Interesting facts

[BPF]

from Reiss's football notes column today.

Until this last preseason game vs the Eagles shotgun was used very rarely. In addition to being a help to the QB, allowing him to see the field and diagnose quicker it also helps out the OL. Impressive stat on Welker. We'll see how the other two play out of this season but it looks like those tendencies will change w/no Asante and some of Capers influence on defense.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/articles/2008/08/24/players_must_pull_together/?page=3

Fast facts
Framingham resident Aaron Schatz, who helped author the 2008 Pro Football Prospectus, passes along the following nuggets from the book: 1. The 2007 Patriots were the first team in NFL history to use the shotgun on more than half of their offensive plays; 2. Wes Welker caught 77 percent of the passes intended for him, the highest percentage of any receiver in the past 12 years (minimum 60 "targets"); 3. Teams threw to the left side against the Patriots (offensive left) more often than they did against any other team, generally to avoid cornerback Asante Samuel; 4. The Patriots rarely blitzed on first down, but they ranked fourth and third, respectively, in frequency of blitzes on second and third down.

 

[Patriotis]

from Reiss's football notes column today.

Until this last preseason game vs the Eagles shotgun was used very rarely. In addition to being a help to the QB, allowing him to see the field and diagnose quicker it also helps out the OL. Impressive stat on Welker. We'll see how the other two play out of this season but it looks like those tendencies will change w/no Asante and some of Capers influence on defense.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/articles/2008/08/24/players_must_pull_together/?page=3

I always enjoy reading Mike Reiss sunday column. Interesting about the shotgun use and I have not seen it much this preseason either. That is why I am not concerned at all about 0-3 this preseason, BB is obviously resting the all injured or rehabbing vets and seeing what he has with the younger developing players by playing straight vanilla offense and defense.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

from Reiss's football notes column today.

Until this last preseason game vs the Eagles shotgun was used very rarely. In addition to being a help to the QB, allowing him to see the field and diagnose quicker it also helps out the OL. Impressive stat on Welker. We'll see how the other two play out of this season but it looks like those tendencies will change w/no Asante and some of Capers influence on defense.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/articles/2008/08/24/players_must_pull_together/?page=3

A couple of things worth noting:

* The Welker stat is based on recorded attempts, which means that every pass, even the ones that are clearly thrown away, are charged to a receiver. I'm fairly sure that the percentage of catchable passes that Welker caught was over 80%.

* As outstanding as Brady was in the shotgun, his passing was even better under center.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Teams threw to the left side against the Patriots (offensive left) more often than they did against any other team, generally to avoid cornerback Asante Samuel;

I'm trying to recall a related conversation about this. I think it had something to do with noting that Hobbs had more than held his own on the other side but the stats looked like they showed that nearly as many balls went toward Samuel as at Hobbs.

Apparently in the links referenced in this thread someone showed that defenses threw to Hobb's side 12 more times all last season than to Samuel's side (as per the discussion here that Sameul was often a liability for our defensive scheme, requiring additional coverage)

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/showpost.php?p=920288&postcount=57

If indeed it was only 12 more that doesn't seem to support Reiss's stat, but if they did throw to Hobb's side much more often, that makes his stats that much more impressive.