Reiss: Brady much less effective against blitz vs. standard pass rush

[BillBelichickFan79]

Blitzing and applying pressure is the most effective way to defend in the pass happy NFL. It speeds up the QB's decision making, doesn't allow WR's to fully run their routes, and forces the QB to get rid of the ball before he wants to. If you are going to control gaps and drop guys in coverage and not get pressure, you are obviously going to get picked apart.

Brady is the perfect example. Even in 07 when we were undefeated, look at the teams that gave us fits. Baltimore an aggressive blitzing defense, Philly an aggressive blitzing defense, and the Giants a team who got great pressure from their front 4. The same can be said for Manning. He puts up 35 on us and then the next week vs Baltimore only puts up 17 points. Brees had one of his worst games this year vs the Jets, who like to bring a ton heat.

To shutdown QB's of this caliber you need to be aggressive and blitz. Early in the 07 season teams were dropping back so many guys into coverage to try to cover Moss, Welker, Stallworth, Gaffney, etc. and Brady was just shredding defenses because he had all day to operate. You give a QB of Brady or Manning's caliber that much time to survey the field, you're gonna get sliced and diced.

 

[maverick4]

75% of all pass attempts this year are from shot gun. When are in shot gun, is is almost always a pass.

 

[emoney_33]

75% of all pass attempts this year are from shot gun. When are in shot gun, is is almost always a pass.

Right but I didn't think blitzing applied to D-Line. Also I don't believe that is creating any of the protection issues. It's not new and we use draws very effectively.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Mike Reiss' blog - Brady by the numbers - ESPN Boston


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Now, if we can accept that for this season, due to multiple reasons, that Brady this year won't be as effective against the blitz compared to a standard rush, what does this mean?

It means that we need to use LESS shot gun. Shot gun openly eliminates any chance of run (because teams know we pass 85% of the time we are in shot gun), so teams are pass rushing and often blitzing against us in this formation.

Our team has a dominant, physical rushing attack. Our O-line is good at it, we have a stable of 4 great running backs who can take turns pounding the ball all day. This also opens up play action. We can also use more screens and traps with Brady under center.

Perhaps the factor to consider is that the OFFENSIVE LINE is not doing very well when the defense brings an extra rusher. That means somebody is not getting picked up and Brady is not getting the time he needs to throw. Ergo his stats are less than impressive in these situations.

I'm not sure if it's a schematic breakdown or an individual breakdown, but this needs to be examined and fixed. Brady needs his time to throw, even on obvious passing downs. Whether that means bringing in Faulk or an extra TE to chip block, just get it done. Buying an extra second or two for Brady to scan and attack the defense is well worth losing one more route runner.

 

[pats1]

Funny, PFW in Progress was just talking today about how Brady has trouble against teams that can generate a 4-man pass rush (Colts, Saints) and has fared better against teams that need to generate pressure through a blitz.

 

[HarkDawg]

This has been known for quite some time......



A majority of QB's are of a less caliber because of a BLITZ.


This is obvious Mav why the thread brother?

 

[HarkDawg]

It is not you Mav..... it is REISS writting... b/c he has run out of topics apparently.

 

[Mack Herron]

I have thought for a couple of years that they put too much pressure on Brady and give away too much to the defense by overemphasizing the pass. The counter-argument is that we do not have a quality running game to turn to. Certainly our line was built to protect Brady and not to move boulders. And backfield by committee is because there is no Dillon. But by foresaking the run, the defense plays teh pass aggressively and now they can do neither. I think they appreciate this, as they tried to run in NO, but when Brees went through the D like bad Mexican food they were forced into a shootout and became imbalanced. On the bright side, they were pretty good when they did run. And Miami does not have a QB to dissect our secondary, so a balanced attack should be more effective. I expect Miami to play the pass aggressively once again, and we will need to force them to play the run because that is the only way to open things up for our passing game again. If they have some success with it, confidence grows, and they will start to use it more often. The games will be lower scoring, but we will win more of them.

 

[maverick4]

Right but I didn't think blitzing applied to D-Line. Also I don't believe that is creating any of the protection issues. It's not new and we use draws very effectively.

emoney you're right, blitzing I guess is technically a term for LB's and safeties rushing the passer. I think shotgun does cause protection issues because they aren't even concerned with the draw, we run it so rarely.

Now, when a D-lineman is only pass rushing, he is much more effective because he can sprint/juke in any space he wants, to get past the blocker to the QB. The blocker can't assume that the pass rusher is going to be pass rushing through one or two gaps (the run gap assignments) since the D-lineman isn't playing against the run at all.

