Atlanta's Defense

[TommyD4207]

Yeah I do, better than I expected, it took some amazing and some lucky catches to catch back up to them. Lets face it Atlanta played well enough to win..

Patriots Final 5 Drives:

13 Plays, 75 yds, TD
12 Plays, 72 yds, FG
5 plays, 25 yds, TD
10 plays, 91 yds, TD
8 Plays, 75 yds, TD

Under no circumstances, and in no universe, is that "well enough to win", and I promise you, if the roles were reversed, and I tried to claim the Patriots defense played well enough to win? You'd rightfully rip me.

 

[Ring 6]

Yeah I do, better than I expected, it took some amazing and some lucky catches to catch back up to them. Lets face it Atlanta played well enough to win.. When Julio caught the ball at the 22 yard line with under 5 minutes left, they were in easy field goal range and should have gone up by 11 points. We all saw what they did to squander that thankfully. Everyone was counting on the Patriots going up and down the field and scoring at will. That didn't exactly happen.

down 19 points in the 4th quarter isn't exactly the position you want to be in. And teams down 17 points in the 4th quarter in the playoffs were 0-124. The Patriots now changed that stat to 1-124 lol.. amazing

I see now why we disagree on football.

From the guy who was criticizing the patriots defense as it was on its way to #1 in ppg almost 550 yards 34 points and blowing a big lead is playing good defense.

Remarkable.

 

[deroc5050]

Patriots Final 5 Drives:

13 Plays, 75 yds, TD
12 Plays, 72 yds, FG
5 plays, 25 yds, TD
10 plays, 91 yds, TD
8 Plays, 75 yds, TD

Under no circumstances, and in no universe, is that "well enough to win", and I promise you, if the roles were reversed, and I tried to claim the Patriots defense played well enough to win? You'd rightfully rip me.

If you want to slight the Falcons thats fine but it wasn't exactly smooth sailing for the Pats. There were some incredible plays made and I give the credit the Patriots.. under all that pressure and knowing there was no more margin for error the Patriots got it done at the very end.

 

[Ring 6]

Patriots Final 5 Drives:

13 Plays, 75 yds, TD
12 Plays, 72 yds, FG
5 plays, 25 yds, TD
10 plays, 91 yds, TD
8 Plays, 75 yds, TD

Under no circumstances, and in no universe, is that "well enough to win", and I promise you, if the roles were reversed, and I tried to claim the Patriots defense played well enough to win? You'd rightfully rip me.

This is the guy who's eye test was saying the patriots defense sucked until about week 14.

 

[deroc5050]

I see now why we disagree on football.

From the guy who was criticizing the patriots defense as it was on its way to #1 in ppg almost 550 yards 34 points and blowing a big lead is playing good defense.

Remarkable.

Oh so when the Patriots were down by 19 points to start the 4th quarter I am sure you were thinking this.

 

[Ring 6]

If you want to slight the Falcons thats fine but it wasn't exactly smooth sailing for the Pats. There were some incredible plays made and I give the credit the Patriots.. under all that pressure and knowing there was no more margin for error the Patriots got it done at the very end.

So now you are only a bad defense when you allow 34 points 550 yards and blow a huge lead if the offense made no good plays????

 

[Ring 6]

Oh so when the Patriots were down by 19 points to start the 4th quarter I am sure you were thinking this.

Wtf does part of a game mean?
Youvthink good defense is playing good for a while then totally and completely collapsing?

 

[PatsFanInVa]

It was like Josh was trying to lose the game when he kept going to Blount over and over again. I understand why he tried it but man he stayed with it way too long.

Once again people:

Turnovers killed us in the first half. Yes. This is true. This is very true. Double-plus true. Okay we all agree.

Yes, we were behind early in the game.

Now. Let's hypothesize we're playing a GOOD defense whose strength is speed. These are guys who will be there in the fourth quarter unless you do something to wear them down/tire them out.

One thing you can do is hold onto the ball. Minus giveaways, the game plan accomplished this - don't laugh. Blount had 11 carries. I don't know how many White had and Lewis.

The Pats had the ball 20 minutes of the first half.

We know what happened in the second half.

Geniuses: We hear all the time Atlanta's defense was gassed by the 4th. Gee, they're young, they're little, they're not hauling around extra pounds... why would they be gassed?

Maybe because they were on the field all FREAKING day, trying to tackle (in Blount's case) a guy that they have to "swarm to" keeping them on their toes... no "taking a down off."

If Blount ran over them, fine. If not, also fine. One thing I know is nobody ever won a game by wearing out the offense. I mean, I'm sure Tom's arm is tired, but... no.

This is a good gameplan that went horribly awry because of the turnovers. I am not arguing that it was a game plan that worked like it was supposed to. I am arguing that, counterintuitively, it worked.

