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OK, I finally got a few hours to spend looking specifically at what we got for our defense going into the season.
1. Overview- Again it seems the biggest asset of the defense is a lot like the offense (IMHO) are good solid players and depth on all 3 levels. No superstars, but good players that we hope will be greater than the sum of their individual parts
Supposedly we built a front 7 that was supposed to be a top five run defense. So far this preseason we haven't seen a lot of evidence of that prediction. But Bellichick's defenses have always relied on cohesive play on all 3 levels to be effective and this preseason with injuries etc the defense hasn't developed that cohesiveness. It is highly unlikely that it will anytime soon. In fact I'd be surprised to see it jell before October. Don't forget the Buc's ended the season with one of the best defenses in the league, but it didn't start out that way. So I'm sure the first time an opposing runner rips off a 10 yd gain, there will be the nervous nellies screaming that BB blew the off season and the team is doomed to failure, I suggest some patience here.
In this era of easy hit free TC's, with starters playing less and less every year. You can never tell what a team will be based on what they show in September, good OR bad. Of course, obviously being 4-0 for the month is better than being 2-2 or 0-4, but it still won't necessarily give us an indication of what this team will ultimately be. We have seen too many superbowls won after 1-3, 2-2 starts and the fast start of the first half of the 2019 season, ended in disaster and a one and done playoff run. So all judgements we make now and over the next few weeks are subject to change as the season goes on,
2. The front 7. Adding KVN and Hightower back to the LB corps vastly improves a big weakness of the 2020 D That along with the big step Josh Uche seems to be making the addition of Judon, to go along with Perkins Wino, Jennings and Bentley as depth the core of a strong and deep edge/LB group. It will also be a flexible group that can morph from a 4-3 to a 3-4 easily, though I think the way this team is being built Bill would hope that 3-4 would be its base. I think think in that configuration you'd be able to use your LB depth more with up to 4 on the field, rather than the 2 you'd often get running the 4-3
THIS season, at least on paper, Bill finally the DL people he needs to run the 3-4 the way he wants to. With Anderson, Guy, and Barmore we finally have the 300lb 3-4 DE's that Bill looked for back in the first run of the dynasty. But for that to work either Godchaux, or Davis will have to develop into a first class nose tackle. Both have the size and power to do the job, but Davis has a tendency to blow up the C or G he's against, but leave gaps in the defense, and Godchaux hasn't been handling double teams as well as we'd like the NT to do. Early days for BOTH these guys in learning new techniques.
Early on I don't think anyone can complain about the level of pass pressure we've been seeing from the front 7. I thought it was very good vs Philly Uche and Judon have been forces coming off the edge both as 3-4 OLB's and 4-3 DE's, Some good situational players in Wise, Wino, Barmore and Anderson add depth and flexibility to the group as well. So its easy to see why there is so much hype gong on about this being a top 5 defense. But does that mean it will be a top 5 defense against the run early? I doubt it.
3. Secondary. On paper this looks again to be a strong group and one of the better ones in the league. Still could be, but we haven't seen Gilmore at all, and very little of McCourty, Jackson, and less still of Jones. One plus of the preseason games has been the play of JJWilliams. In the Philly game he was given the task of playing most of the game against the Heisman trophy winner Davonte Smith. On paper that was a clear mismatch in favor of Smith being against a CB you'd seem to want to match up with big WR's or a TE. I happened to watch this one closely and it looked like Williams locked down Smith for the most part. IIRC Smith had 2 short catches. both in the 4th quarter and one didn't look like it was against Williams. A clear victory for the tall guy. BTW- Williams is a very physical CB who made a big hit on a sweep and a special tackle on ST's Always a good thing to have.
I think Adrian Phillips has been the best secondary pick up since Rodney Harrison. The guy is a beast out there. Given I think Mills is a more effective player in the middle than he is on outside we will be strong AND deep at S with McCourty, Phillips Dugger, and Mills to begin with. CB is slightly thinner until Gilmore is back and no seems to know when that will be. I was heartened at the report that Gilmore has been working "extremely" hard getting himself ready to play and this hasn't been a "hold in" I don't think that there is any question that the Pats will give him a "raise", but they aren't going to do it UNTIL they know that he's fully healthy. Remember that he had a serious injury and no one seems to have a feel for when he could be back. Could be tomorrow. Could be mid October.
BTW- I think his deal will be this. They make his $7MM salary into a bonus and add around $5MM in health based incentives Something of that nature. I think this will be GIlmore's last season here, but I DO believe he will be here the entire year. This defense will be good even if he's traded, but it could be GREAT if he has one more All Pro season left in him.
4. ST's Now THIS is an area where we seem to be in some flux. We have perhaps the best punter in the league, but the coverage and protection has been more inconsistent in preseason. All those penalties COULD be due to having a new snapper there. BTW- anyone know when Cordonna is expected back? And the KO coverage has also been sketchy as well. When we have great KO coverage Baily can make those returnable balls kicks and get better than the 25yd line field position. If it stays the way it is now, he'll have to kick them through the endzone.
