Patriots Pregame Thread Pre-Game - Divisional Round Texans at Patriots

[cmasspatsfan]

Disagree

The Steelers tried going deep and paid the price. Houston can play Man requiring the NE OL to block longer. Long drives are proffered keeping the Texans defense on the field. Wear them down.

Rogers didn't move all that well in the pocket, I expect Maye to be better.

 

[PatsFan2]

they would put 2 corners on henry and diggs in man coverage and their line backers are stud level when it comes to open field tackles.

we need to always go jumbo personnel with munford and rham and henderson for pass blocking. just dont waste downs by getting henderson to run in the gaps. thats something you can try in q3. but initial rounds get them used to some tendencies and flip script completely in second half. this is gonna be a tale of two halves. their defense just one thing. 4 man motor trying to get the qb , 2 CB taking away best weapons and all LBs ready to pounce whenever there is a run or screen.

flea flicker with chism or williams or henry in deep needs to be employed to get one TD.

negate the 4 man rush with outside zone runs on left. once they get used to that , employ the reverse , where you go on left and reverse runner like hendo or douglas picks off in oppsite dirtection and runs on right side.

confusion is the key unless we find the secret sauce in running.

deep passing plays are last resort. maye should take what defense gives and not hold for more than 2.5 seconds. chism might be crucial if they lock down henry and diggs.

we will terribly miss Hollins in this game. he could have served as a jumbo linemen blocking while also faking and going deep.

Wish we had saved that Trick play for them: we could have had it if Chism threw a better football. Speaking of Efton Chism I hope we use him more than Pop on Sunday. We Need guys who can get open quickly: this Defense do not give Offenses a lot of time.

 

[bakes781]

Rogers didn't move all that well in the pocket, I expect Maye to be better.

He will have to. That said he isn't going to be running for long.

 

[shmessy]

Just watched every play by the Houston defense last night. Below is the strategy I would put in.

-If you go Jumbo it's going to be hard to run but play action off jumbo will be huge. Jumbo puts 9 in the box, still tough to run on. But throwing from that could be huge.

-The defense is very simple. Rush 4 most of the time. If playing zone keep everything in front and attack. They are super-fast and super hard hitting. If in Man, got to have RB's chip, you will have deep chances. Rodgers had 4 plays he had a chances to hit a deep ball. Missed 2 of them, bad read on 1 and got pressure too quick on another but 4 possible long chunk passes were there. The Boutte TD Drake through last year will be available. If Pats can hit them they can get some big passes and avoid the red zone with long TD's.

-Basically, in the pass game: determine if man or zone. If zone dink and dunk, if man look for the WR 1 on 1 on the outside. Use play action in jumbo. RB's need to look for the cutback, Texans are fast and can over-pursue on some plays. OL needs to get to second level quick. Safety and LB are quick, getting thru the line is doable but the second level is where the running game will win or lose.
Misdirection, like Drake PA bootleg should work also. Texans VERY aggressive. Screens? They are too fast and unless in man not going to work. Obviously, no turnovers and put pressure on Stroud. He is not very accurate in general and totally loses it with pressure.

You got to hit some deep passes, good thing Drake is the best at that. If you do that, they go 100% zone where you can get underneath throws and move the chains and Drake is accurate at that. Drake may have a few run opportunities but doubt anywhere near what he got with Chargers. If They play a lot of zone they are fast and violent closing tacklers. Rather Drake takes the 3 yards and gets down in this one.

Well put.

And to this point you make, I will say my biggest positive surprise from the Chargers game Sunday night was how well Boutte was moving after hearing all about his 2nd hammy of the season holding him back in practice. I was sure he was going to simply be a decoy.

But Boutte was excellent, aggressive and seemingly moving free and fast.

Between him and KWilliams I think Maye might have some deep oppos if the Pats go 2 RB sets (with possible checkdown release possibilities) with Munford or Henry/Hooper adding either side to Campbell or Moses as an extra blocker and Boutte/Williams on the outsides.

.

 

[condon84]

Do we HAVE 5 WRs?

You won't need 5 WRs if we're also using splitting Rham and Hendo out wide. Texans theoritically would keep LBs on the field if our offense has both RBs on the field. Split both RBs out and their LBs will have to cover them. That would be a matchup that favors our offense.

 

[TommyD4207]

Coaching shows up in the divisional round.

 

[oldrover]

Hope you grow some balls.

 

[Rob0729]

People gonna look at the final score but the game was a lot closer. Steelers held them to 7 points thru 3 qtrs, then Texans got a FG 2 minutes into the 4th qtr, then on the next drive Rodgers fumbles on 3rd and 12 and they got the return TD. Had Rodgers not fumbled Steelers punt and its still a 10-6 game, think it ends a lot closer than it did. Instead Texans get the return TD, Steelers pitiful offense goes back out and being down 11 Rodgers is out there throwing it deep 4-5 times and kill 2 minutes of the clock.

It's funny how much Rodgers polluted the Steelers, 3rd and 12 at the 46 in a 10-6 game Tomlin would have in years past played that conservative and had them run it and then punt it and try to pin them deep and play field position Instead Rodgers got them dropping back to throw it deep on 3rd and 12 only down 4.

Ultimately Steelers decided to play Rodgers football, instead of Tomlin football but problem is Rodgers can't play Rodgers football anymore and well you see the result

Yeah, the Steelers and Rodgers imploded at the end. A lot of that has to do with the Texans. A lot of it has to do with Rodgers trying to do too much and thinking he is still 35.

