James Harrison officially signs with Pats

[VegasGuy]

Hit
Randy Moss
Rodney Harrison
Chris Long
Ted Washington
Andre Carter
Bryan Cox
Roman Phifer
Sammy Morris
Darrelle Revis
Antowain Smith
LeGarrette Blount
Tyrone Poole
Keith Traylor
Otis Smith

Miss
Victor Green
Duane Starks
Joey Galloway
Torry Holt
Reggie Wayne
John Lynch
Terrance Knighton
Adrian Wilson
Shaun Ellis
Fred Taylor
Leigh Bodden (good first year, never recovered after missing 2010)
Adalius Thomas (good first year, disappointing final two years)
Shawn Springs
Marcus Pollard

I had high hopes for Adrian Wilson

 

[RobertWeathers]

4 tackles and 2 sacks. looked like he got close to the QB on a couple other times. set the edge well on some runs. really impressed

if he can continue to do this for 3 games its a big upgrade over what we had on the other side

Its a massive upgrade.

M Flowers and Lee aren't stout run stuffers but they do have speed.

All Harrison has to do is hold his ground and in the dozen of times I watched him he did just that.

Hes so freaking stocky and he has such a powerful base. How the F do you move a guy like that?

With the exception of the 24 yd Powell run in the 1st qtr the run D was outstanding.

Take that run away and they ran it 18 times for 16 yards.

That is .9 yards per carry

 

[VegasGuy]

I hate James Harrison.

Yo Ice, he plays for the Pats now.

 

[IcyPatriot]

I hope he plays for us next year also.
I am sure Belichick can carve out a role for him that's good for both sides.

 

[patsfaninpa]

I hope he plays for us next year also.
I am sure Belichick can carve out a role for him that's good for both sides.

I'm pretty sure I could run around Lee. Dude can't set the edge. I think Harrison starts in playoffs.

 

[n1997y]

I'm pretty sure I could run around Lee. Dude can't set the edge. I think Harrison starts in playoffs.

You mean the guy who just scored two points for the Pats? Maybe he wasn't setting the edge but he turned the corner pretty well.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

You mean the guy who just scored two points for the Pats? Maybe he wasn't setting the edge but he turned the corner pretty well.

Agree N6. Lee is a newby who is being asked to do more than he is ready for (or may ever be ready for) due to injury and/or outright insufficiency at the position. However, because Lee can't currently do X doesn't mean there isn't a role for him if he does Y fair to good. And Lee has shown some ability to do Y fair to good.

Getting KVN back, Lee, obtaining Harrison (and if what we saw yesterday is what we can expect), hell even Roberts & Flowers when used right, what this hopefully gives us over the next 3 wins is substantially more flexibility and productive D packages (and save Chung's "LB" snaps for much much more specific scenarios). General run D, short yardage, quick drop into zone, blitz packages and pick up the backfield receiver -- having a good answer/package for these scenarios is what we can hope for (most critical, KVN, an actual 3 down LB who can make that short-mid middle less productive for opposing O's. Even the sorry Jets O had some success there during one part of the game).

IMHO the D needs to be at its best for these next 3 games. The good news is I think the D will be at its peak starting a week from Saturday. Look, no doubt the O is quite good but -- again IMHO -- this year's O cannot be expected to carry an extra share of the load. This year the SB victory will need to be distinctly complimentary (even one where the D wins the game for us). Again I think this D may finally have enough pieces for the chess master to adjust packages and hit peak productivity.

 

[n1997y]

Agree N6. Lee is a newby who is being asked to do more than he is ready for (or may ever be ready for) due to injury and/or outright insufficiency at the position. However, because Lee can't currently do X doesn't mean there isn't a role for him if he does Y fair to good. And Lee has shown some ability to do Y fair to good.

Getting KVN back, Lee, obtaining Harrison (and if what we saw yesterday is what we can expect), hell even Roberts & Flowers when used right, what this hopefully gives us over the next 3 wins is substantially more flexibility and productive D packages (and save Chung's "LB" snaps for much much more specific scenarios). General run D, short yardage, quick drop into zone, blitz packages and pick up the backfield receiver -- having a good answer/package for these scenarios is what we can hope for (most critical, KVN, an actual 3 down LB who can make that short-mid middle less productive for opposing O's. Even the sorry Jets O had some success there during one part of the game).

IMHO the D needs to be at its best for these next 3 games. The good news is I think the D will be at its peak starting a week from Saturday. Look, no doubt the O is quite good but -- again IMHO -- this year's O cannot be expected to carry an extra share of the load. This year the SB victory will need to be distinctly complimentary (even one where the D wins the game for us). Again I think this D may finally have enough pieces for the chess master to adjust packages and hit peak productivity.

I'd say Lee is being given an opportunity to do a lot more than he's ever done in the past. Generally I don't see it as being asked to do more, or less; I acccept Belichick's statements that he gives players opportunities and what they do with those opportunities determines whether they get more opportunities in the future, or fewer. It just seems to me that looking at it that way avoids the problem of prejudging what a player can and cannot do, perhaps because of their pedigree (or lack thereof), without actually giving them the chance to see what they can do.

Thing is, he was signed off the Bills PS, so a lot of folks have already prejudged him as not bringing anything special to the table. But he flashed a couple of big plays in his first game with the Pats, much to everyone's surprise, and then to cause even more consternation he backed that up with another couple of big plays in his next game with us. Now he's had a couple of quiet games, until this afternoon when he put points on the board - not a bad thing for a defender to do. I was a bit surprised reviewing his game log: in five games with the Pats he has ten solo tackles, sixteen total, three TFL, 3.5 sacks, two PD, one INT, and a safety. I'm expecting he's likely to find more opportunities coming his way in the next few weeks. And I'm hoping he may benefit from having James Harrison as a mentor during those weeks.

As for the D in general, I agree with you. I think it's melding into a solid unit, at the right time of the year. Picking up Harrison will definitely help. Getting KVN back will be a really big help. Having the bigs have a chance to get healthy ditto. Nice thing is, not only are the pieces coming together at the right time but there's not a lot of history on how they play together as a unit to help opponents figure out how best to attack them. I expect we will be pleasantly surprised by the level of our defensive play over the rest of the season.

 

[K. Dog]

Belichick was very complimentary toward Harrison in the postgame. He complimented Harrison's professionalism, work ethic, and ability to improve every day despite being in a new system, which he said was not always the case. It's actually quite rare for Belichick to be this complimentary this soon.

See at 2:35.

 

[supafly]

Some of you guys cracked up when another poster started a thread on what he deemed “Pittsburgh’s version of Fitzy” a couple of weeks ago.

I stumbled across this one last night regarding the James Harrison issue and it’s pretty funny. Not sure if you have to be from Pittsburgh to understand some of these or not, (do they have “Kohl’s cash” in the NE area?) but you get the general idea. As much as I hate the city, I think he’s way funnier than Fitzy, and he posts all year ‘round on a variety of topics unrelated to football. Check it out:

 

[RIpats88]

besides the two sacks I thought his other impressive play was on 3rd and 5 and he drove the TE into the ground stopping him from getting the 1st. Roberts probably runs right by the TE....