Question for Box and others: if you have the time, I'd appreciate your thoughts on why the run D struggled. Learning the 4-3? Losing fits while playing one-gap? Mis-reading offensive plays (like the screen plays)?
Or simply playing a good team and hey, it was 20-6 or something at half-time, it's not like Philly was beating them. Sometimes the other guys deserve some credit, too.
My own opinion here: it's preseason and while BB still wants his front-seven to win, he's not game-planning so much as he's trying combinations in live action to teach and to test his players. We should be careful of our expectations for the group and instead focus on the individuals (as the TIVO guy are doing).
Lastly, on BB's assertions that he's going to a 4-3. If he's telling the truth, then I'm disappointed that he's truthful. I prefer for him to be deceptive in his statements. And I trust he is.
If he
does end up playing a 4-3 it won't have much to do with what he
says.
Very lastly, because I haven't heard it and we shouldn't take it for granted: no injuries that I recall. Wilhite got his bell rung, hopefully he's all right.
[W]hy the run D struggled?
1. Experimentation - Pees & Peppers & Patricia (Oh my!) were in the lab.
2. AllWorldTE at Planet noted a 4-3 DE technique failure by one of the Pats at one point, then came back to it later when the same play was run against Burgess' side and how the more experienced traditional 4-3 DE executed the technique to perfection. I'm in agreement with spacecrime, the underlying gap-control principle of this defense won't change, but I believe this answers the infamous Mr. crime's question on one-gap play in Philly - yes. The coaches haven't put in much time on one-gap techniques, but they experimented with one-gap options to plan their training schedule for in-season. There's a bit of alchemy ongoing, just disregard the noxious vapors while the lead is converting.
3. Heavy vs pass rush packages change the dynamics, since the Pats didn't waste time working extensively on run fits for a preseason game, it stands to reason the various packages were, at best, "coarse" tuned for this game.
Chris Gasper has a Globe article on the 4-3 that's good reading.
Funk my man!
2) If you had the right personnel, is is possible to discard the notion of a base defense? Can every defensive snap theoretically have an independent personnel deployment subject only to things like field position, down/distance, the attributes of the opposing personnel and the opportunity to change the deployment? Why would someone commit to a base defense?
3) if you were an opposing offensive coach, would your ability to determine and install a game plan be significantly difficult if you did not know what type of base defense you were going to face?
I'm with space again (which is going to get me arrested sooner rather than later I'm afraid), the "base" is simply the combination of formation and philosophy which you apply to minimize or disrupt the offense when they are in their "base"
situation. In SB39, NE used a base 4-3 designed to keep McNabb in the pocket and limit Westbrook's touches. NE basically said 'Stay in the pocket and throw to Owens all day long, but if you get out of the pocket bad things will happen to us.'
space's point on 3-4 vs 4-3 and one-gap vs two-gap applies to the coach's committment to a philosophy rather than a formation. Let's consider the premise "all coaches want to control the line of scrimmage." Tony Dungy did it with quickness and penetration to disrupt the backfield, Cowher's defenses used surprise and blitzing to penetrate and disrupt, the Parcells tree prefers to do it by controlling the running and throwing lanes across the line of scrimmage. All have won Super Bowls, which makes all valid if you have the personnel.
I'm sure someone will have a question on throwing lanes. Think of Doug Flutie, 6' tall, agile, running around behind the line, on each play called the O-line has blocking assignments designed to open lanes in the defense - and the O-line itself - to provide the QB vision upfield to where the WR is supposed to be running. Flutie had to move as much to see upfield as to avoid tacklers. A good example of an O-line creating a throwing lane is when the tackles will cut block the defender coming off the edge to force him to lower his hands for a quick throw into the flat - you don't see it as much anymore, but Light, Ashworth, and Gorin used to do this several times a game so Tommy could hit Meion or D-Giv or Troy.
Taller QBs makes it easier to create a throwing lane, which is why 6'4" Tommy Brady and 6'5" Peyton Manning are already a step up on 6' Drew Brees. But Brady's shortest starter is 6'2" Dan Koppen, the others are Brady's height or taller - and it gets harder in the future as Vollmer 6'8", LeVoir 6'7", O'Callaghan 6'7", Britt 6'8", etc. work into the line-up. On the other side, BB is trying to bring in tall, long-armed defenders to clog those lanes: Seymour 6'6", Warren 6'5", Wright 6'4", Crable 6'6", Woods 6'5", Brace 6'3" (long arms), Richard 6'4". BB does have smaller DL/LB, but if you look at them they are guys who use quickness to penetrate and then clog those lanes by being in the QB's face: Green 6'3", Pryor 6', TBC 6'3", A. Thomas 6'2"... They are more often than not your passing down specialists or freaks of nature (the good kind).
In the Philly game the D-line looked to be experimenting some one-gap applications, Pryor, Green, and Wilfork exploded through the line and disrupted on some occasions, Seymour, Brace, and Smith not so often. On Philly's first scoring drive they moved the ball well using misdirection against what looked to be one-gapping, once they got into the red zone, NE suddenly two-gapped and the run game froze up for Philly - they were forced to pass which made them one dimensional, BB's kind of game. The whole time NE never got out of a 4-man front, they just switched to BB's base philosophy when the chips where down.
What makes me believe NE used one-gap is a play where Wilfork was doubled, while Brace and Seymour slanted inside off the snap and were taken inside by their blockers opening a huge hole over LT. You had Woods blocked by the FB and Mayo by the TE leaving Sanders to close the outside lane and Adalius coming over from OLB to close the inside lane, the damage was limited, but it was a close thing. Those big holes opened up often enough to have us all grumbling, but game one of preseason is more of a test of ideas and personnel.
