Tom Brady, Patriots beat Seahawks' vaunted D with savvy plan

[50yrpatsfan]

You have to give them credit. The way they played completely took Kam and Earl out of the game. We hardly saw anything from them.

Excellent point, the underneath stuff took the safeties out of the action. Kam's name was called a lot, including the one big hit on Edelman, but he had trouble in the role of man coverage on Gronk.

Thomas didn't make 1 significant play I can think of, and in fact I thought he was in position to make a play on Amendola's TD and didn't. He also allowed a couple of receivers to run by him after the catch. Not the same player, his injury must have been pretty bad.

 

[hawknation2015]

You have to give them credit. The way they played completely took Kam and Earl out of the game. We hardly saw anything from them.

Excellent point, the underneath stuff took the safeties out of the action. Kam's name was called a lot, including the one big hit on Edelman, but he had trouble in the role of man coverage on Gronk.

Thomas didn't make 1 significant play I can think of, and in fact I thought he was in position to make a play on Amendola's TD and didn't. He also allowed a couple of receivers to run by him after the catch. Not the same player, his injury must have been pretty bad.

Both of them were playing with very recent, serious injuries. Thomas had just separated his shoulder two weeks ago and did not look like himself at all. Chancellor played well for the most part, but that was on a braced knee with a partially torn ligament that he suffered just two days before. The coaches couldn't fully put their faith in him to shut down Gronkowski.

And despite all of that . . . one, freaking yard. :34853_doh:

 

[volsunghawk]

The cover 3 can't handle covering running backs as receivers.

The blueprint is out there. It was out there before the Super Bowl. It was the Rams winning drive.

Forever more, Seattle will get a steady diet of Shane Vereen clones running delayed wheel routes. They will be unable to stop it. Death by dink and dunk, week after week.

That must be why we lost every game after that Rams game. :roll:

 

[Sgt. Largent]

I'm OK with this article, it's true.

The Pats gameplan was to take advantage of our beat up secondary by exposing matchup mismatches.

If Pete and DQ were naive enough to think "next man up" would be good enough, than that's on them. Obviously they were wrong to think that we were healthy enough to stick with the base cover 3 and cover 1 schemes.

If Pete has a fatal flaw in his coaching, it's arrogance. At least Belichick can put his ego aside and be a chameleon with how he gameplans. Pete just assumes he has the better talent and sticks with the same base offense and defense, and most of the time he's right. But this time he was wrong, and it hurt us on defense.

 

[Sports Hernia]

Their plan wasn't savvy, it was exactly what 10 previous SB winning QBs had done and lost with. Difference was, Brady played the game of his life and injuries forced a major mismatch with Simon on Edelman.

And no one would be writing about their game plan if Darrell Bevell was a competent OC in the final minute.

Yep, if Brady had a soul he would have flipped Bevell the keys to the new MVP truck, as DB was the true MVP For the patsies.
It would have been the human thing to do.

 

[Optimus25]

Their plan wasn't savvy, it was exactly what 10 previous SB winning QBs had done and lost with. Difference was, Brady played the game of his life and injuries forced a major mismatch with Simon on Edelman.

And no one would be writing about their game plan if Darrell Bevell was a competent OC in the final minute.

Yep, if Brady had a soul he would have flipped Bevell the keys to the new MVP truck, as DB was the true MVP For the patsies.
It would have been the human thing to do.

i enjoyed this.

 

[chet380]

I'm OK with this article, it's true.

The Pats gameplan was to take advantage of our beat up secondary by exposing matchup mismatches.

If Pete and DQ were naive enough to think "next man up" would be good enough, than that's on them. Obviously they were wrong to think that we were healthy enough to stick with the base cover 3 and cover 1 schemes.

A 24 - 14 lead in the 4th quarter that was blown -- the weaknesses had been exposed and were being exploited -- if the coaches had a plan to counter what had been done on the 24 - 21 drive, their plan was deficient.

