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Alright, it looks like I'll be stepping in by popular request for unoriginal this week, taking a look at the OL play in the Dolphins Debacle. I had originally been doing some +/- tape work, just going player-by-player, play-by-play and giving +/-'s where earned. I did about a half of that before starting with this OL work, and made the following observations (in Bert Breer "Tale of the Tape" style):
Here are some relevant links:
Gamebook
Reiss offensive participation numbers
Reiss offensive formation numbers
Reiss defensive participation numbers
I've only had time thus far to look at the first half action; at some point I will look at the second half as well.
Here is the 1st half log:
Total 1st half demerits:
Here's a few plays that I'll break down further, the first three of which came one after another in the first quarter (sack, sack, INT):
On this one, the Pats run a play action to the right with Morris, with Mankins pulling to the right as well. The Dolphins were in a 3-4, leaving Watson and Light against ROLB Porter and RDE Merling on the backside. Watson was useless on this one, allowing Porter to blow by on the snap before falling to his knees afterward. Light didn't fare much better with Merling, but at least kept his footing and didn't allow Merling to get by him until Koppen came over to help and sent Merling to the ground.
1) Poor inside pass coverage: for the most part, Hobbs and O’Neal held their own against the Dolphins’ WRs on the outside and contained the dink-and-dunks in front of them, even fighting through blockers on screens. However, the Dolphins found the most success using the middle of the field with their slot receivers (usually tight ends – Anthony Fasano and David Martin) in the seams. In one case, the Pats had J. Sanders playing a very deep man-free, and the Dolphins just sent a RB underneath and a TE over the top to high/low the Mayo/Bruschi zones. In another case, Sanders and Meriweather played so wide a cover 2 that they left the entire middle of the field open. A TE lined up in the slot against Thomas, and while Thomas is a good athlete, he can’t be called on to stick man-to-man with a TE in the seam with no safety help. There was yet another case where the Dolphins came out with 4 WRs on the left, and the Pats countered with a 3-3 setup, with Harrison and Thomas initially on two of the slots and Vrabel rushing from the other side. One of the slots motioned right, prompting Thomas to get in a three-point stance and rush, while Mayo shaded to the offensive right on the snap to cover the receiver (Brown in motion). That, however, left the inside slot on the left (Fasano) free to hit the middle of the field and split the safeties. This looked to be an obvious miscommunication between Thomas and Mayo.
2) Inconsistent OL play: specifically, the guard play was pretty bad, which might be expected with Yates in there for Neal, but not from Mankins. The Pro Bowler had a tough time all day containing rushers (usually Phillip Merling) one-on-one, although he evened out once Koppen came over to help later on. In the running game, Mankins slipped while pulling to send one play to hell, but was decent in getting to the second level to block, as was Yates. The running game wasn’t as terrible as the stats made it look – those seemed to be a result of the large deficit the Pats faced most of the game; generally Morris got some good holes to hit, and it was just one slippage on a block that doomed the play.
3) Cassel adequate: despite the claims otherwise, Cassel executed McDaniels’ game plan well and did a good job of staying in the pocket and finding a wide range of receivers for modest gains. In part because of the OL’s failure (usually Mankins’ or Yates’) to stop a Dolphins rusher’s push on most pass plays, the offense never really seemed to spread things out and open up plays down the field. Most of the time the routes were short and Cassel was accurate, but the Dolphins saw it all coming and were able to prevent the shorter routes from turning into big gains. The lack of any deep game in the first half also kept SS Yeremiah Bell in the box on most plays, causing some problems in the running game. Cassel even pitched in on the long Welker reverse play, making a key block (along with some good ones downfield) that helped spring Welker.
4) Mediocre day for DL: particularly in the case of Warren, who uncharacteristically was overaggressive on a number of plays, shooting the edge on one draw play or on the first “Wildcat” play, to find himself wildly out of position, while in-turn opening a sizeable gap. However, Mayo did an excellent job of attacking the guard and (unlike Bruschi), not losing ground to help fill these holes. Wilfork and Seymour both had their ups and downs, with Seymour getting manhandled by Long but also tipping a Pennington pass on the same drive.
Here are some relevant links:
Gamebook
Reiss offensive participation numbers
Reiss offensive formation numbers
Reiss defensive participation numbers
I've only had time thus far to look at the first half action; at some point I will look at the second half as well.
Here is the 1st half log:
Code:
14:51 1 & 10 Kaczur (pressure)
14:15 2 & 4 Yates (wrong block on pull)
13:40 3 & 4
11:51 1 & 10 (moving pocket pass)
11:22 2 & 4
10:44 1 & 10 (offsides)
10:36 1 & 5 Light (false start)
10:21 1 & 10
9:45 1 & 10 (double OT cut blocks)
9:11 1 & 10 (double OT cut blocks)
8:52 2 & 4
8:12 3 & 1
7:34 1 & 7 Watson (sack), Light (pressure), Yates (pressure)
7:07 2 & 12 Mankins (sack)
6:20 3 & 16 (fake screen/bubble screen), entire line: Mankins (knockdown, missed block downfield), Light (pressure), Kaczur (pressure), Koppen and Yates (missed blocks downfield)
2:22 1 & 10 Thomas (missed tough second-level block on biting in-box safety)
1:47 2 & 10
1:13 3 & 5 (reverse)
0:29 1 & 10 Mankins (blown assignment, triple team to leave man free)
0:10 2 & 9 (illegal contact, no play)
0:02 1 & 10 Mankins (fell down while pulling/missed block)
15:00 2 & 11 Yates (beaten, forced dumpoff)
14:26 3 & 11 Koppen and Yates (knockdown after losing double team)
13:43 4 & 2 Mankins (pressure)
13:08 1 & 10 (screen)
12:33 2 & 12
12:11 3 & 6 Yates (beaten, but defender slipped)
8:11 1 & 10
7:41 2 & 3 (bad run by Jordan, who bounced it outside when he had Moss and Yates pulling through the hole to meet the SS, causing Thomas to lose his angle)
6:59 3 & 2 Yates (late pressure), Kaczur (knockdown)
6:18 1 & 10 Yates (late pressure)
5:37 1 & 10 Gaffney (missed block on FS)
5:06 2 & 8 Yates (late pressure)
5:03 3 & 8
0:54 1 & 10
0:49 2 & 6 Kaczur (sack)
0:11 3 & 14
Total 1st half demerits:
Code:
Name Sack Knockdown Pressure Bad Run Penalty
Light 0 0 2 0 1
Mankins 1 1 1 2 0
Koppen 0 1 0 0 0
Yates 0 1 6 1 0
Kaczur 1 1 2 0 0
Watson 1 0 0 0 0
Thomas 0 0 1 0 0
Gaffney 0 0 0 1 0
Here's a few plays that I'll break down further, the first three of which came one after another in the first quarter (sack, sack, INT):
On this one, the Pats run a play action to the right with Morris, with Mankins pulling to the right as well. The Dolphins were in a 3-4, leaving Watson and Light against ROLB Porter and RDE Merling on the backside. Watson was useless on this one, allowing Porter to blow by on the snap before falling to his knees afterward. Light didn't fare much better with Merling, but at least kept his footing and didn't allow Merling to get by him until Koppen came over to help and sent Merling to the ground.
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