[Jilly]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

To answer you directly, as opposed to Clathan...

In general, any type of rollout play against the Patriots becomes a race between the offensive linemen to beat the inside linebackers and safeties to the point of attack. The OLB on the side of the play where the rollout is headed has a VERY SPECIFIC assignment -- turn the play INSIDE. If the OLB gets caught INSIDE, then it can quickly get ugly for the defense.

Thsi is called "keeping containment". Belichick refers to it often. The OLB MUST be strong enough to hold his position or better, and to avoid getting blocked down.

Then it's a race between the inside linebackers and safeties, on the one hand, and the "free" offensive linemen (those not tied up by the defensive linemen) to get to the point of attack. First, the defensive linemen are supposed to stop the running play from going past them at all. If it does, then the ILBs and safeties are supposed to crash down and fill any gaps.

Espeically in training camp, the team works on, and BB talks about endlessly "filling gaps" and working on the front seven "fits."

The 3 defensive linemen and the 4 linebackers are like the pickets in a fence. If they all fill in their gaps properly, there is NO WHERE for the offensive linemen to run.

The 2 gap defense is NOT designed, generally, to get at the RBs behind the line of scrimmage. You see much more of that from attacking linemen like the Steelers and Giants. Patriots defenses are more conservative -- less likely to get a stop behind the LOS, but also less likely to give up any long running plays.

By design, the Pats defense is a "bend but don't break" philosophy, forcing teams to mount extended drives without making a mistake in order to score, and then tightening down as the offense nears the red zone to stop the TD. It's not a high-risk, high-reward strategy.

So, it seems like Dorsey would be great at this type of defense, in spite of the criticisms, right? As long as he sticks to his position.