Monday, December 31, 2007

TEST

Hello Patriots Report readers! The Patriots have gone 16-0 with another nail-biter that came down to the last minute. I'm going to give in depth analysis of the game as usual on Wednesday. Since this is a slow day for me and I was playing legos with my kids, I decided to diagram out the key play of the game. The record breaking, lead-taking 65 yard TD, Brady's 50th of the year and Moss' 23rd. Yeah, you guessed it, with legos. I've labeled the title of this post TEST, and I may just decide to delete this post altogether depending on your feedback. If you guys can get past the legos and you like the feature, I'll try to do it more. SO LET ME KNOW!!!!

Giants Defense in BLUE
Pats Offense is WHITE
Key Players hi-lighted YELLOW
Down and distance chains ORANGE






The Giants Defense waits for the Pats to break the huddle.





Brady comes to the line and identifies the Giants Defense as a Nickel because they have 5 defensive backs.




The other clue that the Giants are playing Nickel is they only have 2 linebackers on the field.






You always see Brady point to one of the linebackers before he goes into his snap count. He is pointing out the "Mike" or middle linebacker because once the O line knows who the "Mike" is they can identify their blocking assignments. The "other" linebacker on this particular play blitzed and Faulk picked him up. (not pictured in this sequence)




The Patriots line up with 4 wide, with Faulk in the backfield to Brady's right.





Moss is the wide receiver split to the right.












Welker is in the "slot" to the right.






As both Brady and Moss referenced after the game, the play was designed for Moss to run a "go" route, drawing both the CB assigned to him and the safety up the field.....






...so Welker would be left in single coverage to run a 10 or 11 yd out, enough to get the first down.






The Giants were on to the play and the cornerback assigned to Moss was to fake that he was going to follow Moss deep, then jump the Welker route.






That left the Safety in single coverage against Moss.




When the ball was snapped you see the cornerback assigned to Moss start to run downfield with Moss.....



...which gives the appearance that Welker is indeed single covered and will have no problem picking up a first down. Moss and Brady both called this play a "Trap", where the defense baits Brady to throw to Welker, then jumps the route, trying for an interception.
Brady read the cornerback as he jumped the Welker route and then hit Moss for the touchdown as he easliy streaked by the Safety.
That's the really simple version of it.
I haven't gone back to review the film, so I'm not positive the Giants were in nickel nor that the Pats were in 4 wide. But I think you get the idea of how Moss got so wide open and how unbelievable Tom Brady is.
Let me know what you think of the breakdown. If you enjoy it, I'll try it again. If it's stupid looking, let me know that too!
(I'm trying to fix the spacing, it got all messed up somehow!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Innovative post. I like it. On my browser, the text and images didn't line up so it was hard to tell which caption went with which illustration. I like the legos! Maybe you could use some longer, 1/4 thickness bricks to show the routes?

Barry said...

Personally, I dig the Legos. It's creative, and I had no problem following it.