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NESN/Howe: Light’s gutsy play a critical part of Patriots comeback drive
Thanks to Jeff Howe for mentioning this, I didn’t catch Light’s injury while watching the game, but clearly he knew the situation and knew his options and how they would affect the team. Matt Light will never get the true love and respect he deserves for protecting Tom Brady’s blind side for the last decade, but this is just another example of what a warrior the guy is.
The Patriots do a good job of attacking you were you are weakest personnel or scheme wise. During the bye week, I think they’ll look at the efficiency of players in that offensive scheme,” he said. “Two, how they get better at third-down conversions on defense. And three, try to find ways to improve the run game in personnel groups and formations in which they have had success throwing the ball, in an effort to become more unpredictable and give Brady more options to adjust based on opponents adjustments.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/the-patriots-do-a-good-job-of-attacking-you-were/
Andre Carter has been arguably the Patriots best player on defense over the course of the first six games of the season but his arrival in New England was somewhat of a perfect storm.
Bill Belichick decided during the off-season that it would be easier to install their four man nickel front as the base defense instead of the complicated three man front due to the lockout-shortened prep time. Belichick had always been a fan of Carter’s but did not see a fit for him the 3-4 defense, so when they made the move to a four man front it opened the door for Carter to come to the Patriots.
Carter has been the proverbial straw stirring the drink for the Patriots revamped 2011 defense. His ability to play both the run and get a pass rush has enabled the Patriots to become far less specialized. Instead of whole sale substitutions between run and pass defense the Patriots can now leave most of their personnel in place regardless of down and distance.
Carter’s stat line (via Pro Football Focus) has been impressive: 3 sacks, 5 QB Hits, and 9 QB pressures tell the story of his pass rush and 15 stops show what he’s done on run defense.
But with Carter only on a one year deal, and a full off-season in 2012 awaiting with the chance to return to Belichick’s favored 3-4 defense just what is the future of Andre Carter in New England?
If he truly doesn’t fit as a outside linebacker in the 3-4 would the Pats consider remaining in a four man front in 2012 based on the production they’re getting from him?
From my perspective the answer is clear. Carter has brought everything that this defense has missed over the past few seasons, and the results, especially in the last two games have been evident. The return to the 3-4 defense would not only put Carter’s future with the Pats in question but also Albert Haynesworth’s, and those are two impact players the Patriots should value.
While the switch to the 4-3 might have been based on lack of preparation time, it has also been an effective way to get pressure when offenses throw on early downs. The Patriots no longer have any 3-4 outside linebackers that can attack the edge like Carter can.
From both a schematic and personnel standpoint it seems like a no brainer to re-sign Carter to an extension and continue to roll with the 4-3. Of course what seem like no-brainer’s to us the fans are far from as cut and dry for Bill Belichick. But clearly, whatever move the Pats make with Carter will be a signal where the Pats defense is headed schematically in 2012.
Slowly starting to turn our focus to the Steelers. I’m sure last year’s beatdown is still clearly in their mind. I can’t quite explain it but Tom Brady has shredded their defense like it never gets shredded the last two times he’s faced them (2007 & 2010). We’ll just leave off the Matt Cassel-led disaster of 2008.
I expect the Steelers to be fired up and ready to make a statement this time around. Because if you get stomped three times in a row on your homefield it equals domination. If it doesn’t already.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/slowly-starting-to-turn-our-focus-to-the-steelers/
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:
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)…
Ah, the bye week. That two week mid-season lull in between games when we the fans are forced to take a mini-football break before the stretch run.
For the players and coaches however it’s a time to get healthy, look at what’s working and what isn’t and set the course that will Hoodie-willing lead to the promise land.
Here are the top five things I’m hoping for over the bye week.
1. Get Healthy – the most obvious one so we’ll lead with it. Along with the significant injuries (Jerod Mayo) there have been plenty of dings through the first six games and this should be a time to get healthy. Guys we most need back at 100%:
Getting Josh Barrett, Patrick Chung, Leigh Bodden, Aaron Hernandez and Matt Light some time off to get over their lingering injuries should also provide a big boost.
2. Devin McCourty get your mojo back – I’m not sure if McCourty is suffering from a sophomore slump because he’s just not playing well or if teams have a sense of how to pick on him that they didn’t have last year. I hope it’s the former and not the latter because that’s correctable. McCourty didn’t really start to come on until late October last year anyway, let’s hope the same thing happens this year. The Pats need him to step up in a major way.
3. Extend Wes Welker and/or Jerod Mayo – why not take the extra time to lock up some of the vital pieces of the puzzle. If not Mayo or Welker how about Andre Carter, who’s only one a one year deal, or Benjarvus Green-Ellis, who should be a fairly easy deal to get done now before he breaks 1000 yards again. Of course knowing the Pats they’ll probably start the contract extensions with Gary Guyton. Ugh.
4. New tweaks for offense – Call it an off game for Tom Brady but not counting the final drive it seemed like taking away Wes Welker for the most part was a fairly effective way to slow down the Pats offense. Teams will see what the Cowboys did, and granted they might not be able to execute it, but the offense looked very much stoppable for much of last Sunday’s game. I’m not a huge “blueprint to stop the Pats offense” guy, but they cannot become over-reliant on Welker. The Patriots must stay one step ahead and figure out how to better protect Welker from coverage, while also incorporating their running backs more into the pass game. Kevin Faulk could provide a major boost in this area.
5. Figure out a way to get Chad Ochocinco more involved in the offense before the Boston sports media combusts – Who cares if the offense has consistently moved the ball and put up points without Chad, he’s a big name and if he doesn’t have a break out game soon he just might overtake the Red Sox as the lead story on all sports programming.
