PatsPropaganda

Yeah I think it speaks a bit to how the game has evolved and the need for physical presences inside the box who can cover. Moreso than old Will linebackers who might not have quite enough speed on strong safety types.

Someone like Patrick Chung has become much more useful as a player than he might’ve been when he first entered the league and was being asked to play more as a traditional back end safety. Now they can use him as a linebacker, only make him cover tight ends as opposed to slot receivers who lit him up early in his career.

It’s a very specific plan with the safeties. McCourty is back end FS in regular with Chung in the box. On third downs they’ll bring in Harmon to cover the back end and then use McCourty however they see fit whether it’s also on the back end in Cover 2 or in the box as a coverage guy.

I’m most curious to see how Richards evolves because the perfect player for this role would be a physical strong safety who also has the range to cover the back end. That’s a rare player but certainly one Belichick seems intent on trying to find.

YES YES YES. Not just depth either, it’s versatility. As I’ve written many times before tracking the defensive overhaul that started in 08/09 was a major area of focus for me as a blogger with a penchant for Xs and Os.

Belichick’s defense evolved from the Fairbanks-Bullough 3-4 defense. There are a couple different versions of the 3-4, but this one had 3 big defensive lineman who would “two-gap”, which means they’d attack their blocker, control him and cover both gaps to both sides. While those 3 were holding up the offensive lineman it was the job of the 4 linebackers to make the plays.

That’s where you can see the somewhat conservative roots of Belichick’s defensive philosophy. Not one that goes all-out attacking, but one that wins with physicality upfront and linebackers who can make plays.

What the defense has evolved to now is a merging of the nickel defense and the two-gapping principals so that they’re more effective against the pass one early downs. The problem with the old 3-4 is that you had three defensive linemen who weren’t overly concerned with pass rushing on early downs. Yes, guys like Richard Seymour
could pick up their tackle and carry him to the QB, but generally they were more concerned with controlling their blocker and making sure no one ran through either of their gaps.

Belichick still uses the 3-4 defense to teach in the early days of camp. This doesn’t mean they’re a 3-4 team anymore really, but it’s how the team learns to two- or one-gap, the communication calls, etc.

The lockout in 2011 pushed this transition forward because there was less time in camp to install so Belichick just went straight to the nickel front and a lot of those elements remain.

So now, really what you’re looking at is almost a more of a 2-5 defense than a 4-3 although that’s what it looks like. The two defensive tackles can be moved around to attack certain areas, and you’ll even see a mix of one tackle (Siliga/Branch) two-gapping while the other will be one-gapping (Easley).

The difference now is that there are just more athletes on the field, even in “base”, and they’re better equipped to attack the quarterback on early downs. And when you look at  what the DE/LBs on the roster can do, it gives Belichick/Patricia so many options to confuse.

That’s another big tenet of the original 3-4 that has carried over – the ability to disguise. In the old 3-4 it was the OLBs that were the queen pieces because you could blitz or drop guys like Willie McGinest
/Mike Vrabel/Rosey Colvin. Now they can do the same thing with not only their OLBs like Donta Hightower

and Jamie Collins
, but with the DEs as well.

I think he’s clearly an edge player in the Pats current defensive scheme in the mold of Chandler/Nink/Sheard, and it’s the presence of those three why they can bring him along slowly. This position is a hybrid of a 4-3 DE and 3-4 OLB in that they will have some coverage drops at times, but primarily their job is to set the edge and then have a smart pass rush.

Flowers seems to really have the strength and aggression to fit this role perfectly, and it’s certainly not an easy position to play, especially because they’re criticized on the same level as DEs in a “pin your ears back and go get the passer’ system. The Pats are a lot more complicated than that and right now they can afford to bring him along slowly.

But I think it’s only a matter of time before he gets worked in as a 3rd down pass rusher, a trial role we’ve already seen Geneo Grissom and Rufus Johnson in this season. 

After the preseason I still feel like Flowers has the highest ceiling of all three. I’m excited to see him get in there. Honestly, they might just be holding him back and waiting to spring him on the Colts.

I tweeted a bit about this earlier this week but I think in a strange way the Patriots offense and defense are somewhat mirror images of each other and so the best model to beat the Patriots offense is their defense (at least if you look at what they’re theoretically trying to do).

Look, when the ball is coming out of Brady’s hand in under two seconds there’s not much traditional pass rushers coming off the edge can do. So the gameplan needs to involve effective interior pass rushers surrounded by a group of athletic defensive ends and linebackers who can both rush or drop into space. Then corners who can win at the line of scrimmage and disrupt the quick pass timing are the final piece of the puzzle. But if all those elements aren’t working in conjunction it’s a recipe for disaster.

Denver has a lot of those elements, especially with good man corners who can disrupt timing at the line, as do the Jets. Buffalo seems to have the personnel but just couldn’t put it all together in Week 2.

I’ve always liked the Panthers’ defense and think they have some solid Pats-stopping pieces. I need to watch more of the Cardinals to get a better sense of them, the same with the Packers.

The Scalpel (fka dink and dunk) is a deadly weapon and when it’s clicking it’s almost impossible to stop.