The Most Important Factor Last Night

[LloydWoodson]

The most important factor last night as it pertains to the Pats game is the pass rush. The Giants laid the blueprint on how to beat the Pats: rush 4 drop 7 and have the rush get there. Brady will carve up blitzes.

Alex Smith was only sacked once and mostly had a very clean pocket. Cockrell especially will be exposed if there is no rush.

Dupree had early success then fizzled out. Should spell him with Moats early. KC didn't even have the ball much and it still appeared to be fatigue on some players. Maybe it wasn't fatigue but if it was need more player rotations in the first half.

[BigNastyDefense]

Alex Smith has a quick release, when a QB doesn't hold the ball long, they're hard to sack. The Chiefs typically do a three step drop and throw it passing offense.

I think on the first defensive play of the game next week we blitz Brady and let a backup LB light him up, even if it costs us 15 yards. That hit will be in Brady's head the rest of the game, especially if our pass rush gets to him another time or two.

[86WARD]

Helmet to chin? Lol?

[Born2Steel]

Really?

Joking aside, and I'm hoping you're joking, we will not rush only 4. What we did last time works. Keep the passes out of the middle and stop the run.

[Hawkman]

Alex Smith has a quick release, when a QB doesn't hold the ball long, they're hard to sack. The Chiefs typically do a three step drop and throw it passing offense.

I think on the first defensive play of the game next week we blitz Brady and let a backup LB light him up, even if it costs us 15 yards. That hit will be in Brady's head the rest of the game, especially if our pass rush gets to him another time or two.

I like it. He has already said how much he hated getting hit against the Texans.

[Iron Steeler]

Brinf the house alllllll night. Make him crawl at the end ofnthe game.

[steelreserve]

The Game laid the blueprint, but if we rush 4 and drop 7, we don't get there; it's the plain vanilla sit-back and we get destroyed. Hopefully we have a different game plan, because 90% of the time that's what use against the Patriots - and funny thing, that's exactly how often we lose. Wanna know what's even more crazy? It's in the same games.

[Count Steeler]

Brush off that game plan from a few years back, when we played man press coverage. I think we held them to 16 points on the night.

And of course, TACKLE!!!

[steelreserve]

Brush off that game plan from a few years back, when we played man press coverage. I think we held them to 16 points on the night.

And of course, TACKLE!!!


Yeah, other than that one time and a handful of others like that, we always seemed to have the mentality of "omg Brady = big passer, let's worry about what the receivers will do way down the field if they have 5 or 6 seconds to run around." As if nobody had ever watched a Patriots game and seen that 8 out of 10 plays they run are quick passes for a few yards, and then sometimes you miss tackles and give them another 10 or 15.

If you don't mess up the quick slant, you are not going to get pressure on Brady no matter how many people you rush, because by default he'll get rid of the ball in about 1.2 seconds. No coincidence that when we played that kind of aggressive defense, that's when we got pressure and that's when we won.

[Count Steeler]

And they don't have Gronk. The notorious Steeler killer the last couple of matches.

[86WARD]

Bennett is no slouch...

[Moose]

A couple things I noticed from last night's game was : 1) our DEFENSE looks to be coming around and starting to tackle, 2) the play calling in REDZONE is pathetic, working running game all the way down field and then pathetic passing within 10 yrds from endzone, 3) Ben's passing performance. He's 6'5 and is throwing like he's 6'. A lot of tipped ball's recently. Defensive line player's aren't that tall but somehow are able to smack his passes...? WTF

[LloydWoodson]

Really?

Joking aside, and I'm hoping you're joking, we will not rush only 4. What we did last time works. Keep the passes out of the middle and stop the run.

It's not up for debate. Getting pressure without blitzing is how you beat Brady. The end.

Can Dupree and Harrison get it done? Can they be kept fresh into the second half? Those are the questions to be answered.

"On Sunday, Phillips put the blitz packages away, and it flummoxed the Pats. The Broncos blitzed on just 16.4 percent of Brady's dropbacks. That's a lower blitz rate than any Phillips-led defense has attempted in more than eight years, dating back to Week 9 of the 2007 season, when Phillips was in his first year as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys (http://www.espn.com/nfl/team/_/name/dal/dallas-cowboys). After rushing three men just 30 times all season, Phillips sent a mere three-man rush on 14 dropbacks versus Brady on Sunday, with the star Patriots quarterback going 4-of-13 for 41 yards with a sack, an interception and a passer rating of just 9.5."

- - - Updated - - -

From ESPN:

Tom Brady (http://espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/2330/tom-brady): His 12-to-1 touchdown to interception ratio against the blitz was tops in the NFL. Sending pressure against Brady in the red zone worked out horribly for opponents. He went 18-of-25 on 26 dropbacks in those situations. Eleven of those completions resulted in touchdowns, and he didn’t take a single sack. Over the past three seasons, Brady has posted a 105.8 passer rating against the blitz, second best in the NFL.

So... blitz??? Makes sense to you.

[Born2Steel]

It's not up for debate. Getting pressure without blitzing is how you beat Brady. The end.

Can Dupree and Harrison get it done? Can they be kept fresh into the second half? Those are the questions to be answered.

"On Sunday, Phillips put the blitz packages away, and it flummoxed the Pats. The Broncos blitzed on just 16.4 percent of Brady's dropbacks. That's a lower blitz rate than any Phillips-led defense has attempted in more than eight years, dating back to Week 9 of the 2007 season, when Phillips was in his first year as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys (http://www.espn.com/nfl/team/_/name/dal/dallas-cowboys). After rushing three men just 30 times all season, Phillips sent a mere three-man rush on 14 dropbacks versus Brady on Sunday, with the star Patriots quarterback going 4-of-13 for 41 yards with a sack, an interception and a passer rating of just 9.5."

- - - Updated - - -

From ESPN:

Tom Brady (http://espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/2330/tom-brady): His 12-to-1 touchdown to interception ratio against the blitz was tops in the NFL. Sending pressure against Brady in the red zone worked out horribly for opponents. He went 18-of-25 on 26 dropbacks in those situations. Eleven of those completions resulted in touchdowns, and he didn’t take a single sack. Over the past three seasons, Brady has posted a 105.8 passer rating against the blitz, second best in the NFL.

So... blitz??? Makes sense to you.

Was mostly in response to BigNastyDefense's remarks in the 2nd post. I'm pretty sure he was joking. Sometimes fun to think about what could be done, if we played down to Cincy's level. I would rather lose, though, than become that.