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If there is a lesson we can learn as fans from this game is how the home field advantage can effect your game plan and dictate how you run your offense, and to a lesser degree your defensive game plan. Lets discuss this briefly before we get to the break down.
I'm sure I wasn't alone in wondering where our 450 ypg and 28 ppg offense was this game, and why the Pats chose NOT to throw the ball down the field much and why Brady looked so human against THIS team on THIS field. But the more I thought about It became clear that the home field was dictating the conservative nature of the play calling.
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a. Remember one of the major factors in being able to run this offense, which can radically change week to week, is communications. In a really noisy stadium like Denver's trying to make changes at the LOS is much riskier than at home. If just one guy doesn't get the message, disaster looms. So often times you don't make a change you could make at home and have to stay with a play you wouldn't stay with at home and it affects how good your offesne can be.
b. The defensive pass rush has a massive advantage at home because of that noise. Knowing the snap count has been the offensive line's biggest advantage for over 100 years, but, away, in a noisy stadium, you lose that advantage because either the OL is moving on a silent snap which means the OL is getting off the ball by watching the snap, or getting off the ball on defensive movement. Both ways negate that huge advantage and affects production
c. In a similar nature, the fact that the offense has no noise, it allows them to expand their game plan, Makes it easier to get into the "right" play and the OL gets that big snap count advantage.
d. Again, on offense and defense communications are more critical here than they are in some other locations, and while it isn't an excuse for wins and loses, I just want it clear how it affects how THIS team will game plan and attack other teams especially when we play a team like Denver who are uniquely able to cover this particular passing offense.
OK thanks for the rant, lets get to the breakdown
1. OL - It couldn't have been better really. Brady's experience went from 17 hits to about 4 today. There were only a couple of plays where a Denver player made a play to disrupt a play, or create one of the 2 sacks. And NONE of them were named Von Miller.
a. Maybe NOW Marcus Cannon will start to get some all pro consideration and some LONG over due recognition. He was simply awesome. He's always been a good run blocker, but he is amazingly nimble for big fat guy. CBS did a great job in showing just how good he was playing, because Miller was working hard and made moves that often get him wins. Now there are a lot people who are going to jump on board here, especially in the media, and give Dante a lot of the credit for the turn around from last season, and as much as I think Dante IS important, I still believe a big part of Denver's success last season was that BOTH Cannon and Volmer played very hurt
b. Tuney learned some good lessons, but still in the overall scheme of things he, Andrews and Mason were very good for all the reasons I mentioned at the start. It's incredible to think that this could be our OL for the rest of Brady's run here and will only get better with time. It's still relatively very young.
c. Finally Nate Solder needs a pat on the back because he's played 2 great games in a row against some great rushers, and everyone seems to dismiss his very large accomplishments most of the time.
2. Receivers - The catch Edelman made on that first and 20, over the shoulder, covered well by 2 guys and still getting his feet down was both his best catch in years and a critical one at that point of the game. He also made some others that showed outstanding individual effort in this game. He has had games with more yards, TDs, and catches, but next to Dion Lewis, NO other Pats offensive player more more crucial to the Pats win than Julian Edelman.
a. None of the other receivers made much of an impact. But Mitchell's catch was good enough that it SHOULD earn him more targets in the future. Hogan had a tough game since he was being cover either by Talib or Harris and that's hard. He had the 3rd down drop, but that happens. I'm hoping that someone who gets the all 22 will let us know if any of the WR were getting open, or were their lack of production a result of them just not getting open.
b. I wish Bennett was more of a factor in this game. They ran 2 plays down the field for him and he made one big play. They need to feature him more IMHO, but that being said, in these last 2 game I actually wouldn't mind if he sat them out or played him limited snaps, and then unleash him in the playoffs.
3. RB's - Wow what a differnce Dion Lewis makes to this offense. He will continue to open up the game plan as the Pats go forward and lessen the impact of Gronk loss. He was SOOOOOO close to breaking off a big run in this game. He will only get better as he gets his legs under him. White was again solid, and LGB had a tough game because Denver really loading the box on every play he was in and for some reason, Josh didn't run any play action passes, except for the few that worked very well.
b. James Devlin was a beast in the run game as he has been all season. His absence last season was probably the most under rated injury of the bunch. That being said, I say again, he is a vastly UNDER used asset in the passing game. On his one completion, he was literally uncovered the entire play and would have walked into the endzone untouched if Brady had thrown to him early in the progression. He has proven that he HAS good hands. Lets use him until someone starts to cover him at least.
