Dear Josh,
Hey, me again! I'm
starting to get the idea that you're never going to reply to my repeated correspondence,
and since the authorities haven't shown up at my door to arrest me on charges
of harassment, I have to assume that either you lost your Gal Friday or you
shitcan my letters as soon as you see the postmark...
I don't need
your acknowledgement, but would it kill you to pick up a pen and demand that I
stop writing to you? At least call me a son of a bitch and threaten me with
legal action, up to and including a cease and desist order. At least then I'll
know that I'm not wasting my time.
Which is ok in anyway, because these evil things are very therapeutic for me to write - you
know, to kind of get things off my chest. I do so for many things in my life,
and the subject I've chosen for today is football, mostly because that game
against Buffalo on Sunday brought back so not-so-fond memories of the 2015 AFC
Championship game...
...a frustrating
end to that season in which the Denver Broncos advanced to the Super Bowl after
beating your Patriots, only to be annihilated by the Seattle Seahawks for the
World Title.
I'm sure you
remember. You had to game plan for the Broncos without any healthy receivers
and without a lead running back to take some of the pressure off of Tom Brady -
and despite Brady having only a bunch of retreads and walk-ons to throw at and
despite having no running game, you almost pulled that game out of your magic
hat.
It was ugly, but
the Patriots' defense rose to the occasion to keep the score close, and had
your boss chosen to kick field goals in three consecutive drives into the
Bronco's red zone in the fourth quarter instead of going for it on fourth and
short on each drive, it would have been your Patriots playing the Seahawks two
weeks later.
That's a story for
another time - but what brought back these memories was the way your offense
looked bogged down and incapable against the Bills last Sunday, much as they
did in that AFC title tilt five years ago. There certainly wasn't as much on
the line against the Bills as there was back then, and you managed to pull that
rabbit out of your hat with much assistance from the defense and special teams.
Brady had a better
chance of completing a pass at a cheerleader than to one of his receivers,
throwing balls high and low and trying to force balls into double coverages
down the field, and the few that actually found their intended targets were
subject to finding the turf anyway, as his normally reliable pass catchers
collectively developed a case of the dropsies.
The Boston media is
pointing to this performance as an "I told you so" moment, in that
they've been bemoaning Brady's pass-catching corps as being inadequate since
the start of training camp - which is bullshit, of course, because Brady has
plenty of trustworthy help in the pattern, with names like Edelman, Gordon and
Dorsett as well as an elite checkdown option in running back James White.
White led the
Patriots in both targets and yardage through the air, which we've both seen
before in games that really mattered, and which leads me to believe that you
thought that the matchup between White and the Bills' linebackers could be
exploited as a way to open up the patterns for the wide receivers.
It didn't, but the
thought was well received. White is a matchup nightmare against
most linebackers, but with your running game being an afterthought and combined
with the aggressive approach of the Bills' defense against your receivers,
Buffalo was able to shut down your offense.
White caught eight
balls and accounted for a full one-third of your passing production, which
isn't necessarily a new thing as your backs handle the ball on about 70% of the
offensive snaps anyway - and that brings me to the point of this latest correspondence.
Your running backs
are capable of so much more than what we've seen thus far in 2019, and the way
they are being used is really limiting your offense. And it's your fault.
Where was Rex
Burkhead? Why hasn't Sony Michel been targeted in the passing game despite your
incessant assertion that he would become more involved? Why does rookie runner
Damien Harris continue to be inactive?
In case you haven't
noticed, every defense you've faced thus far has bought into the fact that
Michel is so one-dimensional that they can stack the box when he is in the
backfield to stop the run, then concentrate on blanketing your receivers when
he's not - and then when Burkhead sees only a handful of offensive snaps when
he could be countering that trend, it makes me wonder if you are trying to just
take what the defense gives you instead of you dictating to them.
Very passive game
plan, vanilla you might say, as if you were trying to use the Buffalo game to get
Michel going in the right direction, but all it did for me was to further
strengthen my opinion that continuing to feed Michel when the defense knows
he's getting the ball can't be an oversight, rather, it is undue arrogance on
your part.
