What is Belichick going to take away?

[Reaneypark]

Bill is going to test us to see how determined we are at running the ball. He's going stack that box and dare us to challenge his secondary. I hope the Hawks stick with the run and stay patient because I don't see NE's D holding up against our running game over four quarters.

 

[Morpheus08]

Belichick will take away second place in the tournament.

Beat me to it.

 

[Tical21]

I was thinking something very similar to this, Tical. How does Bill take away Lynch without opening the defense to a lot of other evils? Taking away Lynch isn't the same as taking away the other team's best receiving threat, it requires 7 or 8 defenders and opens them up to play action.

As far as Willson, yeah, he has stone hands, but he is part of the plan. Last year in the SB on successive plays he had a drop and a nice first down, they are going to use him. Passes to tight ends is one of the things the Pats give away, we have to use that tool.

I agree it opens them up to play action, but are we going to be able to take advantage of this? We've seen before that when teams play man on the outside and load the box, we're prone to struggle. All the teams in our division employ this strategy against us, often with good results. Even GB had decent success for a lot of the game last week doing something similar, even though they got gashed by Marshawn. We weren't able to take advantage of the single coverage on the outside. We almost never are. And the Pats have Revis, which leaves us even less options.

It will be interesting to see if Revis follows Baldwin into the slot. If he does, I think we'll have to rely very heavily on Luke Willson and Ricardo Lockette, and I don't like that predicament one bit. Sure, Luke will have a big play or two, but needing to complete 6-8 passes to him may not even be possible. If they play much cover-1, we gotta hit Browner with some double-moves.

 

[Mick063]

I was thinking something very similar to this, Tical. How does Bill take away Lynch without opening the defense to a lot of other evils? Taking away Lynch isn't the same as taking away the other team's best receiving threat, it requires 7 or 8 defenders and opens them up to play action.

As far as Willson, yeah, he has stone hands, but he is part of the plan. Last year in the SB on successive plays he had a drop and a nice first down, they are going to use him. Passes to tight ends is one of the things the Pats give away, we have to use that tool.

I agree it opens them up to play action, but are we going to be able to take advantage of this? We've seen before that when teams play man on the outside and load the box, we're prone to struggle. All the teams in our division employ this strategy against us, often with good results. Even GB had decent success for a lot of the game last week doing something similar, even though they got gashed by Marshawn. We weren't able to take advantage of the single coverage on the outside. We almost never are. And the Pats have Revis, which leaves us even less options.

It will be interesting to see if Revis follows Baldwin into the slot. If he does, I think we'll have to rely very heavily on Luke Willson and Ricardo Lockette, and I don't like that predicament one bit. Sure, Luke will have a big play or two, but needing to complete 6-8 passes to him may not even be possible. If they play much cover-1, we gotta hit Browner with some double-moves.

If "good results" = losing, you have a good point. History shows that in the Wilson era, Seattle is almost always in a position for him to win the game at the end, and typically, he gets it done. Many times, he gets it done when the other team knows he has to pass and adjusts the defense accordingly. You couldn't possibly ask for much more than that.

 

[Scottemojo]

I was thinking something very similar to this, Tical. How does Bill take away Lynch without opening the defense to a lot of other evils? Taking away Lynch isn't the same as taking away the other team's best receiving threat, it requires 7 or 8 defenders and opens them up to play action.

As far as Willson, yeah, he has stone hands, but he is part of the plan. Last year in the SB on successive plays he had a drop and a nice first down, they are going to use him. Passes to tight ends is one of the things the Pats give away, we have to use that tool.

I agree it opens them up to play action, but are we going to be able to take advantage of this? We've seen before that when teams play man on the outside and load the box, we're prone to struggle. All the teams in our division employ this strategy against us, often with good results. Even GB had decent success for a lot of the game last week doing something similar, even though they got gashed by Marshawn. We weren't able to take advantage of the single coverage on the outside. We almost never are. And the Pats have Revis, which leaves us even less options.

It will be interesting to see if Revis follows Baldwin into the slot. If he does, I think we'll have to rely very heavily on Luke Willson and Ricardo Lockette, and I don't like that predicament one bit. Sure, Luke will have a big play or two, but needing to complete 6-8 passes to him may not even be possible. If they play much cover-1, we gotta hit Browner with some double-moves.