4. QB - It took about 30 seconds into Tom Brady's post game presser to see how pissed he was at himself. I'm sure he loved the win, but hated his performance. The biggest lesson we can learn from this game is that this team can win with Tom Brady's C game. Now Brady only had a 50% completion rate today, but it is important to make the distinction that after the first period he was 62%. He also only had a 30% 3rd down conversion rate, well below his usual numbers. And when was the last time Brady threw for under 200 yds and they won by 13? Probably never.
Now a lot of the problems came from the receivers not getting open. Now whether that was a function of poor play design or great coverage (I'm leaning to the latter). It was clear to me that early in the game Denver's strategy was to maximum cover. Tight on the wideouts and lots of people in the middle. Make Brady come off his first reads and know where his next reads were. Part of the problem was Brady's impatience early in the game. He had a lot more time than he realized and once he did (after the first quarter) he was much better.
Well the good news is that we will have a Tom Brady who will have a HUGE chip on his shoulder for the last 2 games of the season. That can never be a bad thing, unless you are Jimmy Garopolo and want to get some action.
5. General offensive comments: Josh McDaniels is a wildly successfull OC and an elite offensive mind in this league, but there are a couple of plays every game that just drive me nuts. One play was the 3rd and 2 when he was in a spread offense with no RB's, when I thought it was the perfect time to be in a running formation and if he wanted to pass, go to play action passing (PAP). It should be noted we made the first down on the pass, but it still drove me nuts.
Then there was the one that actually made me yell at the screen (I do that so rarely now that I've "matured" ) It was another 3rd and short when they DID line up with a RB (White) in the backfield and rather than run the ball or run a PAP, they simply dropped back with no fake and the play was blown up. I didn't mind them throwing the ball in that situation, but WHY make it easy on the defense. WHY give them a fast read? It makes no sense. It would have made more sense to have NO RB's in the backfield than to have one and not use him in the play design
b. We need to remember to give the Denver D a lot of the credit for the poor offensive results today. No team covers receiver's better than they do. That being said, if we play them again in the playoffs in Gillette, I would bet the farm they score 30+.
I'm sure I wasn't alone in wondering where our 450 ypg and 28 ppg offense was this game, and why the Pats chose NOT to throw the ball down the field much and why Brady looked so human against THIS team on THIS field. But the more I thought about It became clear that the home field was dictating the conservative nature of the play calling.
'
a. Remember one of the major factors in being able to run this offense, which can radically change week to week, is communications. In a really noisy stadium like Denver's trying to make changes at the LOS is much riskier than at home. If just one guy doesn't get the message, disaster looms. So often times you don't make a change you could make at home and have to stay with a play you wouldn't stay with at home and it affects how good your offesne can be.
b. The defensive pass rush has a massive advantage at home because of that noise. Knowing the snap count has been the offensive line's biggest advantage for over 100 years, but, away, in a noisy stadium, you lose that advantage because either the OL is moving on a silent snap which means the OL is getting off the ball by watching the snap, or getting off the ball on defensive movement. Both ways negate that huge advantage and affects production
c. In a similar nature, the fact that the offense has no noise, it allows them to expand their game plan, Makes it easier to get into the "right" play and the OL gets that big snap count advantage.
d. Again, on offense and defense communications are more critical here than they are in some other locations, and while it isn't an excuse for wins and loses, I just want it clear how it affects how THIS team will game plan and attack other teams especially when we play a team like Denver who are uniquely able to cover this particular passing offense.
OK thanks for the rant, lets get to the breakdown
1. OL - It couldn't have been better really. Brady's experience went from 17 hits to about 4 today. There were only a couple of plays where a Denver player made a play to disrupt a play, or create one of the 2 sacks. And NONE of them were named Von Miller.
a. Maybe NOW Marcus Cannon will start to get some all pro consideration and some LONG over due recognition. He was simply awesome. He's always been a good run blocker, but he is amazingly nimble for big fat guy. CBS did a great job in showing just how good he was playing, because Miller was working hard and made moves that often get him wins. Now there are a lot people who are going to jump on board here, especially in the media, and give Dante a lot of the credit for the turn around from last season, and as much as I think Dante IS important, I still believe a big part of Denver's success last season was that BOTH Cannon and Volmer played very hurt
b. Tuney learned some good lessons, but still in the overall scheme of things he, Andrews and Mason were very good for all the reasons I mentioned at the start. It's incredible to think that this could be our OL for the rest of Brady's run here and will only get better with time. It's still relatively very young.
c. Finally Nate Solder needs a pat on the back because he's played 2 great games in a row against some great rushers, and everyone seems to dismiss his very large accomplishments most of the time.