 

[Rob0729]

Funny, PFW in Progress was just talking today about how Brady has trouble against teams that can generate a 4-man pass rush (Colts, Saints) and has fared better against teams that need to generate pressure through a blitz.

Exactly. That was the problem in the Super Bowl. You blitz Brady, you create mismatches on his receivers and he will pick you apart because he can always hit Welker or Faulk quickly. You get him under pressure and still can have all his receivers covered, he has to hold onto the ball longer and gets in trouble.

 

[maverick4]

Perhaps the factor to consider is that the OFFENSIVE LINE is not doing very well when the defense brings an extra rusher. That means somebody is not getting picked up and Brady is not getting the time he needs to throw. Ergo his stats are less than impressive in these situations.

I'm not sure if it's a schematic breakdown or an individual breakdown, but this needs to be examined and fixed. Brady needs his time to throw, even on obvious passing downs. .

The problem is that anytime we are in shotgun, it is an obvious passing defensive situation for the opponent. We routinely run shotgun when it's not an obvious passing situation, completely negating even the threat of a run.

 

[maverick4]

Funny, PFW in Progress was just talking today about how Brady has trouble against teams that can generate a 4-man pass rush (Colts, Saints) and has fared better against teams that need to generate pressure through a blitz.

The unspoken issue is that the teams which defeat our pass protection with 4-man rushes, are also linked to the Patriots going shotgun-formation crazy. Look at the Colts and Saints game, it's shotgun almost every single play.

 

[Rob0729]

The unspoken issue is that the teams which defeat our pass protection with 4-man rushes, are also linked to the Patriots going shotgun-formation crazy. Look at the Colts and Saints game, it's shotgun almost every single play.

Brady did complete 69% of his passes for 375 yards, 3 TDs, and 1 INT in the Indy game. You can question some of the play calls at the end of the game, but that wasn't the shotgun that was the problem.

The Colts ran 35 plays out of the shotgun in that game and won. The Pat ran 27 plays out of the shotgun and lost. So maybe the problem is that the Pats didn't run out of the shotgun enough.

In fact, Manning has thrown 308 out of 423 passes out of the shotgun this year (or 72.8%) and the Colts are 11-0. Are they too predictable? Are they losing games because of their offense?

 

[maverick4]

Brady did complete 69% of his passes for 375 yards, 3 TDs, and 1 INT in the Indy game. You can question some of the play calls at the end of the game, but that wasn't the shotgun that was the problem.

Kurt Warner passed for 365 yards in the 2001 Superbowl so what?

You can keep sh*tting out stats all you want about Brady's stats in losses, the fact remains that against Indy who was playing two rookie corners, and against the Saints who were missing 3 starters in the secondary, that they can't get it done even if it's for a key 1st down.

On offense if you stop Welker this offense is done. On defense if Banta Cain gets hurt it is done. This is a scheme that can't win if one player isn't producing.

 

[SVN]

75% of all pass attempts this year are from shot gun. When are in shot gun, is is almost always a pass.

Pats a heavy shotgun team - Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

just 15 more then a similar and highly effective offense - the colts.

 

[p8ryts]

I believe most of us knew that following the Philadelphia game in 2007, Anybody that doesn't blitz him is crazy unless they can get pressure with the down lineman ala NYG in SB 42. No mystery here. That goes for any QB/.

 

[oldskool138]

No mystery here. That goes for any QB/.

Yeah when I read the title to this thread I thought the same thing. It's on a par of a headline like "Dog Bites Man".

 

[Rob0729]

Kurt Warner passed for 365 yards in the 2001 Superbowl so what?

You can keep sh*tting out stats all you want about Brady's stats in losses, the fact remains that against Indy who was playing two rookie corners, and against the Saints who were missing 3 starters in the secondary, that they can't get it done even if it's for a key 1st down.

On offense if you stop Welker this offense is done. On defense if Banta Cain gets hurt it is done. This is a scheme that can't win if one player isn't producing.

The fact remains that the Colts were just as predictable in a shotgun heavy offense and the Pats couldn't stop them. My point is this talk of the shotgun is a bunch of bunk. You can complain about the play calling this year (and a lot of the times I would agree with you) but this is becoming a shotgun oriented league and Pat have been very successful using it. The Colts are 11-0 using it just as much as the Pats.

 

[jmt57]

mav, how many more of your old threads are you going to bump? If the Pats lose another game will you bump them all again?

There are several problems that need to be fixed. Hope you didn't injure your shoulder patting yourself on the back for pointing this out previously.

 

[Rob0729]

Pats a heavy shotgun team - Patriots Blog - ESPN Boston

just 15 more then a similar and highly effective offense - the colts.

Yeah, but all the Colts got are flashy stats like 11-0.