Running Supe XLII/42nd Large And Important American Football Game Thread

The Watson holding wasn't a borderline call, the hold itself allowed Faulk to get free.

 

And you don't beat the other team's ass by standing in the shotgun (without a back) for half of your plays.

 

Rolling Brady out of the pocket more...moving the pocket in general. A draw play?

 

and a screen here and there ...

 

Brady, when 100%, doesn't exactly remind anybody of Vince Young. And the way the Giants' D-Line was blowing up the Pats' O-line, a draw might very well have finished with a four-yard loss ... if not a Giant taking the handoff.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, they were throwing screens all night. Didn't Faulk finish with seven catches?

 

1) Since you fixed this, we'll move on to No. 2...
2) Samuel could have caught that ball. It went through his hands, not over them. Getting his feet down might have been tricky, but he should have made the catch.
3) One of the Patriots' strengths all season was their chameleon-like offense. They could adapt to any style they needed to play. When your offensive line is getting its ass kicked, you bring in an extra back. You go with two tight ends. You max protect. You change the play calling. Belichick did none of that that I could see.
4) The replay showed Watson had his hands on the defender's shoulder pads. It was holding, but it was one that a lot of guys probably get away with a lot of the time. It wasn't a blatant, jersey-ripping, defender-tackling hold. That's what I meant by borderline.
And that was just one call I remembered off the top of my head. You could also say the non-call on Toomer's long sideline catch in the first half (he definitely pushed off the DB) was another break.

 

You need to run inside of the DEs.

Keeping a warm body in the backfield with Brady would have been a novel idea as well. I used to play defensive line, and when you know there is zero chance of a run, you are twice as fast off the ball to the QB. If you think a RB might get a carry, you take a little edge off of your initial rush just to make sure the back isn't coming inside of you.

It's amazing so few people saw how fragile the Patriots offense could become if a few things didn't fit into place.

You have to run the ball. This game wasn't invented five years ago. If throwing the ball won the big games, everyone would be doing it every play.

 

A lot of those were checkdowns, not screens.

And you can roll a guy out without scrambling. They did it on the last drive and he heaved the ball almost 70 yards in the air. The Giants had good coverage, but the play call seemed to work well as far as buying Brady time.

 

The bubble screens generally were effective -- the Giants blew one up -- but I thought more could have been called.

 

Batman, the Giants turned the ball over five yards from a touchdown.

I think that qualifies as a pretty big break.

Also, Batman, Hoodie without the filming advantages sure looked like guy who used coach the Browns. It sounds like you would agree with that sentiment.

 

Adjustments that might have been made had the Patriots had enough personnel. Only going in with two tight ends and seven offensive linemen was stupid.