Excellent perspective on Pats game

I got a chance to watch the game back on Tivo yesterday. I followed extremely closely. I few observations:

- This ES guy is Extremely wrong about the amount of motion the Skins ran. In the first half I counted at least 7 plays in which they ran motion.

- Brunell was indeed mostly working with minimum protection, only the 5 lineman in to block on passing downs.

- A long comebacker to Moss got dropped because Moss slipped. If he didn't slip that play goes for 35 yards, and that's if Moss doesn't get away from Asante Samuel before the hit.

- Ladell Betts looked good on plays in which more than 5 blockers were there. On other plays, Saunders seemed to be spreading the field and then running Betts right up the gut. I don't think that's the normal plan of attack. If you're going to spread the field like that and then run, you need to run either draws or toss-sweeps.

- Brunell was throwing the ball with good zip. I don't think the groin is a problem.

- The first team defense got gashed by a Brady screen pass to Dillon (the one where Dillon got poked in the eye). This was an amazing pass and I thought it was well-defended. It was just Brady being Brady, not much you can do.

- Carlos Rogers didn't look that good to me.

- I don't think the secondary was communicating very well. Either that or Sean Taylor simply was out of position on that deep throw to Troy Brown that took the Pats down to the 5 yard line.

- There's no excuse for a blocked kick. Our kicking game is very troubling.

- I'm not at all worried about the offensive line (except for depth). Saunders is indeed trying to find out how the starters handle min protection. Normally, there will be a back there to pick up blitzers. This game, Saunders sent them all out to the flat.

- The defense didn't tackle. That's a big problem. You can scheme all you want in the regular season, but if you don't tackle you've got problems.

All in all, there are things that are very troubling. The kicking game is the biggest one because there's no scheming or "going vanilla" with that stuff. It's basic football, line up and kick. And we suck at it. But Saunders has not done any scheming, so I'm not going to put much stock in the offensive performance. It's just hard because since he hasn't shown ANY of the offense, we're going to head into the season without seeing any progress between Brunell and the WRs on the routes they actually plan to run. Against the Vikes, Saunders is going to unleash hell. But we've got to wonder, can the players execute it? Right now we essentially have no clue.

On defense, we're missing key starters. And this is the phase of the game I'm least worried about. GW does not have down years; he's not scheming at all in this preseason, so I think they'll turn it on. They need to tackle though, that's alarming.

All in all, I'm not freaking out yet. But I'm not supremely confident either. I have lots of questions. All I can do is trust that Gibbs will have it ready to go. We'll see what happens.

Oh and Randy Thomas looks VERY healthy to me. I saw him moving out on the edges with a lot of speed. He's good to go, the bulldozer is back.

A little more regarding Gibbs seemingly strange level of calmness after the game:

Monday Morning H-Back - Training Camp Insider (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/trainingcampinsider/2006/08/monday_morning_hback_1.html)

1 - Joe Gibbs - The Freshmaker. Gotta give it to Joe. He always keeps ya guessing. A week after bringing a temper into his post-game press conference, Gibbs was tranquil as can be following the 41-0 debacle at New England Saturday night. I thought he might take a more docile approach like this - loving up the boys after beating them up; remaining calm when some would voice their obvious concerns - but he was downright chipper. Didn't quite bank on that.

Joe walked in nearly smiling, and immediately launched into platitudes about the Patriots. "The first thing for us to do is give a big thumbs up to New England," Gibbs said right off the bat, at which point he literally lifted a thumb and held it for a moment, like the money shot at the end of one of those legendary Mentos commercials. I was kind of floored. Gibbs never mentioned the word concerned once all night, played down any on-field issues, and preached team unity above all else. It reminded me of his tact last year when the team was 5-6 and on playoff life support. They rallied for five straight wins to reach the postseason for the first time since 1999, then won at Tampa in the wildcard.

This is what Joe does best - manage people, manage difficult situations, convey a massage. He should have more time than ever to work with all areas of coaches and players now that he's no longer running the daily operation of the offense, and it'll be put to use this week, I'm sure.

Yeah. After reading the post I went back and watched the tape. We ran almost every play on offense out of three formations. Every run play was run with the 5 down linemen and a TE, usually with a 2 back set left and right of the QB. The pass plays were three WRs grouped on one side or the other, no motion, and they made sure that no one, TE's or RB's, helped the o-line on blocking (except an occasional chip by the RB). The defense never disguised anything. They showed thier blitz, let Brady adjust, and then came anyway. They wanted to isolate a defender man on man against the TE but got outplayed. Gibbs confirmed this in his press conference.

yeah thanks for checking back. so, were the Pats just that much better one on one or were they testing deeper into their playbook?

3 quarters of leaving people one on one vs. the Pats, we're lucky no one got hurt.

so, were the Pats just that much better one on one or were they testing deeper into their playbook

We had Mark Brunnell being tested by Al Saunders. They had HOF bound Tom Brady executing a simple version of the same offense he has been running for years. The Pats protected Brady and he performed well.

We had Mark Brunnell being tested by Al Saunders. They had HOF bound Tom Brady executing a simple version of the same offense he has been running for years. The Pats protected Brady and he performed well.

interesting, wish i couldve seen the game.

so the Pats kept their backs in to protect him? when we sent ours out in the flat, did Brunell throw to them at all? one thing i know about Saunders is he likes the screen..

Honestly... Does anyone really think the Redskins lose 41-0 to New England during the regular season?

If Robert Kraft died, then yes.

Honestly... Does anyone really think the Redskins lose 41-0 to New England during the regular season?

no, but i'm worried we'd lose.

no, but i'm worried we'd lose.

Ditto.