Yes, but all the teams in our division have better personnel than the Pats on defense. And the GB game was played in a wind tunnel.

I think they will try to take away Marshawn early and take their chances with Lynch, they really want to play with a lead. So we will get a chance to see if we can do play action.

Won't surprise me at all if the very first play on O is a play action shot.

 

[pehawk]

I don't think Revis will be on Baldwin at all, unless from the slot. Cooper and Moakei are part of the keys I believe. When the Hawks pass, I think it'll be TE and RB that do the damage.

As much as the media services the Pats offense for versatility, Pete and Russell have been more versatile for 3 years now.

 

[Anonymous]

Exactly, Scotte.

Makes too much sense not to toss one or three deep and early.

On Revis Tical21? We just need to sweep the leg.

 

[gulliver]

This belief that Bill Belichick can automatically "take away your biggest strength" is well into the realm of mythology. The guy coaches football; he's not Jesus Christ.

Bill Belichick puts his pants on one leg at a time. Our coaches have to deal with strong players at some positions, weaker players at others, with injuries, with salary cap, and with finite resources. So does Bill Belichick.

Just because Bill Belichick WANTS to eliminate our "strength" does not mean he will do so successfully. The KC Chiefs' biggest strength on offense is Jamaal Charles. But just 4 months ago, Jamaal Charles and Knile Davis combined for 200 yards rushing. The KC Chiefs' biggest strength on defense is their pass rush. Well, Tom Brady threw 2 picks, was sacked twice, and fumbled twice. They were in NE's backfield all day, and the Pats got BLOWN OUT. Where was Bill "The Messiah" Belichick then? Why didn't he just wave his magic wand and will them to victory?

Meanwhile, Pete Carroll--a mere mortal--took a battered Seahawks team missing scores of key players into Arrowhead to play the same Chiefs team, who were actually more bloodthirsty and more anxious to take down the champion. At one point late in the game we led. We lost by 4, on the road, and arguably lost on a missed PI call. Pretty amazing for a team coached by someone who is only a man.

It's just silly to think that NE will shut down Marshawn AND Russell on the keepers AND Marshawn on the RB pass when Russell keeps AND Luke Willson on the rollout crossers AND our receivers if we decide to throw downfield.

I can't claim I know we will win, but let's get real here: much of the New England Patriots' mystique comes from the fact that they play in a division with the Bills, the Dolphins and the Jets. The last time any of those teams even made a WILD CARD GAME was 5 years ago during the 2010 season. The last time any of those teams went to a Super Bowl was the Bills in 1993, where they obviously lost. The last time one of those teams WON a Super Bowl was the Miami Dolphins under Don Shula in 1973. That was over 40 years ago!

The AFC East is NOT a good division. The NE Patriots are a good team who look GREAT because they play in a turd division AND routinely cheat to get where they are.

 

[LTH]

what will bellichick take away?The hawks virginity of being repete champions?

 

[Hawks46]

I was thinking something very similar to this, Tical. How does Bill take away Lynch without opening the defense to a lot of other evils? Taking away Lynch isn't the same as taking away the other team's best receiving threat, it requires 7 or 8 defenders and opens them up to play action.

As far as Willson, yeah, he has stone hands, but he is part of the plan. Last year in the SB on successive plays he had a drop and a nice first down, they are going to use him. Passes to tight ends is one of the things the Pats give away, we have to use that tool.

I agree it opens them up to play action, but are we going to be able to take advantage of this? We've seen before that when teams play man on the outside and load the box, we're prone to struggle. All the teams in our division employ this strategy against us, often with good results. Even GB had decent success for a lot of the game last week doing something similar, even though they got gashed by Marshawn. We weren't able to take advantage of the single coverage on the outside. We almost never are. And the Pats have Revis, which leaves us even less options.

It will be interesting to see if Revis follows Baldwin into the slot. If he does, I think we'll have to rely very heavily on Luke Willson and Ricardo Lockette, and I don't like that predicament one bit. Sure, Luke will have a big play or two, but needing to complete 6-8 passes to him may not even be possible. If they play much cover-1, we gotta hit Browner with some double-moves.