We were in a deep hole on the scoreboard, they were in an ever-developing deep hole in terms of energy. We needed a lot of things to go right in that second half, and it did. Nobody wants to rely on that amazing Edelman catch, and nobody wants to put up with the Edelman (among many people) drops.

But one reason we looked flat was that the game plan appeared to be to tired them the F*** out, and to keep the ball out of their offense's hands. Granted, in the process, we put the ball in their defense's hands.

But how did Atlanta get gassed?

By punching the **** out of Ali's midsection for 10 rounds, if you get the allusion. I think that part was planned. The rest of it was how this gameplan unfolded.

Love seeing all the "Game over man" fake fans back again to talk about how disgusted they are with this greatest comeback victory in SB history.

Would have liked perfection, but does anybody stop to think after the fact, that the idea for this game plan might have included a gassed defense by late in the game?

I mean they're wicked smaht on the Pats coaching staff, to hear it from anybody but New England fans.

 

[Patriot Missile]

As Josh McDaniels and I think Mitchell mentioned, their game plan caught the Patriots off guard. They prepped for the zone coverages and the Falcons who really hadn't played man to man all season came up with a good defense.

For about 40 minutes......

I'm not going to try to sound ****y or berate what the Falcons did because it really was working well for them. However as some have mentioned, I believe that team was not physically conditioned to run that type of defense as long as they did. And it showed. They had to move back to their zone coverages which the Patriots completely destroyed due to their fatique. Had they run their zone the whole game this game would of been a complete blowout like i originally predicted. Brady tore that thing to shreds and I believe that is why possibly BB seemed so confident in his pregame. Could be off there but I did seem to draw that feeling from my couch regarding his demeanor

 

[deroc5050]

So now you are only a bad defense when you allow 34 points 550 yards and blow a huge lead if the offense made no good plays????

I don't know what your talking about, all I said was the Falcons played much better than I expected, you said yourself yards are meaningless if you don't score points. And the Pats were down big time in the 4th Quarter. It took the best come back in NFL history to win the game. I just thought the falcons played better on defense than I expected. Plus they went to Over time so thats extra yards added into a regular game.

I am giving the Patriots credit for over coming it. I didn't expect the Pats to have 9 points going into the 4th quarter.

 

[Ring 6]

I don't know what your talking about, all I said was the Falcons played much better than I expected, you said yourself yards are meaningless if you don't score points. And the Pats were down big time in the 4th Quarter. It took the best come back in NFL history to win the game. I just thought the falcons played better on defense than I expected. Plus they went to Over time so thats extra yards added into a regular game.

I am giving the Patriots credit for over coming it. I didn't expect the Pats to have 9 points going into the 4th quarter.

They scored 34 points.
Said the falcons defense was good yesterday.

You cannot know anything about football and say that.

The best comeback was, wait for it, accomplished by dominating the Falcon defense.

The patriots had 37 first downs. They completed 43 passes. They scored 31 points, 4 TDS and a FG in their last 5 drives.

 

[LuRkeR1978]

...down 19 points in the 4th quarter isn't exactly the position you want to be in. And teams down 17 points in the 4th quarter in the playoffs were 0-124. The Patriots now changed that stat to 1-124 lol.. amazing

It is absolutely amazing! The football gods made Tommy have to overcome the impossible challenge, in order to achieve his goal. I love when real life is better than the movies.

 

[Ring 6]

Yeah I do, better than I expected, it took some amazing and some lucky catches to catch back up to them. Lets face it Atlanta played well enough to win.. When Julio caught the ball at the 22 yard line with under 5 minutes left, they were in easy field goal range and should have gone up by 11 points. We all saw what they did to squander that thankfully. Everyone was counting on the Patriots going up and down the field and scoring at will. That didn't exactly happen.

down 19 points in the 4th quarter isn't exactly the position you want to be in. And teams down 17 points in the 4th quarter in the playoffs were 0-124. The Patriots and the falcon defense now changed that stat to 1-124 lol.. amazing

Fixed it for you

 

[Satchboogie3]

What Atlanta did in the first half was impressive as hell... but it's a 60 minute game. I'd be far more willing to give that defense the 'benefit of the doubt' if they had been good all year... but they were one of the worst in the NFL all year. Against just about any QB not named Brady, playing a first half like that would have absolutely ripped the heart out of the other team and QB and they could get away with playing soft in the 2nd half. But not against Brady. It doesn't matter how many times you knock him down, if you let up for just a second, he's coming at you with everything he's got.

So no, overall, they didn't play good enough defense. Valiant effort, but they got carved up like a turkey when it mattered. 60 minutes.

