Gruden can say whatever he wants to. Take a look at the first INT for yourself Henne INT #1. Look where Marshall's pattern is taking him, there's a hole that's been opened in the coverage. I think it was actually Jaws who called it a dig route. It wasn't...or, if it was, that's not the pattern that Marshall ran, and this would just be another miscommunication between QB and receiver. Marshall has made his cut and is behind the linebackers in coverage. 51 and 55 were held at the line by the playaction, 55 chases after the back in the flat and 51 has his back turned to the line as he tries to get back in coverage. Brian Hartline ran a seam route that cleared out the safety responsible for middle of the field and occupied the corner on that side of the field. All Henne had to do was get it over the linebackers. He could have put some touch on it and dropped it in, or fired one high and let Marshall go get it. But he threw it short and behind Marshall, right to 50.
Actually, watching this play for about the 20th time now: As soon as Henne turns around from his fake, Hartline is wide open for the first down, Henne misses him. Later when he throws to Marshall, Ricky Williams is also open out in the flat. This was just a terrible play by Henne, I don't care what Gruden or Jaws said (Jaws is much better after he does his weekly filmwork than he is during MNF. They put in a lot of prepwork for each game and look for opportunities to use their prepped material).
You've brought up the yardage that Miami receivers gained twice now. This is just the difference between how the Jets and Patriots play defense. You play soft coverage, so Henne was able to throw to his backs underneath against you. When the Dolphins played the Jets, the backs were kept in protection to counter the Jets blitzing scheme.
Yardage is yardage, no matter who it's thrown to. The bulk of the gap in Henne's passing yardage, 302 vs. 363, is the result of an additional 5 passing attempts against the Jets. Normalize the attempts and we're talking about a difference of 23 yards, a difference .7 YPA. When you're talking about a single game, that's a marginal difference.
The only significant difference in the performance of the Jets and Patriots defenses is found in the INT column. I've already explained why 2 of the INTs in the Patriots' game were the result of poor play by Henne, not playmaking ability on the part of the Patriots. This is the case for the overwhelming majority of INTs. It's why I said Cromartie was overrated during his rookie year, and it's why Jarrius Byrd has no picks so far this year after having 9 last year. Mark Sanchez didn't throw 20 INTs last year because the defenses he played were so good, it was because he was bad. It's why turnover numbers for defenses fluctuate so wildly from year to year.
Your pass defense was marginally better than the Jets' was last week. They were awful, you were bad. That's nothing to be proud of.
This was a great win for your team, but please give the credit to the appropriate unit, the Special Teams!
Where did I say that? This was a great win for the Patriots. I'm simply responding to the people who think that the Patriots pass coverage was good in this game. Your Special Teams won the game and may win you a few more before the year is over. Your defense will probably continue to be a liability.
The defenses of yore weren't great because of a "bend but don't break" philosophy. They were great because they had great players, starting with a dominant front 7, and including an all-pro caliber corner and safety.
You're not that team anymore, but you're still very good. You have one of the greatest QBs of all time, 2 of the 15 best receivers in the league (including the 2nd best WR of all time), and a host of complimentary threats. I've already said you have the best offense in the league. Stop acting like I'm trying to disparage your team. I'm just trying to provide an objective assessment of your team.
