An Independent Patriots Blog
2011 Detroit Lions vs New England Patriots Highlights
Patriots got smoked in this one 34-10 in 2011, then lost 40-9 in the 2013 preseason. Yeah, those are only preseason games, in Detroit, without a gameplan, but I’m sure these games have come up this week. The Lions acted like it was their coming out party both times, well let’s see how things go in Foxboro when the bullets are real.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/2011-detroit-lions-vs-new-england-patriots/
The Patriots offense continued click on all cylinders against the Colts, but this time it was Jonas Grey leading the way. The offensive line deserves fair amount of credit as well. They won the game up front by continually punishing the Colts front seven.
Tom Brady missed a few throws and had some bad decisions that resulted in interceptions, but the sign of a good team is when they can bounce back after their best player isn’t playing his best. The Pats offense did just that.
Here’s what else stood out on the All 22 review of the offense.
Brady picked up the first third down conversion of the day on an easy pass to Edelman. Sometimes it’s amazing how open #11 gets.
Hooman (24 snaps) and Develin (30 snaps) haven’t gotten much love this week, but it’s amazing what a solid job they both did not only in the run game, but in setting the table for the passing game as well. They were the go-to pairing out of the gate. And for how unstoppable the offense was in this game, it’s even more amazing considering neither one of them touched the ball (both targeted once, no catches).
Gray’s first big run of the day came between Vollmer pulling and a wham from Gronk. On the next play it was behind Develin’s lead block and Wendell pulling. Great blocking plus hard running equals devastation.
On Gray’s touchdown it came behind Stork/Wendell/Vollmer plowing ahead, but credit to Gray for keeping his legs going through contact – a theme for the rest of the day.
Think Brady’s first half sloppiness came a bit from some inconsistent protection early in the first quarter. Couldn’t quite find his timing.
Didn’t notice that Vollmer came out of the game for Cannon on the second possesion third-and-1, but Cannon pinned the edge and Fleminggot enough push for a sizable hole that Gray exploded through.
On his first interception, I think Brady might’ve had Tyms if he hadn’t gotten hit right as he threw. The pass wasn’t far enough away from the free safety. Had it been more upfield, Tyms had split two defenders. All I know is that if I’m a defensive back and I see Tyms come out, I’m ready for the deep shot.
Jonas Gray had a great day obvs, but with blocking like this you don’t have to be Adrian Peter… Ray Ric… Walter Payton to find the hole.
Seriously….
Colts got off the field on third down showing double A pressure then only rushing four. Brady never flinched, eventhough his pass went incomplete. It shows how much he trusts his protection now, even if it still let him down a couple times in this half.
Even when there’s no clear hole, the OL was still pushing their entire DL downfield.
Amendola made some tough catches in the middle of the field in this one. As I said last game, he might be overpaid, but he’s a really good 4th option and he’s earning the trust of the offense.
Pats convert a third-and-10 to Edelman. They’re 6-of-11 converting 3rd downs that are 8 yards or longer in the last three games. That’s insane.
Speaking of Develin earlier, this should’ve been a touchdown to him (top of screen). Luckily the Colts cheated and held Edelman.
Gray’s second run was mostly on him as he cut back against the grain, looks like the play was designed to go right, but he had the vision to see the overpursuit that opened a hole to his left.
Brady’s second interception was gross. Just horrible situational football, something you rarely see from him. If Wendell and Stork don’t blow their block, Gronk might still be running. Still, Brady should’ve ate it with the pressure in his face like that. Or they just should’ve run it since they were having success and were in command.
Second Half
Huge blown coverage on the second play of the second half to get the Pats going with a big play to Shane Vereen. Great play design as three guys followed Edelman across the field, leaving Vereen wide open.
All Tim Wright does now is catch touchdowns. Still think he has a game where he gets involved early and has 100 yards and a TD or two.
One of my favorite plays of the game came on the next drive with Brady finding LaFell, who made an acrobatic catch to take the offense over midfield. Just love seeing Brady connect with a big target downfield. Such a welcome element to the offense this year.
Gray gets number three with a strong surge after contact. He’s a tough little guy to bring down, looking forward to seeing more of this.