 

[deroc5050]

What Atlanta did in the first half was impressive as hell... but it's a 60 minute game. I'd be far more willing to give that defense the 'benefit of the doubt' if they had been good all year... but they were one of the worst in the NFL all year. Against just about any QB not named Brady, playing a first half like that would have absolutely ripped the heart out of the other team and QB and they could get away with playing soft in the 2nd half. But not against Brady. It doesn't matter how many times you knock him down, if you let up for just a second, he's coming at you with everything he's got.

So no, overall, they didn't play good enough defense. Valiant effort, but they got carved up like a turkey when it mattered. 60 minutes.

Ultimately your correct but when the Patriots tried to onsides kick and they didn't get it, I thought that was the nail in the coffin. Somehow the Patriots stalled them without any points.. and they did it again when Julio caught it at the 22 yrd line. Again the Pats pushed them backwards those 2 stalls for Atlanta with that field position.. man its off topic but that was amazing.

You could also point to Atlanta play calling at least on the Julio catch.. I don't know what Atlanta was thinking all they had to do was run the ball kill clock and kick a FG. Instead.. well we know what happend.

 

[TommyD4207]

Oh so when the Patriots were down by 19 points to start the 4th quarter I am sure you were thinking this.

You know...they have to play the entire game, right?

They were good in the first half. Yay. Let's get them a participation trophy. "Best First Half Super Bowl Defense 2016".

Their defense was an embarrassment the entire second half. An embarrassment. You play two halves (and in this case overtime) and get judged on the overall body of work.

Again, under no circumstances does any defense deserve the adjective "average" let alone "good", when these are the final 5 Patriots drives. 5 drives. In a row. At the end of the game when it matters the most. Look at it again:

13 Plays, 75 yds, TD
12 Plays, 72 yds, FG
5 plays, 25 yds, TD
10 plays, 91 yds, TD
8 Plays, 75 yds, TD

That's 48 plays, 338 yards. 4 touchdowns, a field goal, and two 2-point conversions in roughly a quarter-and-a-half. This is nearly the total Atlanta put up in offense for the entire game.

If you consider that "good", you must have loved the Patriots 2010 defense.

 

[neuronet]

They didn't surprise me, as I've watched them a lot this year. I think pherein nailed it.

They are a very good defense, as they showed against GB. When they have to play 90+ snaps, they get tired, man coverages start to break down, they start to play more zone, and fall to pieces.

They absolutely rely on the offense staying on the field for more than 50 snaps a game (lol) and getting first downs. That is, it relies on complementary football. Unfortunately, they ran into a complementary buzzsaw in the NE defense! Who obliterated them in the second half, forcing the Atlanta defense to stay on the field most of the second half. Killing their strength, their speed and high octane MO (as pherein put it).

But look at facts here: midway through the third quarter the Patriots had 3 points on the board, and the Falcons defense scored 6 points off a pic six. So they played lights out up until that point. But they couldn't sustain it, which is also a measure of how good the defense is.

People saying their defense is bad or "had a bad game" I agree and disagree. They were doing exactly what they wanted, rattling Brady, getting him off his spot, keeping us to 3 points, scoring on us, forcing turnovers. It was a freaking BLOODBATH. But our defense kept doing its thing, and hence their defense got tired and we were able to wreck them in the second half. Our offense found its rhythm stopped dropping passes, Brady became Brady, and by the time OT came around I had no doubts any more.

The real loser was Shanahan. They ran the ball four freaking times in the second half, and they were running plays with 10-15 seconds left on the play clock! You are up 25 points, you should be leaving NO TIME on the clock on any plays. Brady would have been milking the hell out of the clock. My god Shanahan just destroyed Andy Reid in terms of clock management incompetence. I'm sure the defense was like WTF stop throwing the damn ball we need a damn break! People say BB is arrogant. I'm thinking we saw arrogance from the Falcons because they thought we had no way to come back, and they wanted to humiliate us.

 

[bruce_w]

conditioning, BB has mentioned it many times. The Super Bowl is a looooonnng game. They were a very good defense that just wore out. The Pats offensive players were in better condition for that game.

 

[Username]

They played balls to the wall for two quarters. They flew to the ball and their speed and tenacity made things difficult. However when you rely on high energy and high velocity over fundamentals it's going to be hard to keep it at that level for 4 quarters. They visibly tired in the 3rd and their energy was a non factor in the 4th, making it easy for Brady et al to carve them up.

They need to be more balanced in their approach, they can't play high intensity for two quarters and then assume that their offense is so good that they won't get caught up on.

 

[slam]

I remember a tactic the Colts used to use once or twice during their Manning days. When a Pats drive started deep in their territory, the defensive personnel were the backups. The stars like Freeney and Mathis started the drive on the bench while Brady began work at his 20 or worse. When a drive got to midfield the A team went in for the rest of the drive. An attempt to preserve the energy of the best players for the most critical plays. Things you don't think about when anticipating games.