Rewatch SB: Pats vs. Eagles - X's and O's ONLY!

[luuked]

I give the Eagles all the credit in the world. It makes sense to me that I am just not ready to watch the game yet and believe that one can objectively criticize the Patriots' Defensive performance without "whining."

Sometimes one has to keep two different ideas in one's head at the same time, in this case:
1) The Eagles Offense played well.
2) The Patriots Defense played poorly.

The whining comment was not directed at you directly. Sorry if it came off like it.

I understand that some people are not ready to rewatch it yet. However, once you get there really check out some of the third down plays from the Eagles. It will make you feel better that for the most part those were just great plays and not only our defense screwing up.

 

[drewskie]

Brady keeps looking upfield to Gronk. He either (unsuccessfully) tries to move Jenkins who is lurking to close in on White in the flat or actually wants Gronk.

The thing that makes this frustrating is that HE KNEW he had White before the ball was even snapped. There was no need to even look at Gronk. Take the easy 100% first down even if it only gains 3-5 yards and move on. There was enough time and still 2 TOs.

Before they even snapped the ball on that play, with White in motion I could see that he should've been the first read and an automatic first down while gaining YAC, and still be able to get out of bounds to stop the clock.

PHI was willing concede the underneath routes because they weren't going to give up the home run play. Sucks.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

The whining comment was not directed at you directly. Sorry if it came off like it.

I understand that some people are not ready to rewatch it yet. However, once you get there really check out some of the third down plays from the Eagles. It will make you feel better that for the most part those were just great plays and not only our defense screwing up.

For now, I'll just have to take your word for it.
Thanks for the perspective and suggestion, though.

 

[mosi]

I am watching the Philly parade now - and they are very respectful of Brady and have called him the GOAT repeatedly. The one thing they mentioned was that game had the most total yards of ANY NFL game in history - regular and post season.

They mentioned the defenses on both sides were just gassed - from the tempo of the game and the temperature in the building and that last long drive by the Eagles gave their D just enough juice to get to Brady.

 

[captain stone]

This was our best chance. Great bullrush by Harrison, Our best cover guy in great position to make the play, Gilmore was just one step off as you said. Foles gets credit for a quick release and accurate throw.

Gilmore was more than one step off...much more. He therefore wasn't in "great position" to make the play; otherwise, he would have, you know, actually made the damn play.

 

[luuked]

They mentioned the defenses on both sides were just gassed - from the tempo of the game and the temperature in the building and that last long drive by the Eagles gave their D just enough juice to get to Brady.

I think this had more to do with how deep their DL was and how they could afford to rotate those players but a 7 minute drive obviously helps. It sucks that a phenomenal performance by the OL ended on that note.

 

[captain stone]

And while I'm here, can someone please explain to me what kind of blocking setup was called for 2nd/5 on Philly's 9 late in the first quarter during the Pats opening drive? Made no sense to me, then and now, and I wasn't surprised in the slightest that White was stuffed for barely one yard.

 

[ashley]

Robert Snyder‏ @RobbieBuckets
Robert Snyder Retweeted Fran Duffy

@MikeGiardi - watch Elandon Roberts at 1:00. This is early in the game and he's so confused by RPO's that he turns to cover someone AFTER a handoff.

 

[captain stone]

Elandon Roberts & Glitch Richards are complete disgraces to the uniform.

If these two useless piles of garbage (and GeeNo Gruesome) are still in the building by Opening Day, then Bill should be fired...by torches & pitchforks.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

A note on TOP and snap counts...

Official TOP for Eagles was 34:04 vs. 25:56 for NE. On its face, it looks like the Pats D was on the field more which may have contributed to the D "tiring out" or something along those lines. Not so fast...

TOP in the first half was 16:48 vs. 13:12 in favor of Philly, but that's primarily because the Eagles did a better job of keeping the clock running between plays. Not counting penalties or FG attempts /punts, both teams ran 36 plays. Prior to the final drive to end the half, Philly had a 36-31 snap advantage. I wouldn't consider that all that large, let alone "tiring" to the Pats D.

