Idle thoughts - The "who are these guys" edition

[slam]

"Who Are These Guys?" true confession: When people pointed out Trevor Reilly in the rewatch threads, I thought they had a typo or something.

 

[supafly]

Because MM wouldnt play over Dorsett, but over Hogan or Dola.

Some route concepts need a speedy go player who is a low percentage decoy that takes a DB out of the area that you are really trying to target. You can use Cooks on that but it seems to me like they are still trying to get him on some of those AB-esque slant routes or WR screens so Dorsett is the logical choice to do that.

MM would give both Hogan and Dola more of a rest than anything else.

Yeah, I don’t know man. It seems pretty logical that Mitchell would force Dorsett back into a limited snap count, where he was prior to the Hogan injury.

He saw snap counts of :
7
9
20
11
8
8

Prior to the Hogan injury


The top 4 WRs would be Cooks, Hogan, Amendola, and Mitchell. Dorsett could be gameplan dependent, but otherwise he’s likely a healthy scratch.

We may see this one differently, but I think Mitchell is a huge upgrade due to his knowledge of the system and the rapport that he developed with Brady. We never win that SB without him. Dorsett could be huge next year though.

 

[scout]

Listened to Dan Patrick today analyzing the Cowboys and defending Prescott. They lost their a great linebacker (Lee), great running back (Elliot) and all-pro left tackle Smith. Hmmm, Hightower, Edelman, and substituting at center is a player who never played the position. Fleming or Waddle injured, does it really make a difference if your the NE Patriots?

 

[everlong]

EDIT: I realize now you were referring to Hogan, but it doesn't change how I feel. Cooks is ahead of him too. He's doing more long ball damage than any other WR in the league this year.

Cooks is starting to come into his own but Hogan has been in the top two these past two years. You can say JE was #1 last year and Cooks this year but I think prior to his injury Brady looked for Hogan before Cooks.

 

[bbobbo]

"Who Are These Guys?" true confession: When people pointed out Trevor Reilly in the rewatch threads, I thought they had a typo or something.

get yourself noticed on special teams, earn some starting time:

 

[PrairiePat]

No need titles was GREAT and selfexplanatory.
Not to quibble with a great read, as always Ken, but did you remember what you had just written in the preceding paragraph when you went all Homer on how great the offense was.

I mean the first FG set a FRANCHISE DISTANCE RECORD! And the second one wasn't such a gimme distance in a NORMAL stadium either. At sea level, BB didn't send Ghost out several times at that distance and never would have done 62.

Gotta quibble with this a bit too That 62 yarder came after drive that started inside their own 15 yardline with 33 seconds left in the half. Just getting an opportunity to kick a FG was a great job by the O.

The other kicks were 51, 40, and 29. All definitely within Ghost's range in Foxboro. So yeah, we'd all like to see a better TD/FG ratio, but I think it's a bit unfair to say that the thin air made the offense look better than it really was. It was only a factor on that 62 yarder, really.

 

[luuked]

He can share snaps with dola. Hogan and cooks will be our outside guys. The guy was big last year and he already has that feel with brady. I am sure TB would love to have him back.

I dont give a **** what TB wants. I care what is more important for the team and having additional help on the DL seems a better investment than yet another offensive option to the point where two have to be inactive each game. If MM is closer to return health wise than VV then so be it but if odds are the same then having VV seems like the better team building option.

 

[Tony2046]

I dont give a **** what TB wants. I care what is more important for the team and having additional help on the DL seems a better investment than yet another offensive option to the point where two have to be inactive each game. If MM is closer to return health wise than VV then so be it but if odds are the same then having VV seems like the better team building option.

That's been my feeling all a long but after Hogan went out it made me reconsider but knowing that Hogan will be back eventually I would really prefer VV for the DL depth..

 

[luuked]

That's been my feeling all a long but after Hogan went out it made me reconsider but knowing that Hogan will be back eventually I would really prefer VV for the DL depth..

Yeah, if Hogan is actually more of a question mark than it appears then obviously this needs to be kept in mind. No question.

 

[PatsFan2]

Because MM wouldnt play over Dorsett, but over Hogan or Dola.

Some route concepts need a speedy go player who is a low percentage decoy that takes a DB out of the area that you are really trying to target. You can use Cooks on that but it seems to me like they are still trying to get him on some of those AB-esque slant routes or WR screens so Dorsett is the logical choice to do that.

MM would give both Hogan and Dola more of a rest than anything else.

Point taken but Dorsett ain't beating his guy I don't think a Safety is shading his area. I really expected a little bit more from him. If Mitchell comes back with a Hogan we are dropping 45 a Game on Teams. I don't know how you stop that. Greatest show on grass...greatest show on turf.

 

[luuked]

Point taken but Dorsett ain't beating his guy I don't think a Safety is shading his area.

That is not true and you can go to last weeks rewatch thread to check it out.

