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Bruschi’s Breakdown — New England Patriots defense faces big test from Minnesota Vikings – ESPN Boston
Great read as always, love Bruschi’s perspective, especially on 2008 when Cassel was thrust into the driver’s seat. He was so, so bad in the preseason, we were right to all panic. He was solid though and they won 11 games, of course the schedule was pretty weak and they never beat any of the elite AFC teams but it wasn’t a total dumpster fire many expected.
[T]he Patriots have the personnel and experience to tweak things for the better. The starting four-man line should be Rob Ninkovich and Jones at end, with Wilfork at nosetackle and Chris Jones at three-technique. Siliga can spell Wilfork, and Easley has vast pass-rushing potential sharing time with Jones. The Patriots and Belichick, the general manager, are taking a big risk counting so heavily on the 32-year-old Wilfork. If they lose him, it will look like the end of last season when teams piled up yards against the Patriots.
New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers share problems on defense | The MMQB with Peter King
Nodding…
https://www.patspropaganda.com/the-patriots-have-the-personnel-and-experience/
Thoughts and prayers with those who lost their lives 13 years ago.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/thoughts-and-prayers-with-those-who-lost-their/
Patriots vs. Dolphins All-22 Thoughts: Offense Edition
I’m going to break this down by the first and second half because after re-watching the first half I found myself reminded of how good I felt about things.
Were there protection issues? Sure, especially whenever Sebastian Vollmer had to block Cameron Wake without help. I’m not sure what’s up with Vollmer. Is he rusty? Or is he breaking down? He looked a lot stiffer than I remember, but still credit to Wake. He’s a beast and had his way with Vollmer.
Otherwise Brady had time and the offense moved the ball. The protection was sloppy but effective. They found an early rhythm with the three-step passing game.
I can recall three incomplete deep passes from Brady, a statistical point of contention this week, but one was really a throw away and two others were shots to the end zone where the coverage was solid. Can’t blame him for taking those.
In the first half I didn’t notice a discernible difference between the offensive line rotation. Even Devey didn’t look that bad. Was it the smooth operation we’re used to seeing? Not yet, but like I said, it was effective and Brady had time to make throws.
Drives of 13-plays, 80 yards and 11-plays, 94 yards made this certainly look like the Patriots offense we’re used to seeing. But apparently that team never came out of the locker room.
Second Half
Okay, now there was the ugliness I remember. The turning point was clearly on Brady’s fumble during their first possession of the second half. From there everything just seemed to fall apart.
All the OL had their issues, with Devey and Cannon both getting smoked in one-on-ones that caused Brady to get sacked. Another sack was due to coverage.
There were also some misreads it seems by Brady where he and the intended receiver didn’t seem on the same page. Agree with Greg Bedard’s observation that the deep ball to Edelman that went incomplete was on Edelman. He should’ve gone upfield.
Credit to the Miami linebacker who stuck with Shane Vereen on his patented wheel route and forced an incompletion.
I used to like Brandon Bolden but I think he’s uber average now. He gets what’s there for him and not a yard more.
It looked to me like LaFell tried to dip his shoulder to avoid contact on his penalty but that ended up with his shoulder in the defender’s head. Right call, but not intentional.
Losing their rhythm at the start of the 3rd quarter set the tone and they could never get it back for more than a play or two. They couldn’t string anything together.
I finished the game feeling like it was there for the taking but the Pats were just too on their heels to take it. It was as if each guy took turns making a costly mistake and the sum of those small parts added up.
Do you think that they might switch up the linebackers positions like moving Hightower in and mayo out?
That’s something I’ve been thinking about. No question Hightower is the most physical of the linebackers, that’s why we all just assumed he’d move to middle linebacker this offseason. But I do think Hightower is best used on the outside, on the line of scrimmage, where he can not only use his strength but also contribute as a pass rusher.
Mayo is not an outside linebacker in the 3-4 where he’d be on the LOS and effectively eliminated from making plays on the other side of the field. When they shifted to more of a hybrid defense in 2010/2011, I felt the primary beneficiary was Mayo because it moved him out of the middle of the defense but still off the line of scrimmage where he could use his speed.
Now it feels like the schematic/personnel tweaks are aimed at making Hightower the primary beneficiary.
Collins at strongside ILB complicates matters as well because while it’s nice to have him in the middle of the field for his pass coverage, he struggled making the plays in the running game that a 34 Mike HAS to make.
For more on this go look at Ray Rice’s 2009 playoff opening TD scamper where Gary Guyton was at Mike and Mayo was at Will. The 34 is designed for the linebackers to make the plays, and when they don’t make the plays you get gashed.
The easiest answer is probably to put Ninkovich back down at defensive end and shift Collins to 43 OLB where he can still be a factor in coverage but doesn’t have such a critical run-stopping role inside the defense where he needs to use strength to beat oncoming guards.
Using more even fronts would give Mayo more cushion at MLB as well.