Looking at the Offense

Share this page

Richard Hill from Pats Pulpit looks at the TE position:

http://www.patspulpit.com/2010/5/19/1478252/off-season-new-england-patriots

I don't think it's a coincidence that the 4 years in which the TEs had the greatest % of receptions were the 4 years in which we had Daniel Graham (and, to a lesser extent, Christian Fauria). Though he was a better blocker than a pass rusher, Graham could get open and was a decent receiver. I view 2006 as an outlier (29% of all receptions were by TEs) because we didn't have much in the WR department that year.

I'd be thrilled to see Gronk and Crumpler do an imitation of Graham and Fauria. Hernandez should be a whole different beast altogether.
 
mayoclinic said:
Pats Pulpit looks at Brady post ACL injury:

http://www.patspulpit.com/2010/5/28/1490767/new-england-patriots-off-season#storyjump

I would say that the biggest question mark I had with Brady last year was his accuracy. He also seemed tentative and hesitent at times, and got flustered more easily than in the past. I wonder how much the ribs and shoulder contributed as well as his recovery from the ACL.
Click to expand...

Good article but, of necessity, it leaves open the question of Brady's return to dominance. I'm in agreement with your observations. What I noticed most or to put it another way, what was most obvious to me was Brady's seeming reluctance to step up in the pocket. For years he had been praised widely for his ability to avoid the pressure by stepping up but last year was different. He seemed hesitant to step up. That caused him to be hit and sacked more and also led to strips of the ball and 9 interceptions caused by the pressure. Compare that to 2007 when he had only 2 interceptions caused by pressure. I think the inability to avoid pressure also caused many of the hurried and inaccurate throws.
 
chevss454 said:
Good article but, of necessity, it leaves open the question of Brady's return to dominance. I'm in agreement with your observations. What I noticed most or to put it another way, what was most obvious to me was Brady's seeming reluctance to step up in the pocket. For years he had been praised widely for his ability to avoid the pressure by stepping up but last year was different. He seemed hesitant to step up. That caused him to be hit and sacked more and also led to strips of the ball and 9 interceptions caused by the pressure. Compare that to 2007 when he had only 2 interceptions caused by pressure. I think the inability to avoid pressure also caused many of the hurried and inaccurate throws.
Click to expand...

Good points. It was also his first season with O'Brien as QB de facto coordinator, and that might have had something to do with it. I think he missed having Josh McDaniels quite a bit. Given how effective the Pats were in 2008 adjusting their offense to maximize Matt Cassel's comfort and effectiveness, they really didn't do much last year to adjust to Brady. They just plugged him in and expected 2007 Brady.
 
mayoclinic said:
More from Reiss on the Graham article quoting Dilfer:

http://espn.go.com/blog/bostonnew-england-patriots/post/_/id/4678986/balancing-the-spread-and-physicality

Reiss speculates whether "there is an offensive identity shift taking place behind the scenes." I certainly hope so. I hate the bleepin spread offense - that and the "prevent" defense are my too least favorite schemes.

The Pats used to be a physical team that beat opponents up, and mixed the quick strike in effectively with a punishing balanced attack. Then they morphed into a finesse blitzkrieg offense that worked marvelously for half a season until teams started to figure out that all you needed to do was (1) jam the receivers at the line, (2) double up on Moss, and (3) spy Welker. There wasn't anything else.

I actually agree with almost every word written in the original ESPN article. The spread may work well in college, but I don't believe it can be a long term effective offense in the NFL. It's just too predictable. And certainly when you don't have any options after your top 2 receivers, the way the Pats did last year.

BB has already said that the NFL is cyclical and that he sees it going back to a somewhat more run-oriented and physical style of play. I hope we'll start see it this year.

The spread will have a role. But 70% of the time is ridiculous. And boring. And not very effective.
Click to expand...
Nonsense.

Blotting out the sun with footballs is the way to go.
 
chevss454 said:
Come on, Box...just sayin' :coffee:
Click to expand...
People generally run around drooling over the flavor of the draft or the usual suspects, I just think there are some guys being overlooked.

Earlier when everyone was arguing over CBs, I painted myself in Terence Wheatley's corner, to more than one disbelieving gasp.

While people were drooling over the Spikes draft pick, I was on the Tyrone McKenzie bandwagon.

Mayo has broken down the offense and expressed some concern for interior OL and RB. I am looking past his concerns and seeing potential under the radar.