 

[Ring 6]

Disagree

The Steelers tried going deep and paid the price. Houston can play Man requiring the NE OL to block longer. Long drives are proffered keeping the Texans defense on the field. Wear them down.

The Steelers don’t have drake Maye. They did have a lot of open receivers out there though. We won’t score points if we try to play long drive football. It’s not who we are.

 

[Real fan 02]

Jayden Higgins is a Rookie Carlton Davis should be able to cover him.

 

[Ring 6]

they would put 2 corners on henry and diggs in man coverage and their line backers are stud level when it comes to open field tackles.

we need to always go jumbo personnel with munford and rham and henderson for pass blocking. just dont waste downs by getting henderson to run in the gaps. thats something you can try in q3. but initial rounds get them used to some tendencies and flip script completely in second half. this is gonna be a tale of two halves. their defense just one thing. 4 man motor trying to get the qb , 2 CB taking away best weapons and all LBs ready to pounce whenever there is a run or screen.

flea flicker with chism or williams or henry in deep needs to be employed to get one TD.

negate the 4 man rush with outside zone runs on left. once they get used to that , employ the reverse , where you go on left and reverse runner like hendo or douglas picks off in oppsite dirtection and runs on right side.

confusion is the key unless we find the secret sauce in running.

deep passing plays are last resort. maye should take what defense gives and not hold for more than 2.5 seconds. chism might be crucial if they lock down henry and diggs.

we will terribly miss Hollins in this game. he could have served as a jumbo linemen blocking while also faking and going deep.

This is scared football. Be what you aren’t because you are afraid of a defense? That never works.

 

[DC Patriots]

This is the sort of defense where in the past in a Josh/Pats offense would abuse their LBs with Welker/Amendola/Edelman. Chism and Pop haven’t shown they can do that yet.

I think that changes in this game, and I think one of them goes for 9/120 and the Pats win.

 

[NFL Mystique]

McDaniels needs to prove how brilliant of an OC he is. This is his first non Tom Brady playoff game facing an elite/vicious defense.

He was brought to NE for games like these.

 

[TommyD4207]

they would put 2 corners on henry and diggs in man coverage and their line backers are stud level when it comes to open field tackles.

we need to always go jumbo personnel with munford and rham and henderson for pass blocking. just dont waste downs by getting henderson to run in the gaps. thats something you can try in q3. but initial rounds get them used to some tendencies and flip script completely in second half. this is gonna be a tale of two halves. their defense just one thing. 4 man motor trying to get the qb , 2 CB taking away best weapons and all LBs ready to pounce whenever there is a run or screen.

flea flicker with chism or williams or henry in deep needs to be employed to get one TD.

negate the 4 man rush with outside zone runs on left. once they get used to that , employ the reverse , where you go on left and reverse runner like hendo or douglas picks off in oppsite dirtection and runs on right side.

confusion is the key unless we find the secret sauce in running.

deep passing plays are last resort. maye should take what defense gives and not hold for more than 2.5 seconds. chism might be crucial if they lock down henry and diggs.

we will terribly miss Hollins in this game. he could have served as a jumbo linemen blocking while also faking and going deep.

No they won't, they play Tampa 2. A lot. And if they did, that leaves other options available for the Patriots.

Let's see if old friend Myles Bryant continues to get some run in that Texans secondary. They'll look for him plenty.

 

[PatsFan2]

I didn't like Higgins for us Pre Draft: I preferred KW or J Noel. Really glad he's proved me wrong and doing is well.

 

[TommyD4207]

This is the sort of defense where in the past in a Josh/Pats offense would abuse their LBs with Welker/Amendola/Edelman. Chism and Pop haven’t shown they can do that yet.

I think that changes in this game, and I think one of them goes for 9/120 and the Pats win.

Diggs.

 

[DC Patriots]

Diggs.

Diggs draws the coverage as we saw against the Chargers. Pop or Chism gets the catches.

 

[TommyD4207]

Diggs draws the coverage as we saw against the Chargers. Pop or Chism gets the catches.

Texans are a different defense than the Chargers. Chargers actually run complex schemes and matchups. Texans are more of a Tampa 2 'do what we do' defense.

They're very good, but you can scheme them up.

 

[Ring 6]

Yeah, the Steelers and Rodgers imploded at the end. A lot of that has to do with the Texans. A lot of it has to do with Rodgers trying to do too much and thinking he is still 35.

Mostly it had to do with Rodgers spending the entire first half throwing 5 yards short of the sticks in 3rd down.

 

[Rob0729]

As I pointed out in the thread about last night's game, where the Texans are not as good as the Chargers (or the Pats for that matter) is defending the deep ball. The Chargers are second in the league with giving up passing plays over 20 yards while the Texans are middle of the pack.

Hell, if you looked last night, there were times where Rodgers had receivers deep and he either missed them or they dropped the ball. Most notably the dropped pass by DK Metcalf below.



Also, the deep pass to Austin which was arguably PI would have been a TD if Rodgers didn't underthrow the ball. Austin had to slow down for the ball.



And on this strip sack, Metcalf was wide open down the field. Maye might have been able to get step up to avoid the rush or got the ball out faster since he is younger and more athletic than a 42 year old Rodgers.



There were deep plays to be had on the Texans defense last night. A better QB and better receivers could have capitalized on them.