PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Archives for October 18, 2011

Let’s get personnel with the Patriots defense

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Coming off one of their most straight-forward defensive package games in a long time it looks like this 2011 Patriots defense is starting to come clearly into focus. In 2010 it was an endless substitution parade given the situation but this year things have been a lot more simple, and a lot more easy for X and O gurus like me to track.

First, we begin with the Patriots primary defensive packages versus the Cowboys. The base 4-3 defense at the start looked as such:

  • Ellis-Love-Wilfork-Carter
  • Ninkovich-Spikes-Guyton
  • McCourty-Ihedigbo-Chung-Arrington

In passing situations they went to a 3-3-5 nickel package that had Leigh Bodden come in at RCB, Arrington shift into the slot, and Ellis come off the field. Haynesworth replaced Kyle Love in early passing situations, although the rotation of interior defensive lineman was consistently varied in personnel, situation and where they lined up. However, outside of the interior guys the rest of the personnel rarely changed, and that was quite a departure than what we saw in 2010.

Now the question for the bye week is where the recovering members of this defense fit in and if this defense will remain as straight forward in their packages as we saw against Dallas.

The top five personnel questions for after the bye week (assuming we get healthy)…

  1. Does Josh Barrett take back the starting safety spot from Ihedigbo? And how does Sergio Brown fit in? The spot next to Chung has featured all three at times, but will one of them step up and lock it down for the rest of the season? Ihedigbo looked solid against the Cowboys.
  2. How do Ron Brace and Brandon Deaderick fit into the 4-3 defense and can either bring anything in terms of interior pass rush? This will be an interesting area to observe as we have yet to see just how the Pats plan to use them after having them in the 3-4 last year. The Wilfork-Love-Haynesworth-Warren rotation looked very strong vs. Dallas.
  3. Ras-I Dowling showed some positives vs. the Dolphins in the opener but has been dinged and barely played since then. How does he match up in this corner rotation? He has size that the other corners don’t. With Arrington leading the NFL in interceptions it’s doubtful his snaps would be cut back upon, but McCourty and Bodden both seem fair game to me once Dowling is back as crazy as that would’ve sounded before the start of the season. Especially since the Pats had Dowling starting on the outside vs. Miami.
  4. With Brandon Spikes elevating his game and Jerod Mayo set to return will it mean a reduction in base defense play time for Gary Guyton? Spikes’ progress in the passing game will certainly factor into this, but personally I think what he lacks in coverage skills he more than makes up for with playing style and dominant run defense.
  5. Is Dane Fletcher a victim of the new front, hampered by his thumb injury, or regressing? His base defense snaps have been reduced to near zero other than a variation of the goalline front. I thought with Mayo out we’d see more of him in the base defense but that has not been the case. If Guyton is bumped down the depth chart when Mayo gets back it could even further reduce any chance Fletcher has of seeing the field.

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Strangely enough BB’s new hoodie today doesn’t have my Swag Sense tingling. I’m all set with the zipper and light grey.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/strangely-enough-bbs-new-hoodie-today-doesnt/

Top five Patriots bye week wishes

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Ah, the bye week. That two week mid-season lull in between games when we the fans are forced to take a mini-football break before the stretch run.

For the players and coaches however it’s a time to get healthy, look at what’s working and what isn’t and set the course that will Hoodie-willing lead to the promise land.

Here are the top five things I’m hoping for over the bye week.

1. Get Healthy – the most obvious one so we’ll lead with it. Along with the significant injuries (Jerod Mayo) there have been plenty of dings through the first six games and this should be a time to get healthy. Guys we most need back at 100%:

  1. Jerod Mayo
  2. Albert Haynesworth
  3. Julian Edelman
  4. Sebastian Vollmer
  5. Ras-I Dowling

Getting Josh Barrett, Patrick Chung, Leigh Bodden, Aaron Hernandez and Matt Light some time off to get over their lingering injuries should also provide a big boost.

2. Devin McCourty get your mojo back – I’m not sure if McCourty is suffering from a sophomore slump because he’s just not playing well or if teams have a sense of how to pick on him that they didn’t have last year. I hope it’s the former and not the latter because that’s correctable. McCourty didn’t really start to come on until late October last year anyway, let’s hope the same thing happens this year. The Pats need him to step up in a major way.

3. Extend Wes Welker and/or Jerod Mayo – why not take the extra time to lock up some of the vital pieces of the puzzle. If not Mayo or Welker how about Andre Carter, who’s only one a one year deal, or Benjarvus Green-Ellis, who should be a fairly easy deal to get done now before he breaks 1000 yards again. Of course knowing the Pats they’ll probably start the contract extensions with Gary Guyton. Ugh.

4. New tweaks for offense – Call it an off game for Tom Brady but not counting the final drive it seemed like taking away Wes Welker for the most part was a fairly effective way to slow down the Pats offense. Teams will see what the Cowboys did, and granted they might not be able to execute it, but the offense looked very much stoppable for much of last Sunday’s game. I’m not a huge “blueprint to stop the Pats offense” guy, but they cannot become over-reliant on Welker. The Patriots must stay one step ahead and figure out how to better protect Welker from coverage, while also incorporating their running backs more into the pass game. Kevin Faulk could provide a major boost in this area.

5. Figure out a way to get Chad Ochocinco more involved in the offense before the Boston sports media combusts – Who cares if the offense has consistently moved the ball and put up points without Chad, he’s a big name and if he doesn’t have a break out game soon he just might overtake the Red Sox as the lead story on all sports programming.

PFF: Pats – Cowboys Re-Focused

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PFF: Pats – Cowboys Re-Focused

Good stuff as always from Steve Palazzolo. Lots of Brandon Spikes love in this one:

Of the linebackers, Brandon Spikes (+5.1) set a career high by playing 67 snaps, making his presence felt all over the field.  He knifed into the backfield to blow up a shovel pass on 3rd-and-5, forcing a Cowboys field goal in the fourth quarter.  As usual, Spikes was at his best when blitzing right up the middle, where he picked up two pressures and one QB hit on only 11 rushes.  It was hard not to notice him as on two different occasions, he blasted Costa right into Romo’s lap.

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https://www.patspropaganda.com/22219/