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Cleveland Browns

A little insight into Patriots defense from Mangini

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Today Eric Mangini was on NFL Live and provided some insight into how he beat the Pats in November with the Browns, as well as the Patriots defense itself.

This is the second time I’ve heard the term “rule based” come up when someone from the inside discusses the Pats defense. The first time was in 2009 when the Patriots played the Broncos and Josh McDaniels instantly went to his version of the Wildcat called “Wild Horses”. Stupid name I know. My first girlfriend loved that Rolling Stones song and she was a horrible person, so between that and the Pats losing to Denver that day it’s far from my favorite term. Anyway, I digress.

When we heard more about why McDaniels did this, they said it was because the Patriots defense was rule based and this adjustment caused confusion.

Well today Mangini mentioned “rule based” again, but he expanded a bit. He said part of the reason he hired Brian Schottenheimer was that the offense he ran had a lot of motion and shifts. Every time an offense shifts or motions against the Patriots defense there are 11 calls that have to be made for them to adjust. Mangini said something as simple as two shifts and a motion would force New England’s defense to communicate a whopping 33 adjustments. 

It’s easy to see how someone might not get a call and the result would be a big gain. Clearly this has to be a disadvantage of the read and react defense, because you have to make sure everyone is reading the same thing so they can react the same way.

However in a playoff game, when you’d think all the players would be locked in and focused, this should not be a huge issue, especially at home.

In week two, in a hostile environment with a lot of young players, or in a game against the lowly Cleveland Browns that no one is up for, I can see how it might be an issue.

Another bit of insight from Mangini was that they wanted to attack the “C” gaps of the New England defense. This is the gap on the outside shoulder of the offensive tackle. Clearly the strength of the New England defense is up the middle with Wilfork (when he’s at nose) and Mayo/Spikes (talking 3-4 base). But on the outside you have inexperienced defensive ends (again, when Wilfork’s not there) and outside linebackers who aren’t exactly All Pro run stoppers. 

So this approach does make sense, and also sheds some light on why the Pats might be motivated to kick Wilfork out to 5-technique defensive end.

All in all some really great stuff from Mangini. It almost made me not hate him. Almost.

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This is the last thing I’m posting about the horrid Browns loss. “Woot Woot! We’re 3-5!”

https://www.patspropaganda.com/this-is-the-last-thing-im-posting-about-the/

ProFootball Focus: Pats vs. Browns Stats

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ProFootball Focus: Pats vs. Browns Stats

Pats segments below:

While everyone is looking at a shock result, perhaps the biggest shock is just how good a team the Browns are becoming. Eric Mangini was supposed to have ruined the franchise but instead he’s found away to get the most out of players other teams didn’t want and the results are extremely impressive so far.

The defense showed signs of being dominant last year and right now is playing lights out, and with the offense learning to stop making mistakes (read Jake Delhomme’s gunslinger ways no longer on the field) we could be seeing something special being built here.

For the Patriots the offense is missing something while the defense was really overpowered by a determined Browns unit. Are they really contenders? 

Patriots: Performances of note

Much was made of the return of Logan Mankins (-4.6) and it’s safe to say he looked very rusty. Rotating in at left guard for 78.13% of snaps, Mankins had difficulty with the Browns’ attacking nature and while he only gave up one quarterback pressure, he looked off the pace when the Patriots tried to run. Perhaps this game came a little too soon after the holdout.

The biggest concern for the Patriots was how the defense performed. There were a number of guys who just weren’t at the races, but the beating Vince Wilfork (-3.5) took from Alex Mack (+3.4) was perhaps the biggest surprise. Wilfork just couldn’t move the Browns 2009 1st round pick whose success against Wilfork was a big reason the Browns ran so effectively.

On a brighter note, it’s not often you’ll see two tackles play as soundly in pass protection against the Browns as both Matt Light (+1.8) and Sebastian Vollmer (+1.3) managed. Between them they gave up just three total pressures and their run blocking wasn’t terrible. It’s encouraging to see Vollmer especially starting to play up to the reputation he was developing last year.

Rookie report

It was a tough day for Rob Gronkowski (-2.7) who just had one of those days. A fumble, unable to haul in half the passes that came his way and caught out on special teams, he’ll want to put this one behind him. … Fellow tight end Aaron Hernandez (-0.4) caught two touchdowns but he also dropped three passes and that’s never acceptable. … Brandon Deaderick (-2.0) went from looking excellent against the Vikes to looking like a rookie against the Browns left side of the line. … Cornerback Devin McCourty (-2.1) didn’t enhance his rookie of the year prospects giving 5 of 6 balls thrown his way. … That was the weakest display from Brandon Spikes (-0.7) though he still ended up with four defensive stops. … Jermaine Cunningham (-1.5) needs to do more than that. He was invisible for most of the game with just one quarterback pressure and one defensive stop … Punter Zoltan Mesko (-0.3) had a max hangtime of 4.8 seconds on his punts.

Random Notes

The one time Julian Edelman was thrown at, it ended up in an interception as the ball was wrestled away from him 

Patriots Fan Blogger Accepts Full Responsibility For Browns Loss

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Many in Patriots Nation are probably wondering today how the Pats could possibly look so atrocious against the Cleveland Browns yesterday. For a team that some called the best in the NFL just days before this Patriots team looked lost in a sea of confusion and poor execution. Sure, you could point to poor tackling, an inability to stop Peyton Hillis or a completely ineffective offense. But the truth as to why the Patriots looked like the worst team in the NFL yesterday is actually something completely unexpected.

I, Patriots fan blogger Mike Dussault, didn’t wear my white authentic Tom Brady jersey yesterday. 

I could’ve not mentioned anything, no one would’ve really known, but I feel I owe it to the team and the fans to come clean.

You see I was in Boston this weekend for Blogapalooza and while packing for the trip I assumed that my 2010 lucky hat would suffice in covering the Pats for a good performance. I didn’t want to stuff my cherished white Brady into an already over-stuffed bag.

Choosing which jersey is the lucky one for a season is an art form. I knew the white Brady was the magic one after wearing it week one, but then giving my silver Moss a try against the Jets. Bad move. I went back to the white Brady for the Bills game and haven’t looked back since. Until that fateful packing decision.

How else can you explain the each and every Patriot being so useless yesterday? In most cases a few players can have bad games, but never do you see something like we witnessed yesterday without some kind of powerful, mystical forces at work. Forces like someone not wearing their lucky schwag for the game. 

While the rest of Patriots Nation was putting on their trusted uniforms that had worked flawlessly the past five games, I was putting on this awesome TFB t-shirt…

(Get yours at townienews.com)

I don’t want to take anything away from this tshirt, because clearly it’s the most badass Patriots tshirt on the planet and I have no doubt that when working in conjunction with my white Brady jersey it will bring many, many wins. But yesterday it was unable to handle the task alone.

Please do not blame players like Rob Gronkowski, even though on the surface it might look like Gronk alone cost us at least a 14-point swing. It was all Mike D.

And don’t blame a horrible week of practice. If I had just done my job like Coach Belichick preaches, it would not have mattered.

It feels good to get this off my chest. To come clean and claim responsibility for what was clearly the ugliest loss since that game that happened last January that people told me was pretty gruesome (I blocked it out).

So to the New England Patriots organization and fans I would like to express my true and sincere apologies. Never again this season will I be without the white Brady jersey and 2010 fitted gray hat. That is my fan uniform this year and I will not deviate again.