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Is Wes Welker really that clever? (Yes, he is)

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So the internets are all abuzz this afternoon with Wes Welker dropping an astonishing (not really) eleven foot or toe references in his nine minute press conference. You can see them all in one 20 second clip here at Deadspin if you don’t want to watch the whole thing below.

It reminds me of the time during my senior year when myself and half my buddies were all taking one class (Politics of Archeology in the Middle East because it was only one day a week) and we had to give an oral report.

This was second semester and we were all checked out so my friends dared me to work a line from Monty Python’s Holy Grail into my speech. The line was “who are you who is so wise in the ways of science”. Random I know. You can see the true genius of it here:

Anyway, I could barely get through the first three words before I burst out laughing. So in reading Welker’s expressions it’s tough to tell if he’s got that internal smile thing going on.

Regardless, if he was talking trash it was far more witty and brilliant that anything the Jets have spit out all season. And I’m sure whether Welker meant it or not Rex Ryan will take this and use it as motivation. Whatever. It’s the playoffs. Both teams have motivation. It’s already beyond ridiculous. 

And here’s the “meow” scene fro Super Troopers that everyone is referencing this comedy bit to.

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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Here’s Belichick at practice today and he’s wearing my favorite hat. Last year I had bought one of those hard to find 50th anniversary pompom hats just for the playoffs. Imagine my delight when it just so happened that BB was wearing it for the Ravens game as well! Yeah, and then the game unfolded like a total disaster from the first snap. So I’m kinda hoping he doesn’t wear it Sunday. I know I won’t be.

What we need is for him to go Storm Shadow again:

https://www.patspropaganda.com/heres-belichick-at-practice-today-and-hes/

And now the final word on Brady “taunting” the Jets last time

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And now the final word on Brady “taunting” the Jets last time

This article (with pictures) sums it up pretty nicely. There are quite a few cliches that come to mind when this whole thing that went down:

Pot calling the kettle black

Live by the sword, die by sword

People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones

And so on. Again, I think all of this is somewhat of an effort by the Jets to take the focus off of Mark Sanchez who has been an interception/fumble machine in his two outings at Gillette Stadium. Now people are going back and looking at film to see what Brady was doing last game, besides scorching the Jets D.

Brady is hyper competitive, so if they thought this was taunting I look forward to seeing Brady’s reaction after throwing a TD this Sunday in a playoff game.