Patriots 4-2-5 Vs. Colts (11/11/07)

Very interesting to see the NFL 'borrowing' from the collegiate ranks to meet a need. I was reading some of BB's Monday press conference on patriots.com and he mentioned how they brought Harrison down and matched him up against Dallas Clark:

Q: It looked like you had Rodney Harrison matched up with Dallas Clark most of the game.

BB: He was over there on him, yes, a good part of the game. Yes.

Q: After you saw the tape, were you happy with how that match-up worked out?

BB: I thought Rodney played well. I thought he played well. He played - as a safety, he kind of played more as a linebacker in this game or in the linebacker-type of alignment. But he's a versatile player and he played close to the line of scrimmage. I thought he did a good job. Like all of us, there were some plays that were better than others, but he made some big plays and I thought he did a solid job. Dallas is a tough guy to match up against.

Q: It looked like you had defensive formations where Roosevelt Colvin and [Adalius] Thomas were lined up as down linemen. How did that work out?

BB: Well, we basically used five defensive linemen: Jarvis [Green], [Ty] Warren, Vince [Wilfork], Mike [Vrabel] and [Richard] Seymour, and then five linebackers: [Tedy] Bruschi, [Junior] Seau, Vrabel, Colvin and Thomas. We basically used 10 guys to play six spots up there, and then we used five defensive backs. We actually used - we ended up using, really, six guys to play five spots in the secondary. Part of it was to maintain our depth and try to maintain a high level of play with those guys who are chasing the ball, rushing the passer. You know, the Colts are team that extends you a little bit on defense because they run a lot of outside runs and they throw the ball, so the guys that are playing in the front, they have to do a lot of running. It's not just kind of stand there and let them wedge it up the middle. There's not too many of those plays. We tried to use all of those guys. At times there were four linemen in the game; at times there were three because it was kind of all the same in those formations because we treated some of our linebackers as linemen, just for our purposes of keeping continuity in the defense. (from www.patriots.com/mediac...tail&pid=28864&pcid=82 ) There's also some very insightful (is that a word) reading into how they break down/grade game film in the above link.

Interesting...

Tiger One,
Thanks for the clarification regarding this being Landry's old defense. I kinda took the 'come up with something new' with a grain of salt (Solomon said 'there's nothing new under the sun').
I did notice that Belichick said they had some trouble with the outside runs in the first half and had to make some adjustments. Can having an extra safety instead of a line back make THAT much of a difference against the run? Have any of you 4-2-5 guys 'run' into this problem no pun intended)? If so, how did you adjust?

I always found it interesting that the Steelers played their base 3-4 against the Colts. Of course their outside linebackers (used to include Porter) have excellent coverage skills AND they have Polamalu! The 3-4's a great defense that take special players too! (If there were more Casey Hamptons at nose guard I'm sure there'd be more 3-4 in the NFL)
This makes me think of another question I may raise as another thread sometime: How do you determine what system would best fit your personnel ( assuming you can't draft/recruit/etc.)? I know Mike Tomlin stated when he took over the Steelers when asked if they were going to switch to a 4-3 Tampa 2 style (from Lebeau's 3-4 Fire Zone) and he answered that he would run what best fit the personnel. (Of course what he inherited personnel that were drafted for a 3-4 defense - that and if you had Dick LeBeau as your DC would you tell him to change what he does or let him do what he does best?).

Ok, too long of a post, done (for now).