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kyle arrington

Football Outsiders: Was Pats defensive improvement a mirage?

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Football Outsiders: Was Pats defensive improvement a mirage?

Some interesting nuggets as always from Football Outsiders. They point out how much the Pats struggled covering slot receivers. While I agree that Kyle Arrington will probably shift inside, I don’t think it’s necessarily a lock that he’s the answer at nickel. That could come through the draft, so if they do pick a CB, look for one that is projected to play inside, challenging Arrington, Wilhite and Butler.

Through 12 weeks, New England’s DVOA was 16.6%, which left them mired at 27th in the league. But starting with the 45-3 demolition of the Jets, the defense seemed to turn a corner. In Weeks 13-17, the Patriots ranked second in the league in overall defense and were the league’s best team defending the pass. With everything rounding into form, New England looked borderline unbeatable heading into the playoffs. But the defense played poorly in a shocking 28-21 loss to the Jets, which opens the question of whether or not the late season improvement was real or a mirage.

The solution is to add better pass rushers and to improve the depth at cornerback. The latter should happen when Leigh Bodden returns to take over one of the starting cornerback slots. That will allow Kyle Arrington to slide into the nickel and cut down the amount of time Darius Butler spends on the field. The pass rusher is going to have to come from free agency or, more likely, the draft, where New England has three of the top 33 selections.

Let’s give Devin McCourty some love

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Pretty safe to say this this was a defining moment of the 2010 Patriots season, despite everyone (including my boo Mayock!?!?!?!) thinking he was just going to be playing special teams.

The thought of a McCourty and Leigh Bodden tandem in 2011 is pretty tantalizing, but it will raise the biggest question in my mind of the 2010 offseason and that is how Kyle Arrington will be used assuming Bodden returns to 100%.

Jonathan Wilhite had been a decent nickel corner this year before going down, but I think Arrington could be even better. His skills as a blitzer have already been noted this year, and his physicality would certainly help discourage runs against their nickel defense. Of course there is still much to play out before we get into all this offseason team building stuff, so we’ll save this analysis for the coming months.

But let’s look forward to a long career for McCourty of doing real life versions of stuff like this:

Side note: have you ever noticed tons of people put games of Madden on YouTube? Like full games. Who has the time or the interest to watch someone else’s Madden game?

A Closer Look at Kyle Arrington the Pass Rusher

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In the video below you’ll see Kyle Arrington (#27) putting his hand down and rushing Peyton Manning from the defensive end position. It’s pretty rare to see a cornerback, much less a cornerback on the small side, engaging with linemen in the trenches.

In this play Arrington begins to lineup as if he is going to be covering the slot receiver, but given that he had blitzed on previous plays, Manning points him out as a rusher. Once called out Arrington concedes his intentions and puts his hand down to help him get a quicker burst. 

In the previous pass rushes he made he tried to beat the tackle wide, dipping his shoulder and trying to get underneath the block, but this time he fakes outside and cuts inside. The combination of this good move and Tully Banta-Cain’s impressive Freney-esque spin move on the other side forced Manning out of the pocket and to make a poor throw on the move.

This was one of the few third downs that the Pats were able to get off the field. This was an interesting wrinkle that Bill Belichick threw at Peyton Manning this time around, and this is one crucial play where it helped the Patriots get off the field.

Kyle Arrington the Defensive End

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One thing that will be worth a close look on the rewatch is the little wrinkle of using Kyle Arrington as a pass rusher with his hand in the dirt.  It’s not often you see a defensive back lined up at defensive end. It seems like BB wanted to see if Arrington could exploit the right tackles quickness. While he got close he never got to Manning. Jermain Cunningham on the other hand got just enough pressure to force Peyton into the game sealing interception. Big players make big plays at the biggest moments and that’s what Cunningham did.

Could Kyle Arrington Start at RCB?

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Could Kyle Arrington Start at RCB?

Mike Reiss points out that Arrington got some first team reps this week over Darius Butler. I’ve always found Arrington to be an intriguing player. He was an unstoppable Special Teams demon after being promoted from the practice squad in 2009, a move that was forced somewhat by the Browns trying to poach Arrington to their active roster.

Arrington showed up well in the preseason with some devastating hits. If nothing else it would be good to see him show what he’s got at cornerback against a team like the Bills. What would also be interesting is seeing how Wilhite vs. Butler plays out for the nickel corner position. And that Wilhite is not even in consideration on the outside anymore, a spot where he started a couple games in 2008.

Also note in the pic of Moss in the post below it’s Arrington covering him.