Belichick/McDaniels Upend Base v. Nickel Defense Choice?

[SlowGettingUp]

All good questions. I don't know any of the answers, but I'd sure wish I had some.

Bedard:

1. The way the Patriots are playing right now, using shotgun empty with five targets spread wide across the field to jump on opponents early, the only way to slow them down is to play press man and hope to disrupt their timing with three cornerbacks and two safety/linebacker types, and getting home with a four-man rush. But how many teams can actually do that? Not many. The Broncos, Jets and Packers come to mind. Certainly not the Jaguars, the Pats' opponent on Sunday. Expect New England to target safety Sergio Brown, the former Patriot who got “tossed out the club” by Rob Gronkowski last season as a member of the Colts.​

http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/09/24/nf...-josh-mccown-browns?page=2&devicetype=default

 

[PP2]

Someone on twobillsdrive made a pretty good thread with detail about how the Pats are running a variation of the air raid offense.

Instead of 4 WR, the Pats are doing it with 2 WR 2 TE.

Lol.. what? Comparing the air raid to what the Pats are doing now is a misrepresentation. The air raid is fundamentally a simple plug and play offense that isn't coverage dictated nor interchangeable and each receiver learns only one position for the most part. It works primarily in flood with 4-5 receivers, an extreme spread concept- think Leach at Texas Tech (although he's in Oregon now?) who loved the tunnel screen, stick and mesh. Also one tell-tale sign of an air raid is the OL is spread out.. you don't see that with us.

Yes there are some similar elements such as no-huddle and audible at the line, but that's about it. It's pretty much an one-dimensional offense while what we run is multi-dimensional and hence we can morph mid-game.