I love Friday almost as much as I love Aliens. Aliens Movie Trailer (1986) (by alex2k795)
It’s one of the few things deserving of a non-Patriots post.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Jeff Fisher quickly redefining St. Louis Rams; 10 quick thoughts – NFL.com
Jeff Fisher quickly redefining St. Louis Rams; 10 quick thoughts – NFL.com
Dan Koppen will return to Foxborough this weekend as a member of the Denver Broncos. Koppen’s immense knowledge of the New England Patriots’ pass-protection system and calls at the line of scrimmage will force the Pats to make many changes to their audible system. New England must make sure communication is sound. As for Koppen, he has to prove he can still be an effective player; as much as he knows about the Pats, the Pats also know him well as a player. Expect a big defensive lineman to be over Koppen all game.
That’s the issue you face against New England. Week 1, Tennessee played nickel on every snap, relatively. Last week, Buffalo played dime, relatively, on every snap. And they did that against the one-back, two-tight end sets, and most times when you line up like that, teams counter with their base defense. Against New England, because teams are more worried about the pass, they line up in nickel or dime. Buffalo is a dime sub-package team. And they got killed, because if you’re a 4-3 base defense and you line up in dime, your two outside linebackers are, in effect, defensive backs.
Devin McCourty’s Renaissance Could Be New England Patriots Answer at Cornerback | Bleacher Report
Devin McCourty’s Renaissance Could Be New England Patriots Answer at Cornerback | Bleacher Report
Great breakdown from Frenz with pretty all-22 pics and a shoutout to yours truly.
Tavon’s time? Rookie could start – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston
Tavon’s time? Rookie could start – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston
If Gregory can’t go Sunday it should be interesting to see how things trickle down in the secondary, especially in the dime. Nate Ebner and Ras-I Dowling could see some more snaps. Personally I’d prefer moving Moore back to safety, keep Wilson at Money, and stick Ras-I on the outside in the dime only. Nate Ebner on the back end against Peyton Manning is not what I want to see.
Through four games, Wilson has logged 38.8 percent of the defensive snaps. His primary role has been at the “money” position in the dime defense (6 defensive backs), which is a linebacker-type responsibility. He also has rotated into the mix in the base defense, and overall, he has shown a nose for the ball at times (2 interceptions, 2 fumble recoveries). The trickle-down effect of not having Gregory, whose smarts have been lauded by the coaching staff, would also likely impact the dime defense. If Wilson remains in the traditional safety role, rookie Nate Ebner could get bumped up the safety depth chart and play the “money” position. The Patriots have other options, as cornerback Sterling Moore has safety experience, and Ras-I Dowling has also played the “money” spot this year.
Bruschi’s Breakdown: New England Patriots must match wits with Peyton Manning – ESPN Boston
Bruschi’s Breakdown: New England Patriots must match wits with Peyton Manning – ESPN Boston
You have to match wits with the mind that a quarterback like Manning has, to be able to take control at the line of scrimmage like he does. If you give him the answers to the equation pre-snap, and you just stand there, he will switch the play to the best possible play that has the highest possible percentage of being successful against that defense. For example, if you have only six men in the box – because Peyton has you spread out with those Colts-like formations – he’s going to run the ball. In this case, that means Willis McGahee is going to get the handoff. Once that gets established, you might see a defense bring a safety down to help that, as the Steelers did in the season opener with Troy Polamalu. When that happens, Manning switches to a pass play. With the passing game – one-deep, a two-shell look with two safeties high – there are certain answers to those types of defenses that Manning knows. With two-deep, try to attack the middle of the field in that Cover 2. In Cover 3, attack the outsides. It’s things like that, reading your leverage pre-snap. You can’t give Manning that because he’ll tell his receiver what to play. If it’s obvious man coverage, he’ll run that tear screen that Pierre Garcon ran, that Reggie Wayne ran, and now Demaryius Thomas is running. So you just can’t show him the same thing every time.
As someone who’s not familiar with the X’s and O’s of the game, I’m reading Bedard and others comment on how our corners are giving up too much space to receivers off the line of scrimmage – thinking back to Torrey Smith’s red zone TD in week 3 – and how the Pats seemingly refuse to revise that approach in coverage. Do you think it’s a product of BB not adjusting his game to modern O or a deeper philosophy permitting short-yardage gains vs. the deep ball? Maddening to watch at times.
Excellent question and yes, absolutely maddening to watch at times. I think it’s fair to question this tactic, and I don’t really have a good answer for why they continue to run this off-man style of coverage at times.
The simplest guess is that it’s part of the bend-don’t-break style the Pats have been fond of. But the problem in the last few years is that the defense is breaking. They’re getting beat long more than ever. So if you’re bending and breaking you’re not really doing anything. But perhaps the first step should be to shore up deep pass defense and then worry about giving up the short stuff because the corners are five yards off the receiver at the snap.
There’s absolutely no question that Belichick has a conservative defensive philosophy overall, he’s never going to be one to dial up major blitzes and take an overly aggressive approach. He prefers disguise and picking his spots, and forcing continued execution by the opponent.
So on some level we just have to accept that, but it certainly seems clear that they need to be more careful about when and where they use this off-man technique for their corners. Either they’re not equipped to effectively run it, or the quality of quarterbacks is too good now.
The real head scratcher about it is that Brady must be eating it up in practice as well, so I’m not sure where they see it working. It would be nice to see more press man, but we saw the experiment go up in flames last year. We’d wondered if Ras-I Dowling might make a difference this year and allow them to experiment a little more with that this year but obviously he’s been missing in action.
So ultimately this is year three of the Chung/Arrington/McCourty trio. The front seven is showing signs of coming together, but if the back end can’t do the same there need to be changes, whether it’s personnel, scheme or both.