Panda scouts the Pats

Only rush four....Brady is getting the ball out in under two secs..no pass rush is fast enough to get there....Id take my two DEs and spread them out really wide..then if Brady throws that Bubble or short slant to his wrs...get your arms up. I wanna see them play close to los...let Pats beat you deep...and put Reshard Jones on Gronk...

 

Amendola on any other team would be ordinary .He has been effective because in typical Cheatroit fashion they are skirting the rules and continually getting away with pick blocking. We could do the same to them with Jarvis Landry and Stills but we havent been practicing it .

Gronkowski is the player we may not have an answer for .Jordan was used last year to defend him and it was quite effective. This year who is going to do that job.

As far as pressure the DL needs to play with their arms up to block those short quick passes because they usually are on a low trajectory.You dont arc a ball that short.

 

Hey Phins fans, a friendly Patriots fan back for more pre-game chatter.

I'd say that scouting report was pretty fair and accurate to be honest.

Some more thoughts of my own:

1. The Patriots front 7 is kind of up and down at this stage of the season - we have plenty of pass rushers but we are missing the ability to consistently stop runs up the gut unless we are able to commit an 8th man to the box.

2. The Patriots will miss Jabaal Sheard is he can't go on Thursday night - he was an excellent FA pick-up and has added a strong edge defending presence aswell as a good ability to get to the QB.

3. Tom Brady is playing unbelievably well right now - it might be the best display of QBing I have ever witnessed over an extended period of time. Brady's ability to churn out wins whilst throwing 50+ times is off the charts statistically.

4. Dion Lewis has been a huge spark for the offence and a definite upgrade over Shane Vereen. Incredibly elusive with the ball he might be the best scat back in the NFL right now - again, if he can't go on Thursday the drop off to James White is a large one.

5. The O-line is hurting. The O-line was always going to have a tough go this year with so many young guys starting - all 3 interior positions have been rookies for the large part of the season - UDFA Centre David Andrews has been outstanding while holding the fort for Bryan Stork. Now are are down to our 3td choice LT - we are waiting for the game where the O-line can't cope and Brady/McDaniels can't scheme around this issue.

6. A fully healthy Gronk is a thing opponents nightmares. I'd say he is the most dominant non-QB in the game right now.

7. The DB's are very much barebones. Malcolm Butler has actually been good for the Patriots this year - often handling the other teams No.1 WR by himself - not shutting them down but at least keeping their damage to a manageable level. Despite the hype this was always going to be a big step up for Butler - teams will be dissecting film on him - but the dude has a great attitude to keep learning ad getting better. The Patriots have also lucked out that Logan Ryan is playing at a passable level so far - the other vet DB's brought in have either failed or gone to IR - so we have very little other options.

8. I expect to see a very similar offensive gameplan to the one the Patriots have used against the Lions in the past when Suh played for them. He will be doubled or tripled and the ball will be out in double quick time. I think the Phins can be run on more than the Jets can be so I don't expect to be quite so one dimensional on Thursday.

9. Patriots ST have been outstanding this year - its not an area of focus for most people so kudos for making a note of it in the OP.

10. The game line is currently -7.5 Patriots. I would have it at -6.0 personally. Despite hurting with a lot of injuries I think the Patriots can do enough, at home, to move to 7-0.

Hoping for no more injuries for either team.

Cheers

 

To me, flood the underneath zones, tbh would love to see a 46 style defense in this one, Brady is not going to beat us deep.

We also need to win the ST battle of field position.

As for an overall, we need playmakers to make plays, scheme away unless Suh/Wake/Grimes/Jones show up on Defense and make things happen, scheme won't really matter.

 

Our defensive line should destroy their online and our receivers should destroy their secondary. I expect a lot of dink and dunk two second release passes from Brady. I would sit on them. Force Brady to beat you deep. On offense we just need to dink and dunk ourselves since I think the pasties will play zone and contain

 

Welcome from the Dolphins nation...I figured that I'd say it before you're flamed to pieces here. The problem is that after Deflategate, Bountygate, and Kraft demanding apologies for things he's ADMITTED TO OTHER TEAM OWNERS THAT HE'S GUILTY OF, we just don't see the Patriots as members of the NFL anymore. The world hates them with such passion for tarnishing this game that we love so darn much, we just wish their whole stadium would burn down with your spying cameramen and your ball-manipulators inside.

