DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2018 NFL Season NFL Post Season 2018 Interesting Breakdown of the Two Super Bowl Defenses

I don't know a lot of Xs and Os, so I thought this was really fascinating.

Super Bowl 53 Breakdown

I feel like his schemes are really so simple in the end. Oh, the Rams do this well? We'll do this to counteract it. How did other teams not see that?

It sounds so simple, but I think that Bill has the ability to not only see & know that "doing this" will counter their "doing that well", but where I think he may excel is in finding the best "doing this" given his personnel AND then thinking ahead to the x, y, z ways they may counter his "doing this" and how he will counter those.

He's playing chess, the rest are playing checkers.

That was a very good article. Thanks for posting it.

Two things stood out to me.

1. The Pats charged straight through the gaps instead of pursuing laterally. Thus, some of the inside and outside zone runs were negated.

2. Van Noy had one helluva game. He was dominant on so many plays.

I am also going to give Wade Phillips credit. He had a very good game plan and the Rams' defense played very well.

I agree on Wade Phillips, Vers. It wasn't like the Pats were going crazy on O. Though I did feel like the Rams forgot about Edelman too often.

Let's face it. If Goff had thrown that TD pass to Cooks like he should have, that's a huge difference. Super Bowl winning teams take advantage of the other team's rare mistakes.

And if Goff had just thrown the ball away or made a better throw when he tossed that INT, it's a totally different game.

Good points. I do think Edelman's quickness in and out of cuts were the main reasons he got open, but I agree w/the rest of what you said. The game could have turned around on just one or two big plays. The outcome was in doubt almost throughout the entire game.

Btw-------Glad to see you posting again. Your I'm Back thread in the EE forum is awesome. You literally had me chuckling out loud on more than one post.

I told a friend who is a die hard Pats fan, that this Super Bowl will mark the change of how NFL games are viewed on camera. The Pats did not win this game due to their front 7, but rather their back four. The matchup between CBs and WRs are really the best thing to watch on the field. For viewers it'll soon be more important to see what a WR is doing every play instead of a RB. How exactly will they find the shot, I'm not sure, but mark my words. That day will come in another 3-5 years.

I think the cover guys were huge in this game, but man, New England's front seven was dominant.

They took away the Rams running game by getting up the field vertically instead of running horizontally on the zone stretch plays. They also pressured Goff relentlessly and didn't allow him to get comfortable.

The back end did do it's part. They put Gilmour on Cooks man to man. They then bracketed Woods w/a corner on the outside and usually a safety or nickle guy on the inside. They even used a LBer on the inside. None of that was a big surprise and I wasn't the only one to predict they would do that. But, it was effective.

I just think the domination up front was a bigger variable than the back-end. The Rams are a team that thrives off of play action. Stopping the running game before it gets started and pressuring the qb into hurries was a huge reason for their success.

I want to add on to that last post. Before the game, I figured that the Pats would go man w/Gilmour and then bracket the other WR, but I wasn't sure if Gilmour would cover Cooks or Woods. BB chose to put him on Cooks. I'm guessing that had to do w/the speed of Cooks and Woods being more effective underneath, where bracketing would help and they could mask McCourtey's liabilities in man coverage.

I think that the man coverage and the bracketing of the other dude was very obvious before the game. The Rams lost Cooper Koup [spelling] earlier in the year, which made this strategy possible. Thus, I think McVay really blew it in regards to his game planning and play calling, because the obvious answer to defeat that coverage was to throw to Tyler Higbee, the TE or to Gurley coming out of the backfield on wheel routes and running to the flat after the TE draws attention from the S or LBers by running across the middle on drag routes.

One thing for certain................Belichick got the best of the young "genius" in this match-up.

This guy did a great job...always does

Vers, we are going to Foxboro to play the Pats next season in a game I'm looking forward to. My concern is it will be a real test for Baker and FK because of the history BB has with young QB's and their HC's much like what happened in the SB. Well, whatever it will be nice to see us play here but to win we will have to play a near flawless game.

Good post EO and right on!! I always said if I wasn't a Browns fan I would be a Pats or Giants fan. But I love my Browns and at this point could never root for anyone else.

He also has players who play with the discipline to do "this", if you tell them to do "this"... They aren't usually the biggest names or the brightest stars but they are usually in position and any 250lb NFL LB should be able to make the tackle if BB makes sure he's in the right place to make the tackle...