Re: Pre-Post Game Observations
The scheme was really the same, what was different was the players were getting blocked.
First series - no blitzes. Nickel D except they used Ninkovich at DE instead of Carter. That is a big difference from the Bucs game. McCourty looked awful and should have given up a touchdown.
Second series - no blitzes. Nickel D with four rushes. No Cover 1 or O like in the Bucs game yet. That screen was very well run. The lions are going to be dangerous this year.
Third series - 2 blitzes. 1st down. Ninkovich now upright as a linebacker and Moore in at DE. Now running 4-3 with no nickelback.
2nd down - back to the Nickel.
At 12:28 in the second qutr the Pats run their first blitz when the nose tackles twisted and Arrington shot the gap. Nice blitz but Sanders who had TE responsibility was ridiculously late. Next play they run the same thing from the other side and sack Stafford. Series over. Punt. It wasn't until the last two plays of the third series on D that they blitzed. This is a departure from the week before. Sure the base scheme may have been the "same" but it wasn't nearly the same overall defensive game plan. Remember Mayo and Guyton blitzing the Bucs. Three series in they are still flat footed in most drop zone coverage. Not different?
Fourth series - 2nd play of series the Pats bring both Mayo and Guyton and Mayo crushes Stafford. Stafford throws that pop fly to Johnson who makes a great catch making McCourty look bad again. Next play TD.
Four series - 3 blitzes. Scheme is Nickel and I still say a departure from the game before.
Fifth series - no blitzes. Dmac makes a great play to end it with a 3 and out.
Five series against Stafford and 3 blitzes. Only one blitz that involved the linebackers. This is a different game plan than that against Tampa. The only time they blitzed the backers Stafford got crushed and threw up a prayer. In my opinion this would have happened more often if we had blitzed more like the Bucs game. They most certainly did not press the issue. It seemed like Bill wanted to see coverages.
Against Shaun Hill they blitzed twice in his first series.
In the second half with our 1st D playing the Lions 2nd O they still did not blitz. Against Drew Stanton they stayed in the same drop zone coverage. By the end of the had third they blitzed around 6 times. All game. Again, nickel scheme but not the same as the Bucs game...
On a side note...the Brady to Welker TD was not exciting. They tricked a couple of second team corners and safeties. Big deal.