..... And then their is the FG kicker. There are kickers with great legs and those who can kick consistently and sometimes (like we've had for 20 years), kickers who can do both. Given a choice I would choose the consistent one. The guy who is 90% from the 42 in and I think Bill is with me. So Nick Folk is in the lead, but like Gilmore and Cardonna does anyone have any idea when he will be ready to kick? And of course you don't want to give up on anyone after just one bad game, especially one with a special kind of leg, but Nordin has had a bad history of inconsistency at Michigan. Let's see how he bounces back on Thursday. Lets remember EVERY kicker has bad games and even bad seasons. I remember the season when Adam Veniteri literally cost Pete Carroll his job with 2 misses that turned a 10 win season into an 8 win season with 2 misses. And how many times over his tenure here were people calling for Gotskowski's head and he was one of the most accurate FG kickers in NFL history. I think we can cut Nordin some slack....at least for one more game
5. I just one to make one comment on Cam's Covid issue. We are currently reaching the kind of levels of infection that we had last fall at the peak of the epidemic and its all self inflicted. I guess there ARE a few people who might have medical reasons not to get vaccinated, but the VAST majority of the unvaccinated don't, and THOSE people expect ME to respect their right not to. And I do.....IF they plan on staying away from society for the duration of the crisis. If someone who is unvaccinated comes in contact of me and my family is like a person who points a gun at me an my family. It is an act of pure selfishness that shouldn't be put up with in any civilized society. The latest wave of the Delta variant can be laid directly at the hands of the unvaccinated, It didn't have to happen. Its as simple as that. And to make matters worse, the fact that this pandemic is continuing unnecessarily the NEXT mutation of the virus is inevitable,. and who know how deadly that one will be and if the current vaccines will offer ANY protection. For those who are old enough to remember the old Pogo cartoon, I can think back to one of his most famous quotes. "I have seen the enemy, and it is US."
I can understand why Cam might not have wanted to get vaccinated given he built up some immunity already by getting sick last year, but he purports to ne a leader and the starting QB on this team and by NOT vaccinating he puts the success of the team at risk by being one positive test away from being out a minimum of 10 days. (though there are probably a lot of Pats fans who would welcome it ) For that reason alone he (and EVERY other player on the team) needs to get vaccinated.
Sorry about this rant, but they closed the thread where I would have posted it.
'
1. Overview- Again it seems the biggest asset of the defense is a lot like the offense (IMHO) are good solid players and depth on all 3 levels. No superstars, but good players that we hope will be greater than the sum of their individual parts
Supposedly we built a front 7 that was supposed to be a top five run defense. So far this preseason we haven't seen a lot of evidence of that prediction. But Bellichick's defenses have always relied on cohesive play on all 3 levels to be effective and this preseason with injuries etc the defense hasn't developed that cohesiveness. It is highly unlikely that it will anytime soon. In fact I'd be surprised to see it jell before October. Don't forget the Buc's ended the season with one of the best defenses in the league, but it didn't start out that way. So I'm sure the first time an opposing runner rips off a 10 yd gain, there will be the nervous nellies screaming that BB blew the off season and the team is doomed to failure, I suggest some patience here.
In this era of easy hit free TC's, with starters playing less and less every year. You can never tell what a team will be based on what they show in September, good OR bad. Of course, obviously being 4-0 for the month is better than being 2-2 or 0-4, but it still won't necessarily give us an indication of what this team will ultimately be. We have seen too many superbowls won after 1-3, 2-2 starts and the fast start of the first half of the 2019 season, ended in disaster and a one and done playoff run. So all judgements we make now and over the next few weeks are subject to change as the season goes on,
2. The front 7. Adding KVN and Hightower back to the LB corps vastly improves a big weakness of the 2020 D That along with the big step Josh Uche seems to be making the addition of Judon, to go along with Perkins Wino, Jennings and Bentley as depth the core of a strong and deep edge/LB group. It will also be a flexible group that can morph from a 4-3 to a 3-4 easily, though I think the way this team is being built Bill would hope that 3-4 would be its base. I think think in that configuration you'd be able to use your LB depth more with up to 4 on the field, rather than the 2 you'd often get running the 4-3
THIS season, at least on paper, Bill finally the DL people he needs to run the 3-4 the way he wants to. With Anderson, Guy, and Barmore we finally have the 300lb 3-4 DE's that Bill looked for back in the first run of the dynasty. But for that to work either Godchaux, or Davis will have to develop into a first class nose tackle. Both have the size and power to do the job, but Davis has a tendency to blow up the C or G he's against, but leave gaps in the defense, and Godchaux hasn't been handling double teams as well as we'd like the NT to do. Early days for BOTH these guys in learning new techniques.
