Was Moss Left Out of Gameplan On Purpose?

[PATSYLICIOUS]

i liked the pats approach to this game. if teams are going to give u the short stuff and work your way downfield, take it. dont press for the big play. of course, with all the long drives there will be the occasional fluke mistakes (drive ended up by a chop block, missed chip shot fg, welker drop on 3rd), but as long as the defense makes a couple stops we win fairly easy.

 

[MRBLAZE]

i liked the pats approach to this game. if teams are going to give u the short stuff and work your way downfield, take it. dont press for the big play. of course, with all the long drives there will be the occasional fluke mistakes (drive ended up by a chop block, missed chip shot fg, welker drop on 3rd), but as long as the defense makes a couple stops we win fairly easy.

yeah I agree with this thinking. I think BB is smart enough to draft this kind of gameplan, I don't think it was an "on the go" decision to use Moss as a decoy, because he wasn't being covered by all pros, it's just they anticipated they'd be able to execute the way they did, and once they established that in game there was no reason to change it up. it clearly worked.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

The reality is that we don't really know, because of the funky way the game played out.

I think it's clear that the patriots wanted a ball-control offense to limit the Jags possessions, which is kind of ironic, because all the prognosticators sort of suggested it would be the opposite. So in that sense, I think the deep ball was not really something they wanted -- even if it's complete it tends to put the defense back out on the field more quickly. Patriots were taking the full 40 seconds on every play, and you could tell everyone understood they were to stay in bounds and keep it moving.

On offense, look at the yardage the team had to go on third down: 2, 1, 2, 14, 3, 4, 1. The 14 was on the drive at the end of the second half where clearly the team was trying to leave Jacksonville with as little time as possible on the clock and just trying to get in field goal range. The play call there was a short dump to Welker.

Anyway, as to whether Moss was in the game plan, I have no doubt the patriots would have thrown to him if it had been the higher percentage play on any play, but it just wasn't except once. The Jags never changed their approach, and the patriots took what they were given.

The reality is that I think the Jags made the right choice. The problem with a dink and dunk offense is that one offensive penalty -- a hold, an offensive PI, or even a false start, often derails you. Patriots offense only got flagged once, I believe, so it didn't work for the Jags.

 

[ATippett56]

The 14 was on the drive at the end of the second half where clearly the team was trying to leave Jacksonville with as little time as possible on the clock and just trying to get in field goal range.

The 14 on the drive at the end of the second half was due to a chop block penalty by a Patriots offensive lineman. I'm surprised the Patriots did not go for it on 4th and 6.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

The 14 on the drive at the end of the second half was due to a chop block penalty by a Patriots offensive lineman. I'm surprised the Patriots did not go for it on 4th and 6.

Wasn't really my point.

My point was that if you're trying to find evidence of what the patriots' gameplan was with respect to use of Moss, there just aren't many examples you can look to that would let you say. The fact that they ran a check down on a 3d and 14 usually would be good evidence, but my point was you can't really take too much from that particular 3d and 14, because it was the end of the half, and keeping the Jags from having time to score was also a big priority there so they ran a ball control play to improve field goal range.