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Well That Sucked… (Patriots Defense Edition)

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I consider myself a fan of offensive football, but a student of defensive football, so I wanted to take another look at the game before posting my thoughts on the defensive performance against the Jets.

First a reminder that this is a young defense and they certainly showed it yesterday. I’m sure Darius Butler is getting killed on the Boston airwaves today, but let’s remember this is his second game starting.

With that said, this defense was carved up by Mark Sanchez yesterday. Woah, read that last sentence again. Scary, right? Well, it’s week two so let’s all relax and remember that the Jets offense is largely a veteran group. I’m not going to say that this is an excuse. The Patriots were outplayed by the Jets in all facets of the game. But you cannot be discouraged because we should see improvement as the season progresses. 

Surely everyone out there is ripping the Patriots defense a new one today. But let’s just focus on the positives and most interesting points.

1. Devin McCourty, Brandon Spikes and Jermaine Cunningham all look like they will develop into solid players. Add in Chung, Brace, and yes even Butler and you have six defensive players in their first two years who are major contributors. This will pay off in the years to come. I know it’s hard to have this perspective now.

2. Welcome to bizarro world but Ron Brace was an excellent run stopper yesterday.  Brace seems to be improving each week now, his development allowed the Pats to slide Gerard Warren over to RDE and put Mike Wright in the situational role he seems most suited for. This is an encouraging development.

3. Undrafted rookie Kyle Love is getting playing time as a backup nose tackle.

4. Anyone else notice it’s not Jonathan Wilhite getting toasted every play now? Granted Butler is, but hey maybe Wilhite is improving? 

5. Cunningham got time at ROLB and DPR (designated pass rusher) and had a heads up play to not lose contain on a reverse. He improved from last week to this week and that’s a very good sign.

6. Brandon Spikes continues to make a big difference in the run game. The Jets ran all over the Pats sub packages but that was not when Spikes was in the game. He looks fast to the ball and by buttoning up the base run defense his impact has been huge. He’s also being used as a down lineman in the goalline package which is interesting. I expect his role to continue to increase.

7. Brandon Meriweather needs to get it together. This defense badly needs him to play well. He’s primarily being used in passing situations now, and you can’t discount his regression when talking about how the Patriots defense has lacked luster. When we see him starting we’ll know he’s turned it around. Let’s remember he led the Pats D in snaps played in 2009.

8. Rob Ninkovich is playing a much bigger part in the defense than any of us would’ve predicted. His missed tackle on Ladainian Tomlinson’s long 4th quarter run was a back breaker. But Ninkopoop had been fairly strong against the run to that point.

9. Didn’t see a lot out of Patrick Chung yesterday.

10. No big plays from the defense against the Jets. No interceptions or forced fumbles. This is not a hallmark of a great defense, and something that needs to change.

The Bills have been trying to run a spread offense much of the time so far this season. They haven’t put up many points but they’ve given up less than the Pats have. This will be an excellent test for the Patriots defense because we know they’re going to attack what the Pats don’t do well at… short passes and runs against their subpackages. 

RUMOR: Pats Interested in Vincent Jackson

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I can’t vouch for this guy but he seems to be a New York radio personality that had good sources when the whole Revis deal went down, and he’s saying that those same trusted sources are telling him the Pats are interested in Vincent Jackson.

You can see his twitter feed where he made the announcement here.

We had heard last year that the Pats have Vincent Jackson rated as their top wide receiver in the NFL (outside of Foxboro I assume) so it probably isn’t much of a secret that they think he’s a player.

The problem starts with Vincent Jackson wanting to be paid somewhere in the $9 million per year range while Randy Moss and Logan Mankins are already complaining about the Patriots and money. Don’t forget Wes Welker’s going to want a new deal pretty soon too. Not sure the Patriots could put together a compensation package that would attract Jackson, and if they did it might make waves in the locker room.

Clearly with seven picks in the first four rounds of the 2011 draft they could probably figure out a compensation package for the Chargers. Though San Diego would probably loathe sending him to New England.

On the field is the place it would make the most sense, especially if Randy Moss is gone after this year.

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This is all I’m going to choose to remember from yesterday. Blocking out everything else.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/this-is-all-im-going-to-choose-to-remember-from/

Well That Sucked (Patriots Offense Edition)…

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General thoughts/feelings after the game. I don’t check the stats or look back at anything, just the gut reaction of what I saw unfold.

The good thing about week two losses is that by the end of the season they are a distant memory. But this loss today to the Jets has left me baffled.

Our offense looked like a machine in the first half, moving the ball on the Jets defense yard by yard, exerting their will. Brady was moving the ball around to multiple receivers and it seemed like there would be little the Jets could do to stop this offense.

But in the second half I was having flashbacks to 2009. I mean, this was a vintage 2009 game. First half they look great. The we gat a total collapse in the second half. 

