Direckshun
04-16-2020, 10:04 PM
I just want to start out by saying that my actual favorite non-Mahomes play of the year was all three of the playoff-game ending sacks Frank Clark notched. So this is all kind of a lie. There was also a play early in the playoffs, I believe, where Tyrann Matthieu covered two guys in the same play and still notched the tackle against a scrambling Deshaun Watson.
But I've been watching coach's tape of the Patriots game this season and it's just start-to-finish gold. To watch an expertly coached, expertly executing team just hit brick wall after brick wall against us in all three phases was a real thing of beauty.
I did enjoy one play more than the others, aside from many, many Mahomes plays. (He was unreal in this game.)
2nd quarter, 3:43 left, ball on the NE 22, NE ball on a 2nd & 10. (53:45 on the coach's film.)
Brady under center with Sony Michel as his tailback. Trips to the right, and one out far left.
We are in nickel, with Okafor/Kpassganon as our bookends, and Nnadi/Saunders in the interior. Sorensen and Hitchens are the 2nd line, with Breeland/Ward/Fuller/Thornhill/Matthieu inthe secondary.
The receivers are all blanketed with perfectly executed zone. Matthieu tracks Edelman as his motions pre-snap, only to hand him off at the snap and receive him again by the end of the play. That was pretty cool.
But the Patriots weren't trying to throw the ball downfield -- they were going for a screen pass. And they ran into two brick walls at the same time.
Saunders and Nnadi owned this play. They both two-gapped, and Saunders straight up held his lineman while tracking Michel the entire play, while Nnadi was edging past his and caught the screen pass the moment it happened.
The edge rushers both shot up field, and the linebackers weren't even looking for the screen pass, having both bit on the Brady fake so horrific that Michel could have had a chunk play. By the time he received the pass, Hitchens and Sorensen had their backs to the play.
But Saunders and Nnadi converged on Michel at the same time. They both leapt and sandwiched him, bringing him down for no gain.
Both Veach picks, both third rounders, one from 2018 and the other from 2019, evidence of expert in-house coaching, some of it under Sutton but especially under Spags and Daly.
And it was evidence that this was not the team the Patriots could out-muscle anymore. The Chiefs had finally fortified their interior. Teams could no longer do as they wished between the tackles. And that would foreshadow their success in the postseason.
Matthieu clapped competitively in Edelman's face after the snap, and a few snaps later, Kpassagnon puts Brady on his ass and Chris Jones shouts his famous "get your ass up or retire" trash talk. So it was all in all just a bewilderingly satisfying game.
But that play in particular meant a ton to me as a fan in how far the team had come in one short season, and how far it could potentially go as a result.
But I've been watching coach's tape of the Patriots game this season and it's just start-to-finish gold. To watch an expertly coached, expertly executing team just hit brick wall after brick wall against us in all three phases was a real thing of beauty.
I did enjoy one play more than the others, aside from many, many Mahomes plays. (He was unreal in this game.)
2nd quarter, 3:43 left, ball on the NE 22, NE ball on a 2nd & 10. (53:45 on the coach's film.)
Brady under center with Sony Michel as his tailback. Trips to the right, and one out far left.
We are in nickel, with Okafor/Kpassganon as our bookends, and Nnadi/Saunders in the interior. Sorensen and Hitchens are the 2nd line, with Breeland/Ward/Fuller/Thornhill/Matthieu inthe secondary.
The receivers are all blanketed with perfectly executed zone. Matthieu tracks Edelman as his motions pre-snap, only to hand him off at the snap and receive him again by the end of the play. That was pretty cool.
But the Patriots weren't trying to throw the ball downfield -- they were going for a screen pass. And they ran into two brick walls at the same time.
Saunders and Nnadi owned this play. They both two-gapped, and Saunders straight up held his lineman while tracking Michel the entire play, while Nnadi was edging past his and caught the screen pass the moment it happened.
The edge rushers both shot up field, and the linebackers weren't even looking for the screen pass, having both bit on the Brady fake so horrific that Michel could have had a chunk play. By the time he received the pass, Hitchens and Sorensen had their backs to the play.
But Saunders and Nnadi converged on Michel at the same time. They both leapt and sandwiched him, bringing him down for no gain.
Both Veach picks, both third rounders, one from 2018 and the other from 2019, evidence of expert in-house coaching, some of it under Sutton but especially under Spags and Daly.
And it was evidence that this was not the team the Patriots could out-muscle anymore. The Chiefs had finally fortified their interior. Teams could no longer do as they wished between the tackles. And that would foreshadow their success in the postseason.
Matthieu clapped competitively in Edelman's face after the snap, and a few snaps later, Kpassagnon puts Brady on his ass and Chris Jones shouts his famous "get your ass up or retire" trash talk. So it was all in all just a bewilderingly satisfying game.
But that play in particular meant a ton to me as a fan in how far the team had come in one short season, and how far it could potentially go as a result.