Brady: I Would’ve Booed Us, Too

Posted by Adam Hart January 10, 2010 at 8:45 pm

The boo birds were out early at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, and not without reason — the New England Patriots, plagued by poor play in all phases of the game, fell behind 24-0 in the first quarter. Read more

Brady, Moss Push Patriots Past Dolphins

Posted by Adam Hart November 8, 2009 at 8:36 pm

That old connection of which Patriots fans grew so fond in 2007 returned on Sunday to propel New England to a 27-17 win over the Miami Dolphins. Read more

Brady, Offense (Jokingly) Hope 59-0 Quiets Belichick

Posted by Adam Hart October 18, 2009 at 11:32 pm

A few more weeks like this, and Patriots fans may forget the early season struggles had by New England’s offense. Read more

Seven Weeks

Posted by Randolph Charlotin October 17, 2009 at 7:13 am

How long should it take for QB Tom Brady to return to form? How much longer before he’s excelling on a consistent basis? When does Brady regain the confidence in his reconstructed knee to the point he doesn’t think about it anymore?

 

In years past, it took two full years to be back to normal after ACL and MCL surgery – a year to heal and another year playing on the knee to regain confidence and feel. That’s not the case anymore, with San Diego’s Phillip Rivers tying for the league lead in touchdown passes last year after ACL surgery in January.

 

After five games it seems unlikely that Brady will reach 34 TD passes this year. With his up and down play so far, he’ll have a hard enough time reaching 30 scoring tosses.

 

Brady clearly is frustrated by his inconsistency. For every solid game played (65.6 pct 258 yds TD vs. Bal), Tom put up a stinker (48.9 pct 216 yds Int vs NYJ). For each bounce-back second half (83.9 pct 219 yds 2 TD vs. Buf), Brady couldn’t hit his targets to save his life (35.7 pct 63 yds vs. Den).

 

At this point in his recovery, the knee should be physically fine. Brady moves around in the pocket well and Brady’s passing form should be more consistent. But for now he’s just a little bit off. The deep passes are a little too long and everything else is a little off the numbers.

 

This shouldn’t go on for the rest of the season, but impatience is building within Patriot Nation. They’re waiting for the Brady of old, but don’t know when he’ll show up.

 

A comparison was made earlier this week putting this year side-by-side against Brady’s 2007 five games in. That’s unfair because that ’07 season is arguably the greatest season in NFL history by a quarterback. Only two other seasons can be compared to it: Dan Marino in 1984 and Peyton Manning in 2004. Any other year and it’s not even close.

 

The best way to gauge Brady’s recovery is against his peer, which is Peyton Manning. Last year Manning returned from surgery to remove an infected bursa sac and a follow up procedure to “ensure the complete and swift resolution of the bursal problem.”

 

He got off to a poor start, throwing three touchdowns and four interceptions after three games. Indianapolis was 1-2. The next two games were Manning-esque as he carved Houston and Baltimore for five TDs and just one pick in two wins.

 

At the same point, Brady is off to a better start than Manning. Through five games, Brady has six TDs and just two interceptions compared to Manning’s eight TDs and five ints. Might Manning’s ’08 be a clue to how Brady’s season progresses?

 

Let’s hope, but understand there still might be a couple of setbacks left. After two weeks of encouraging play, Manning completed just 50 percent of his passes and threw two interceptions in a loss to Green Bay. That was followed by a loss to Tennessee where Manning completed a high percentage, but threw two picks along with two scores.

 

From week eight on, the Manning that puts fear into opposing defenses was back. He threw 17 touchdowns and just three interceptions, winning every game.

 

The possibility of Brady regaining his groove soon looks good. Tennessee has the 31^st-ranked pass defense and Tampa Bay isn’t much better at 21^st, while allowing 12 TD passes, third worst in the league.

 

Sweeping the second half of the schedule is asking too much. New Orleans, two games against Miami, and the highly anticipated rematch with the Jets, are four games that are far from automatic.

 

But hopefully by the time the Patriots return to action after the bye, we will see the Brady we’re used to.

 

Printed from www.randolphc.com. Any questions or comments please send to talktome@randolphc.com.

