Lombardi's Diner Morning News: AFC East

[Dirk3601215]

1. pass rush? who knows where its coming from?
2. bruschi isn't an every down player anymore. doubt he makes much of an impact.
3. offensive line sucked because cassel held onto the ball too long. brady makes that line look great. it'll be fine.
4. oconnel? who cares about him? we got tom friggin brady for the next 5 years at least.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

Here's the problem with the Pats pass rush. Sure, it's great that Adalius Thomas is coming back, but if no other LB can cover the TE, you can bet Thomas will be taking over that role again. Who is going to start at ILB? Will Guyton have a great camp and unseat Bruschi? I sure hope so. Crable will immediately become the Pats savior at OLB if Taylor/Peppers aren't acquired or the Pats don't draft a OLB high in the draft.

 

[psychoPat]

....I think Jason Taylor can win one or two games for us in 2009. No way we can afford Peppers.

After far too much consideration
i came to the same conclusion.

I appreciate BB's patience in waiting for me to decide.
Now let's do the deal.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

Good analysis but the problem with a small sample (11 returns) is that it is skewed by a few outliars.
Of those 11 returns, they were for 30,7,10,13,28,-3,8,2,29,,0,9 yards. I looked at the game logs and came up with 133 yards. There were 3 bad returns the entire year (Sproles, S. Holmes, F. Jackson) that skewed the entire season. 3 bad punts in terms of returns out of 50. There is obviously room for improvement but it would have more credibility with a larger sample.

He is saying that on 11 actual returned punts, the opposition returned for a total of 158 yards, or 14+ ypp. Not sure where that ranks league wide, but 31st (as the article states) is probably accurate.

I am leaning towards supporting Hanson. I thought he played decent and seemed to get better as the season progressed.


Here is some more NE punting info:

Facts:

50 punts: 9 OutBnds, 7 Dwnd, 10 TchBcks, 13 FairCtch, 11 Rtrnd
Longest punt: 70 yds
Average punt: 44 yds
Net Average: 36.8 yds
20 punts resulted in oppenent inside their 20 yd line
0 TDs
0 Blocked punts

Positives:

40% of all punts were a FC or Dwnd and an additional 10% (9 punts out of bounds) were probably coffin kicks.

40% of punts left the opponent inside their own 20 yd line.

No punts were blocked or returned for TDs.


Negatives:

20% of Hanson's punts were TBs (10 TBs on 50 punts). Unacceptable!

33.3% of his punts that were targeted for inside the 20 yd line resulted in TBs (10 out of 30).
-- That ranks 27th in the league. Only 4 teams had a worse %. Sea was tied with us.
-- The best: Colts 8.7%, Bengels: 10.7%, and Bears: 12.5%

14+ yds/punt average return is bad.

Net average punt of 36.8 yds ranks 20th in the league.
-- Note: 60% of Hanson's punts were targeted for inside the 20 yd line which will skew towards shorter punts.

 

[usmarinefl]

The way i have seen some of the boards, it shows that English has dropped out of the first round, he is a beast, i think the pats could still get Cushings in the first round and why not get English with the second pick in the second round? 2 good young LB's who could thrive with BB for many years to come. that could give us that pass rush that we are lacking, slowly phase out Bruschi, any ideas?

 

[VJCPatriot]

4. Can they find some help in the punting game? They were 31st in the NFL in yards allowed on punt returns. This was due, in part, to their punter and their lack of speed on the field.

More proof that Hanson must go! And perhaps an incentive for BB to draft a punter in the 5th or 6th round to compete with him in training camp.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Good analysis but the problem with a small sample (11 returns) is that it is skewed by a few outliars.
Of those 11 returns, they were for 30,7,10,13,28,-3,8,2,29,,0,9 yards. I looked at the game logs and came up with 133 yards. There were 3 bad returns the entire year (Sproles, S. Holmes, F. Jackson) that skewed the entire season. 3 bad punts in terms of returns out of 50. There is obviously room for improvement but it would have more credibility with a larger sample.

