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Ian Rappaport may have figured out the NE TE decoder (1 Viewer)

Decoder ring = broken
Not necessarily. If the Pack was playing man then that makes sense that it ended ip being a Hernandez night. Either we all got our analysis of the GB defense wrong or they switched it up early in the game... Probably after Gronk's 25yd catch I'm guessing. Let's turn our attention to Buffalo now - zone or man coverage there next week?
 
Frankbot said:
Sweet Love said:
Decoder ring = broken
Not necessarily. If the Pack was playing man then that makes sense that it ended ip being a Hernandez night. Either we all got our analysis of the GB defense wrong or they switched it up early in the game... Probably after Gronk's 25yd catch I'm guessing. Let's turn our attention to Buffalo now - zone or man coverage there next week?
Right. It wasn't necessarily that the decoder was broken for this game, right? Pack seemed to be playing a lot more man than zone last night.
 
Decoder ring = broken
Not necessarily. If the Pack was playing man then that makes sense that it ended ip being a Hernandez night. Either we all got our analysis of the GB defense wrong or they switched it up early in the game... Probably after Gronk's 25yd catch I'm guessing. Let's turn our attention to Buffalo now - zone or man coverage there next week?
I have no idea if Buffalo trends more toward man or zone, particularly at the goal line. I do know that in the first half of the season, Buffalo gave up 8 TDs to TEs, including three consecutive two-score games (Keller in Week 4, Lewis in Week 5, and Heap in Week 7). However, from Week 10 to Week 15, there have been no TDs to TEs.Can any Buffalo fans comment on the man vs. zone issue and/or what may have changed starting in Week 10 or slightly earlier?Thanks.
 
Can any Buffalo fans comment on the man vs. zone issue and/or what may have changed starting in Week 10 or slightly earlier?Thanks.
Bump seeking more opinions and information on Buffalo defense against tight ends -- if it matters, and how much it should matter -- with respect to Gronkowski vs. Hernandez.
 
bump b/c I know nothing about Buffalo's defense.

Now that Hernandez is going to be inactive, I'ld like to assume that Gronk will get targeted more. However, based on NE's willingness to spread the ball around I don't necessarily think Gronk will get more targets unless the gameplan already called for it. Does anyone know the Bills zone/man preferences?

 
Very good question...decode away!

I see in the NE-Buff game from earlier in the season, Hernandez was targeted 7 times, caught 6 for 65 yds. Gronkowski was targeted 3 times, caught all three for 43 yds. Two catches were for first downs and one was for a 5 yard touchdown on 3rd and goal.

Brady looked to the TE's a lot compared to the outside receivers in that game.

edited to add the stats from the first meeting in '10.

 
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Id like to revisit this old theory. I thought this was intersting from NFLN. Last game Gronk won the Battle when a team played more man, but i guess dallas and oakland did that as well. Hernandez got more targets and the late TD but they were pretty similar in yds and catches. in oakland NE just ran all over them so ill discount that plus hernandez was out. Hernandez was also out for the BUF game. So far, when both TE's are playing. Gronk seems to be a solid play against more man coverage D (against dal hern had 14 tgts but only 8 catches against that type of d). The opposite shows hernandez might be the better play. the TD's are random 50/50 to either guy at any moment. Both are good TE plays, but this week many sites including FBG likes Gronk slightly more.Anyone know what type of def NYG use more? how often they blitz, zone or man coverage?ETA flip flopped theory from last year :loco:

Heading into Sunday’s matchup with the Patriots, most non-terrible-towel-carrying Americans were wondering how the Steelers could match up with Tom Terrific’s crew.After a 25-17 win over New England, America saw how it could be done.And wouldn’tcha know it, we got a Twitter question in our mailbag this week wanting to know if the Steelers taught the rest of the league a lesson.How did the Steelers shut down Tom Brady and did they just give the #nfl the template to beat the Patriots? — @TimABRussell While it might not be a template the rest of the league can match, our tape study did show a few similarities between the Steelers’ defensive scheme and that of the other two teams who held Brady to less than 300 yards passing this season.Pittsburgh, like Oakland and Dallas, played almost entirely man defense with their secondary — either Cover 1, with Troy Polamalu as a robber, or a two-high shell with man-to-man coverage underneath. Polamalu did a great job reading Brady’s eyes, taking away throwing lanes and knocking the Patriots receivers and TE Rob Gronkowski off their routes.An ability to press and play man coverage versus the Patriots receivers seems to be key. In the three games in which Brady has failed to throw for 300 yards, he has completed just 53.5 percent of his throws against man coverage as opposed to 79.5 percent versus zone.The Patriots receivers, especially Wes Welker, are better releasing off of the ball freely rather than creating separation versus bump and run. They are better at finding spaces in zones. By pressing and re-routing them off of their routes, defenses disrupt the timing of the offense and force Brady to hold the ball. This is something the New England offense is not built to do.The Steelers were able to generate pressure on Brady without blitzing, taking away his throwing lanes and making the coverage windows tighter. In games Brady doesn’t reach 300 yards, he completes 58 percent of passes (6.32 yards per attempt) against a four-man rush as opposed to 69 percent (9.42 yard per attempt) against the blitz.Not every defense has weapons like Polamalu and LaMarr Woodley off the edge, but that kind of combo negates the Patriots’ strengths. Pittsburgh may not have created the template, but they clearly saw in their film study an effective strategy already in place and executed it to perfection.
 
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Was tryin to figure this out myself. Regardless gronk has put up good #s against the jets dating back to last year.

 
gronk hasnt no.

2010

1/14/0 (week 2 tho)

1/12/0

4/65/0 (playoffs

2011

4/31/0

hernandez

6/101/0

3/51/1

1/4/0 (playoffs

5/56 (2011)

 
Hernandez isn't moving as well as he was before he hurt his knee and he's wearing a bulky knee brace. I think that pretty much explains it.

 
2 games since the bye and gronk has 24 targets to just 9 for hernandez. any ideas why hernandez is fading?
IMO defenses have figured out that they don't have to worry about the deep ball at all anymore when they play the Pats. So the systemic benefits of playing in the Pats' offense have diminished and players are having to do more on their own instead of taking advantage of the scheme to get open.And since Gronkowski is much better than Hernandez he's able to do that more often.
 

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