Of course, since you believe in your team and all, you cannot see how badly they've embarrassed the league with their lies, illegal formations and continuous deceit. So nobody here should be mad at you personally, but I'm afraid that people will be anyway because we really hate Brady that much for giving the middle finger to the commissioner and demanding an apology after he got caught cheating throughout last year's playoffs. I'm sorry, my friend, but it's a little hard to remain cordial with that much BS hanging in the air.

So here's our scouting report on the Dolphins-

1) We've pushed "intensity" for the past three weeks straight under our new coach, and we have destroyed all opposition by a margin 29 point margin of victory. That in itself is misleading though since we scored 80+ points in the last two first halves and let our starters rest.

2) Dolphins players have been "stepping up" in all facets of the game and playing with pure violence. Quarterbacks, linemen, running backs...we're knocking them out left and right.

3) Our drastically improved running game is averaging close to 200 yards PER HALF since that's about the time we sit our starters. Miller has proven that he's a top RB in the league and has excellent vision.

4) Our line is also young and largely banged up, but you wouldn't really know it by the way they're playing. You'll see our linemen throwing blocks 30+ yards downfield on screen plays because they are hungry for a victory.

5) Tannehill hasn't been tested in three weeks thanks to a quick release and big plays from our receivers. So NE will stack the box and blitz often, which is exactly what the Texans did as we cranked out 6 TD's in the first 16 minutes of play. Maybe you'll do it better though.

6) You know who else hates Brady? Our entire team...ever since that report broke that the Pats have spied on the Jets and Dolphins more than any other team. Unfortunately though, you only have two weeks of game film on us going into this week, and you'll be facing a largely unknown offense. So it's likely to be a fair game (by NE standards at least).

7) For the past two weeks, we have led the league in just about every measurable statistic besides total yards passing. Total yards, rushing yards, run defense, YAC, passing efficiency, total points scored....the list goes on and on.

8) While it would be nice to see an injury-free game, it's just not going to happen the way our team is performing. Hell, we broke our backup quarterback's nose in practice last week...that's how intense this Dolphins team is practicing. So people will be getting hurt.

On paper, the Patriots should move onto 7-0....but football is not played on paper. Miami is lighting people up every week and the Fins will continue their streak of winning by 2+ TD's.

 

What can I say? I appreciate the effort you are making to be cordial

Thanks for the football related thoughts - I think it should be real intense and physical battle - why you guys couldn't just kept Gentleman Joe Philbin around for a few extra weeks is beyond me

 

Thanks for your post. Always good to get real intelligence from a fan of the other team.

KeyFin is a good poster. I mostly lurk because I know less than other posters here. But I feel I should say that i do not agree with "we just wish their whole stadium would burn down with your spying cameramen and your ball-manipulators inside." There are things I don't like about the Patriots, but I think the main reason that they win is they have a great coach and a great quarterback. Here's hoping for a good, injury-free game Thursday.

 

Is Lewis playing? We have struggled a bit with quick backs getting to the edge. Although less lately since Wake is healthy and we've played Shelby and Fede more.

I can't imagine you'd be less balanced since your backs had about 5 rushes total last game.

I agree that Brady's been incredible of late. I saw a stat where Brady has had four games where the pass/run ratio has been over 80% and he's 4-0 in those games. The rest of the NFL has had 112 such games over the same time period and those teams were 3-109.

 

Lewis was present at practice today. Very good chance he plays.

 

Sam Madison was present at practice today. Very good chance he plays?

Keith Sims too...

 

look for the picks!

 

Gettin' chippy around here. Must be Patriots week.

 

It's easy to be effective throwing the ball when you know where the defense is going to be on every snap. This Patriots team is super greasy. The best thing Miami can do is to change every single defensive signal and guard them like a trade secret until game day. Discuss nothing in the locker room.

The secret to beating the Patriots is to beat the cheat. Simple as that. Too much of their success is attributed to talent and too little attributed to being really ****ing greasy.

 

The key to beating the Pats is blowing up their plays on 1st and 2nd down. Gotta get them behind schedule. Brady's been unreal on 3rd down largely because they are consistently efficient on 1st and 2nd.

On defense they're banged up and not all that talented to begin with. I expect them to make Tannehill beat them down the field. Can say for sure though that they're going to pursue and tackle better than Houston lol.

 

Ya that's a given. BB will cut them before the end of the game if they do what some players for Houston did.

