Archives for October 2012

More all-22 study of the Pats!

The bottom line about the Patriots is this: If you dare them to run, especially with small converted safeties playing linebacker, they will eat you up. Scott probably spent a lot of time in the hot tub Sunday night and Monday morning. So to answer the question about whether the Patriots are a running team or not, the answer is simple. If you dare them to run these days, they can. But this is still Tom Brady’s team.

Great breakdown of how the Pats ran wild on the Bills, with awesome all-22 screen shots.

I’m sure it wasn’t a coincidence that the Bills defenders that had the best chance to stop the Patriots running game (I only diagrammed two plays but there were probably eight more plays in the same vein) were defensive backs. That’s what game planning is all about: you find areas where you can get the defense into something predictable. In this case, the Patriots knew that if the Bills were in nickel personnel, New England could line up in Strong formations and get defensive backs in a position to be exploited. Once you know what look you are going to get, you can pick the plays with the best chance of succeeding.