In response to wozzy's comment:

Maroney, BJGE, Thomas, polite, All the TE's, Ridley, Vereen, Faulk, Morris  Woody, ect...ect..ect...  IS addressing and anticipating the Problem!  The coaches can only work with the talent they have and try to make up for defeciencies when the talent didn't work out.

How long have the Pats had a top O?  Guess they've been sitting around  just talking about inproving them over coffee for the past 5 or 10 years.

 

I don't know about others, but I've never flip flopped on this at all.  Last year I said the offense lacked diversity. In my opinion then and now, it lacked diversity because it only had three talented weapons (Welker, Gronk, and Hern) around Brady and they were and are all basically short middle of the field receiving options.  The running backs were mediocre or not ready and there was no perimeter or deep receiving threat. 

Wozzy, I know your opinion.  Talent doesn't matter. Coaching is all in football.  Last year, you complained about O'Brien and the running game.  This year, you're complaining about playing 4-3 over 3-4 (our pass rush would be better if we had three big bodies in the middle of the line, right?).  And during camp you were calling our secondary the best in the NFL and blaming the pass defense problems on the "soft" scheme.  In your mind, "smashmouth" is all that works.  That means a fullback, the I formation, and lots of running on offense.  It means big D linemen and the 3-4 on defense.  

The reality is, though, our coaches--led by Bill Belichick who is the best in the business, possibly of all time in my opinion--have done things other than "Wozzyball."  Why is that? Have they been led astray by winning all these years and gone soft?  I don't think so.  I think Belichick knows what he's doing.  And I think he knows the talent on the team better than anyone.  Belichick is a genius at matching schemes to talent. He doesn't think there's just one formula for winning football games.  If he did this team would never have the record it has.  Rather than criticizing him and his coaching team constantly, why don't you try to understand the logic of what he does?  He's a smart football coach.  Really.  Smarter than you and True Champ and Rusty and Me combined and then multiplied by a million. 

In response to wozzy's comment:

Are you for real?  Assuming they are running well, of course it would have SOMETHING to do with it.  But this is the thing you cannot grasp.  Unless they score 5 rushing td's and no passing td's and they win by rushing and rushing alone, the point is moot.

There are many other factors, like passing completions and a D that can allow less points than the O scores, strategy, scheme, coaching, execution......on and on

This is our point.  Yours, virtually does not exist in todays NFL.   Teams win by scoring more points than their opponent.  The amount of runs, not so much.

In response to wozzy's comment:

You forgot the old "let's not take the ball out of Brady's hands", even when the opposing team is teeing off on him because he's dropping back every down. 

I think Branch's comments are telling, and they underscore somewhat why the run is effective this year.  Teams are playing the Pats O for its past tendencies and they're in the nickel as a base or a good percentage of the time.   Let's see what the Buffalo D does different today, if anything, to curb the effectiveness of the O.  If they adjust, and if other teams adjust, let's see if the Pats running game can keep going.  Even if they adjust, they still need to contain Brady, no easy task.   

Regardless, this defense will have to shore up its back end if this team is to be successful when it matters.  

 

Here we go again...

Balance!

In response to prolate0spheroid's comment:

Funny Belichick knows what he is doing when it comes to coaching but he's also the one who drafted/signed all these terrible players at runningback that are so devoid of talent.  

You were the one who said we didn't have a deep threat and that's why we couldn't run last year, even though we didnt have a deep threat the prior year and Law Firm ran for a 4.5 yard average... ALL of you guys have flip flopped so much the past 4 years you just can't admit that "finesse" football is less succesful than a smashmouth team.

In response to wozzy's comment:

I said a deep/perimeter game would help our running game by getting the safeties back.  (Teams were bringing their safeties down because they didn't need to worry about the deep part of the field or the sidelines.)  I also said we weren't running because we weren't very good at it with BJGE in there.  

Anyway, the defense has been the real problem for years.  Offense isn't the biggest issue.  It's so obvious it's not even funny. 

 

Really, the balance we need most is a defense to complement our offense.  

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Any you guys catch big Benny today? Kind of like last week...50 yards, 3.3 ypc average. Yet they beat a good team this week...hmmm, they couldn't do that last week??? It's strange because Benny is such a difference maker. It's a funny puzzler, it really is.

I'm wondering if he is the worst "lead" back in the NFL? I seriously am. Yeah two years ago he was a .001 of an inch over 1000 yards, but does that really mean much anymore? There are 16 games and he WAS playing with Tom Brady.

Tell me, does it embarrass you guys that he demonstrates incompetence every single week now that he gets his "touches"? It would embarrass me if I ran around saying we would of won the Super Bowl if we had just given this guy more carries. And I would down right burry my head in the sand if I ran around blaming Brady when our defense looks like the way it does. To each their own though!! I do LMAO though at you guys:) It's all good.