Another acrobatic catch by LaFell, followed by a big run by Gray. This is such a physical Patriots offense, call it dink-and-dunk if you want, but their entire offense is not afraid to mix it up.
Gray gets number four as Gronk throws Sergio Brown out of the club.
Finally we get Gronk’s insane touchdown run, the cherry on top of a physical domination. This is one of those plays they’ll play at Gronk’s Hall of Fame induction. Just a beast.
He’s blocking people now.
I think Wilfork is here to stay and the additions/development of Siliga/Chris Jones/Easley/Branch are only helping the Pats ease up on Wilfork’s workload. I’ve been critical of how they ran Wilfork into the ground from 2010-2012 and they paid the price for it in 2013. But now Big Vince is back and looks like he hasn’t missed a beat.
They big key as I see it is getting Siliga back and then really getting Vince ready for the playoffs by resting him a bit more. These last two games have played perfectly into the Pats defensive scheme – two big space eaters inside, with essentially give linebackers around them.
Jones and Easley finally bring some of the interior pass rush we’ve been missing for so long.
If Vince is fully rested and ready to pop come January, he’s capable of destroying an entire offensive gameplan singlehandedly. We need that to happen to get to and win a Super Bowl.
As followers of this blog might imagine, the last two games have been a lot of fun for a defens-o-phile like myself. Even without Chandler Jones and Jerod Mayo, the Pats defense has been playing better than we’ve seen since the mid-2000s.
At the forefront of this has been Darrelle Revis, Devin McCourty, Brandon Browner, and Kyle Arrington on the back end, and the sound physical play up front led by Dont’a Hightower, Rob Ninkovich, Vince Wilfork and Jamie Collins.
The Pats did give up some long passing plays against the Colts, but that’s somewhat to be expected in Indy against Andrew Luck.
Here’s what else stuck out in the All-22 review of the defense.
Doesn’t get much better than a defer on the coin toss then forcing a three-and-out.
Amazing what good coverage does for the pass rush as Vince Wilfork got through on the first play of the game as Luck hesitated on his first read.
On the next play, the run defense was stout. Simply put, everyone is doing their job. Wilfork/Jones holding their ground while Hightower/Collins are filing their gaps and playing patient. Incredible how much better things look when the defense is fundamentally solid.
The Pats continued the trend of showing double A pressure with the linebackers on the first third down of the game, but dropped both of them out. Coverage was solid in Cover 1, forcing the checkdown to Bradshaw. Solid tackling by Hightower kept him short of the first down. Each week I like Hightower a little more. He and Collins are on fire right now against these pass-happy teams.
Chris Jones showed up on the first play of the second possession, a zone running play run to the left, away from Jones. He got a good jump and pushed the Colts offensive linemen into the backfield, which set up the tackle for Wilfork. Again, solid fundamental run defense. Ayers set the edge, Collins maintained his gap and Wilfork/Jones showed great lateral quickness to make the play.
On one of the few third downs the Pats gave up a conversion on, they were in their 4 CB/1 S personnel with Ninkovich out to jam the tight end before letting him go to Browner. MCCourty clearly had an eye on Hilton. Ryan headed out to cover Nicks but Revis waved him back to the slot on Wayne. Not sure what happened there, but Wayne beat Ryan for the first down.
Revis was absolved of the 46-yard pass to Reggie Wayne the next play, as it looked like he was expecting over-the-top coverage from McCourty, but McCourty broke to the other side on Hilton.
Again, great run defense inn the red zone on the next play with both Ayers and Chung maintaining the edge. Wilfork’s lateral agility was again on display as he and Jones plugged the initial hole.
Third-and-8 in the red zone and the Pats send five, with Collins getting solid pressure to force an inaccurate back-foot throw from Luck that falls incomplete. Really loving this up-the-gut pressure from the linebackers and it’s made a huge difference on third down.
On their third possession, starting at their own 6 yard line, the Colts went to a three tight end set that the Pats countered with a 4-3 base (50-97-75-94 DL, 91-54-52 LB). They stuck with it next play and Jamie Collins showed up with a solid job setting the edge. That shows some great improvement there by the second-year linebacker.
