a few key calls from the refs (see: Did Broncos get away with pass interference on Gronkowski? - CBSSports.com).

5. The best kicker in the NFL - perhaps in the history of the sport - missed his first PAT since 2006.

6. Heck, even the stupid tablets went out on New England for about a quarter.

7. The Patriots were the most injured team in the NFL this season.

All that and the Patriots STILL only lost by two points. No other team with a similar number of injuries would have come close to the same success the Patriots had this year. No other team would have had their QB suffer the kind of beating Brady took yesterday and still would have been in the football game, never mind driving the team down the field for the tying touchdown in the waning moments.

We have a phenomenal team, with tremendous players and coaches. They don't get everything right. They're human. But they get a hell of a lot more right than wrong, and year in and year out they do one of the best jobs in the entire league.

 

[ivanvamp]

Losing Dion Lewis and not having a replacement hurt this offense big time.

James White was a huge disappointment yesterday and was targeted something like 16 times.

They didn't replace the important pieces they lost to injury and thought they could get by.

The lack of replacing the key injuries cost this team the win yesterday and a few others during the season not JM.

Why was White a disappointment? What did he do wrong? He was targeted a ton, but a bunch of times Brady missed him (due to pressure), and White all-out dove for two balls that he *just* missed.

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

This team was outcoached yesterday.Is that hard to say? I was surprised that some ol where inactive. Why was waddle inactive?

 

[Sciz]

They had five O-linemen blocking three players, but the tackles were often 1 on 1 against Ware and Miller who would just run around them. Who are the guards blocking in that situation? I would have liked to see double team on Ware or Miller more frequently. The one time they brought Fleming in, he was then 1:1 with Miller, not even a double team with Cannon.

I thought they should have gone to the scheme they used against JJ Watt in the Houston game, even though he was hurt they were almost always double-teaming him. Would that have been effective against Miller? Sure you still have Ware on the other side, but seemed like Miller was the most disruptive.

Full disclosure: I don't know much about pass protection complexities so what I said could be wildly off-mark

If we want to really oversimplify things, then it appears to me that Stork and Mason combined did okay blocking one guy but then the Broncos regularly won each of their three 1 on 1 situations. Obviously Mason is the guy you most worry about in that situation, so it makes sense that he's the guy getting the most help. As far as who was giving up the most pressures, Vollmer and Kline definitely deserve more of the blame than they've received. Cannon was not close to being the only problem.

Howe's stats:

Cannon: 2.5 sacks, 5 hits, false start
Vollmer: 7 hits, ½ sack
Kline: 5 hits, false start
Stork: 2 hits, head-butting flag
Mason: 1 hit
Fleming: 1 sack
And 1 more hit on an overload blitz.

Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) | Twitter

 

[Bourne Patriot]

I wanted them to try something completely different on the 2 point conversion.

Denver had our number all day and a one off pass play had a small chance of succeeding.

Always want the ball in Brady's hand in that situation but some kind of shovel pass or direct snap to RB/WR/87 would have been cool. (If we'd made that play I think we win in OT as the momentum had swung our way at the end, can't win them all though).

 

[New England Pride]

Not sure where to begin. When you have no protection and no running game, you are going to lose. Every time. The fact this still came down the last play of the game is a miracle of epic proportions.

James white lead our team in targets. If white comes down with 1 or 2 more throws, we win the game.

I am not sure how you can blame Brady for throwing it to Gronk when he was the only receiver who showed anything all day.

If you have to keep 7 guys home to block 4 rushers, it means there is going to be 7 defenders on 3 receivers. You lose that battle every time with the secondary Denver has.. The reason why White lead our team in targets is because that is the only safety valve you have when you have no protection and your top receivers are getting double or triple teamed. The problem is, you need time for plays to develop for running backs down field. We had time zero percent of the game.

What trick plays did you want to see? Double passes? you need time and space and at least the threat of a run for that to have a chance. Jet sweep? Did you see any elusiveness at all from Edelman yesterday? Or Amendola? You cant jet sweep if you cant trust your receiver to make it around the corner.

We played a team whose strength completely matched up against our biggest flaw, and they exploited it. Brady missed some throws early, and got hit a lot as the game went along. No amount of trick plays or extra men blocking would have changed that.

Ausome post. Being unable to execute fundamental football is not on coaching.