New England Patriots Historical Highlight Film – “Unstoppable”
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Archives for January 18, 2012
2010 Patriots Defensive Snaps vs. Ravens
2010 Patriots Defensive Snaps vs. Ravens
The defensive snap numbers from last season paint an interesting picture that we might be able to extrapolate from when thinking about how the Patriots defense might be put together for Sunday.
Outside of Meriweather and Cunningham, every one of the defensive players that played the majority of snaps are back. Now, instead of Meriweather playing Free Safety, the Pats will likely put Chung there, with Ihedigbo being the in the box safety. Ihedigbo has had his issues but his size and physicality should be a plus in this one.
On the outside linebacker front you had Mark Anderson playing a huge role against the Broncos. Cunningham played his most snaps to date in last year’s game, a clear sign of how much the Pats wanted to put forth their most stout and physical defensive front seven.
So this is where a major question comes in, do the Pats keep Anderson out there in base or is he too big of a risk in the run game? If they go back to the 4-3 defense we could see an Ellis-Love-Wilfork-Deaderick line up front which might be the best option. Surely Anderson will get some snaps in sub-packages as will Dane Fletcher.
Below are the Pats who played the great majority of the snaps. They were in the 3-4 defense for 75% of the snaps.
- S Patrick Chung – 77 of 77
- ILB Jerod Mayo – 77 of 77
- CB Devin McCourty – 77 of 77
- CB Kyle Arrington – 76 of 77
- S Brandon Meriweather – 68 of 77
- OLB Jermaine Cunningham – 59 of 77
- OLB Rob Ninkovich – 58 of 77
- DL Vince Wilfork – 58 of 77
- ILB Brandon Spikes – 57 of 77
- NT Gerard Warren – 56 of 77
- DE Brandon Deaderick – 52 of 77
There are indictments in the Baltimore Ravens stat pack as well from 2011. And most of them are related to how badly they tend to play away from Maryland. The Ravens lost at Jacksonville, Tennessee, Seattle and San Diego this season. None of those teams made the playoffs. Baltimore managed just 51 points total in the four games. And while the losses to the Jaguars and Titans are lessened by the passage of time (they happened in September and October), the loss to San Diego on December 18 is a glaring toe-stub from the tail end of the year. Baltimore lost that one 34-14 and it wasn’t even that competitive as the Chargers got up 31-7 by the end of the third. In that game, the Chargers did things similar to what Houston did last week. Pressured quarterback Joe Flacco (five sacks) and created turnovers (two picks). Houston just didn’t have the quarterback to finish Baltimore off.
2011 Patriots Defense was top five in one area that will be useful this weekend
The Patriots defense has been hammered from a statistical perspective all year long, however there’s one statistical ranking that could be a positive sign for this weekend’s matchup against the Ravens.
Football Outsiders has the Pats ranked 4th overall in pass coverage on running backs. Against the Ravens with Ray Rice as their leading receiver this could be a big factor.
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FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Divisional Round Quick Reads
FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Divisional Round Quick Reads
Great Pats stuff in here, a lot about how the Ravens might try to copy some of the Cowboys’ game plan for Gronk and Hernando.
The Dallas Cowboys may have shown the Ravens how to get the job done back in Week 6. Hernandez and Gronkowski combined for 142 yards in that game. That’s a nice yardage figure, but it came on 21 total targets, a rate of 6.8 yards per target that was the lowest for the duo this season (not counting Weeks 3 and 4, when Hernandez didn’t play). They had 15 receptions on the day, an impressive catch rate of 71 percent. On the other hand, 10 of those receptions gained fewer than 10 yards.
A look at data from Football Outsiders’ Game Charting Project reveals some interesting trends in that game:
Seven of the throws to Gronkowski and Hernandez came with a linebacker or lineman (usually Sean Lee) in coverage, resulting in five completions for 44 yards and one interception.
Seven of the throws came with a cornerback in coverage (most often Orlando Scandrick or Mike Jenkins), producing four completions for 40 yards.
The remaining seven passes were listed with no defender. Twice Gronkowski was uncovered on tight end screens, resulting in gains of 9 and 20 yards.
Four times the primary defender was named as “hole in zone,” and all four balls were caught for a total of 29 yards. And one pass intended for Hernandez was batted down at the line of scrimmage. Three of the six incomplete passes came with Tom Brady under pressure, and a fourth came after Brady scrambled. No defender was credited with a hurry on that play, but Brady rarely leaves the pocket unless under heavy duress.
The Cowboys blitzed Brady with five or more pass rushers only five times. They went with a four-man rush 22 times, and rushed only three on a whopping 17 plays. When we remove the Cowboys’ three sacks from the data, we find that Brady threw to his tight ends 69 percent of the time against a three-man rush, but only 40 percent of the time against four or more pass rushers.