I'd agree with this (see my post above) and the biggest problem with relying on Willson is that we're going to need to sustain drives. I have a sneaky suspicion that the refs are going to let us play vs. call controversial calls. I think we're going to see a ton of uncalled offensive holding ,and I think Brady is going to have all the time he needs in a clean pocket. The Patriots are going to dink and dunk us, and convert enough first downs to make us all drink a few more beers.

Ultimately, if we're going to blow this thing open, we're going to need to convert 3rd downs and stay on the field. I think we'll convert as many 3rd downs as we need in the 2nd half, but I really don't want to be down 21 points by then. A few big plays will blow it open, like Missouhawkgal said, but to keep it manageable, we'll need either Willson or Moeaki to catch balls that convert 3rd downs, not just 40 yard bombs or run and catches.

I honestly think Bellichick probably isn't worried about our TE's; I know I wouldn't be as a DC. Moeaki has great hands, and if he's healthy, I think he's going to be key this game. I feel much better about him catching balls for 1st down converstions than Willson, but I feel better about Willson catching a couple of balls that completely tilt the field, if not get in the end zone.

We also really need to work over Browner with Baldwin if we can. Baldwin has a history of winning this matchup in practice, and our WRs know Browner's weaknesses and tendencies. Baldwin is quick enough to take advantage of that, and hopefully we get some catches and/or flags out of it.

 

[BASF]

What Gulliver said minus the yellow text. The Pats have not played well against any good running teams since they played us in 2012. In the 48 games since then, they have only had 17 games under 100 yards rushing given up. Of those 17, most of them were not good running teams. The only team that I consider to have a good running game that they held under 100 yards was the Bengals this season. Jeremy Hill wasn't up to speed yet on the offense as a rookie and the carries for Bernard was low since the Pats got up early and the Bengals had to pass to catch up.

They will not be able to take away our running game. The only thing that they may be able to take away is our undrafted free agent wide receivers. In a game that is all about match-ups the only advantage they have is Revis/any of our receivers, Chandler Jones/Justin Britt, Jamie Collins/James Carpenter or JR Sweezy (not bringing Collins through the A-Gaps would be a huge mistake if Belichick decides not to do that).

I think a name no one has brought up at all is Alan Branch who faced our running game in practice for two seasons may have a good idea as how to attack our interior o-line. That will be their only chance.

 

[Rex]

Belichick is known for taking the strongest facet of a team's offense away from them and make the team find other ways to beat them. What do you think he's going to try to take away?

What he's already taken away. The integrity of the game. Going on 13 years now.

 

[akscoundrel]

I would have to think the most focus is on Wilson. Stay disciplined and true to your lane, keeping him in the pocket. Have a spy. Jam and blanket receivers.

Beast mode is obviously a huge factor, but really you can only scheme so much. It comes down to actually tackling him to the ground. He's gonna get his, and I think bill knows and accepts that.

 

[Evil_Shenanigans]

I don't think Revis will be on Baldwin at all, unless from the slot. Cooper and Moakei are part of the keys I believe. When the Hawks pass, I think it'll be TE and RB that do the damage.

As much as the media services the Pats offense for versatility, Pete and Russell have been more versatile for 3 years now.

I agree with most of this. If they tie up Balwin and Kearse with BB and Revis, it leaves the rest of our 9 headed Hydra to pick the rest of their secondary apart. If Helfett is healthy, I think he can have a big day. Getting the ball to Turbin and Lynch in space also could be big. Willson will get lots of attention from them no question, so we will need guys like Moeaki, Gilliam and Tukuafu to shine when they get their moments.

P.S. Wouldnt it be awesome to see Jon Ryan rush for a TD in this game?

 

[seahawks08]

He will try to take awayt RW, by keeping him in the pocket and make him throw from the pocket. That is his one thing. He knows as a smart coach he is that it's an honor to play against the Seahawks and I proudly handover the torch to Seattle. GOOOOOOO HAAAAAAWKS!

 

[onanygivensunday]

Belichick is known for taking the strongest facet of a team's offense away from them and make the team find other ways to beat them. What do you think he's going to try to take away?

What he's already taken away. The integrity of the game. Going on 13 years now.

Spot on.

Great coach but he's a cheater.

Pats fans who say different are fools.