If the D had held in the 4th quarter, all the whining and finger-pointing would have been unnecessary.

 

[dutchman063]

Thanks for the contribution ...... nice analysis. Look forward to a rematch with the Packers. The future of Green Bay looks promising. :th2thumbs:

So does Seattle!

:thirishdrinkers:

Not if we want to pay everyone after Wilsons and Marshawns payday.... and try to stay under the salary cap

 

[ivotuk]

What vaunted D? More like "Injury Riddled" defense. ukeface:

 

[cacksman]

Thanks for the contribution ...... nice analysis. Look forward to a rematch with the Packers. The future of Green Bay looks promising. :th2thumbs:

So does Seattle! See you next year in Lambeau and then the NFCCG again for another epic game! But we get to win the next one!

:thirishdrinkers:

No deal!

 

[bmorepunk]

There's no secret that this was the high probability way for the Patriots to gameplan to give them the best shot at winning. Several sportswriters covered this and Seahawks fans obviously know from watching games like San Diego and Kansas City end up in losses.

This doesn't mean that the team that implements this gameplan wins. Ask Peyton Manning. It's just the best way to do get points against this defense if you can execute it well.

Tom Brady might be the best at execution in a long time at his position (I think he is). He gave them an excellent chance to take what is available in the short game. If you have an incredible day executing this, your team will be in a good position to win against the Seahawks defense. The Patriots were there and got a break and won the play right at the end and won.

Realistically, both teams were right where they wanted to be late in the game (nobody expects a blowout): close with a chance to score. It could have gone either way.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

I'm OK with this article, it's true.

The Pats gameplan was to take advantage of our beat up secondary by exposing matchup mismatches.

If Pete and DQ were naive enough to think "next man up" would be good enough, than that's on them. Obviously they were wrong to think that we were healthy enough to stick with the base cover 3 and cover 1 schemes.

A 24 - 14 lead in the 4th quarter that was blown -- the weaknesses had been exposed and were being exploited -- if the coaches had a plan to counter what had been done on the 24 - 21 drive, their plan was deficient.

If the D had held in the 4th quarter, all the whining and finger-pointing would have been unnecessary.

This. You can't expect to win when you have a defense either unable or unwilling to make some type of adjustments for things EVERYBODY knew was coming with EVERY play combined with an offense that went 3 and out 3 times in a row with the last sequence taking all of 55 SECONDS to achieve. That is unforgivable because it put them in the position of being behind when they had no business being so. The game should have been over once it was 24-14 with one drive good enough for a field goal and 5 minutes off the clock because the only way the Patriots were going to score was by dink 'n dunk with time consuming drives, instead we get multiple 3 and outs against a defense that wasn't anything that special.

 

[sc85sis]

Pretty sure they beat our vaunted D because of injuries.

 

[LvlHeadedPatsFan]

Analysis is much more interesting than emotional blame games and knee jerk mud slinging.

Link >>> [urltargetblank]http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000467953/article/tom-brady-patriots-beat-seahawks-vaunted-d-with-savvy-plan[/urltargetblank]

Having Brady throw that pick so Lane could be horribly injured in an incredibly violent tackle was a genius move by Belichick, that's for sure. I know I didn't see it coming. Engineering Avril's flukey-seeming concussion was similarly shrewd.

There are probably Patriot fans lurking on this site who believe that Belicheck and company had some sort of genius game plan, thats how brainwashed they all have become to moronic mediots telling them what to believe.

God I wish we could play the game over again, but transport it back to December. I know it doesnt work that way, but a guy can wish

Registered for this forum to respond directly to this post.

Every team is banged up by the end of the year- some worse than others. The Seahawks got hit pretty hard by the injury bug...all of LOB was injured. That being said, the Pats had to endure some tough injuries too- they lost a pro bowl caliber LB in Mayo early in the year...Hightower had a torn labrum just as Earl Thomas did. If both teams were fully healthy then maybe the result of the game would've been different.