While Brady showed flashes of trust with Aaron Hernandez, Gronk and Tate were invisible in the second half. Losing Kevin Faulk didn’t help.

With the Jets missing Calvin Pace and Darrelle Revis this was a prime opportunity to take out a divisional rival on the road. When the teams meet again in December it will be the Jets who will probably have more talented players back on the field.

Last year the Pats could point to not having Welker when they lost there in week two, but this time all we’re left to say is that Brady is still developing chemistry with those not named Welker, Moss, or Faulk.

I’m sure Bill O’Brien’s name will be back in the news again this week. Debating his game plans and use of threats outside of Moss/Welker.  Though not even they could do anything in the second half.

Brady has to take some of the responsibility as well, never seen someone go from so hot to so cold so fast.

Clearly the talent is there on this team, especially on offense. That’s what is so frustrating. It’s all there. When they were clicking versus the Jets they were unstoppable.

But somehow that all just came apart at half time.

And in the second half they weren’t even facing Revis. Jason Taylor was banged up! I don’t even know who was playing in their secondary. And the shmoes shut down an offense that had been clicking on all cylindars.

We all saw Hard Knocks. The Jets barely had 53 guys good enough to make out their roster. Their backups were torched in every preseason game.

How did this happen? I’m at a total loss.

An Xs and Os View of the Jets

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If you’ve had a chance to check out the Patscast podcast one of the regular guests is Jay Shields. Jay is a Patriots-centric Mike Mayock on the show, and shares his insights on the Patriots schemes from an educated football background. In my unending quest to become a more knowledgeable football fan I’ve found Jay’s commentary to be fascinating. Below is a post that Jay made on the popular PatsFans.com messageboard, providing a little more insight into what the Jets do on defense and how you beat it. Enjoy (and I suggest you grab a pen and paper to illustrate Jay’s description.:

Let’s start with the two most basic concepts behind Ryan’s fundamental attack. His scheme relies upon attacking the blocking scheme of the offense and forcing a quick ball release. This is achieved through disguising the Mike backer, overloading a gap, and pressing receivers off of the line. In order to understand how this attacks blocking schemes, it is necessary to first understand the fundamentals of a pass blocking scheme.

Typically, the first call made after the offense breaks the huddle is the identification of the Mike linebacker. This is sometimes made by both the QB and center, othertimes just by the center. Think of the Mike backer as the strength of the defensive formation. Just as you would hear defenses call out “strong left”, offenses will call out “52 is Mike”. Almost everything in defensive football boiled down it it’s most basic, fundamental level flows through the Mike linebacker. This is in large part because of the premium on the middle of the field. Look at how defenses are built. Nose, Mike and Will, SS. Everything from flow to the football to coverage to blitzing runs through the Mike. From 2-gap 34 to Ryan 34 to Johnson 43 to Tampa-2, it all places a premium on the alignment and responsibility of the mike. If he’s not there to blitz or eat a blocker he is there to compensate for a weakened area. In the context of the passing game, he is your best key in the anticipation of a blitz or coverage. Take this read away and the offense is already in an anticipation disadvantage.

The next part of what makes Ryan’s scheme effective is the overload blitz. This is again an attack on the pass protection concept. As a very general rule, most protections rely upon the blocker to defend a zone of closeness. Take the man closest to your face, and put a premium on defending the most direct line to the football. This is in response to stunts and loops that are designed to confuse man blocking scheme. For example; the offense is set in a singleback set with the TE aligned to the right of the formation. The defense is in a basic 43 call. In a very basic call the tackle is responsible for the weakside end, and the guard is responsible for the 3-technique. When the ball is snapped the 3-tech drives across the face of the guard, drawing him inwards. The defensive end accelerates towards the outside shoulder of the tackle, pulling him outwards in his drop steps. There is now a large rushing lane opened in the B-gap. The Will backer attacks the B-gap and the back steps up to block the Will. Tackle has outside responsibility, guard has inside responsibility, back has blitzer. Same thing would have happened if the 3-tech shot the B-Gap, and the Mike came through the A gap. Now, let’s add a walked up free safety coming through the B-Gap off of the azz of the Will. No matter what the o-line does, someone is going to come free. This example isn’t perfect nor absolute but it does a good job of illustrating my point.

You can read the rest of Jay’s post here…

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Have you gotten your new Fitzy’s badass Brady t-shirt yet?

https://www.patspropaganda.com/have-you-gotten-your-new-fitzys-badass-brady/

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skzII7iUdwY

Say hello to the newest New England Patriot Danny Woodhead. When watching Hard Knocks this season I made a note that Woodhead seemed like the kind of player the Patriots always love. Yes he’s undersized, but he competes as hard as anyone and can/will play wherever you need him to. I think this signing is far more than just an information grab about the Jets. Believe me, what the Jets do isn’t that complicated.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

https://www.patspropaganda.com/say-hello-to-the-newest-new-england-patriot-danny/