After the long halftime which hopefully gave the teams a breather, the Pats took the lead with 9:22 in the 4th. At that point, the Pats had a 25-19 snap (including the final 10 snaps) and an 11:27 to 9:11 TOP 2nd half advantage.

What happened next obviously determined the game, as Philly went on a 14 play go-ahead drive that killed 7:01. That being said, I find it tough to argue that the Pats D was gassed due to some perceived TOP imbalance heading into that fateful drive. They just couldn't get a stop to save their lives.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Pessimistic Pete]

I can never rewatch this SB and have not watched (nor will ever watch) a single highlight package of the game.

 

[long distance]

Another 3rd down completion on that final drive


I mean look at that play design.

They use the trips which produced brainfarts early in the season for our secondary. Then send the player on top of the trip formation on a straight go route that clears out the space where Ertz will break into after initially running a slant towards the sideline. He makes Gilmore bite a bit on the slant and our CB cant recover to make the tackle before the line to gain. You can see that one little step Gilmore takes to the sideline right before he realizes that he screwed it up.

Ertz was the friggin MVP for the Eagles that nobody is talking about.

great job luuked on above clips.

this zig zag Ertz play was on the menu of every single analysis out there for 14 days so Gilmore could do a better job here.

what this clip shows is how everything people whine about is there - good coverage on a difficult play to cover all and also good pass rush . one wrong step by arguably best NE defender in the playoffs and the painful conversion is made (and all the easy dump gets thrown at D, MP, BB etc)

what all these clips show is that this actually was a game of inches on almost every play to the point of uncanny . and vast majority of those inches went both O ways. So it was not so much that suddenly both D's were bad . but more they were both on the wrong side of inches 90% of the time (and like 99% of the time in crucial situations).

But is much more simple to just say D sucked..

 

[long distance]

The front 7 has some nice pieces but lacks a real strength. If Branch would have been his 2016 version this would have opened up some things. Because Brown/Branch would have been a pretty good interior. I think Guy would have been a great rotational guy to have for specific situations and not as a starter.

The linebackers without Hightower are abysmal. KVN made some steps and became at least somewhat reliable but everything around him is poo. They are not only slow but also easily taken out of plays to he point where if Elandon Roberts doesnt magically improve I will go insane if he is still on the 53 next Fall.

It is not easy to build up a really fearsome pass rush without drafting really early for 1-2 years, hitting jackpots in a later round or overpaying in FA (which usually costs you on other spots on the roster).

I think given the talent level Patricia worked with this year this might have still been his finest coaching job since he took over as DC. James Harrison, Eric Lee, Elandon Roberts, Marquis Flowers.. I mean this is pretty bad in terms of talent level relative to other playoff teams.

this is too harsh on Guy and LBs . and somewhat non-analytic for the thread..

LB is a tough business in today's game and most teams suffer there. We were salivating over Kendricks . yet I can't remember him stopping much Pats O did..

 

[luuked]

great job luuked on above clips.

this zig zag Ertz play was on the menu of every single analysis out there for 14 days so Gilmore could do a better job here.

what this clip shows is how everything people whine about is there - good coverage on a difficult play to cover all and also good pass rush . one wrong step by arguably best NE defender in the playoffs and the painful conversion is made (and all the easy dump gets thrown at D, MP, BB etc)

what all these clips show is that this actually was a game of inches on almost every play to the point of uncanny . and vast majority of those inches went both O ways. So it was not so much that suddenly both D's were bad . but more they were both on the wrong side of inches 90% of the time (and like 99% of the time in crucial situations).

But is much more simple to just say D sucked..

I agree with everything you said. Unfortunately most people somehow prefer to just scratch the surface and are satisfied blaming the Butler situation for all eternity instead of actually trying to understand what went wrong on the field.

