- Joined
- Feb 8, 2005
- Messages
- 43,526
- Reaction score
- 24,117
With that bogus bleacher report article about Maroney being traded and people annointing BJGE as the next coming just because he put up a whopping 2.8 YPC last year, I wanted to voice a couple things about the Maroney situation. Both of which I feel are fixable.
When I watch Maroney, I see a kid with a ton of talent and an amazing motor. A kid who has great vision. The problem with Maroney is that he doesn't have his speed under control. He gets the ball and gets to the point where the hole is supposed to be before it's allowed to develop. Even when the Pats moved Brady out from under center, this was happening. The result is that it appears that Maroney is just running into the backs of his Linemen or what looked to be dancing. Because Maroney was hitting the place where the hole was supposed to be so quickly, he really didn't have much potential to change where he was going.
This happened more often when the Patriots were running the zone blocking than they were primarily running the in-line blocking while Dillon was still here. Even last year, it seemed that the Pats switched up their blocking schemes when Neal returned and the RBs seemed to perform better. It might have been one or a combination. I don't know.
Its my opinion that the Patriots just don't have the people for the zone blocking scheme they've been trying to run. They need to focus the O-line on the in-line blocking scheme and go from there. I think it will help both the O-linemen and all the running backs. Not just Maroney.
When I watch Maroney, I see a kid with a ton of talent and an amazing motor. A kid who has great vision. The problem with Maroney is that he doesn't have his speed under control. He gets the ball and gets to the point where the hole is supposed to be before it's allowed to develop. Even when the Pats moved Brady out from under center, this was happening. The result is that it appears that Maroney is just running into the backs of his Linemen or what looked to be dancing. Because Maroney was hitting the place where the hole was supposed to be so quickly, he really didn't have much potential to change where he was going.
This happened more often when the Patriots were running the zone blocking than they were primarily running the in-line blocking while Dillon was still here. Even last year, it seemed that the Pats switched up their blocking schemes when Neal returned and the RBs seemed to perform better. It might have been one or a combination. I don't know.
Its my opinion that the Patriots just don't have the people for the zone blocking scheme they've been trying to run. They need to focus the O-line on the in-line blocking scheme and go from there. I think it will help both the O-linemen and all the running backs. Not just Maroney.