 

[DaBruinz]

BB let Rodney freelance. Several all pro LBs, including one LT, were allowed to freelance. I think you just aren't allowed UNTIL YOU EARNED IT (trust). So that is the question, is MB at that level. Based on early season BB veiled public critiques, you would say not. But he always has the SB winning INT-those are some chops!, . . . so maybe he gets half leeway.

Where do you get that Rodney freelanced with the Patriots?

 

[Gumby]

Where do you get that Rodney freelanced with the Patriots?

No URL/quote to give you. Remembered it, i thought/still think correctly, as more one of his peers in retirement talking in an interview about BB respecting certain players and therefore they had more flexibility to make choices/decisions. I doubt bb or Rodney would have called it 'freelancing' anyway. To some extent, a SAFETY is a freelancer.

 

[Uptown]

 

[TB_Helmet]

Who will be the next QB to lose to Tom in the Super Bowl?

"Yo!"

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

No URL/quote to give you. Remembered it, i thought/still think correctly, as more one of his peers in retirement talking in an interview about BB respecting certain players and therefore they had more flexibility to make choices/decisions. I doubt bb or Rodney would have called it 'freelancing' anyway. To some extent, a SAFETY is a freelancer.

It was Mayo in the Quick Slants podcast after the Carolina game, IIRC. He mentioned it more about Seau, but did mention Rodney, too. I wasn't sure if he referenced true freelancing or just what appeared to him as freelancing as he admitted their personal audible confused the heck out of Mayo the rookie.

Regards,
Chris

 

[luuked]

It was Mayo in the Quick Slants podcast after the Carolina game, IIRC. He mentioned it more about Seau, but did mention Rodney, too. I wasn't sure if he referenced true freelancing or just what appeared to him as freelancing as he admitted their personal audible confused the heck out of Mayo the rookie.

Regards,
Chris

I think at this point the term freelancing has become used and viewed way to broadly similar to how people call everything a dropped ball now no matter the context.

If I recall correctly the freelancing that players like Seau and Rodney did was born from their understanding of the system and knowing what other players on their team would do, whereas the more recent issues with players like Collins were more based towards following their instincts and jeopardizing the entire scheme by leaving holes. And that is an important distinction to make.

 

[patfanken]

Point taken but Dorsett ain't beating his guy I don't think a Safety is shading his area. I really expected a little bit more from him. If Mitchell comes back with a Hogan we are dropping 45 a Game on Teams. I don't know how you stop that. Greatest show on grass...greatest show on turf.

I think that's a little to strong a criticism. Dorsett is here because at the start of the season the Pats lost Edelman and Mitchell right away, and the Pats desperately were looking for some depth at WR.

Now criticizing his lack of production can be explained by the fact of his very limited targets and playing time. Whenever he is on the field he is likely the 4th or 5th option at best. From what I've seen, whenever Dorsett is on the field is is "doing his job", as a blocker or decoy.

We gave up our 3rd string QB to get some receiver depth. Looks like we got exactly what we expected.

 

[patfanken]

A couple of other quick thoughts

One stat that was mentioned in this game was that Brady was at the bottom of the league when it came to throwing the ball into "tight windows". IIRC the number was about only 18% of the time. I think this is a telling stat.

In today's game throwing 50-50 balls has become the standard operating norm. Joe Flacco won a superbowl doing it, and with the ever bigger WR's and TE, most QB's seem to be willing to do it more and more.....but NOT Brady.

Over the years Brady has become SO ball security conscience that he sometimes frustrates me because he doesn't throw more "50-50" balls. Brady is willing to take sacks, or throw the ball away more than any other QB in the league.

I think part of the reason is because he is SO confident in his offense and his own abilities that he feels, "why take the risk, when I can come back next play and make it work. He believes that Josh's scheme will open people up so he doesn't need to make the "risky throw"

This year he's "gotten better" when throwing the long ball. He still tends to overthrow those balls to make sure no one gets it but his guy, but you can see as the season has gone on, he's starting to give Cooks, more of a chance.

Now it's not like he NEVER throws the ball into tight windows. He just does it less than almost every other QB in the league.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Romo noted that one of the things that Brady changed this season was being less safe with the long ball to make sure that his receiver is given a chance to make a play on it. I don't know whether that's something that Brady mentioned, but it's a clear change from prior years, and it makes sense with Cooks and Hogan being accomplished at beating their man and then tracking down the long ball and Gronk being able to win the fight for most 50:50 balls. It's a good place to give up some of that safety factor, too. Most safeties and corners aren't that good at tracking the ball over their shoulder, or they'd be playing offense. Furthermore, even when it goes wrong, it's like a punt and is there least likely interception to be returned for a TD. Now, if you've got an Ed Reed or Patrick Peterson in coverage, the calculus changes, but I'm sure Tom and Josh have that figured out by Wednesday.