Early on I don't think anyone can complain about the level of pass pressure we've been seeing from the front 7. I thought it was very good vs Philly Uche and Judon have been forces coming off the edge both as 3-4 OLB's and 4-3 DE's, Some good situational players in Wise, Wino, Barmore and Anderson add depth and flexibility to the group as well. So its easy to see why there is so much hype gong on about this being a top 5 defense. But does that mean it will be a top 5 defense against the run early? I doubt it.
3. Secondary. On paper this looks again to be a strong group and one of the better ones in the league. Still could be, but we haven't seen Gilmore at all, and very little of McCourty, Jackson, and less still of Jones. One plus of the preseason games has been the play of JJWilliams. In the Philly game he was given the task of playing most of the game against the Heisman trophy winner Davonte Smith. On paper that was a clear mismatch in favor of Smith being against a CB you'd seem to want to match up with big WR's or a TE. I happened to watch this one closely and it looked like Williams locked down Smith for the most part. IIRC Smith had 2 short catches. both in the 4th quarter and one didn't look like it was against Williams. A clear victory for the tall guy. BTW- Williams is a very physical CB who made a big hit on a sweep and a special tackle on ST's Always a good thing to have.
I think Adrian Phillips has been the best secondary pick up since Rodney Harrison. The guy is a beast out there. Given I think Mills is a more effective player in the middle than he is on outside we will be strong AND deep at S with McCourty, Phillips Dugger, and Mills to begin with. CB is slightly thinner until Gilmore is back and no seems to know when that will be. I was heartened at the report that Gilmore has been working "extremely" hard getting himself ready to play and this hasn't been a "hold in" I don't think that there is any question that the Pats will give him a "raise", but they aren't going to do it UNTIL they know that he's fully healthy. Remember that he had a serious injury and no one seems to have a feel for when he could be back. Could be tomorrow. Could be mid October.
BTW- I think his deal will be this. They make his $7MM salary into a bonus and add around $5MM in health based incentives Something of that nature. I think this will be GIlmore's last season here, but I DO believe he will be here the entire year. This defense will be good even if he's traded, but it could be GREAT if he has one more All Pro season left in him.
4. ST's Now THIS is an area where we seem to be in some flux. We have perhaps the best punter in the league, but the coverage and protection has been more inconsistent in preseason. All those penalties COULD be due to having a new snapper there. BTW- anyone know when Cordonna is expected back? And the KO coverage has also been sketchy as well. When we have great KO coverage Baily can make those returnable balls kicks and get better than the 25yd line field position. If it stays the way it is now, he'll have to kick them through the endzone.
..... And then their is the FG kicker. There are kickers with great legs and those who can kick consistently and sometimes (like we've had for 20 years), kickers who can do both. Given a choice I would choose the consistent one. The guy who is 90% from the 42 in and I think Bill is with me. So Nick Folk is in the lead, but like Gilmore and Cardonna does anyone have any idea when he will be ready to kick? And of course you don't want to give up on anyone after just one bad game, especially one with a special kind of leg, but Nordin has had a bad history of inconsistency at Michigan. Let's see how he bounces back on Thursday. Lets remember EVERY kicker has bad games and even bad seasons. I remember the season when Adam Veniteri literally cost Pete Carroll his job with 2 misses that turned a 10 win season into an 8 win season with 2 misses. And how many times over his tenure here were people calling for Gotskowski's head and he was one of the most accurate FG kickers in NFL history. I think we can cut Nordin some slack....at least for one more game
5. I just one to make one comment on Cam's Covid issue. We are currently reaching the kind of levels of infection that we had last fall at the peak of the epidemic and its all self inflicted. I guess there ARE a few people who might have medical reasons not to get vaccinated, but the VAST majority of the unvaccinated don't, and THOSE people expect ME to respect their right not to. And I do.....IF they plan on staying away from society for the duration of the crisis. If someone who is unvaccinated comes in contact of me and my family is like a person who points a gun at me an my family. It is an act of pure selfishness that shouldn't be put up with in any civilized society. The latest wave of the Delta variant can be laid directly at the hands of the unvaccinated, It didn't have to happen. Its as simple as that. And to make matters worse, the fact that this pandemic is continuing unnecessarily the NEXT mutation of the virus is inevitable,. and who know how deadly that one will be and if the current vaccines will offer ANY protection. For those who are old enough to remember the old Pogo cartoon, I can think back to one of his most famous quotes. "I have seen the enemy, and it is US."
I can understand why Cam might not have wanted to get vaccinated given he built up some immunity already by getting sick last year, but he purports to ne a leader and the starting QB on this team and by NOT vaccinating he puts the success of the team at risk by being one positive test away from being out a minimum of 10 days. (though there are probably a lot of Pats fans who would welcome it
) For that reason alone he (and EVERY other player on the team) needs to get vaccinated.Sorry about this rant, but they closed the thread where I would have posted it.
'
