SB 51 Observations

[Ring 6]

Watching the game again this weekend.
A few things stood out.
Mitchell made some big plays.
The pass rush was relentless.
White played a lot.
Van noy seemed to be around a lot of plays.

So I rechecked snap counts and found some interesting things that may give us insight into this year.

Other the the GOAT and the OL who played every snap Chris Hogan had the most snaps with 97 out if 99. Is he headed for a bigger role than we expected? (Edelman played 90)
HT and the secondary played every snap on D, no surprise but flowers played 45 of 49 a huge % for a DL. I think he will be out there 90%+ this year.
Branch played 37/49 a lot for a DT
Van Noy played 30, most of non-HT lbs.

James white played 71 snaps. He average only 27 a game in the regular season and his most was 39. Interesting.

 

[PatsGuy]

Mitchell n per usual Amendola, did make BIG plays! I hadn't noticed Van Noy. I'll need to look again

 

[bormio]

White played that much because Atlanta's D was conceding the pass-catching back. Hogan became a more versatile and hence more targeted receiver in the playoffs. Edelman drew a lot of attention in the playoffs and the other 3 wideouts really benefited in the SB. If Cooks learns the system well and we stay injury free at the position, DC's around the league are going to go sleepless.

 

[Guts]

Good post/observations.

My quick observation is people often forget that our team won the SB without the most dominant non-QB player in the league. Gronk was a huge loss and they still prevailed

 

[doesntmatter1]

I have watched this game at least 10x. Van Noy stood out to me as well, but in a bad way. I like his ability to cover in zone/man and blitz but he was definitely our worst run defender.

All of our receivers played well. Amendola, who I usually bash on his separation, schooled #34 Poole all day. #34 was Atlanta's worst player and even drew a few penalties. I thank this guy and Atlanta for not benching him lol.

Our secondary was very prepared and contested almost everything. It makes me a little sad that we broke up the unit by not signing Logan.

Freeman had a great first half and we couldn't stop him from getting to the edge.

We had zero use for Blount this game and it sealed his fate going forward.

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

White played that much because Atlanta's D was conceding the pass-catching back. Hogan became a more versatile and hence more targeted receiver in the playoffs. Edelman drew a lot of attention in the playoffs and the other 3 wideouts really benefited in the SB. If Cooks learns the system well and we stay injury free at the position, DC's around the league are going to go sleepless.

Atlanta is just terrible against defending pass catching running backs

 

[everlong]

Vereen played 68% of the snaps against Seattle which was the same DC and more or less the same defense. Especially given the turnover at that position I don't think White's snap count means we'll see the same going forward. Against Atlanta and a few other weeks certainly it's in play.

 

[sportnik]

Here are a couple more:

Flowers is a stud. He doesn't get enough credit for the 4th quarter sack on Ryan. Not only did he get the sack, but he threw Ryan backward to turn a 6 yard loss into an 11 yard loss. He also caused Ryan to rush his final throw, causing an incompletion, with strong pressure up the middle.

Mason was a stud in the run game. White's TD and 2 point conversion both came by running through the space Mason created. He also threw the key block on Whites 10 yard swing pass in OT.

 

[oldrover]

Another observation I'd forgotten:

 

[GoBlue]

Watched the second half again last night...Can't get enough of it...

 

[Wheelman]

Great team defense by the Pats on forcing Falcons 1st punt. Ninkovich bull rushed the right tackle forcing Ryan off his spot into Trey Flowers who had also beaten his man. But if Ninko doesn't push Matt Ryan off his spot Ryan likely throws it to Julio, who was finally coming off Logan Ryan's jam, before Flowers can get there. Nice team D!

On the Falcons next drive that lead to a punt, Matt Ryan thought he needed to escape the pocket when he didn't which resulted in him giving himself up for a sack.

Jonathan Jones threw gunner Justin Hardy out of the club on one of the Falcons punts in the 1st quarter.

Should have scored points on the 2nd and 3rd drives. The plays were there to be made.

If Bennett doesn't turn Beasley around, which he got flagged for, Blount is brought down earlier by Beasley and probably doesn't fumble the ball. Oh the irony...

On the Falcons 1st scoring drive, Matt Ryan throws it to Julio and almost had it picked off if it weren't for Julio being a beast. Meanwhile Sanu was open. But he threw it to Julio, even though Ryan is playing inside leverage on an in-breaking route, and was almost picked off...

The stretch runs by the Falcons that were causing problems for us early were a combination of a pats player being out of position, losing leverage, over pursuing, and the Falcons executing it well. It was frustrating to watch.

On Matt Ryan's second scoring drive, Rowe ended up being 1 on 1 with Julio on his 3rd catch because of the Falcons play design against the Pats D. Matt Ryan almost threw a 2nd pick this time against Chung. Nice job by the tight end in breaking up the pick.

Both of the Falcons scoring drives in the 1st half had the potential in ending in interceptions.

That's all I got for now.

 

[Wheelman]

Another observation I'd forgotten:

I never get enough of this! HAHAHAHA!

 

[TommyD4207]

White played that much because Atlanta's D was conceding the pass-catching back. Hogan became a more versatile and hence more targeted receiver in the playoffs. Edelman drew a lot of attention in the playoffs and the other 3 wideouts really benefited in the SB. If Cooks learns the system well and we stay injury free at the position, DC's around the league are going to go sleepless.

Also it was clear that White was the hot hand in that game. Blount wasn't. Lewis wasn't.

 

[TommyD4207]

Vereen played 68% of the snaps against Seattle which was the same DC and more or less the same defense. Especially given the turnover at that position I don't think White's snap count means we'll see the same going forward. Against Atlanta and a few other weeks certainly it's in play.

White's better than Vereen, I think that's become clear. Bill Belichick, right again.

 

[Kontradiction]

Can't help but think that the Patriots wouldn't have been down by that much in the first place with Garoppolo starting.

 

[TheFlyingWedge]

Vereen played 68% of the snaps against Seattle which was the same DC and more or less the same defense. Especially given the turnover at that position I don't think White's snap count means we'll see the same going forward. Against Atlanta and a few other weeks certainly it's in play.

Pass catching RBs always have huge roles in this offense and they become even more important in Superbowls. You mentioned Vereen and White, and could even add JR Redmond's game winning drive heroics of the '01 Super Bowl to that list.

 

[1960Pats]

On the swing pass to the right to White in OT that brought the Pats down to the 15, the Pats got away with what I think would have been a very big penalty.

 

[Uptown]

Another observation..

 

[rookBoston]

The guy who doesn't get nearly enough credit in my book is Chris Long. Long was in on the Hightower strip sack, and was actually the guy who forced Ryan's attention on that play coming from the offensive left. Ryan timed his delivery to coincide with Long's pass rush and never felt Hightower coming from the other side.

Plus, after the Julio Jones miracle catch that should have sealed the win, and Flowers sack for a big loss, it was Chris Long that drew the holding plenalty that finally took the Falcons out of FG range.

Hightower and Flowers get the credit, but Long was there and impactful on those plays. He NEVER gets a mention for his role.

 

[sean10mm]

The comeback was actually ridiculously slow and lots of things went wrong. The 3rd quarter was almost over by the time they score the first touchdown, then miss the PAT. That made the 4th quarter a net LOSS for the Patriots - in effect, no actual comeback was apparent yet.

Then they settle for a field goal.

The game never stopped being excruciating until they had the TD-2PT-TD-2PT blitz at the very end of the 4th.