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A look back at the Patriots 2010 defensive game plan vs. Steelers

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Below you’ll find my notes and some detailed formation information from Mike Reiss as to what the Patriots did defensively against the Steelers in 2010. Granted the Patriots had the lead for much of the game and the Steelers were throwing on pretty much every down in the fourth quarter as they tried to come back.

I believe the Patriots should have a similar plan this year that they had two weeks ago against the Cowboys where they played really only two packages, the 4-3 and a 4-2-5 nickel, although the return of healthy of players like Josh Barrett, Ras-I Dowling and hopefully Jerod Mayo could influence this to change a bit.

The thing that jumps out to me about the Steelers are three things. They love to run to the right side (alert Shaun Ellis), Mike Wallace cannot be allowed to get deep (attention Patchung and McCourty), and when the pressure gets to Big Ben they need to wrap him up and finish (attention Andre Carter, Mark Anderson and Ninkopoop).

Another player to focus on will be Brandon Spikes. If he stays at MLB in the 4-3 with Mayo back he’ll have a lot of pressure on him in pass coverage as the Steelers love to throw the ball to the middle flat. Expect that to be an area they’ll try to exploit especially with pass coverage not being Spikes’ strength.

From PatsPropaganda:

2010 Pittsburgh Steelers

Surprisingly the Patriots played a great majority of sub defense against the Steelers, but were still able to shut down the Steeler ground attack. The pass rushing package featured Crable-Wright-Warren-Banta Cain. Sergio Brown continued to see more time even with Patrick Chung back in the fold. Chung played a lot of nickel corner, with Jonathan Wilhite getting a reduced role. 

Sub: 61 of 78 
Base: 15 of 78 
Short-yardage: 2 of 78 

Defensive Third Downs (1st down allowed): 5/12 = 41%

From Mike Reiss:

1. Base defense. When the Steelers played with two receivers, the Patriots countered in their base 3-4 alignment. This package primarily had Brandon Deaderick (DE), Vince Wilfork (NT) and Ron Brace (DE) up front, with Jermaine Cunningham/Rob Ninkovich at OLB and Brandon Spikes and Jerod Mayo at ILB.

2. Nickel package. When the Steelers played with three receivers, the Patriots often countered in their 4-2-5 nickel. This package had Tully Banta-Cain/Shawn Crable as the primary ends, Mike Wright/Gerard Warren as the primary interior rushers, Jerod Mayo/Gary Guyton as the linebackers, with safety James Sanders the extra defensive back.

3. Dime package. The Patriots also played a 3-2-6 dime package at times. They took out one inside rusher – usually Warren – and added rookie safety Sergio Brown.

Top five Patriots bye week wishes

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Ah, the bye week. That two week mid-season lull in between games when we the fans are forced to take a mini-football break before the stretch run.

For the players and coaches however it’s a time to get healthy, look at what’s working and what isn’t and set the course that will Hoodie-willing lead to the promise land.

Here are the top five things I’m hoping for over the bye week.

1. Get Healthy – the most obvious one so we’ll lead with it. Along with the significant injuries (Jerod Mayo) there have been plenty of dings through the first six games and this should be a time to get healthy. Guys we most need back at 100%:

  1. Jerod Mayo
  2. Albert Haynesworth
  3. Julian Edelman
  4. Sebastian Vollmer
  5. Ras-I Dowling

Getting Josh Barrett, Patrick Chung, Leigh Bodden, Aaron Hernandez and Matt Light some time off to get over their lingering injuries should also provide a big boost.

2. Devin McCourty get your mojo back – I’m not sure if McCourty is suffering from a sophomore slump because he’s just not playing well or if teams have a sense of how to pick on him that they didn’t have last year. I hope it’s the former and not the latter because that’s correctable. McCourty didn’t really start to come on until late October last year anyway, let’s hope the same thing happens this year. The Pats need him to step up in a major way.

3. Extend Wes Welker and/or Jerod Mayo – why not take the extra time to lock up some of the vital pieces of the puzzle. If not Mayo or Welker how about Andre Carter, who’s only one a one year deal, or Benjarvus Green-Ellis, who should be a fairly easy deal to get done now before he breaks 1000 yards again. Of course knowing the Pats they’ll probably start the contract extensions with Gary Guyton. Ugh.

4. New tweaks for offense – Call it an off game for Tom Brady but not counting the final drive it seemed like taking away Wes Welker for the most part was a fairly effective way to slow down the Pats offense. Teams will see what the Cowboys did, and granted they might not be able to execute it, but the offense looked very much stoppable for much of last Sunday’s game. I’m not a huge “blueprint to stop the Pats offense” guy, but they cannot become over-reliant on Welker. The Patriots must stay one step ahead and figure out how to better protect Welker from coverage, while also incorporating their running backs more into the pass game. Kevin Faulk could provide a major boost in this area.

5. Figure out a way to get Chad Ochocinco more involved in the offense before the Boston sports media combusts – Who cares if the offense has consistently moved the ball and put up points without Chad, he’s a big name and if he doesn’t have a break out game soon he just might overtake the Red Sox as the lead story on all sports programming.

Thoughts on the Patriots game plan today

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The Patriots have been primarily in sub-package defense for the first three games (166 of 213 snaps, 78%) but I expect that to change today. The question is whether or not they’ll go into their 4-3 defense that we saw a lot of in preseason, or back to their traditional 3-4 defense that we actually have not seen them use since last season.

I believe it’s most likely they’ll use the 4-3 with an Ellis-Wilfork-Warren-Carter front, and Ninkovich-Spikes-Mayo at linebacker. Obviously McFadden is dangerous every time he touches the ball, so I believe the Patriots plan will focus heavily on Ninkovich and Carter and their ability to set the edge and keep McFadden inside. I am not flush with confidence that they will be able to do it for a full 60 minutes, but I do think the Patriots run defense is somewhat underrated as a lot of the yards on the ground they’ve given up have been in sub packages while trying to preserve a lead.

On the back end I expect the Raiders to take some shots down the field and they should. If Patrick Chung returns it should help the communication in the secondary. The pressure will be on Devin McCourty who has started his sophomore season in a slump and Kyle Arrington who will return to the starting outside corner position after playing there for most of 2010. It’s very possible this is the weekend McCourty starts to return to form. But I still expect the Raiders to challenge him, especially with the deep ball.

On the offensive side of the ball the Pats will feature a lot of spread formations, and it will be imperative for the offensive line to give Brady time. The Raiders front four are capable of getting pressure all on their own and that has caused the Pats problems in the past when the protection isn’t holding up (see Super Bowl 42).  If the protection is okay I believe the Raiders will have three players they really need to focus on: Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski, and Danny Woodhead.

Since the Raiders are primarily a man to man team, a “what you see is what you get” philosophy it’s pretty much a given that Brady will torch them as long as he has time. I don’t expect the Raiders to try to confuse him with multiple looks and that will be their downfall. Given the what the Jets were able to do with Dustin Keller I expect the Pats to try similar things with Gronkowski, especially down the seam. 

Welker has been on fire and should probably draw the most attention, perhaps the Raiders will employ a similar “spy” technique like the Saints did a couple years ago, by having a second cover man who shadows and blasts him as soon as he catches it. Woodhead is one of the most interesting weapons to me in this game, especially if they can get him in space. Curious who the Raiders put on him, because it doesn’t appear they have a linebacker who can even come close to covering him.

Final Prediction: Pats 38-17