Pardon me for being too cryptic, I just threw out two names I'm going to be tracking closely through camp who aren't on the lips of Pats' fandom. And I still have Kaczur penciled in at RT until Vollmer has firmly taken his or Light's job away in the 2010 camps (that should be good for some more perplexed eyebrows around these parts :D ).
 
Box_O_Rocks said:
People generally run around drooling over the flavor of the draft or the usual suspects, I just think there are some guys being overlooked.

Earlier when everyone was arguing over CBs, I painted myself in Terence Wheatley's corner, to more than one disbelieving gasp.

While people were drooling over the Spikes draft pick, I was on the Tyrone McKenzie bandwagon.

Mayo has broken down the offense and expressed some concern for interior OL and RB. I am looking past his concerns and seeing potential under the radar.

Pardon me for being too cryptic, I just threw out two names I'm going to be tracking closely through camp who aren't on the lips of Pats' fandom. And I still have Kaczur penciled in at RT until Vollmer has firmly taken his or Light's job away in the 2010 camps (that should be good for some more perplexed eyebrows around these parts :D ).
Click to expand...

Do you have any particular insights on Ryan Wendell or Chris Taylor that you would care to share? Inquiring minds want to know.
 
Good read, Mayo. Only one thing, though. You seem to think that we all but abandoned the run at points last season. With the exception of the first two games, that wasn't the case. The team ran the ball on roughly 40% of it's offensive snaps, which is to be expected when comparing the weapons in our passing game to our running game. Personally, I have a little more faith in our RB's than you do. Taylor was hurt most of the year but was effective when in as was Morris. If Maroney can correct his hands, something that Faulk managed to do, he may just find himself a new contract.

The offense as a whole looks promising. We look to have the most weapons around Brady that we have had since the Super Bowl years. O'Brien has gone on record of saying that he wants to use the tight ends more in a pass catching role and you can see the effect of that on the draft and the free agency move to secure Algae Crumpler as a blocking TE. If Gronk's back is healed, he'll be an immediate improvement in the red zone offense. Hernandez can line up on the LoS, but will probably see most of his action in the slot. He'll cause immediate match-up problems for opposing defenses. I like Holt over Aiken. Even if Welker isn't ready to go by Week 1, we have an intimidating passing offense.

Mankins needs to be locked down, but I wouldn't do it for anymore than $7M per year. He's the best on the O-Line, but we're looking at a new contract for Brady on the horizon as well. I hope he signs the tender because I shudder at the thought of Connolly taking over at LG for any period of time. I'm sure Brady doesn't want to go to the hospital at any point this season. I think Vollmer will start over Kaczur at RT and then take over at LT in 2011, should there be a season.
 
KontradictioN said:
Good read, Mayo. Only one thing, though. You seem to think that we all but abandoned the run at points last season. With the exception of the first two games, that wasn't the case. The team ran the ball on roughly 40% of it's offensive snaps, which is to be expected when comparing the weapons in our passing game to our running game. Personally, I have a little more faith in our RB's than you do. Taylor was hurt most of the year but was effective when in as was Morris. If Maroney can correct his hands, something that Faulk managed to do, he may just find himself a new contract.
Click to expand...

What I saw last year on several occasions was that we were able to move the ball effectively with our running game, and then appeared to abandon the run for no obvious reason, going more and more to the spread offense. I'd have to go back to last season to count up all the instances and go through the play-by-play. But the 2nd game against Miami should serve as an example.

In that game, we had 448 yards of total offense (352 passing, 96 rushing) but lost 22-21. We led 14-10 at the half. We rushed the ball 25 times and passed 29 times, which would seem to be pretty decent balance, in support of your argument. But looking at the play-by-play tells a different story:

- In the first half, on the first drive we used the shotgun on 1 out of 6 plays, ran on 3 plays (for 15 yards) and passed on the other 3, setting up a 58 yard Brady to Moss TD pass (no shotgun) for a TD.

- On the second drive we used the shotgun on 5 out of 14 plays, ran on 7 plays for 33 yards and passed on the other 7 for 47 yards, resulting in a 6 yard Kevin Faulk run for a TD.

- On the third drive we used the shotgun on 2 out of 4 plays, running twice for 8 yards and passing twice. The drive stalled when Brady completed a 1 yard pass to Kevin Faulk out of the shotgun on 3rd and 2.

- On the fourth drive we used the shotgun on 2 out of 7 plays, running 4 times for 9 yards and passing 3 times. The drive stalled when we rushed twice for no gain after getting to 3rd and 1.

