Patriot's Pre Game Radio--Falcons vs. Run

[falcndave]

I listened to the whole Patriots pre-game show. They expected a close game. They felt it was a "must win" for the Pats. They expected the Falcons to score 20+. However, on offense the only thing they were certain of going in was that they would run the ball well on us. They used all the words from suspect to pourous to describe our run defense. They harped on that point until I got sick to my stomach. They had broken down tape of the first few games and had broken the run defense down into 3 zones. Middle, off tackle, and sweeps. They said we gave up some ridiculous number like 6.2 yards on first down rushes between the tackles. Looking over the game logs I'm not seeing it.

They then brought in some "expert" who explained that the way we were playing the 4-3 was leaving too much room between the guards for the MLB to fill without safety help. The style was strong to the edges, but soft up the middle.

Now i too posted last week I was worried about the run defense after the carolina game. But, I didn't think we were that bad.

My question is this. If some silly announcers can break us down like that, how could our coaching staff be missing it?

[RunningThePiszOuttaTheBall]

Wow, sounds like some really in-depth analysis. I used to get that from NFC Playbook on NFL Network, but this year they have really dumbed it down in my opinion.

Smitty said we were not "gap wise" in the Pats game. Sounds similar to what those guys you mention were saying.

[DUB]

the only problem with all that is the poor run defense was do to poor tackling. Doesnt matter where a guy is supposed to be if you grab a guy and dont wrap him up he's going to gain yards.