Could be miniatures or photoshopped…
Thanks to the readers who have educated me that this is something called Tilt Shift Photography. Learn something new everyday!
https://www.patspropaganda.com/could-be-miniatures-or-photoshopped-thanks-to/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOWrYurkTO4
Okay, I know this isn’t a Patriots video but Ed Reed’s Top 100 (#5) segment was my favorite non-Pats one and I felt the need to share. Especially after posting two previous not-so-inspiring videos from our own current safety.
Tom Brady likes to joke that Belichick would kidnap Ed Reed if he could, and he has that certain presence on the back end that the Patriots have never really had. Well, let’s be honest, no team has really ever had anyone as good as Reed. Rodney was close, but his presence was just as much about the running game as it was being a major factor that must be dealt with every time you want to pass the ball like Reed is.
But just because I’m a Patriots die hard doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate great players from other teams (even if it’s only to aspire to get them or someone similarly skilled in the blue, red and silver), just be glad I didn’t post Revis’ clip because that one was damn impressive too.
Favorite clip: the hit on the Colt at 4:50.
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
https://www.patspropaganda.com/okay-i-know-this-isnt-a-patriots-video-but-ed/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwZykBVPlIw
Brandon Meriweather makes his acting debut
At this point I’ve only watched about two minutes of this and I’m still not really sure what the hell it is. But hey, he’s still acting circles around TFB as far as I’m concerned.
All I know is that Meriweather is in it and along with the shooting situation, his rap song and now this I’m pretty sure it’s the third strike in getting the Patriots to offer him a contract extension.
Anyway, if anyone makes it through all 44 minutes please send me a synopsis and review.
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
https://www.patspropaganda.com/brandon-meriweather-makes-his-acting-debut-at/
Football Outsiders: Looking at Patriots formation tendencies
Football Outsiders has taken a look at the formation tendencies of each of the 32 NFL teams and the Patriots stats are pretty interesting. Let’s start with last week’s look at the offensive side of the ball where the Patriots ran formations by the following percentages:
- 0-1 WRs: 15%
- 2 WR: 39%
- 3 WR: 40%
- 4-5 WR: 6%
They also mention:
After drafting Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, New England completed their transition away from the shotgun spread toward more of a two-tight-end alignment. As a result, their DVOA in formations with one-or-fewer wide receivers increased by 14.4% in 2010 after having dropped from 14.5% in 2008 to 6.5% in 2009.
As for their DVOA out of each formation here’s how the Pats fared (the higher percentage DVOA the better):
- 0-1 WR: 20.9% (4th overall)
- 2 WR: 65.7% (1st overall)
- 3 WR: 42.7% (2nd overall)
- 4-5 WR: 79.0% (1st overall)
So yeah, no matter what personnel/formation the Pats used they were near the best in the league. But what about when defending the various personnel packages?
Let’s start with the frequency that they faced each personnel combination.
- 0-1 WRs: 7%
- 2 WR: 30%
- 3 WR: 53%
- 4-5 WR: 10%
And here’s how the Patriots defense performed versus each personnel grouping (rating in DVOA, the lower the better, into the negatives).
- 0-1 WR: 20.5% (30th overall)
- 2 WR: -22.6% (2nd overall)
- 3 WR: 23.1% (28th overall)
- 4-5 WR: -19.8% (4th overall)
Football Outsiders found that how defenses performed against the 4-5 WR sets highly correlated with how much teams won or lost. We can see that the Patriots were one of the best teams against the 4-5 WR sets, but they were dreadful against the 3 WR sets and that’s where the opposition tried to attack them most.
They struggled the most against the 0-1 WR sets although teams threw that personnel at them only 7% of the time. This would include short yardage and goal line situations.
The Pats defensive numbers are pretty strange, with incredible disparity between the rankings of 0-1 WRs and 3 WRs versus 2 WRs and 4-5 WRs. The thing about 3WR sets is that defenses really have the choice of inserting a nickelback to cover the 3rd wide receiver, or staying in base and allowing a linebacker to potentially have to cover them. This can allow for confusion and hesitation in a defense, especially one that is as inexperienced as New England was in 2010.
Clearly the Pats defensive strength was when the match-ups were more cut and dry. The 3-4 defense which they excel at was a perfect match for the 2 WR sets, and with multiple talented safeties and corners their straight up sub-packages were hard to throw on.
Patriots Uniform Tweak: Yay or Nay?
I stumbled on a really cool site today called Uni Watch. It’s a blog of guys who geek out over uniforms, helmets, facemasks and stuff like I do.
Looks like they get submissions for uniform tweaks done by fans. Below is a Patriots tweak done by Daniel Rierko.
I’m definitely more partial to the dark one, but an interesting tweak. I like the idea of working more red in because it’s scientifically proven that teams in red win more often. Thoughts?
Price/WEEI: Urban Meyer on Cunningham/Belichick connection
Price/WEEI: Urban Meyer on Cunningham/Belichick connection
Great stuff here. Best nugget:
“Coach Belichick would always come down and watch film and I’d sometimes sit in there and he would keep asking about [Jermaine]: ‘Who’s this guy? Who’s this guy? Who’s this guy?’ And you had Derrick Harvey, you had Jarvis Moss, Carlos Dunlap, and then Jermaine was kind of the next guy, but he would always say ‘Who is that guy? I love that guy.’
“He’s got an incredible work ethic — he’s probably as hard a working guy as we’ve had,” Meyer said of Cunningham. “He was excellent with his hands. When we recruited him, he was 195 pounds, and now he’s 260. He’s always been real fast over the course of his career. He’s got a lot of speed.”