The total for the 1st half was 16 rushes for 65 yards and 1 TD and passing 15 times. We passed Two out of our 4 drives went for TDs. We stalled the other two drives by being unable to convert on 3rd and short. 3 of our 4 drives were for 6 or more plays, for a total of 31 offensive plays.

In the second half, it was a different story:

- Our first drive was an 81 yard TD pass to Aiken out of the shotgun.

- Out second drive lasted all of 3 plays, two incomplete passes (one out of the shotgun) and a 4 yard run.

- Our third drive lasted a whopping 5 plays, 2 runs for 8 yards and 3 passes (2 out of the shotgun). We converted on 4th and 3 out of the shotgun but the play was nullified by a penalty, as was our 1st punt attempt. Drive stalled on penalties. Total rushes for the 3rd quarter was 3 attempts for 9 yards. We completed a grand total of 9 offensive plays in the quarter.

- Our fourth drive lasted 5 plays. After moving the ball from our own 39 to the Miami 9 in 3 plays (plus a defensive holding penalty) we stalled, and killed the drive on a Brady interception in the end zone. We ran three for 18 yards.

- Our fifth drive lasted 3 plays. We ran the ball twice for 4 yards and had an incomplete deep pass attempt.

- Our sixth drive lasted 3 plays. We ran the ball once for -1 yards and had 2 incomplete passes.

- Our seventh and final drive lasted 2 plays - 2 Brady passes out of the shotgun ending with an interception.

So in the second half we had no drives longer than 5 successful plays - 7 drives for 23 plays instead of 4 drives for 31 plays - and we ran the ball a total of 9 times out of those 23 plays for 31 yards. We had one big passing play out of the shotgun and killed two drives on interceptions, one in the end zone. We were outscored 12-7 and lost by one point.

We did that kind of thing several times in 2009 - we appeared to run the ball effectively at first, then had a few difficulties and pretty much abandoned the running game. That's what I was referring to. My concern is not my confidence in our running backs, but my concern in our coaching staff's commitment to running the ball and their confidence in the running game. When the going gets tough, the running game gets abandoned.

KontradictioN said:
The offense as a whole looks promising. We look to have the most weapons around Brady that we have had since the Super Bowl years. O'Brien has gone on record of saying that he wants to use the tight ends more in a pass catching role and you can see the effect of that on the draft and the free agency move to secure Algae Crumpler as a blocking TE. If Gronk's back is healed, he'll be an immediate improvement in the red zone offense. Hernandez can line up on the LoS, but will probably see most of his action in the slot. He'll cause immediate match-up problems for opposing defenses. I like Holt over Aiken. Even if Welker isn't ready to go by Week 1, we have an intimidating passing offense.
Click to expand...

I agree with everything you say here. Gronkowski should be a huge asset in the red zone and in blocking, and Hernandez should be a huge asset in creating mismatches. Both should help against the Tampa 2. I'd much rather see us spread the ball around more than we have in the past few seasons, and the absence of Welker could actually help us in this regard, though I'd love to get Wes back for crunch time.

KontradictioN said:
Mankins needs to be locked down, but I wouldn't do it for anymore than $7M per year. He's the best on the O-Line, but we're looking at a new contract for Brady on the horizon as well. I hope he signs the tender because I shudder at the thought of Connolly taking over at LG for any period of time. I'm sure Brady doesn't want to go to the hospital at any point this season. I think Vollmer will start over Kaczur at RT and then take over at LT in 2011, should there be a season.
Click to expand...

I think $7M/year for Mankins is reasonable and "fair". The problem is, the line has been set at $8M/year for Alan Faneca and Jahri Evans, and Mankins is probably looking for that kind of money. My guess is that the Pats also played lowball with Mankins at first, widening the gap. I'm hopeful that a deal can get done, but I'm far from certain.
 
good post Mayo. and good thread. My first thought was to the lack of play-action calls last year, especially in the red zone. This was brought up, but how can anyone expect TFB to have a good red zone percentage when the DBs get to hang back all the time. Well that and Brady never really getting his touch. Hopefully it was some lingering knee concern (or just not quite feeling right) throwing him off by a tad that will be rectified with the additional year of heal.
 
mayoclinic said:
Do you have any particular insights on Ryan Wendell or Chris Taylor that you would care to share? Inquiring minds want to know.
Click to expand...
BB claimed Connolly was playing well enough to compete for starting time, yet when I watched Wendell v. Connolly in preseason games Wendell looked like a Pat Hill product (and we have one to compare him to) in terms of his awareness and technique. I don't recall him being beaten, in fact I remember him executing combo blocks with different Tackles and looking outstanding. Both he and Connolly were used in the two-man wedge, so he can play in space. I also note Coach Scarnecchia has, like Connolly and Hochstein, kept him around...not to mention he's been credited with the first pancake block of the new season (if BB wants a team with attitude looking to erase the bitter taste of last season, he's off to a good start).

