Originally Posted by
Chidi29
My take on how to do it. Note that I didn't say "stop" because you're not going to do so. But there are some things I've seen other teams do to disrupt the Patriots' offense. Wish this would be a little more in-depth and that I could've watched more games, but my computer is having some major problems. Haven't even been able to finish the Cardinals game yet. Have to take it to the store today, who knows how long it'll be out for.
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When I watched the Browns game last year, they did do a few things that most people say needs to be done to stop Brady.
In 3rd and long, they only played with one or two down lineman. Did a lot of late shifting, moved their LBs around, dropped their safties down/back at the last second and not let Brady get a good read on the coverage he'd be facing.
But there are a few other things.
We should play with a lot of outside leverage on their WRs. Force them into one area and hopefully congest the heck out of it. I realize the Patriots have no problem throwing to the middle, but if you can get all those WRs, TEs, and defensive players into a confined space, you really tighten up throwing lanes.. Then it doesn't become as simple as nickel and diming your way down the field. You have to be perfect on every throw. This is what Cleveland seemed to do for the majority of the game.
So play a lot of Cover 1 and Cover 3 to force the receviers into essentially a "box" between the numbers and in front of the safety. Do NOT play Cover 2 because that leaves the deep middle wide open and they burnt us with that a lot last year. I can remember Gronk's 20 yard TD and the post to Brandon Tate were throws down the middle or down the seam.
Playing Cover 1 and 3 also lets Troy roam wherever he wants because Clark can be the deep safety. In Cover 2, he can still roam pre-snap but has to end up being in a certain space after the snap. Now he can play on the TE, get up against the run, blitz, whatever.
I'd really like to move Timmons to ILB on obvious passing situations and have Chris Carter play OLB (or if we go Nickel, have 3 DL with Timmons, Farrior, and Woodley). We can't have Farrior/Foote try to cover Gronkowski and Hernandez. They're just not athletic enough. So have Timmons drop to a depth of 10-15 yards and again, box the defense into that confined space.
You can do what you like with your OLBs and other ILB. We need to have some variety in our schemes so they don't become predictable and the Pats figure out a way to beat it. There's that best of both worlds mentality to it; a solid foundation but has the ability to mix things up. However, if we're in our base and they run say a 3 WR set, the OLB to the 2 WR side, needs to come out and play that outside leverage as well. Again, force everything inside.
Because when you think about it, that's what our defense does. Hasn't our defense always been about, "if you're going to beat us, this is how you have to do it". You can't run on us, and you can't throw deep against us. It's been those short passes against teams like New England that eat us up. But at least you know what's coming and what to expect. The same thing here. You're telling them what they HAVE to do whether they like it or not. And then you can anticipate what their offense is going to do and prepare against it.
Anyway, just my thoughts. Feel free to comment.
Now if you excuse me, I have to sacrifice a goat so my hard drive isn't wiped out (that's how you fix computer problems, right?).
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