Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Well unless Ragland was never suppose to trail the TE and it was supposed to be Breeland picking him up on an exchange just like he did. If he was supposed to just pop the TE off the line to knock him off his route and then stay in a short zone on the left side, that would seem to cover Edelman out of his break, then Hitchens takes him as he comes across.
That puts a TON of stress on Thornhill because the inside guy from the bunch formation (81?) got behind Mathieu as Mathieu picked up the RB and Ward was in man, so if Brady had seen Breeland and waited out that route, Thornhill would've had a touch choice on who to provide help to, the deep crosser or the possible deep flag from the TE.
But that's the kind of thing you can risk when you have Thornhill's speed and Tom Brady's wobble-launcher of an arm.
That Patriots offense has some REAL problems if they can't get their running game picked up in a big way. Anything beyond a 3rd and 5 means they need to get deep into their bag of tricks or hope for a busted coverage (or penalty). They hardly have anything to attack even the intermediate areas with.
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This is possible also.
It's hard to say, because Ragland just turns and takes off after the TE ASAP; which is kind of weird, because there's no way he has the speed to keep up. In fact, he's beaten almost immediately off the line. Not to mention that Ragland isn't a coverage LB at all. At all. AT ALL. The only way I see Ragland being effective at all on that play is if he were lined up at least two yards farther up-field than he actually was at the snap. Then MAYBE he has a chance to jump Edelman as he catches the ball, assuming it's delivered at about the same time of the actual pass. But even then it'd be tough for Ragland to make that tackle, wouldn't it? I mean, Tom's not an idiot, so he would've delivered the ball when Edelman was even or past Ragland, and then Ragland really has no chance of catching Edelamn, so . . .
Is it possible that Edelman was really Hitchens/Wilson's responsibility? I mean they were both right there in the middle, and if the ball came to Edelman instead of to the TE, one of them would've probably been in a position to make the tackle.
I don't know. But Edelman wasn't Breeland's man on that play, that much is for certain.
Afterthought:
Maybe Ragland was supposed to chase the TE as part of the trap? Make TB think "well look at that ridiculous match-up, I just have to take that." Would Spags create a design that subtle? Would any DC? If he did, the man's a certifiable lunatic genius.