I haven't seen Taylor play, but I recall the talking points BB used when talking about why they went out and got him created an impression in my mind of NE specifically targeting him as a younger 'Sammy Morris' quality utility back. It was shortly after this that he went on IR. NE did not have me thinking pre-draft that they were kicking the tires on RBs with any strong interest, and post-draft I'd say that impression was confirmed - which leads me to anaylizing the RB position beyond 2010:
- three "33+" turf warriors who all apparently finished last season with gas in their tanks.
- the only RB whom we 'know' NE has beyond 2010 is B-Jeepers who will be an RFA (Maroney may also be an RFA per Reiss, but it's dependent on the CBA talks).
- RB is in general a plug & play position, but this is also a very complex offense that demands more of a RB in the passing game then most around the league, so experience in the system has real value, which is only enhanced by a RB's ability to play more then one role. That goes triple for a RB assigned blitz p/u duty.

The Chris Taylor progression - signed, IR'd, no RFA tender, quietly brought back after the draft - just looks like Ivan and BB are trying to develop role-playing reserves for beyond 2010.
 
mayoclinic said:
I think that Tate will be a huge contributor this season, both on ST and on offense, as long as he can stay healthy.
Click to expand...

I do too, Mayo. This kid showed talent and mental toughness in college. He will come out of the gate very strong I think.
 
Box_O_Rocks said:
BB claimed Connolly was playing well enough to compete for starting time, yet when I watched Wendell v. Connolly in preseason games Wendell looked like a Pat Hill product (and we have one to compare him to) in terms of his awareness and technique. I don't recall him being beaten, in fact I remember him executing combo blocks with different Tackles and looking outstanding. Both he and Connolly were used in the two-man wedge, so he can play in space. I also note Coach Scarnecchia has, like Connolly and Hochstein, kept him around...not to mention he's been credited with the first pancake block of the new season (if BB wants a team with attitude looking to erase the bitter taste of last season, he's off to a good start).
Click to expand...

Interesting thoughts. I have to say, I'd sort of discounted Wendell since Connolly seemed to beat him out for playing time last year, and given all the new youngsters at OL (Ohnrberger, Bussey, Larsen and Welch). He had become a bit of a forgotten man for me. But it's probably not a good idea to discount a Pat Hill product.

Without Mankins, interior line is practically another version of the OLB situation - lots of bodies to compete, but no one clearly identified as long term starting caliber material. It will be interesting to see how things shake out with all the young guys.

Box_O_Rocks said:
I haven't seen Taylor play, but I recall the talking points BB used when talking about why they went out and got him created an impression in my mind of NE specifically targeting him as a younger 'Sammy Morris' quality utility back. It was shortly after this that he went on IR. NE did not have me thinking pre-draft that they were kicking the tires on RBs with any strong interest, and post-draft I'd say that impression was confirmed - which leads me to anaylizing the RB position beyond 2010:
- three "33+" turf warriors who all apparently finished last season with gas in their tanks.
- the only RB whom we 'know' NE has beyond 2010 is B-Jeepers who will be an RFA (Maroney may also be an RFA per Reiss, but it's dependent on the CBA talks).
- RB is in general a plug & play position, but this is also a very complex offense that demands more of a RB in the passing game then most around the league, so experience in the system has real value, which is only enhanced by a RB's ability to play more then one role. That goes triple for a RB assigned blitz p/u duty.

The Chris Taylor progression - signed, IR'd, no RFA tender, quietly brought back after the draft - just looks like Ivan and BB are trying to develop role-playing reserves for beyond 2010.
Click to expand...

Taylor certaily has Morris-like size, but he's something of an enigma to me. He'll be 27 before the season ends, he's played in only 2 of 4 seasons and has only 42 rushes in 4 years. UDFAs don't usually hang around that long in the NFL with that little production and active time. The fact that someone still sees enough in him to keep him around is interesting, but I have a hard time finding enough to give me significant expectations that he'll suddenly make a big jump in year 5.

I agree that the RB position will undergo a major overhaul after this year. I don't expect Morris or Taylor to be back, Faulk can't go on forever, and Maroney may be a UFA and still has to prove that he merits a 2nd contract.

Thanks for elaborating your thoughts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top