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NFLN Playbook Review: Pats vs. Chargers

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NFLN Playbook Review: Pats vs. Chargers

This is mostly a “wow the Chargers make stupid mistakes” edition of playbook, opposed to a “hey the Patriots are actually pretty good”. Of course the only Patriots-centric thing they brought up was the 4th and 1 stop. Glad that will be dead and buried by tomorrow.

Favorite part had to be Solomon Wilcots not even attempting to say “Leominster” instead choosing to identify “MA” as Maine on the viewer question. Great job, Solly.

Football Outsiders: Lengthy Dissertation on 4th and 1

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Football Outsiders: Lengthy Dissertation on 4th and 1

I’ve avoided discussing the 4th and 1 call this week because personally I’m all for aggressive coaching. Had the Ravens been similarly aggressive two weeks ago they probably would’ve beaten the Patriots. But they didn’t and they lost.

So here’s a long explanation of what Bill should or shouldn’t have done. I really don’t care because a win is a win and we won. I’m sure if Randy Moss and Bert Ferve weren’t coming to town this weekend it would still be all anyone was talking about.

When you have a chance to finish someone off you take it. I’d much rather have Tom Brady and a veteran offensive line in control of sealing the game. No offense to the defense, but the offense is still the stronger of the two units.

Notes on the Patriots-Chargers Re-Watch

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While the RedZone Channel is the greatest invention of the modern football watching experience, DirecTVs Short Cuts (each game in a half hour) isn’t far behind. 

While it’s hard sometimes to get a read on the personnel before the snap because they are cut so tightly, it’s an easy way to go back and see what happened without having to be constantly fast forwarding.

Anyway, this morning I re-watched the Patriots-Chargers game and some additional interesting tidbits caught my eye.

I am really curious to see Mike Reiss’ defensive snap totals this week because it seems like Shawn Crable and Dane Fletcher are getting more snaps.

On the re-watch I continue to be impressed with Fletcher. He did some blitzing, but he was primarily used as a spy on Darren Sproules. Not only did he force a fumble but he closed quickly on the ball carrier and made solid tackles. 

This is a similar role to what the Patriots use Gary Guyton for, and after seeing Guyton get beat more than a couple times (and miss a couple tackles) I’m starting to wonder if Fletcher might not overtake Guyton at some point this season.

Looks like the Pats can pretty much put any of their defensive lineman at any position in any given package. We saw a Wilfork – Pryor – Wright 34 front at one point which was a pass rush 3-4 look. That’s something we hadn’t see before.

I’ve already heard a lot of people say it was a tale of two halves, but it was really the tale of the first 3 quarters and the fourth quarter. Once the Chargers started taking the check downs they started moving the ball. 

Clearly as an offense they want to get the ball deep but the Patriots did an excellent job of taking the deep ball away. When San Diego finally adjusted late in the second half they began to have success.

I really thought that Sergio Brown had shown enough in the preseason to make the 53-man roster. Even though he didn’t he showed up strong yesterday. You can’t understate the tackle he made in pursuit of Antonio Gates to keep him short of a first down. That was a game saving play. Not bad for an undrafted rookie.

All anyone can talk about today is how bad the Chargers were early on. Rightly so, that gave the Patriots the game. Still, this again feels like the Patriots are just making enough plays to win like they used to. 

I’m the biggest Patriots homer there is, and even I would’ve been skeptical of anyone predicting a 5-1 start.