Video: Diagramming the Wildcat

Coach Reiss loves the X's and O's. Not enough media people are out there to go over this stuff. Great job, Mike!

Fantastic post, Mike. Look forward to seeing more of this kind of stuff in the future!

Love the video breakdown! Great stuff, Mike. Let's see more of this!

Finally! Thank you Mike, someone finally explained to me why this Wildcat thing gives the Dolphins an advantage over a defense. Love the X's and O's!

Nice. Thank you Reiss. Too often, media folks assume we live it all day long and know this stuff. But I know I appreciated it.

You rarely see any team ever get outcoached as badly as the Patriots did in week 3. They couldn't adjust to the Wildcat in the 1st half. They couldn't adjust to the Wildcat at halftime. They couldn't adjust to the Wildcat in the 2nd half. Usually when a team gets outcoached, it will amount to 3 or 7 points. Belichick got outcoached to the tune of 5 TDs (from a 1-15 team against a 16-0 team).

Without Brady, all of a sudden Belichick isn't such a genius anymore. The Wildcat won't be run more than 6 or 7 plays on Sunday. Even though Belichick wasn't bright enough to figure it out in week 3, everyone in the league can now slow it down.

I agree with BurkeInBoston,

When Coach B was asked why he wouldn't target Pennington during the "wildcat" he responded something like, " you would then lose the numbers game". In Reiss's description with X's an O's, it is remakeably clear that Penninigton is vestigal in these plays and should be ignored. In other words, pay attention to the rock, where the rock is going , keep it out of the endzone. Anything else is a distraction and the advantage shifts to the Dolphins offense.

Great Job, Mike!

Mike you always do a great job with your column on the Pats. This is another great example of your work! A very simple detailed explanation that anyone could understand- thanks! Showing actual "in game" video of plays, after your "chalkboard talk" would be the only other thing I would have liked. Thanks again ; your work is always excellent.

To be honest, Reiss, Boston.com and Globe staff, this is the first time I've even bothered watching a video posted in Reiss' Pieces. In the past, the videos have been nothing more than writers standing in front of a camera talking. One, that's not visually stimulating. The advantage of video is it can "show, not tell." Videos of Reiss, Gaspar or anyone else simply don't show us anything - they're just telling us. Two, it's the same information that these writers could better relay to the consumer by doing what they do best - writing. I'm glad the videos now have written summaries beneath them, but would it be better if the writers actually fleshed out their ideas in words, rather than shooting a video and having bullet points beneath them? I know the big push is for more multimedia on news organizations' Web sites, but it seems like a waste of talent and time to make a video simply to say, "Look, we have video on our Web site! We're in the Digital Age!"

However, this video is a great example of what can be done with video. Reiss shows us something that simply wouldn't translate as well to written form. I hope that future videos take a similar approach and Show, Not Tell.

i agree with dann. well said. a writer standing in front of camera telling me what happened in the game is a waste of time.this however was great.this is also the first time i wanted to click on a video. i usually ignore them. well done mike. simple and informative.if boston.com can have more videos with more visuals involved it would work.otherwise its a waste of space

I'm with Dann! Show, not tell!

Kudos, Mike! Like to see MORE of videos like this for upcoming games!

Xs and Os junkies like myself love to see how the Pats and their opponents set up on key formations/plays.

The big Q, though, is: how are the Pats going to defend the Wildcat? I guess we'll find out on Sunday!

LOVE the x's and o's demo. but i always love anything from Reis' Pieces. Thanks Mike.

I just learned a lot, thanks for this post. Even just doing basic breakdowns of how the Pats play would be very interesting to watch.

Real nice explanation..I think I actually understood it. I hope we get more of these in the future.

Why not roll up the Safety's up to the CB's, and blitz the CB's? If the chances of a pass are limited, then that would give you two guys on the outside (CB's) coming into the back field to cut off the play at the ends, and the Safety's can cover the two WR's. You leave the middle open, but since you have 7 Lineman/LB's surely someone can bunch it up and get a hand on the back if he gets through to the middle.

Jim, I'm going to go a step further and just say why have safties at all? Bring them up to the line, essentially making them extra linebackers, and have the CB's play off. They need three deep to protect the option pass threat and still put bigger guys on the field when they run out of this formation.

This should actually be less effective against the 3-4 because rarely can defensive lineman figure out where the ball is going - you know there going to pick up at least a few yards when they run it.

I'm going to guess we'll see it on the first series because the Dolphins are going to want to find out what Belichick's gameplan for this defense will be early.