I'm sure nobody is expecting 3 short passes to equal 160 yards and 3 TDs...that was awesome to see, but not the usual, for ANY team. But if we can play within our gameplan/assignments and be hyped up for the game, it'll at least be competitive. That's all I'm looking for...the deck is too stacked for them at Gillette.

 

Is this where you pretend Brady is good at throwing an 'actual' deep ball unrelated to YAC? JW.

 

On the offensive line we did a great job stuffing those pressure from the A-Gap - I noticed, late on, that the Jets seemed to be trying to overload that area. We've been blessed with great O-line coaches for a long time, first Dante Scarnecchia and now Dave DeGuglielmo seems to be able to coach up low round picks and UDFA's into passable starters.

The Jets definitely ran out of pass rush - that many passing attempts (if successful) is going to wear out a D-line pretty quickly - and then it gets harder to get to Brady, so he completes more passes and you need to rush more and so on....

The WR were definitely off as a group for most of the game - Gronk finally switched on and Amendola came up with some clutch catches.

My guess is that Miami will be able run the ball if they want to but that the short passing game will be prioritized as something we want to stop and definitely YAC.

Should be a great battle - definitely a baptism of fire for a potential permanent HC who (as far as I know) was only a positional coach previously.

 

Yes, I think its going to take a solid rotation on the D-line to make any defence work - if you can get to Brady or clog his passing lanes and force a few 3 and outs you have a chance to get ahead in the game.

Miami needs to come out hot on offence and put points on the board early - if they can generate some sort of scoreboard pressure then suddenly any drops by Patriots WR's will be magnified.

The defence tipped a lot of balls vs the Jets but none went to defenders - perhaps this is the week that changes.

If Tannehill is willing to be patient, the middle of the field is often open for crossers - but it'll mean long disciplined drives - most teams seem to tire of this and start going deep (we have two good deep ball defenders on McCourty and Duron Harmon.

 

Miami is actually great at those long drives. That's a regular criticism among Dolphin fans, that they're too patient and don't take enough deep shots. Tannehill has struggled with balls being batted down both in college and in the pros. Although I have seen him throw several passes from different arm angles this year so hopefully he's improving there.

I agree that Miami will greatly benefit from scoring early

Miami has a very solid DL rotation. When they're rolling they collect three and outs as they tend to be disruptive, rushing passers and batting down balls. I think they started the game with five three and outs in a row against Houston and had quite a few against Tenn. They were also dominant in the preseason when the starters were in. The constant between those is that the DL was attacking. With the old coaches they played read and react the first four games and didn't disrupt anything exposing our weak LBs. Of course none of those teams had NE's offense.

 

Our regular centre (who is only in his 2nd season) Bryan Stork will be eligible next week I think - they'll probably break him back in gradually.

Tre Jackson (the Florida St guard) went wire to wire against the Jets because of an injury to our rookie left guard (from Georgia) Shaq Mason - who has actually been the more impressive so far. When fit it was a 3 man rotation between Josh Kline and the two rooks.

Hightower and Collins are both playing at a very high level at LBer - both decent in coverage and both good at blitzing (Collins is the athletic freak who blocked the XP vs the Colts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ6g6yKEcug ).

The DE's will need to maintain control of the edge - don't want to let Miller loose into the backfield!

 

Long sustained drives are pretty hard to master - kudos to Miami if it's something they excel at (especially if they get 7 and not 3 - the Patriots will let you have 3 all day long).

The Patriots will look to stop Miami's substitutions by locking them into a certain look and then calling plays that combat it - they will run if you constantly play 6 in the box for example. If Miami gets their 3 and outs then the substitutions don't matter as they'll be on the sidelines relaxing.

I remember Phillip Wheeler and the other over priced FA really struggling in man coverage - are your current LBers any better at covering? If Dion Lewis is ready to go he would be a challenge for any LBer.

 

Among LBs Jenkins is okay at man, the others suck in man. I'm worried about Lewis and expect a heavy dose. We may be in nickle about half the time to cover that up and rely on our DL and pretty solid tackling secondary to control the run. I could see Jenkins spending considerable time on Gronk, but I expect our S Jones will also spend time on Gronk duty.

Miami was one of the best in the league last year between the 20s (those long sustained drives), but struggled in the redzone (settled for too many FGs). A big part of that was that while our run stats looked decent, we couldn't run when the D knew it was coming (and under Philbin we usually stopped even trying to run). That's why our commitment to the run since the coaching change is huge. We've also made a change at G to a much better run blocker and got our LT back to health which has made our running game more effective. Additionally, we've added a couple of big targets this off-season that we could use in the redzone. That part hasn't been a huge difference but it does provide more options.

