That looked a lot like what we used to do to Peyton…

KontradictioN said:

…earlier in his career. As far as I could tell, the defense was primarily in two coverages - Cover-1 and Cover-3. They both look highly similar pre-snap. Single high safety. In the last few years, we’ve been mostly a man coverage squad. Wilson likely approached the LoS thinking he had Cover-1 and an opportunity downfield. Then the secondary bailed and retreated into Cover-3. That’s why there were always 2-3 guys in the area when he threw picks.

We used to do this to Peyton all the time when he was younger. Of course, as he got more experience, we had to become more exotic than that to fool him because he would just find holes in the zone underneath or hit us deep with either Harrison or Wayne. But for a rookie making his second start when he didn’t see that much disguise in college, it can twist pretzels into your head. Hence the 4 INTs. I wouldn’t call it heavy disguise by any means. That wasn’t needed.

In any event, it’s hard to complain much about anything in a 25-6 win. However, we need to get both lines figured out. I saw some postgame chatter about Mac settling for check downs instead of pushing the ball downfield. That’s great, but the pass protection didn’t allow time for those routes to develop. Defensively, it was pretty clear that the emphasis was more on contain regarding the edges, but the inside still looks soft to me. That’s an issue that’s been plaguing us for a couple of years now.

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Ring 6 said:

I have to watch the tape but on first look we changed the base D. We can’t out similarly last week but didn’t stay in it, and i think we did a lot more of it this week.
Basically we play a 3-4 with Phillips as an ilb, which is the same as 3-3 nickel with a safety in the box. We are playing 2 big DTs plus Wise or Anderson as the “3-4 front”. We haven’t played 3 big regularly in the base for a long time.
Yesterday with van noy out, Hightower was playing OLB, which can explain the softness inside. With a nickel base HT inside is a big key to run D.
I definitely saw variations, such as HT inside and Phillips playing in a 43 WILL like alignment.
It also happens that the things that jump out at me watching the game live turn out to not be used as prevalently as it seemed when I rewatch.
Im going to watching for alignment and success/failure per players at the point of attack.

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Ring 6 said:

Yesterday with van noy out, Hightower was playing OLB, which can explain the softness inside.

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SlowGettingUp said:

How much of this (particularly in last 1/3 of game) was Belichick being happy to give up 4 or 5 yards runs provided the clock kept running?

Certainly on the offensive side Mac barely threw in the second-half - something likely only 10 pass plays.

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One-If-By-Sea said:

Great thread. Keep up the good work for guys like me that understand a bit but are too lazy to learn much more (and it is easier to read your posts).

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KontradictioN said:

If I had the time to do much more than cursory analysis and ****posting, I’d take stills from GamePass and break some stuff down. Maybe one day.

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KontradictioN said:

…earlier in his career. As far as I could tell, the defense was primarily in two coverages - Cover-1 and Cover-3. They both look highly similar pre-snap. Single high safety. In the last few years, we’ve been mostly a man coverage squad. Wilson likely approached the LoS thinking he had Cover-1 and an opportunity downfield. Then the secondary bailed and retreated into Cover-3. That’s why there were always 2-3 guys in the area when he threw picks.

We used to do this to Peyton all the time when he was younger. Of course, as he got more experience, we had to become more exotic than that to fool him because he would just find holes in the zone underneath or hit us deep with either Harrison or Wayne. But for a rookie making his second start when he didn’t see that much disguise in college, it can twist pretzels into your head. Hence the 4 INTs. I wouldn’t call it heavy disguise by any means. That wasn’t needed.

In any event, it’s hard to complain much about anything in a 25-6 win. However, we need to get both lines figured out. I saw some postgame chatter about Mac settling for check downs instead of pushing the ball downfield. That’s great, but the pass protection didn’t allow time for those routes to develop. Defensively, it was pretty clear that the emphasis was more on contain regarding the edges, but the inside still looks soft to me. That’s an issue that’s been plaguing us for a couple of years now.

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KontradictioN said:

Probably very little, if any. I don’t think he ever wants to give up 4-5 yard runs.

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One-If-By-Sea said:

Great thread. Keep up the good work for guys like me that understand a bit but are too lazy to learn much more (and it is easier to read your posts).

Click to expand...

SlowGettingUp said:

How much of this (particularly in last 1/3 of game) was Belichick being happy to give up 4 or 5 yards runs provided the clock kept running?

Certainly on the offensive side Mac barely threw in the second-half - something likely only 10 pass plays.

Click to expand...