Sneaky Brady Eases Red Zone Woes

Posted by Adam Hart October 4, 2009 at 7:30 pm

All along, the jumper cables for New England’s Red Zone offense was a QB sneak. How could we have been so blind? Read more

Ray Lewis Calls Officiating ‘Embarrassing’

Posted by Adam Hart October 4, 2009 at 6:20 pm

Ravens veteran linebacker Ray Lewis takes umbrage with the personal foul penalties against Baltimore in the team’s 27-21 loss to New England. Read more

A ‘W’, But Work Remains

Posted by Adam Hart September 27, 2009 at 7:30 pm

Although the score was close for much of the game, it never seemed that way from watching the Patriots and Falcons square off in a 26-10 victory for New England. Read more

The Blueprint

Posted by Randolph Charlotin September 26, 2009 at 10:52 pm

The Patriots offense was virtually shut down by the New York Jets. QB Tom Brady was unable to get the offense into the endzone and was constantly rushed by a relentless New York blitz. It got people saying the Jets had the blueprint for beating the Patriots and with the rest of the league as witnesses, every opponent will follow suit.

 

Don’t believe it. This blueprint talk is garbage. It was the same thing people were saying after the Super Bowl XLII loss to the New York Giants. If this blueprint talk was true, then New England shouldn’t had won eleven games last year without Brady.

 

There are three reasons for why there isn’t a universal blueprint for beating the Patriots:

 

Philosophy – Rex Ryan is the rookie head coach of the Jets that cultivated his defense from his days with the Baltimore Ravens. Rex has a twin brother, Rob, who was the defensive coordinator of the Oakland Raiders. Rex believes in a 3-4 while Rob operated a 4-3.

 

Despite the relationship, the two brothers don’t share the same philosophy. And within the fraternity of coaches, the philosophies are as different as the coaches who teach the systems.

 

Every defense is as unique as the fingerprints of the architects that designed them. Even when they studied under a coach, they will make changes to the approach to make it their own. Former Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, who passed away this off-season, lives on through Sean McDermott. But McDermott, while running a lot of the plays taught to him by Johnson, made changes and adjustments to the defense to make the Eagles defense unique.

 

Take Sunday’s opponent, Atlanta, for instance. They might believe in letting the front four rush the passer while covering the secondary in a zone defense. With DEs John Abraham and Kroy Bierman, the Falcons have the ability to create pressure without blitzing, or at least not blitzing as much as the Jets did last week.

 

The Falcons watched how the Jets attacked on defense, and Atlanta might be so impressed by the performance that they incorporate some of what New York did last week. But defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder won’t copy exactly what the Jets did. That won’t happen. He has his philosophy that he believes in and he will stick with it.

 

Believing in the blueprint theory would be like former head coach Tony Dungy switching from his Tampa-2 defense to blitzing almost two dozen times. It never happened before and no coach would make similar radical changes like that from week to week.

 

System – The Jets play a 3-4 defensive alignment. And year after year, it seems another team switches from a 4-3 to a 3-4. But there still is a majority of teams playing a 4-3 front. Remaining on the Patriots schedule are four teams that play a 3-4 defense: Baltimore, Denver, Miami, and the Jets.

 

A 4-3 can be blitz-heavy, but to do it like a 3-4 would involve a little more creativity by substituting players frequently and using a lot of zone blitz principles. The substitutions become clues, reducing the element of surprise.

 

A 3-4 can better mimic what the Jets did, but it takes more than just running the same blitzes. The execution of the plays makes all the difference.

 

Players – Gang Green has a pair of safetys (Kerry Rhodes and Jim Leonhard) that are very good blitzers. ILB Bart Scott is excellent coming from any direction. Behind them are cornerbacks they trust in one-on-one situations (Darrell Revis and Lito Sheppard). Not every team has all those elements on their defense.

 

Any 3-4 defense can get their hands on the Jets playbook and run the plays as scripted, but they won’t always execute the plays as effectively because of the ability of the individuals running the plays.

 

The method isn’t as important as the objective, which is to cause pressure. There’s hundreds of ways to rush the passer. Overload blitzes worked well for the Jets, but other teams can get the job done with line stunts, corner blitzes, or with just the down linemen, if they’re talented enough.

 

Throughout the league there are 32 blueprints for playing defense. As for a universal blueprint to beat the Patriots or any team, it doesn’t exist.

 

As taken from www.randolphc.com. Any questions or comments can be sent to talktome@randolphc.com.

Young: Pats Still ‘The Team To Beat’

Posted by Adam Hart September 21, 2009 at 4:12 pm

Guess the sky isn’t falling all that much. Read more

Brady: Zero TDs Is ‘Unacceptable’

Posted by Adam Hart September 20, 2009 at 7:07 pm

The New England Patriots could not rekindle the magic of its Monday night come-from-behind victory over the Buffalo Bills, losing 16-9 to the New York Jets on Sunday. Read more

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