I know we're missing the league MVP (Brady), one of - if not the - best and most important player on defense (Thomas), our defensive leader in the secondary (Harrison), our starting running back (Maroney), a corner who would've been starting by now (Wheatley), our run-stuffing defensive end (Warren), our 3rd OLB who emerged as the replacement for our starter (Woods), our 3rd round pick who might've backd' up him (Crable), the SS-LB hybrid we were going to use in nickel packages (Tank), our special teams ace (K Washington), and I know we have, at times, played without, or with a banged up version of, our NT (Wilfork), our RG (Neal) & our RBs (Morris, Jordan), BUT....
Remember from 01-04 when you got the sense we went into games with a schematic advantage? We self-scouted our own tendencies, we knew the other team's offensive and defensive weaknesses, and that all contributed to us making the big play in big moments because we knew ourselves and the other team so well.
Fast forward to now and the past 3 years, you get the sense that we either go into games evenly matched scheme-wise, or even <gasp> out-schemed. What I mean by this is offensively we basically use the same shot-gun formation over and over, the same 5-10 plays over and over, telegraph what we are doing, and rely on EXECUTION against an increasingly adaptive defense/opponent. Defensively, we seem to use the same weak schemes over and over, less creativity and scouting in how to attack another team's offensive line or how to make their key player disappear from the game plan.
It seems like nowadays our wins are due to individual plays resulting from talent, rather than scheme and putting the right player in the right spot due to scouting.
