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Getting back to the Browns and our defense.
The fact is that with Chubb, Landry, and OBJ the Pats will face the 3 best skill players they've faced this year, or might face the rest of the year. And in Baker they face a talented but young QB who can best be described now as a feast or famine QB. In other words he CAN present a lot of problems, BUT opportunities as well.
1. First order will be to stop the run. The Browns have a "descent" OL but not a juggernaut. Kind of like the OL we have right now. Their LG and C (Bitonio and Tretter) are excellent. It will be a real challenge for Shelton, and the ILB's this week.
2. 2nd order will be to keep Mayfield in the pocket. Which will mean we won't be seeing the same level of blitzes we was on Monday. More 4 man rushes and stems. They'll want to force Baker to throw accurate passes and read their coverages in order to throw the ball consistently.
3. I'm thinking we see more zone coverages this week, or rather what is called "match up zones". Coverages that will look like man at the snap, but will break down into 5 under 2 deep coverage that work well against so called "man beater" routes.
4. That, like most weeks, will be the key to the success of the defense. Will they be able to disguise what they are doing enough to begin to make Baker "see ghosts".
5. One way to keep the Pats defense off balance and unable to reset the defense AFTER Mayfield sets the blocking scheme by calling out the Mike, is to go uptempo. This will also keep the Pats from making all the substitutions they make play to play. Unfortunately this will be harder to do as the away team, and Gillette has never been a friendly crowd. But it would be a way to challenge what the Pats did to Darnald.
6. On defense the OL WILL be challenged. Vernon, Garrett Richardson, and Ogunjobi are as good a front 4 the Pats will see all year. Garrett is a DMVP candidate and will require special attention. The others are good. The MLB is a tackling machine (Schobert), but their OLB I think is where we should be attacking them.
The Secondary is filled with high draft picks, but I'm not sure what the run (man/zone?) or how good they are.
7. So what should we expect from the offense. I haven't a clue. We could just as easily come out 4 wide and spread them out as go 2 TE's and try and pound it. Whatever it is, it will need to come out and score 24 or more points, if we are going to continue to see a steady improvement to the offense.
BTW- I told you so about Tomlinson in "idle thoughts". Big dude I wish he had done more.
The fact is that with Chubb, Landry, and OBJ the Pats will face the 3 best skill players they've faced this year, or might face the rest of the year. And in Baker they face a talented but young QB who can best be described now as a feast or famine QB. In other words he CAN present a lot of problems, BUT opportunities as well.
1. First order will be to stop the run. The Browns have a "descent" OL but not a juggernaut. Kind of like the OL we have right now. Their LG and C (Bitonio and Tretter) are excellent. It will be a real challenge for Shelton, and the ILB's this week.
2. 2nd order will be to keep Mayfield in the pocket. Which will mean we won't be seeing the same level of blitzes we was on Monday. More 4 man rushes and stems. They'll want to force Baker to throw accurate passes and read their coverages in order to throw the ball consistently.
3. I'm thinking we see more zone coverages this week, or rather what is called "match up zones". Coverages that will look like man at the snap, but will break down into 5 under 2 deep coverage that work well against so called "man beater" routes.
4. That, like most weeks, will be the key to the success of the defense. Will they be able to disguise what they are doing enough to begin to make Baker "see ghosts".
5. One way to keep the Pats defense off balance and unable to reset the defense AFTER Mayfield sets the blocking scheme by calling out the Mike, is to go uptempo. This will also keep the Pats from making all the substitutions they make play to play. Unfortunately this will be harder to do as the away team, and Gillette has never been a friendly crowd. But it would be a way to challenge what the Pats did to Darnald.
6. On defense the OL WILL be challenged. Vernon, Garrett Richardson, and Ogunjobi are as good a front 4 the Pats will see all year. Garrett is a DMVP candidate and will require special attention. The others are good. The MLB is a tackling machine (Schobert), but their OLB I think is where we should be attacking them.
The Secondary is filled with high draft picks, but I'm not sure what the run (man/zone?) or how good they are.
7. So what should we expect from the offense. I haven't a clue. We could just as easily come out 4 wide and spread them out as go 2 TE's and try and pound it. Whatever it is, it will need to come out and score 24 or more points, if we are going to continue to see a steady improvement to the offense.
BTW- I told you so about Tomlinson in "idle thoughts". Big dude I wish he had done more.