 

I think you overestimate McCain's coverage ability. He's also a potential liability if responsible for a lot of space. Instead, my wildcard is using Neville Hewitt to crowd middle of the field with Jenkins, Jones, and Thomas.

My concern is Belichick reverses course and gameplans for a power running game. This takes Wake out of the game, who has been creating turnovers, while the Brady can still pick up 1st downs even if the defense holds Blount to a few yards per carry. With the Patriots' inexperience line, I would not be surprised to see Belichick try to replicate Washington's strategy while putting more points on the board from a better QB and TEs that can score.

As for the Patriots' blitzing LBs, I would like to see the Dolphins have effective counters with Lamar Miller so he can exploit the space in the middle of the field and force the safeties to provide run support.

 

Should be a good game (at least close). Thursday games are usually sloppy and close no matter who plays.

I am not predicting a 2 score win in any direction. The Patriots should take it but will be pretty close i think. I don't expect Miller to have a very good day. I think the Dolphins will need to do their damage with their WRs and TE. If I am the Patriots my main concern is no big plays and no big YAC plays. Take those away and make the dolphins drive the field. Tannehill has been very hot overall lately but i don't think it keeps up and he/that OL do let up sacks and negative plays a bit too often. Pats and Dolphins will both attack the QB early and often cause both rightfully feel the pass D is not likely to hold up for long.

The Patriots D is underrated a little. Obviously it is not top 5 or anything but it is ranked 12th in PPG with 21 and they have talent in a lot of spots. I would not expect them to simply be marched on up and down the field all game. The idea that you can simply put up 30 against that unit not as easy as it sounds.

The dolphins need to IMO be willing to go pass happy particularly on first down. Also they need to go for their 4th downs whenever it is even questionable. That is how you beat the Patriots. This conservative control the clock stuff won't work. No matter what you try to do the Patriots are going to score 30 on you most likely and you need to play as if you need 35-40 to win. You need to be desperate for points from the start. Act as if you are down 10 points in the 4th quarter and play like that all game.

By this I mean if you are up 3-0 in the 1st quarter and face a 4th and goal with 3 yards out. That is a play you go for. That is how you win against the Patriots. If you don't act like you are down by 10 all game then late in the game you will be down by 10 but it will be too late.

On defense it all is about stopping Brady. If you don't get a pass rush nothing else matters. After you get a pass rush you need to play tight on WRs. Sadly for dolphins fans the way Brady is playing right now it might not matter what you do. If Brady is on like he was in the 4th quarter in that Jets game and your team is not up by a lot your team is going to lose and there is nothing you can do about it. It is hard to hear that but it is the truth. QBs just matter too much in todays NFL and when a QB in today's NFL makes big plays and never misses and can improvise tough passes there is no answer.

The Seahawks had none. The Jets had none. You will have none. The only answer is be up by 14 before then and see if you can sneak a FG to seal it before OT.

 

We are going to play tons of Nickel in this defense with Thomas, Aikens and Jones. That's my prediction. That way we can defend multiple formations and it helps with pass/run. I could see the Pats going 2 TEs, get us in a typical 4-3 and then spread out. Gronk and Chandler out wide. If they do this we need to show off and just before the snap move in a step, that hopefully causes some hesitation on Brady's part. The key will be changing the looks just before the snap so he and the receivers think it is something else. We do the same on offense where if it man or zone we run different routes. Right before the snap we need to show man but change to zone. Use the old Pats D versus Manning tricks. hard to accomplish but that will be our best chance to get him to make a wrong throw or hesitate and get a sack or two.

 

The game is being held on throat-punch-Thursday so technically speaking Suh I think you'll be ok, punch away!


Seriously, that's the way to beat the patsies. Punch Marcia and her sisters Daniel and Julie in the throat, face and uteruses repeatedly. Run the ball, and then run the ball some more, and after you run the ball a few times, run it again. Watch Juice treat grown men like bowling pins and throw your hands in the air when he scores.

Easy breezy.

 

Love it.

 

im hoping Dan and co have two defensive gameplans, the one that is prolly gonna fail because belicek is usually one step ahead, and the one to immediately adapt to what he does do.

 

i didnt realize omar said that, I agree with him in this case, the changes have to happen immediately, in game adjustments are crucial, noone can predict what their offense is gonna do.

 

when I think of playing brady I think contain, what do you think of in terms of scheme?