USA Today: "The Patriots don't have a 'system' and NFL teams can't defend it"

[reflexblue]

The Patriots don't have a 'system' and NFL teams can't defend it

Its the Ameba Offense.

 

[RIpats88]

not only that, I feel that the emergence of Amendola and addition of Lewis(esentially replacing vereen even better than vereen) has made our offense virtually unstoppable when the pats go 5 wide. last year it was essentially edelman/gronk/lafell/vereen(not to the extent of lewis) but the breakout of Amendola in the playoffs is really what pushed us over the top.

when the pats go 5 wide to spread you out, how are teams going to match up against lafell/edelman/amendola/lewis/Gronkowski? we saw against the jets when they focused on edelman.....the jets slot CB was No match for amendola and they attacked that matchup all day.

againt the dolphins they put their best CB on lewis at times and that leaves a better matchup for Edelman

 

[slam]

We'll see how the Broncos do against the Pats. If anyone has the personnel to do well it's them. I'd still go 5 wide a lot as it makes the blitz read easy for Tom.

 

[YOUGOTMOSSED]

Looking past the headline, what the article actually emphasizes is that the league can't prepare for the Patriots offense. It's a great point.

If you were BB & Patricia on defense, preparing to take on the Patriots offense, what would your game plan be? What 1 or 2 keys would you focus on taking away?

Gronk and Edelman? But GL with that.

 

[RIpats88]

We'll see how the Broncos do against the Pats. If anyone has the personnel to do well it's them. I'd still go 5 wide a lot as it makes the blitz read easy for Tom.

still though, ok you put ward on Gronk(who was no match last year), talib on lafell and Harris on edelman(who torched him last year)

who covers amendola/lewis? a linebacker? im not even sure who their #3 CB is

I can already say Pats gameplan will be the same as it was against the Jets and Seahawks...spread you out, quick passes to negate the pass rush

 

[patchick]

Gronk and Edelman? But GL with that.

That's the beauty of Dion Lewis, eh?

 

[bbobbo]

In theory, a defense should be able to defend against all styles of play. Indeed, over the course of a season they might have to defend against all styles of play. So impressive as the Patriots' series-to-series versatility is, I'm not sure that it's that big a deal ... except that it does mean that there's no such thing as a defense that's a game-long hard counter to the Patriots' overall offense.

true, but if a defense can identify the opposing team's offensive style of play, they can make appropriate adjustments on who to activate to the 46-man game day roster. extra DBs to guard against a pass-heavy offense, extra D-linemen to guard against a run-heavy offense. but who to activate when you don't know what the patriots' offensive gameplan is going to be?

 

[SVN]

Watching the Broncos stifle the Packers last night, I couldn't help but think that GB was failing to adjust to what Denver was doing. Sometimes it seemed like there were 7-8 guys attacking the line of scrimmage on every down...and no one was ever open? Does GB's OL just suck?

Sometimes it happens. Remember that game in miami where brady and the offense was held to 70 yards. ? Dont remember which year it was .

 

[SVN]

We'll see how the Broncos do against the Pats. If anyone has the personnel to do well it's them. I'd still go 5 wide a lot as it makes the blitz read easy for Tom.

Going to be a lot of hurry up and spread them out type game. All comes to how quickly guys can get open vs a talented secondary.

 

[Rhodey]

The Patriots don't have a 'system' and NFL teams can't defend it

...by design.

 

[Deus Irae]

The Patriots have a system. It's called "Tom Brady".

 

[FilPats]

Tom

It has been said that Tom is a System Quarterback. That explains it. LOL

 

[ivanvamp]

Pats' rankings this year:

Total yards per game: 414.6 (#4)
Passing yards per game: 329.3 (#2)
Rushing yards per game: 85.3 (#30)
Points per game: 35.6 (#1)
3rd down conversions: 47.1 (#2)
Passer rating: 115.8 (#1)
Rush yards per attempt: 3.9 (#23)
Giveaways: 3 (#1)
OSRS: 12.9 (#1) - according to pro-football-reference.com

Rushing offense isn't really clicking, but part of that is by design - they are throwing so much because they have great matchups, and that's obviously showing in their points per game.

 

[DarrylS]

It seems that a lot of teams try to imitate our basic structure, but what they cannot imitate is the "football intelligence" of our brain trust... Ernie Adams, Nick Caserio, McDaniels, Patricia et al, all bring a different perspective of every game... and develop individual game plans..