2. Receivers - The catch Edelman made on that first and 20, over the shoulder, covered well by 2 guys and still getting his feet down was both his best catch in years and a critical one at that point of the game. He also made some others that showed outstanding individual effort in this game. He has had games with more yards, TDs, and catches, but next to Dion Lewis, NO other Pats offensive player more more crucial to the Pats win than Julian Edelman.
a. None of the other receivers made much of an impact. But Mitchell's catch was good enough that it SHOULD earn him more targets in the future. Hogan had a tough game since he was being cover either by Talib or Harris and that's hard. He had the 3rd down drop, but that happens. I'm hoping that someone who gets the all 22 will let us know if any of the WR were getting open, or were their lack of production a result of them just not getting open.
b. I wish Bennett was more of a factor in this game. They ran 2 plays down the field for him and he made one big play. They need to feature him more IMHO, but that being said, in these last 2 game I actually wouldn't mind if he sat them out or played him limited snaps, and then unleash him in the playoffs.
3. RB's - Wow what a differnce Dion Lewis makes to this offense. He will continue to open up the game plan as the Pats go forward and lessen the impact of Gronk loss. He was SOOOOOO close to breaking off a big run in this game. He will only get better as he gets his legs under him. White was again solid, and LGB had a tough game because Denver really loading the box on every play he was in and for some reason, Josh didn't run any play action passes, except for the few that worked very well.
b. James Devlin was a beast in the run game as he has been all season. His absence last season was probably the most under rated injury of the bunch. That being said, I say again, he is a vastly UNDER used asset in the passing game. On his one completion, he was literally uncovered the entire play and would have walked into the endzone untouched if Brady had thrown to him early in the progression. He has proven that he HAS good hands. Lets use him until someone starts to cover him at least.
4. QB - It took about 30 seconds into Tom Brady's post game presser to see how pissed he was at himself. I'm sure he loved the win, but hated his performance. The biggest lesson we can learn from this game is that this team can win with Tom Brady's C game. Now Brady only had a 50% completion rate today, but it is important to make the distinction that after the first period he was 62%. He also only had a 30% 3rd down conversion rate, well below his usual numbers. And when was the last time Brady threw for under 200 yds and they won by 13? Probably never.
Now a lot of the problems came from the receivers not getting open. Now whether that was a function of poor play design or great coverage (I'm leaning to the latter). It was clear to me that early in the game Denver's strategy was to maximum cover. Tight on the wideouts and lots of people in the middle. Make Brady come off his first reads and know where his next reads were. Part of the problem was Brady's impatience early in the game. He had a lot more time than he realized and once he did (after the first quarter) he was much better.
Well the good news is that we will have a Tom Brady who will have a HUGE chip on his shoulder for the last 2 games of the season. That can never be a bad thing, unless you are Jimmy Garopolo and want to get some action.
5. General offensive comments: Josh McDaniels is a wildly successfull OC and an elite offensive mind in this league, but there are a couple of plays every game that just drive me nuts. One play was the 3rd and 2 when he was in a spread offense with no RB's, when I thought it was the perfect time to be in a running formation and if he wanted to pass, go to play action passing (PAP). It should be noted we made the first down on the pass, but it still drove me nuts.
Then there was the one that actually made me yell at the screen (I do that so rarely now that I've "matured" ) It was another 3rd and short when they DID line up with a RB (White) in the backfield and rather than run the ball or run a PAP, they simply dropped back with no fake and the play was blown up. I didn't mind them throwing the ball in that situation, but WHY make it easy on the defense. WHY give them a fast read? It makes no sense. It would have made more sense to have NO RB's in the backfield than to have one and not use him in the play design
b. We need to remember to give the Denver D a lot of the credit for the poor offensive results today. No team covers receiver's better than they do. That being said, if we play them again in the playoffs in Gillette, I would bet the farm they score 30+.
