PP2
Hall of Fame Poster
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He is quickly becoming my favorite go to, for post game analysis, other than Ken. This past week was pretty good. The attached video is pretty good and hilarious.
Knee-Jerk Reactions, Week 5: Patriots vs. Browns
Some quick excerpts you can read below:
Knee-Jerk Reactions, Week 5: Patriots vs. Browns
Some quick excerpts you can read below:
It was all there on display against the Browns, rendering their defense defenseless. The Patriots line up in “posse” (one running back, one tight end, three receivers) with Gronk inside Julian Edelman. He runs a slant with linebacker Christian Kirksey on him, and Brady (with a free rusher charging at him) hits him for a big gain. A few plays later, on a third-and-8, Gronk runs a drag route, makes the catch and starts one of his patented parkour runs, breaking tackles down to the goal line. Then with goal-to-go, the Pats go with a Jumbo package, and Gronk sets the edge block to free LeGarrette Blount up for the first score.
— But the Bennett touchdowns were the true picture of what the McOffense can be. Take his last one, the score that made it 30-7. The Patriots ran a perfect execution of what I’ve heard referred to as “packaged” plays, where your line actually run blocks to sell the play action but your wideouts and ends release. Packaged plays normally are quick-hit timing throws, but on this one both Bennett and Gronk were in three-point stances on the playside and went deep. The fake got the whole Cleveland secondary to bite; Ibraheim Campbell tried to get back on Bennett, but he had no shot. Any defensive coordinator who watches that play is automatically qualified for a medicinal marijuana prescription.
— On Bennett’s first touchdown the Pats were in what they call “50” pass protection, meaning seven blockers. (Their six-man protections are numbered 51-59.) Bennett got a chip on outside rusher Derrick Kindred but then released him to get picked up by Blount. Brady went through all his reads before finding Bennett all alone in the flat, completely ignored by anyone not named Tom Brady. That’s exactly the kind of chemistry I assumed would take time to develop, but Brady and Bennett already have it. I guess you could say, [takes out aviator sunglasses] on that play … they were [puts them on] Kindred spirits. “Heeyaaahhh!!!”
— Not to be lost in all the tight end talk, though, is the play of the receivers. I confess to stereotyping Chris Hogan as a “possession” receiver. Of slot-shaming him. Of just assuming he was another Danny Amendola-type and doing everything just shy of comparing him to Wayne Chrebet and calling him “scrappy.” But he is a legitimate deep threat. He set up that third touchdown with a brilliant sight adjustment. The Browns were in a cover-2 until the strong safety bit on a play action. That left a single high safety and the middle of the field closed, so Hogan, who looked to be running a post, stemmed off his route across the safety, which Brady read to hit him in stride. And had the safety stayed with him, Malcolm Mitchell would have been left open on the deep cross he was running.
— And the other bomb Hogan caught was a straight up 9-route where he simply blew past Joe Haden. That would be the one Trent Green put on the telestrator and said, “You see him take the inside route,” as Hogan runs straight up the sidelines to the outside. Because for some reason Tom Brady’s return isn’t worth CBS’ A-squad. But I digress. Anyway, Hogan is a burner and perhaps the deep threat we’ve been looking for since Randy Moss went all Broken Arrow six years ago.