And going back to the Touchback conundrum, I seem to remember one or two lads who were halfway decent Punt Returners watching those punts sail through the end zone. With Kelly Washington ailing for a number of games, and a number of other factors upsetting the chemistry on Special Teams, I suspect BB just had Hanson work on his average and not worry about the net.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Tedy Bruschi would not be my choice on Special Teams. They will vote their own Captain in, and Tedy would be a great Captain, but they need speed and agility that Tedy no longer has on the teams.

 

[jmt57]

The way i have seen some of the boards, it shows that English has dropped out of the first round, he is a beast, i think the pats could still get Cushings in the first round and why not get English with the second pick in the second round? 2 good young LB's who could thrive with BB for many years to come. that could give us that pass rush that we are lacking, slowly phase out Bruschi, any ideas?

I've been looking through some of the mock drafts and player rankings, and the idea of taking linebackers with each of the two first picks is not all that far fetched. I'm not going to say that I think it will happen, I'm just saying that I won't be shocked if that is the way the draft unfolds.

 

[NEGoldenAge]

Good analysis but the problem with a small sample (11 returns) is that it is skewed by a few outliars.
Of those 11 returns, they were for 30,7,10,13,28,-3,8,2,29,,0,9 yards. I looked at the game logs and came up with 133 yards. There were 3 bad returns the entire year (Sproles, S. Holmes, F. Jackson) that skewed the entire season. 3 bad punts in terms of returns out of 50. There is obviously room for improvement but it would have more credibility with a larger sample.

Good point. Also, when you consider the small sample, I think Cassel's punt that was downed may have skewed the avg. punt distance.

 

[Lloyd_Christmas]

And going back to the Touchback conundrum, I seem to remember one or two lads who were halfway decent Punt Returners watching those punts sail through the end zone. With Kelly Washington ailing for a number of games, and a number of other factors upsetting the chemistry on Special Teams, I suspect BB just had Hanson work on his average and not worry about the net.

I don't see how the ball ending up at the 20 helps his net average.

Furthermore, if you can punt it out the back of the endzone, you are almost certainly in a yardage range where you could also boom a very high punt that results in a certain fair catch or a brutal pasting of the moron who failed to call for a fair catch, or you could just coffin kick it out of bounds inside the 20.

It makes no sense to boom it out the back of the endzone unless the punter has questionable ability to coffin kick or punt high and short.

 

[patchick]

It makes no sense to boom it out the back of the endzone unless the punter has questionable ability to coffin kick or punt high and short.

Do we know that's true? It's an empirical question. What's the average spot of possession for a punt from the 45 that sails through the endzone vs. not? And what's the difference in outcome between possessions that begin at your own 20 vs. the 10?

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

I don't see how the ball ending up at the 20 helps his net average.

Net average vice gross average, my point was clear enough. We all know gross average is a meaningless number compared to net, but if the coverage unit is struggling, it makes more tactical sense to boom it through the end zone for a touchback to pad that meaningless gross average and place the burden on the defense. Strategically you make changes on Special Teams in the offseason - which oddly enough seems to be happening with the departure of Seely, Izzo, Washington, Evans, and Lew Sanders, with the addition of O'Brien, TBC, and Lewis, plus the retention of Alexander and Woods. I consider the Long Snappers a push. BB has Training Roster room to use all 11 projected draft picks and sign almost as many UDFAs to find the right mix of position and special teams players for the 53.

When you combine the offseason turnover amongst Special Teams leadership with Hanson's re-signing after the perplexing kicks out of bounds and through the end zone, the picture being painted places the blame on the coverage unit and not the Punter.

 

[Lloyd_Christmas]

When you combine the offseason turnover amongst Special Teams leadership with Hanson's re-signing after the perplexing kicks out of bounds and through the end zone, the picture being painted places the blame on the coverage unit and not the Punter.

I agree

I'm still not sold on Hanson being a good punter, but I can't argue with the fact that we resigned him while completely revamping our special teams unit.