Observations

[italia44]

Some impressions of the Pats 3 Games:
1.)Defense played pretty good last nite,that 83 yd TD was a heave-ho by Plummer with Seymour in his face.Great catch and run,by Walker.Bad coverage by Sanders,but he was threatened by a deep slant receiver in the middle.

2).Teams have caught up to the 3-4 defense,with our small DB's and LB's used as run support and blitzers,we are unable to defense both the fade pass and the quick square-out.
Seau is ok,but only good for 10-15 plays,Banta-cain doesn't hold the edge well,nor drop into coverage quickly enough.However,as I mentioned,17 pts.against Denver is pretty good.

3.)Brady looks tentative and a little gun-shy.Probably,from the strip-sacks and he's so focused on turnovers,he's throwing too low or too late.The Pats are a left-hand running team,they rarely run off-tackle right and don't use mis-direction much.Maroney is looking to go into the correct hole,but I think he should hit the hole faster,too tentative.

4.)Offense is too predictable.Two tight ends are nice,but they limit your options and are slow getting into their pass patterns.I'm not looking for gadget plays,but how about Dillon,Evans or Mills in the backfield,with Faulk or Maroney in the slot to threaten the MLB and Safety in the box.Troy Brown doesn't pose this threat.
I also think that Jackson,Thomas,Gabriel aren't used because BB has an oppresive clamp on this team....no mistakes,perfect routes,
etc.,it's stifling.Everyone's got their head down,afraid to screw up.This was great 2 years ago,isn't working now.

We use to fool teams with our innovations,now,teams have caught up and we've lost our identity.Finally,I think we'll be better by 8th game or so,we just need to think outside the box,so to speak.

just some thoughts....what do you think?

 

[CheerforTom]

I agree, for the most part. You mention what most guys here don't, which is that Denver's scoring plays last night were more due to very nice plays by Denver rather than catastrophic breakdowns by our D. I was actually pretty happy with the D as well, if they'd had an offense behind them the game might have gone the other way altogether... remember, Denver only had 3 at the half, and we should've had it, too.

I agree that the 3-4 looks a little dead. The Jets game was looking much nicer (remember, the Jets aren't all that bad somehow this year). Denver sure didn't seem to have much trouble punching through us when they needed it, though (ie on the damn goal line).

I don't know what's with Brady, but I hope he has some sort of revelation or whatever gets him going. We need him.