Every team in the NFL is going to try taking advantage of the other team's weakest link. Seemed clear that once Lane went out, Simon was really vulnerable. Similarly, you guys targeted the Patriots' weakest CBs with the most success (Logan Ryan + Kyle Arrington).

Am I biased? Absolutely. But the general consensus is that the Patriots came up with a great offensive gameplan for a reason. The teams that try throwing deep on Seattle tend to lose- in contrast, the Patriots used route combinations/screens designed to make short passes easily executable. They focused on remaining patient with easy 5 or 6 yard gains. Whether that would have worked against a fully healthy Seahawks defense- who knows? But based on the results, how can you not say it was a brilliant plan? They had the largest comeback in SB history against a historically great defense.

In any case, I have a lot of respect for the majority of the Seahawks and their fans, and I'm betting you guy will be back in the big game soon.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Analysis is much more interesting than emotional blame games and knee jerk mud slinging.

Link >>> [urltargetblank]http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000467953/article/tom-brady-patriots-beat-seahawks-vaunted-d-with-savvy-plan[/urltargetblank]

Having Brady throw that pick so Lane could be horribly injured in an incredibly violent tackle was a genius move by Belichick, that's for sure. I know I didn't see it coming. Engineering Avril's flukey-seeming concussion was similarly shrewd.

Yes Brady threw a terrible pick to Lane, but they were on our goal line, which means they had driven the ball down the field in the first quarter quite easily.

So I know we all would like to think Lane would have been the difference maker, but the truth is Brady WAS already moving the ball on our defense when Lane got hurt, it just because a lot easier when Simon was in.

 

[captSE]

simply MAHVALOUS!

 

[Uncle Si]

Analysis is much more interesting than emotional blame games and knee jerk mud slinging.

Link >>> [urltargetblank]http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000467953/article/tom-brady-patriots-beat-seahawks-vaunted-d-with-savvy-plan[/urltargetblank]

Having Brady throw that pick so Lane could be horribly injured in an incredibly violent tackle was a genius move by Belichick, that's for sure. I know I didn't see it coming. Engineering Avril's flukey-seeming concussion was similarly shrewd.

There are probably Patriot fans lurking on this site who believe that Belicheck and company had some sort of genius game plan, thats how brainwashed they all have become to moronic mediots telling them what to believe.

God I wish we could play the game over again, but transport it back to December. I know it doesnt work that way, but a guy can wish

Registered for this forum to respond directly to this post.

Every team is banged up by the end of the year- some worse than others. The Seahawks got hit pretty hard by the injury bug...all of LOB was injured. That being said, the Pats had to endure some tough injuries too- they lost a pro bowl caliber LB in Mayo early in the year...Hightower had a torn labrum just as Earl Thomas did. If both teams were fully healthy then maybe the result of the game would've been different.

Every team in the NFL is going to try taking advantage of the other team's weakest link. Seemed clear that once Lane went out, Simon was really vulnerable. Similarly, you guys targeted the Patriots' weakest CBs with the most success (Logan Ryan + Kyle Arrington).

Am I biased? Absolutely. But the general consensus is that the Patriots came up with a great offensive gameplan for a reason. The teams that try throwing deep on Seattle tend to lose- in contrast, the Patriots used route combinations/screens designed to make short passes easily executable. They focused on remaining patient with easy 5 or 6 yard gains. Whether that would have worked against a fully healthy Seahawks defense- who knows? But based on the results, how can you not say it was a brilliant plan? They had the largest comeback in SB history against a historically great defense.

In any case, I have a lot of respect for the majority of the Seahawks and their fans, and I'm betting you guy will be back in the big game soon.

More about how the immediate impact of those injuries.

Yes, every team has to deal with injuries. In the Seahawks case it was like a flood of injuries to very important players on one side of the ball in one game.

You can see the difference. The biggest hit was Avril in my opinion. His concussion disrupted the rythm the D had found to start the 2nd half.

Game decider? No. Game changer? Very much so