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Bruschi’s Breakdown — New England Patriots vs. Indianapolis Colts – ESPN Boston
Always love hearing Tedy’s perspective and he’s an honorary captain this weekend. What a great player he was against the Colts in those 2003 and 2004 playoff games, with him ripping the ball out of Dominic Rhodes hands being one of the defining plays.
I think a lot of Ayers’ pass rush success in Chandler’s absence was schemed and not really because he was dominant. That said, he was VERY solid filling in and even I am surprised that he’s essentially disappeared.
The easy answer is that BB loves Chandler and Nink and feels there’s too much drop off to Ayers, at least in the running game with setting the edge.
Now, if the Pats were to get a lead going forward and it becomes a pass-defense heavy situation I think we could see some more of Ayers. Or even on third-and-long, but still, against Andrew Luck you can’t just pin your ears back and go after him, you need to maintain discipline and not let him squirt out, so even then they still might stick to a three man rush with a spy dropping out.
I’d like to see them lock up Ayers this offseason and give him some time to acclimate into to defense a little more. As I’ve said many times, they can’t run Chandler and Nink into the ground. There has to be at least a bit of a rotation with a third guy at DE. Ayers could be a solid third guy, but it seems clear he’s not there quite yet.
Yeah I agree and I hope that comes across in my gameplan article. There’s no question they need to be balanced and the only reason to stick with the run is if they’re having incredible success, which I find unlikely.
And I really don’t see them going to six OL like they did in Week 11 unless they have a second half lead and are having some success on the ground.
The Pats can play pretty much any game on offense and there’s certainly an argument to be made to spread the Colts out to exploit their secondary and average pass rush.
So it doesn’t have to be one or the other, but out of the gate I’d like to see some power runs and see how they deal with it.
Wright is the “F” tight end on the roster, which is the position that Aaron Hernandez played. Some call it the “move” tight end. I think Wright certainly has a package of plays where he comes on, but generally speaking the offense leans a little more toward Danny Amendola as the fourth receiving option (after Edelman/LaFell/Gronk with a running back) than Wright.
I don’t want to totally rule him out but I don’t think there’s any reason to think he’s suddenly going to be the secret weapon this week. I’m sure he’ll get some snaps, especially closer to the red zone and could even pick up a touchdown, but for the regular offense his role is minimal.
Next year we could see him blossom though. We have to remember he had to learn a very complex Patriots offense on the fly and never got any time in training camp. So there’s an element of the learning curve there as well.
The Belichick-Brady Legacy Is Defined by Wins, Not Tapes or Tucks | Bleacher Report
Sincerely doubt any of my readers need to read this, but it really sums up the truth about the Spygate thing better than anything else I’ve read in a while. So not to bring that whole thing up again, but it’s a nice dose of perspective.
Interesting point and something I hadn’t really thought of. I haven’t seen enough of Hilton in the other games this season to know how effective he would be in that role. But I think if he draws Revis, as most are speculating he will, there is some merit to something like this to buy him some space and potentially cause some confusion for the Patriots.
Fleener and Allen are probably the most interesting matchup of the game because if there’s been on weakness of the Pats coverage this year, it’s against tight ends and both these guys are threats.
There’s got to be a school of thought of going with Arrington on Hilton again since he did so well against him the first time. Arrington would also be fine to deal with Hilton if they put him in the backfield as well.
The trickle down of that could help the Pats. Could we see Browner and Revis on Fleener and Allen? That would be pretty crazy to see, but obviously with BB you never rule anything out.
As you probably know by now, I put together database of Bill Belichick’s hoodie history that you can find here. While this has primarily been aimed at figuring out Belichick’s performance as classified by his signature hoodie choice, we can also use it to take a stab at what history tells us he should wear this weekend.
First, here’s the latest major hoodie stats since 2003, when the Reebok NFL equipment hoodie Belichick made famous was first introduced.
Now, let’s take a closer look at what Belichick has worn in his eight AFC championship games with the Patriots.
My determination is that Belichick should roll with the 2014 Blue Hoodie with the sleeves, just like he wore last week against the Ravens. Never has he worn a blue hoodie in an AFC championship. He’s 3-1 this season in it, with the one loss being a meaningless one in Week 17 against the Bills.
Belichick is also 13-2 all-time in a blue hoodie with sleeve intact. It’s his most dominant hoodie/sleeve combo.
The weather seems to be lining up favorably for this hoodie, unlike 2007 or 2013, when cold and warm weather respectively forced him out of the hoodie.
Just as long as he doesn’t cut the sleeves. He’s 1-3 in AFCCGs with his forearms out.