On third-and-5 the Pats sent pressure once again, this time with 6, but it was just a moment too late. Luck got off a throw to a spot, just where Fleener could get it.
On third-and-12 the Pats sent pressure once again with five, while Collins awaited Bradshaw to go out into a route. This time it was Easley and Ninkovich on the left side of the line that got just enough pressure to force a bad throw by Luck.
This kind of aggression on third down is somewhat rare for the Pats. Not sure if it’s because they trust their secondary more now, or think that Luck/Colts OL couldn’t handle it.
On the next possession, Easley showed up again drawing a holding penalty. Easley is starting to look more and more like the explosive tasmanian devil he was in college. He so violent and quick, he can be a huge handful for an offensive linemen.
WR screens again Browner and Revis are not advised.
This is the Dominique Easley I wanted the Pats to draft in the first round.
On the McCourty interception, it was Revis who was on display, sticking with Wayne like glue. Really vintage Revis.
Great pressure by Hightower on the next possession. He’s really finding a groove and it seems like the Pats are using him really well, both in coverage and blitzing.
On third-and-6 the Pats once again forced a checkdown out of Cover 2 and tackled soundly to force the punt. Fundamentals.
Another QB hit by Easley on the possession after Brady’s second interception, looping around from an edge rusher spot to force a bad throw.
Perfect throw and catch on the touchdown to Nicks, but Ryan got no jam and did nothing to disrupt the timing of the play. I have my concerns about Ryan being the weak link in the secondary, but compared to the bums we’ve had back there in the past, I’m okay with him.
Second Half
Colts got a nice pass to Wayne on their second play of their first possession, but it was remarkable how Hightower ran with him.
Moncrief beat Browner off the line pretty badly, but Luck overthrew him. Would’ve been a touchdown. Probably not Browner’s best game, but he’s not designed for the small and shifty guys.
On the next possession, Fleener beat Browner with a double move for a long gain, even with Browner getting a good jam. Recovery speed is not great on Browner, looks like he takes some false steps.
Pats were just so much more physical in the trenches, the Colts could get nothing on the ground.
On third-and-10, the Pats only sent four as Luck got off a great pass to Fleener, who made a toe-tapping catch in bounds. Again it was on Browner who lost Fleener.
Jamie Collins must’ve really been held back by his early season quad injury. He is so much more slippery now and has an easier time getting around blockers in the box.
The Colts put together their best drive at the end of the third quarter but they still had to earn every single yard in the red zone. That’s a good sign and it really took some time off the clock.
Pats really did a good job against stacked releases in this one, an area they struggled with earlier this year. Just seeing a lot of improvement across the board on defense. It’s exciting.
They shifted to more Cover 2 looks on third down once they had a bigger lead, also sending less blitzes. But Ninkovich’s quality rushes still generated some pressure.
Easley again showed impressive burst on the final Colts possession, blowing the center in the backfield and just missing a tackle for a loss. There was a lot to feel good about in this one, but Easley coming on might be the biggest development.
Mayo’s cap hits for the next three years: 2015 – $10.6 million, 2016 – $10.4 million, 2017 – $9.5 million.
We all know Mayo is a coach and team favorite, at least off the field. As for on the field, I’ve been fairly critical of Mayo for a while now. I can remember tailgating with Erik Frenz in 2011 when we got to talking about him and how we kind of agreed that being a “tackling machine” isn’t really a great thing.
I don’t question Mayo’s smarts or speed, but I don’t think he has the kind of savvy in pass coverage that we’ve seen even out of the slower Dont’a Hightower, or that we saw out of the smaller and slower Tedy Bruschi.
Not to pin the blame on him but the defenses under Mayo’s leadership haven’t been very good.
And has anyone felt “if only we had Mayo” the last two years he’s been out? Not really. They’ve been fine with Hightower being the captain, if not better.
I tend to think the Pats will approach him about restructuring, because this year has proven that keeping McCourty and Revis is more important to the defense than Mayo.
You never know for sure, because everyone, including BB, seem to love him, but that doesn’t often count for much. It will be an interesting storyline to watch this offseason.
