Why no mention of our run defense?

[patsfaninpa]

Held the Big, Bad Jags to 80yds on 22 carries. 3.6 AVG. Every pundit I heard talking about the game said the Jags would be able to run the ball on the Pats. They weren't able to. They were going to out-physical us. Yet, the Pats were the team with 145yds rushing. Lost in Brady's great game. Which team out-physicaled(Is that a word?) the other?

Our pass defense was pretty poor in the 1st half. Got much better in the 2nd half. Left those flat passes wide open. Not, sure if by design or poor execution. Asante will play better next week. And, Hobbs will be back. I think we'll see better execution next week. May not have better results. But, will execute better and keep Manning from going off. I will give Garrard credit for playing well. He showed why he had a good passer rating in the reg. season. He's a good qb. The Jags had the 5th best team in the NFL. Tied with SD. But, they beat the Chargers. So, I'll call them the 5th best team. Felger(Idiot) referred to them as an inferior team? Now, that's some great analysis by that twerp.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Definitely worth bringing up. There were some "big" (10 or so yard) gains, but more often than not you saw Taylor and Drew tripped up at or behind the line. (Particularly remember a play when Seau got into the backfield right off the snap and upended [I think] Drew).

I still say we give up a dime spot to Lady Tom, but it won't affect the outcome. Same with Addai/Keith. They won't be taking over the game and controlling the clock.

PFnV

 

[FrontSeven]

Every pundit I heard talking about the game said the Jags would be able to run the ball on the Pats.

Every pundit was wrong.

 

[FrontSeven]

Particularly remember a play when Seau got into the backfield right off the snap and upended [I think] Drew.

I remember one such play. And here I was thinking that Junior was too old to make plays any more.

Right!

We saw a lot of myths get destroyed last night.

 

[BelichickFan]

The Jags averaged 4.6 YPC on the season and got 3.6 last night. Great job. Great job. It was weird, though, for a while we seemed like we were getting overpowered up the middle so I was surprised to see the 3.6 number.

 

[juny]

Clearly they were overplaying the running game and they did a good job against the run. Of course the passing defense looked vulnerable out there, but somehow after looking so bad in the 1st half, the D came together in the 2nd half and shut down the Jags. Great game overall

 

[patsfan13]

First half they decided to shut down the run and put the game in Gerrard's hands. He responded and took advantage of what the D gave him. We get the one TO but they missed the grab of Welker's face mask and we miss the FG.

In the second half we made adjustments and gave up more on the run but Gerrard was slowed down in the pasing game and we only gave up 2 FG's Weird game very few possessions for each team.

 

[fillylabinga]

Agree that the run D stepped up big time. The Pats game plan seemed to be to stop the run and make Garrard win by throwing the ball.

I had figured that the Pats would be able to stop the run, but it was great to see them actually do it. Really, I think it was only that one long 95 yd. drive the Jags had to tie the game at 14 where the run D looked bad. (Also, the only time in the game I was a little worried.) I have no idea what was wrong on that drive or what they did to stiffen up the D, but after that they looked great.

Holding the Jags rushing attack down was an important statement. We're going to need to be able to do it again--Indy, Dallas, and GB all have ground games.

 

[JR4]

Yes Run D should be mentioned. It was good. Their intent was to limit the
JAGs run game and they did very well.
In doing so they allowed
1st Half
Garrard completed 85% of his passes for 149 yds
Run game got 44 yds rushing
2nd Half
Garrard completed only 53% of his passes for 129 yds
Run game got 36 yds rushing.

In the first half it cost them in PASSing D but
LOOK at 2nd half. They made some adjustments and kept
the pressure to limit the run but did much better to limit the passing game.

This is encouraging for the defense. PATs will play Colts or Chargers ...
both with good to very good run games.
If they play Chargers they could defend much like they did the JAGs to limit
Chargers very good run game.
If they play Colts, IMO, they could play the pass game a little tighter and still not suffer much downgrade on Run D.
This is encouraging to me.

 

[onegameatatime]

Clearly they were overplaying the running game and they did a good job against the run. Of course the passing defense looked vulnerable out there, but somehow after looking so bad in the 1st half, the D came together in the 2nd half and shut down the Jags. Great game overall

Hmmm. Is it possible that against a very good team, it's very hard to stop everything, and that you pick which thing to stop, and that the Pats did what they wanted to do, but Garrard had a very good game?

I understand that those long drives in the first half did not look good, but the Pats gave up 6 points in the second half.

 

[patsfaninpa]

Agree that the run D stepped up big time. The Pats game plan seemed to be to stop the run and make Garrard win by throwing the ball.

I had figured that the Pats would be able to stop the run, but it was great to see them actually do it. Really, I think it was only that one long 95 yd. drive the Jags had to tie the game at 14 where the run D looked bad. (Also, the only time in the game I was a little worried.) I have no idea what was wrong on that drive or what they did to stiffen up the D, but after that they looked great.

Holding the Jags rushing attack down was an important statement. We're going to need to be able to do it again--Indy, Dallas, and GB all have ground games.

Simms has mentioned that a couple of teams. I believe Steelers and COlts have told him that the Pats D falters a little if you can keep them on the field for longer drives. I think that is true of most teams. But, that might be where the age and a little lack of foot speed shows up.

 

[Remix 6]

its a shame though we cant do both @ once. great run D and pass D. pass D had people wide open all night

 

[sebman2112]

The difference between the Jags and a team like Indy is that everyone knows how good their passing attack is, and the Patriots have played them a lot lately. The defenses allignments and schemes used are different as well. So, you really can't use NE's play defensively to project how they would do against the Colts (if the Colts make it to the AFCCG).


To the original topic:

Taylor and Jones-Drew only accounted for 66 rushing yards. Pretty damn good.

 

[JR4]

its a shame though we cant do both @ once. great run D and pass D. pass D had people wide open all night

Well if they were open "ALL" night then Garrard is not very good because he
only completed 53% of his passes to wide open receivers in the 2nd half.

I would agree that in the first half JAGs had receivers "wide open" on
a lot of plays but on other plays Garrad just made some very very good
passes.
In the second half it was different.