Just by how some people attacking Rowe even though he didn't play that bad after the first drive you can see that there is not much effort involved.

LB is a tough business in today's game and most teams suffer there. We were salivating over Kendricks . yet I can't remember him stopping much Pats O did.

I think if you look through the "tape" it becomes pretty obvious that the "issues" had more to do with the front 7 than the secondary. Roberts only had 2 tackles in the entire game. 2 tackles. He was in for almost 60% of snaps (58.7%).

There are multiple clips of him reading hand-offs wrong and going into coverage opening up the entire MOF for the Eagles RB.

I get that hammering on the LB sounds too opinionated for the rewatch thread but it was really that bad in my opinion. I am fine with 90% of people *****ing about that missed tackle by Bademosi it is obviously "not ideal" but those things happen. What shocked me a lot more was how easily and consistently the Eagles exploited the slow physical and mental speed of our LBs.

Anyway.. I think I am done for a while with this game. I might revisit it after FA and the draft to see if any roster moves would have made any difference against an attack like that.

 

[long distance]

Baldy has started his dive into some of the Pats plays and this one stands out most:



Brady will have a pretty bad summer over whiffing this. He got too comfortable with those deep completions and stopped respecting the Eagles DL. He makes that pass to White 95% of the time out of the presnap read. But he got greedy with over 2 minutes of times and 2 timeouts and essentially ended the game right there.

Lombardi replies to Baldy a bit later and indicates that Brady really wanted Gronk on this play:

With all the trash on D, MP, BB . BB managed to bring the team to a winning situation like he usually does - 2:21, 2 time outs, 6 points needed for win, ball in TB hands - Id guess that's a 80% winning scenario ..

When Long hit Keenum's hand from right side rush and the game took a definite PHI turn I said to myself this could never happen to Brady (from that side in such game/situation) . he'd sooner throw it away or secure it to his body like he usually does. This one will bite him for a long while for sure..

 

[long distance]

I don't think that's quite exactly fair though to call it a shiny object. The unknown question is if they would have been out-executed with Butler in there too, or if Butler's presence limits that. There have been good posts of the ripple effects here, where Chung wound up covering Agholor a lot since Butler was out, which led to Richards being on the field in Chung's spot in a few cases. Obviously I understand that if Butler were in there, different reads and different plays are called. And obviously I understand that clearly, Belichick thinks Butler's ability to execute would have been just as bad.

This is a completely fair and legitimate question to ask simply because he had played 90% of the snaps all season, and the defense stunk yet he wasn't even given one snap as a, "throw it to the wall, see if it works" solution.

That said, I agree with the principle. The Eagles had a killer offense, their offensive line was the best in the game, and it showed. They took care of the two guys on our line who were worthy starters (Brown and Flowers) because they didn't really have to worry about the guys who would be well suited as rotational players, but wound up playing 80%+ of the snaps because they didn't have anyone better available (Guy and Harrison). And they took care of our linebackers on the ground because only KVN is a reasonable worthy starter; M. Flowers in an ideal world is only out there for passing downs, and Roberts is Brandon Spikes but with George Constanza's instincts (Spikes was so good against the run because he had uncanny instincts; Roberts should take whatever instinct he has against the run and do the opposite). The Pats need another stud on the D-Line and another stud at LB.

good post, Hammer and just wonderful Costanza analogy, kudos

 

[PP2]

 

[PP2]

 

[The_Riddler]

The illegal crossing pick play on DMac on the Critical 4th pass to Ertz that is always flagged but for some reason wasn't was a game changer. Had that not happened and we take over at that point on the Eagle 45, it's game over. That was so blatant and the officials looked the other way. This and our coach sitting Butler for not one qtr but all four are the two things I will never forget....

 

[ZoisKing]

One great defensive play from Brady carving that D up again and adding another title in sensational fashion. Not getting a chance to see that happen sucks the most.