Article documentation of Patriots 2nd half adjustment problems

[DropKickFlutie]

I'm not a huge fan of Maroney, I doubt he'll ever become a 1000 yard runner, and the lack of a Patriots running game isn't because we traded away Laurance Maroney. It's simply more about philosophical commitment to the run. In 2003, the Patriots had the worst running offense in the league by ypc, but they still stuck with it to maintain a balanced offense and to keep the defense guessing.

If no one else gets to it today, I'll try to dig up those run/pass stats by half if I can find it when I get home.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

There are some interesting numbers in some of the comments in the past few pages. At first glance it looks as if the defense is actually performing about the same, and the dropoff is almost all on the offense. One thing I do recall from some discussions last year was that it was shown that the Pats ran the ball far less often in the second half than in the first half. Now when you take into consideration that the Pats have the lead more often than not at halftime, to run less rather than more with the lead in the second half seems to be counter to traditional thinking when you want to run down the clock and keep the opposing offense off the field when attempting to maintain a second half lead.

I'm not suggesting the team stop passing the ball, but if it is available somewhere I would love to see some pass/run statistics for the Pats in regards to their play calls in the first half versus second half. For example overall and game by game total number of runs in each half overall, percentage by half, comparison to the rest of the league, comparison to previous years, comparison when leading at half vs losing at half, comparison when up by 14 (or some other number) or more to when in a close game, etc.

Obviously two games is too small of a sample size to come to any conclusions, but perhaps if we compared 2009 to 2007 and prior, or 2009 to the rest of the league, and maybe look at these stats again after the fourth game during the bye week.

Didn't Nikolai (or a poster name starting with N) do this several days ago on an older thread? I can't find it, I'm probably remember the name wrong.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

An update with some more articles since then:

Second-half nonproduction plagues Patriots
Second-half nonproduction plagues Patriots | New England Patriots | projo.com | The Providence Journal

Patriots' second-half surety is gone
A New England Patriots win is no longer a sure thing with a halftime lead - ESPN Boston

Is coaching an issue for Patriots?
Is coaching an issue for Patriots? - Extra Points - Boston.com

The Patriots are now 1-8 in the stadiums of their opponents (which factors out the win in London last October) since the beginning of 2009, and the one win was a 17-10 triumph over a playing-out-the-string Buffalo club. The second half issue might be more troubling.

Last year, the Patriots had the best first-half point differential in the league, at plus-9.1, yet were outscored on the whole in the second half and overtime. Through two games this year, New England has won the first half by an aggregate score of 38-13 and lost the second half 39-14. One of the reasons? Well, the Jets players believed that their coaches were a step ahead of New England's, from an adjustment standpoint.

"Whatever they did, whatever they adjusted to, we made adjustments and counteracted them," said tight end Dustin Keller