PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

The future of Andre Carter and the Patriots

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Andre Carter has been arguably the Patriots best player on defense over the course of the first six games of the season but his arrival in New England was somewhat of a perfect storm.

Bill Belichick decided during the off-season that it would be easier to install their four man nickel front as the base defense instead of the complicated three man front due to the lockout-shortened prep time. Belichick had always been a fan of Carter’s but did not see a fit for him the 3-4 defense, so when they made the move to a four man front it opened the door for Carter to come to the Patriots.

Carter has been the proverbial straw stirring the drink for the Patriots revamped 2011 defense. His ability to play both the run and get a pass rush has enabled the Patriots to become far less specialized. Instead of whole sale substitutions between run and pass defense the Patriots can now leave most of their personnel in place regardless of down and distance.

Carter’s stat line (via Pro Football Focus) has been impressive: 3 sacks, 5 QB Hits, and 9 QB pressures tell the story of his pass rush and 15 stops show what he’s done on run defense.

But with Carter only on a one year deal, and a full off-season in 2012 awaiting with the chance to return to Belichick’s favored 3-4 defense just what is the future of Andre Carter in New England?

If he truly doesn’t fit as a outside linebacker in the 3-4 would the Pats consider remaining in a four man front in 2012 based on the production they’re getting from him?

From my perspective the answer is clear. Carter has brought everything that this defense has missed over the past few seasons, and the results, especially in the last two games have been evident. The return to the 3-4 defense would not only put Carter’s future with the Pats in question but also Albert Haynesworth’s, and those are two impact players the Patriots should value.

While the switch to the 4-3 might have been based on lack of preparation time, it has also been an effective way to get pressure when offenses throw on early downs. The Patriots no longer have any 3-4 outside linebackers that can attack the edge like Carter can.

From both a schematic and personnel standpoint it seems like a no brainer to re-sign Carter to an extension and continue to roll with the 4-3. Of course what seem like no-brainer’s to us the fans are far from as cut and dry for Bill Belichick. But clearly, whatever move the Pats make with Carter will be a signal where the Pats defense is headed schematically in 2012.

Belichick on post-game handshakes

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Belichick on post-game handshakes

allnfl:

Patriots coach Bill Belichick was asked about the post-game handshake during his weekly appearance on sports radio WEEI’s “Big Show” with Glenn Ordway and Michael Holley.

Ordway started by asking Belichick if the handshake can be difficult because emotions must be held back.

“There are a lot of different things going through your mind at the end of the game. That’s one of them,” Belichick responded.

Belichick was then asked if he felt it was an uncomfortable situation that coaches are placed, especially with all the people running on to the field to capture the moment.

“I don’t think so. You always want to go out there as the winning coach, that’s for sure,” Belichick said, before sharpening his knife a bit on the media’s attention of the handshake.

“But I think probably, like a lot of things in football, it’s become something a lot different than what it was really intended to be or what it really is. I think there was a time when you could go out there and actually exchange some words with your competitor after the game, like a lot of other players do. You have a relationship with a guy, or whatever, and after the game you go up and say something to him and talk for a couple seconds, then go into your locker room and that’s it. As a coach, you could easily go up and say something to the coach about the game. If you lost, you could congratulate him. Or if you won, to maybe talk about the way his team played, or whatever.

“Of course now, it’s so heavily scrutinized by the media that it’s an event bigger than the game itself, which is so absurd. Like a lot of things, it takes any personalization out of the game and makes it a public topic of discussion. I think it’s pretty ridiculous that the media focuses on it the way it does.

“I’d like to think that the reason that the people are there is to see the game and to see the competition. But they seem to want to talk about everything but the game. That’s not uncommon. That’s the media’s job, so that’s what they do. It certainly takes away from, as a coach, the things that you would say, so you find other times to do it outside of that. Maybe before the game, or a phone call to the coach after the game, that kind of thing.”

For the record all I want to talk about is the game.

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Slowly starting to turn our focus to the Steelers. I’m sure last year’s beatdown is still clearly in their mind. I can’t quite explain it but Tom Brady has shredded their defense like it never gets shredded the last two times he’s faced them (2007 & 2010). We’ll just leave off the Matt Cassel-led disaster of 2008.

I expect the Steelers to be fired up and ready to make a statement this time around. Because if you get stomped three times in a row on your homefield it equals domination. If it doesn’t already.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/slowly-starting-to-turn-our-focus-to-the-steelers/

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.