We had a nice scheme... where we put Revis on Welker and then doubled up Moss w/ Rhodes / Law or Rhodes / Lowery or Elam / Lower (that one had me a bit scared)... but the idea was nice. Only issue I had with it is that we stayed with one setup until we got beat, then we'd switch. I would've preferred a constant rotation to keep them guessing. I think it would've made that end of half TD a bit harder to make. I think we had Lowery on Gaffney, Law on Moss and Revis on Welker for 3 plays in a row there, and the Pats were basically able to finally figure out what to do. I was also unhappy with us getting roasted on the ground by Kassell on the same defense. I think they ran that on man to man where Faulk clears out Barton way too many times. We needed to have adjusted for that much sooner.
I think the biggest problem with the D play calling is that our LBs are useless in coverage so why even ask them to do it? Just let 'em stop the pass by pass rushing, its what they are good at.
This, and Cassell was taking a quick dropback, so our pass rushers had no chance at him by the time he threw the ball, or he just stepped up and took off downfield.
very good post! i agree especially when dealing with a belli coached team you have to adjust before they adjust because they WILL adjust, the double safties/man under worked very very well until they figured it out. thats a tough one on the running, could have the de positions stay more inside rather than trying to go straight up the field but its one of the disadvantages to playing that defense. they ran faulk up the middle and break to the sideline a million times last night, it was kind of scary as i watched the lb clear the middle every single time. but i would rather cassell get some yards than get the ball to faulk with nobody around him. on a side note, bellichicken has proved himself to me this year, he has made adjustments in game planning and in game to put his team in position to win. very very impressed as i really didnt give him much for a long time. i thought he outcoached us last night in the second half and that was precisely why this game ended up so close.
Sadly you are right.. gotta hand it to belly.. we were simply playing man up, 2 deep and rushing 3/4. that means that there are 2 options: either your TE, RB or 3rd receiver beats his man in single man coverage, or you clear out and have an open lane for the QB to run because there is no spy. It was the perfect play to run each time.. 3 or 4 WR set with an RB running a clearout/dumpoff pattern. It's quite simple, and we should have adjusted in the 2nd half to counter some of those things.. We did counter some.. for example, switching up the double coverage to the 3rd WR or the TE, but this happened way too late, more so in the 4th after we had already been getting torched. we had no way to stop cassel from running though.. we had to rely on our d-line to collapse the pocket and not give him a way out.. it worked a few times, but it worked against us a few times too. You also take the risk of the QB running because usually, there are some good chances of them mishandling or fumbling the ball. It was a good scheme thought up by Mangini, but changes should have been made at half-time.. and we should not have gone into prevent in the 2nd half.
I also want to add one last caveat: I would much rather have them try to have watson or gaffney beat us than moss or welker. We did the right thing by tying up their top receivers because lets face it.. gaffney and watson are much less of a threat.. they may catch balls, but they will make more mistakes too.. as evidences by the watson fumble and drops by gaffney. In the end, it made a difference. Ask yourself this question.. what was so good about the pats last year (other than brady).. it was welker and moss scoring all of their points!! If you can only really take away two things and take a chance on the rest.. you have to take away welker and moss. I may be wrong, but if anyone else knows a way to take away more of their options with this scheme, let me know.
im with you topps, i would much rather take those 2 away and make them drive the field, shit it worked out a number of times even in the 3rd qtr. its one of those cover 2 things, jeez i cant believe i am agreeing with herm on something, make them drive the field and hope they make a mistake or you stop them. they made mistakes twice on the watson fumble and missnap. if moss is running wild deep down field it does not give an opportunity for those things to happen. really it was a pretty brilliant game plan, i give the cs credit for that. they usually start with a good plan. its the adjustments that get them into trouble sometimes. well many times.
This is why I haven't bashed the D playcalling. The only time Moss made a difference is after we had forced Gaffney and Watson to be their top targets for the day. Welker and Moss were taken out, and that is any team's route to slowing the Pats. Thats how good that supposedly broken team was. They put up 24 points with their best two players on offense getting shut out. It actually pisses me off more about how wrong the media is crying about the injuries. Props to Belichick for not making it an excuse for his team. This was probably the best job the Jets coaching staff has done, and it's going to get nitpicked because they came back and almost won.
WTF they didn't stick Moss on the line of Scrimmage (like they had the whole game) on the TD play is beyond me. They had shut him down, then go and play soft, unbelievable.
Yea, that was fucking retarded. The crazy thing is the guys on TV had just been talking about how we had been physical with Moss at the line. Moss was a non-factor, and boom they pull back the reigns. Coulda/shoulda/woulda went for the throat. Hopefully they learn from it. It seems like they usually do.
It seemed like every time Collinsworth pointed something out last night, something directly related to what he said would happen the very next play. I.E. Mangold has been doing a great job on Wilfork .. blah blah next play: Wilfork stuffs the run in the middle It seemed to keep happening - i can't think of other examples right now - drunk.
hahahah the fuckin "NFL is scripted theory?" I heard the one about how replay/challenge booth is really just a video screen to the commissioner or someone who decides whats better for the ratings/NFL? I probably heard I swear I came up with it...coke.
i really cant complain about dropping off of moss on the final play, the guy was covered as well as you could ever cover someone. i didnt see anyone over the top so i am assuming that they didnt have deep help readily available in which case it makes perfect sense for law to drop back. you just cant get beat off the line there and let them get an easy touchdown. it had to be perfect to work and they did it perfect. i give them credit for that rather than saying we did something wrong. did anyone else notice that moss appears to have reverted to his old times habits, he was slow off the line of scrimmage, didnt run great routes and really just appeared to not give a shit. that is the old moss that has gotten him into trouble in the past, he didnt do that last year.
The Pats had us on our heels the whole 2nd half. Our secondary is our weakness, especially when there is no pass rush. The main thing is, we kept the ball in front of us and did not allow any quick strikes which helped in the 3rd qtr. because they turned the ball over
Thats the thing, with a pass rush - it would make life easier for the secondary. But Sutton doesn't understand that.