Teams who play us can watch all the film they want to watch, but when it comes to game day there are always different wrinkles to the what they think is the play they prepared for.. Scott Chandler for example, he has not been featured, but when he played for Buffalo he played well so it is just a matter of time before we use him more.

We know after the Julian TD Pass that this is in other teams heads, even if it is not used. The Collins blocked FG is also in their heads, even if they save it for that special game sitz. We are not surprised to see a "trick play" used in a critical situation, and then hear from the players that this has been worked on for months in practice..

When I watch other teams play and see lousy coaching decisions and poor clock management I realize how good we have it.. the kicking game is not supposed to be an adventure, the long snapper is not an undervalued position, receivers get out of bounds to stop the clock, our two minute drills or hurry up offense is twice as fast as every other teams.. our defense has seen most looks before..

This works well as evidenced by our success, unfortunately most other teams try to duplicate this.. but seldom can imitate it. We are very lucky to be witnessing all of this..

 

[doesntmatter1]

Trying to defend Lewis and Gronk seems almost like a lost cause so I would put my energy into shutting down Edelman. Double Edelman at all times and mix up some coverages. As a defense I would try to force the ball Amendola's direction. Defensive line should focus on batting passes and ignore play action.

I would purposely let Blount have moderate success so that they dont abandon the run. I would constantly gamble on first down with blitzes that would force Brady to his left. Fleming is the weak link.

 

[Captain Cliche]

I did not read the article, but the other thing teams can't duplicate is the Pat's depth.
They rotate players in on both lines with little to no dropoff of talent or play. Some teams can hang with the Pats for a few quarters, but they are going to get worn down.
What team can lose both the starting and backup left tackle and not miss a beat?
You develop depth by not overpaying for big name free agents and by letting players like Revis walk.

Secondly, BB also places a premium on intelligence. You can't morph from week to week if you have a bunch of knuckle heads. I watch other teams and they just look sloppy...taking stupid penalties and not aware of the situation.

Also, as mentioned earlier, special teams. What GM can get away with using a draft pick on a long snapper?
It's 1/3 of your team and, again, I'm amazed at how sloppy other teams are. We truly are blessed.

Add in superior and stable coaching and this is a "system" no other team can duplicate. It's almost like cheating

 

[Bruins29]

The other thing is that you put TB in the gun - then teams think they can speed rush to try to get at him. This goes on and on and then the D just gets gassed. At the end of the game TB just kills them.

 

[1960Pats]

Back in my days as an AOLe, I remember being criticized for predicting in 2001 that Belichick's aim was to have a full roster of players making around the same salary. Of course no team could actually pull that off, but it looks as though the Pats are as close to that as any team could be.

Belichick has built this team in a similar way as Chuck Noll built the Steelers of the 70's, piece by piece. Except BB had to do it with a salary cap and free agency. Remarkable.

 

[Galeb]

Back in my days as an AOLe, I remember being criticized for predicting in 2001 that Belichick's aim was to have a full roster of players making around the same salary. Of course no team could actually pull that off, but it looks as though the Pats are as close to that as any team could be.

Belichick has built this team in a similar way as Chuck Noll built the Steelers of the 70's, piece by piece. Except BB had to do it with a salary cap and free agency. Remarkable.

I don't think that is BB's goal as it pretty much guarantees losing the war of mismatches. His approach is to choose mismatches based on value. For example, small yet quick receivers, good 3rd down backs and big, athletic TEs are much cheaper than tall, fast receivers while great LBs and safeties are cheaper than great DEs and corners. The savings found acquiring mismatches are put towards having quality depth. Yes, this tends to create less of a gap in the salaries, but that is not the goal.

 

[1960Pats]

I don't think that is BB's goal as it pretty much guarantees losing the war of mismatches. His approach is to choose mismatches based on value. For example, small yet quick receivers, good 3rd down backs and big, athletic TEs are much cheaper than tall, fast receivers while great LBs and safeties are cheaper than great DEs and corners. The savings found acquiring mismatches are put towards having quality depth. Yes, this tends to create less of a gap in the salaries, but that is not the goal.

I wonder how the Pats roster compares to other teams when it comes to the difference in salaries from top to bottom. It helps to have a GOAT QB who's willing to settle for less I suppose. When I don't feel as lazy I'll check into it more.