Look, Michel is a
fine runner and he brought a spark to the running game last season that had
been missing for at least a decade, and he was able to pop off about
four-and-a-half yards per carry, and performed even better in the playoffs -
but that was with a healthy offensive line, a violently-intentioned fullback-
and with two tight ends who brought the wood in run blocking.
I hate to tell you
this, but you don't have those things right now. The media is blaming the
offensive line, but it your play calling and the improper utilization of your
backs that should be blamed. If you are not going to use Michel in the passing
game, why continue to let him run into a brick wall seventeen times a game?
Either include him
in the passing game, or bench him. Those are your options.
You are using
backups at left tackle and at the pivot, and while their pass protection is
evolving as a whole, their run blocking with Michel in the backfield looks more
like pass blocking, as the opposition are penetrating and pushing them
backwards, forming a pocket and re-establishing the line of scrimmage three
yards deep in the backfield.
You know better
than I why this is happening. You know that Michel's single contribution to the
offense is in running the ball, and without at least flashing him in the
pattern, you have no way of keeping the defenses you face from stacking the box
against him, hence the 2.4 yards per carry.
Burkhead is
averaging 4.7 yards per carry, and White an even five, but this is because both
of those guys are a threat to catch passes out of the backfield, so defenses
are forced to go lighter in the box in respect for their route running and pass
catching abilities.
This is not a
coincidence. As much as watching your unit running the ball successfully, even
when the defense knows it's coming, warms my heart. The sad fact is that the
personnel you have at this point just can't pull that off - but you have the
capability and personnel to go about this another way, you can be aggressive
and dictate to the opposing defense with what you do have...
...and it all
starts with how you deploy your running backs.
First, it's time to
give Harris some snaps, and you can't do that while he's sitting in the booth
wearing street clothes. Harris is a hybrid of White, Michel and Burkhead and could
become your most enticing weapon. I'm just spitballing here, but I'm going to
assume you kept him on the roster for a reason, and that reason is that the kid
is a beast between the tackles and fluid in the pattern.
We all saw it in
preseason. Granted, that was against defenses that were playing their second
and third lines, but Harris dominated them. He came from a school that produces
NFL-ready prospects, a school that boasts more alumni in starting positions
than any other school in the country.
Harris split time
at Alabama with now-Oakland Raider lead back Josh Jacobs, and ran just as
effectively - and is one of only eight running backs in the history of that
powerhouse to accumulate over 3,000 rushing yards in
his collegiate career, practically mirroring what James White did while in a
committee backfield with Melvin Gordon at Wisconsin.
Same with Burkhead
at Nebraska. I'm assuming that you collected these backs because in your
offense, the short passing game is used as an extension of the running game.
Hell, even Brandon Bolden possesses those traits.
You don't see
defenses stacking the box against any of them, with the exception of in
short-yardage situations, and even then the defense is on alert in case White
or Burkhead peel off and wheel out into the flat, because they are both just as
dangerous in the pattern as they are between the tackles - perhaps more so.
Am I making any
sense here, Josh?
Tom Brady may be
frustrated with his lack of receiving options, but if he's looking for better
production from the passing game, all he needs to do is look to his running
backs to fill the void. White and Burkhead can both split wide, both can
operate from the slot and both are adept at wiggling through the maw on screens.
Why are they not
being incorporated into the game plan like this? You know better than I that if
you split those two out wide, they take linebackers with them which - surprise!
- lightens the box and takes away designed blitzes that get into Brady's grill, not
to mention that bringing them back in motion puts those same linebackers back
on their heels, not being able to anchor against the run.
Now, it could be
that you are trying to coast through the cupcake portion of your schedule,
serving opposing defenses vanilla creamer in their coffee and waiting until you
hit the meat of your schedule to break out the hard stuff - and if that's the
case, I apologize for my rant.
That would make a
lot of sense, actually. I guess I'm just trying to remind you that people are
watching and people genuinely care.
Best wishes,
Mike
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