PatsPropaganda

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jerod mayo

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The offense and defense worked against each other in a full-field two-minute drill, and for at least part of it, linebacker Jerod Mayo was using a whistle to signal the end of the plays. The 26-year old adopted a coach-on-the-field role of sorts, as it appeared the drill was run entirely by the players. The coaches largely stood pat on the sidelines. This could be a case where the players, not satisfied by what had just happened, took it upon themselves to finish practice on the right foot. If such was the case, that’s terrific leadership from Mayo, amongst others.

Camp Observations: Day 9 – New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston

https://www.patspropaganda.com/the-offense-and-defense-worked-against-each-other/

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Despite making a lot of tackles [Jerod Mayo] was rarely a downhill, impact type of player and seemed more of a clean-up specialist than a linebacker really influencing the game. In this regard he was not unlike the Jets’ David Harris. This season though, the move to the 4-3 seems to have helped him be more of a downhill force. He is making more of his tackles in the right area. 39 of his tackles have been defensive stops this season, a far better ratio than in previous seasons where he was aligned slightly further back from the line of scrimmage so that he could control both sides if necessary. The hype for Mayo has always outweighed the real impact he has on the defense, but it would also be somewhat unfair to say that he does little of substance, as his contribution and reliability are not to be underestimated, and he does get involved in a lot of plays, even if it is almost always fewer than the generosity of the New England scorer would suggest. The area where he still struggles the most is in coverage, where he has allowed 416 yards this season with 319 of them after the catch. Only four other 4-3 OLBs have allowed more YAC than Mayo has this season and throwing into his coverage yields opposing QBs a 92.0 QB rating.

Pro Football Focus Interview With BSMW — Boston Sports Media Watch

Thanks to Frenz for the heads up on this article. Last year when me and Frenz were tailgating before the Giants game we had a long discussion of Mayo asking if he was overrated. There’s no question he has all the intangibles you look for, though I do have a slight preference for fiery guys on the inside like Spikes. He started to make some big plays last year, like the game sealing interception against the Redskins. Still, his pass coverage can be glaringly awful at times. Just look at this play from the Super Bowl.

That should be an interception or the very least a pass defended. It’s the perfect call but Mayo just doesn’t get his head around. There’s a lot to like about Mayo, but there’s also a lot of places he can improve.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/despite-making-a-lot-of-tackles-jerod-mayo-was/

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Breaking: Patriots sign Jerod Mayo to a 5-yr extension

Great news this morning that the Pats have locked up Jerod Mayo long term. Always love when these extensions come out of nowhere, leaving us with one less player to speculate about what his future might be. We all know when Pats players get to free agency there’s no guarantee that they’ll be back.

Coincidence that this comes after Mayo has back to back interception games? 

https://www.patspropaganda.com/patriots-mayo-3/

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https://www.patspropaganda.com/21176/

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.