Week 3 pre-game discussion... we're on to Oakland...

[1960Pats]

Yea keep telling yourself that. Tyrek Hill is the most dangerous wr in the game because of his speed. Speed kills. You put that offensive weapon in motion, and he runs across the field that 4.5 guy isn’t staying with 4.4 guy. common sense.

Hill's dangerous because he can go up and get passes like very few ever could. He's not tall enough to leap as high as Metcalf but he gets way up there with excellent timing. He also has a great QB that can buy some time and help get him open and hit him when he does.

Common sense tells me that the Pats won't play defense that way. and that even if they did end up in that situation the slower player is only going to lose 1/10th of a second over 40 yards, or a little over a yard if they started from the same place, which they won't. Not to mention if the slower guy passes him off to another slower guy, which would also work.

You may be surprised at how well the Pats' slow defense can play.

 

[Tottie]

I think BB will crowd the line and the middle and dare Carr to throw to deep. Pats should win this pretty easily imo.

 

[libra957]

I think we crush them.

 

[luuked]

Jacobs and Waller DNP...interesting. Might not mean anything though.

Yeah looks more like maintenance days to me. Which three weeks into the season is not a great sign but that is a different story.

 

[amfootball]

Hill's dangerous because he can go up and get passes like very few ever could. He's not tall enough to leap as high as Metcalf but he gets way up there with excellent timing. He also has a great QB that can buy some time and help get him open and hit him when he does.

Common sense tells me that the Pats won't play defense that way. and that even if they did end up in that situation the slower player is only going to lose 1/10th of a second over 40 yards, or a little over a yard if they started from the same place, which they won't. Not to mention if the slower guy passes him off to another slower guy, which would also work.

You may be surprised at how well the Pats' slow defense can play.

Speed is pretty easy to defend. You just have to bracket him. Most likely Jones is covering him with McCourty over the top. We have the secondary to handle the Chiefs. We shut them out the entire second half last year.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

I think BB will crowd the line and the middle and dare Carr to throw to deep. Pats should win this pretty easily imo.

I don't know. The pats had trouble stopping the Seahawks offense last week. Our run D is not the same without Hightower. And without Chung stopping Waller is going to be a problem. I think it will be closer than people think, but what helps us is that Oakland is on a short week and they have to travel to NE.

 

[masterbouncer]

I don't know. The pats had trouble stopping the Seahawks offense last week. Our run D is not the same without Hightower. And without Chung stopping Waller is going to be a problem. I think it will be closer than people think, but what helps us is that Oakland is on a short week and they have to travel to NE.

Yeah and Carr is no Wilson
For the TE we can use J.Williams who should be doing quite well, also Dugger might see an extended role.
The run-D# is not good indeed, but its not only because of Hightower missing, its rather because the Pats do not have a big NT that can stand his man at the LoS, that was also the case last year with Hightower playing...

 

[sb1]

I don't know. The pats had trouble stopping the Seahawks offense last week. Our run D is not the same without Hightower. And without Chung stopping Waller is going to be a problem. I think it will be closer than people think, but what helps us is that Oakland is on a short week and they have to travel to NE.

Important game for sure. Raiders will be looking for a playoff spot and we'll need the H2H tiebreaker and AFC win.

 

[Tottie]

I don't know. The pats had trouble stopping the Seahawks offense last week. Our run D is not the same without Hightower. And without Chung stopping Waller is going to be a problem. I think it will be closer than people think, but what helps us is that Oakland is on a short week and they have to travel to NE.

Ya they might destroy our linebackers we will see. Jacobs looks really good too. You watch a guy like that and you get a bit envious that we have Michel, lol. Should be a fun one to watch.

 

[amfootball]

Yeah and Carr is no Wilson
For the TE we can use J.Williams who should be doing quite well, also Dugger might see an extended role.
The run-D# is not good indeed, but its not only because of Hightower missing, its rather because the Pats do not have a big NT that can stand his man at the LoS, that was also the case last year with Hightower playing...

He may not be Wilson but he is playing at an extremely high level. 4 TDs, no picks, 73% completion percentage and 113 passer rating.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Ferentz time baby. (as backup for Froholdt)

Might be one of the quicker turnovers where a certain someone *****ed about BBs practice squad choices only for them to become active and an emergency backup a week later.

GUILTY as charged for making fun of Ferentz.!

 

[Mack Herron]

 

[Uptown]

 

[luuked]

I completely agree and tried to make the argument a couple times in the last two weeks. The big qualifier on this is that he has to be smart and more on the conservative side about giving himself up and not running straight into traffic outside absolute must have situations.

In essence what we are looking for is similar risk management that Brady showed where during the regular season he was more likely to go to the ground or throw the ball away instead of taking a sack/hard hit. The same way you want Cam to not try to milk every inch and yard on every run. If in some cases it is not enough for a third down then so be it.

 

[JarOfMayo51]

Think we could possibly see them bracket cover Waller like they did to Tony Gonzalez a few years back? Just treat him like a gunner on the punt team and jack him up with 2 guys bracketing him within the first 5 yards of the LOS

 

[Kontradiction]

Guenther likes to attack out of odd fronts, a lot of times aligning his DT as a 0-tech. Coverage-wise, he likes a lot of press zone. Think Cover-3, Cover-4. This should be yet another game where there is a lot of opportunity to exploit what’s open underneath and in between the hashes, as long as the blocking holds up. He’s basically bend-but-don’t-break, in his own way. We’ll have to be patient because there won’t be a lot of opportunities deep.

 

[JMC00]

The pats had trouble stopping the Seahawks offense last week.

They had trouble with 2 inch perfect TD throws and Wilson has usually always given them trouble. Derek Carr on the other hand has a 65.9 QB rating against the Pats in 2 games, his lowest QB rating against any team in the league he's played at least 2 games against.

And Carr's game last week against the Saints doesn't really surprise me because the last time he played the Saints he beat Brees in the Superdome

 

[Uptown]

Carr ain’t beating this secondary (especially after last week!) OAK will have to eat up our LBs in space with Jacobs/Richard & Waller and/or kill us with their rushing attack. That’s their only way to victory. Can they do it..?

 

[JMC00]

Guenther

Interesting little tidbit about him, last time the Pats and Newton played a defense coordinated by him was back to back weeks Pats offense put up 36 points and the Panthers offense put up 37, Cam had 400 total yards and 3 total TDs.

Ya I totally get that was a while ago and Guenther was with a different team but an interesting stat.

 

[Vindicate]

X's and O's folks: What can a defense do to scheme and mask a weakness at linebacker? I've always seen "A great secondary can make a middling front seven look better, as it takes away options for passing and the defense doesn't have to rely on quick pressure" or "A great front seven can apply pressure quickly, making a CB's job easier as they don't run all over the field for an extended period of time", but what can you do about a weak linebacking group? I'm interested in the approach behind this.

EDIT: And, if you're down for it, what _exactly_ are you missing out with a bad linebacking group? I know this might seem obvious, I just want to understand the nuance of that level of defense.