http://www.profootballfocus.com/blo...ng-the-trend-how-branch-shut-down-gronkowski/ Pretty good article with pictures included.
More likely it was because they didn't need to throw him the ball. Welker was wide open all day (9 catches for 158yds) and the Pats will just keep doing the same thing if it works. Plus, the RBs ran for 185 yds on 28 carries (6.6 ypc). They just didn't need to throw him the ball that much. I'm sure you could take film from every game and see teams employing similar techniques to defend him.
Pretty good article. I wonder if Oakland's scheme would have been different if Hernandez had been playing though.
Brady has so many targets to work with, the Patriots O will usually survive without Gronkowski putting up his usual numbers every game.
^Exactly. I would think that offenses would WANT the D to key in on one guy, especially if you have many targets
Seems like a lot of people didn't even bother to read the article. I wonder if Rex is planning on trying this technique with Landry. He's certainly physical enough to try it with.
I read the article and that they were solely looking at how they shut down Gronk. My comment was more like, whats the point? A high school team could shut him down if they had 7 guys covering him. Big deal. If you lose in a blowout it is kinda a moot point. Plus like somebody else said, the article is kinda pointless once you consider Hernandez was out.
But they didn't use 7 guys. They used 1, sometimes 1.5 if you count the d-end rerouting Gronk at the LOS as .5. It's interesting that physical bump & run safety play with a little help from a d-end re-routing was effective in shutting down Gronk. If the Jets could be nearly as effective with Landry I think they have a much better shot at slowing that offense down with the corners they have.
Alright. I gotcha. I still wouldn't want to try this as it takes away a deep safety from his position. Especially now that they have Lloyd
l think that it's hard to say they were that effective shutting down Gronk. Brady's favorite binky, especially at the point in the season was still Welker, and Welker was wide open all day. Brady might not have even gotten to Gronk in his progressions knowing he had his main guy open all day, plus the running game averaged over 6 yards a carry.
Did you watch the game and focus on Gronk to come up with that opinion or did you just base it on Welkers big day? PFF clearly focused on the coverage of Gronk for the game to come up with the article, so I think they are basing it on more than just numbers.
Why would I focus on gronk when they were ripping it up to Welker and running it down their throats? The fact is, they saw the numbers and saw it was gronk's lowest production game and decided to write an article. Sure they went back and did a nice job focusing in on Gronk. I didn't say it was a bad article or even incorrect, I'm saying that unless they focused on Brady on those plays and determine he was looking for gronk and had to check to another receiver, you can't be certain that they really shut him down, or if the Pats didn't need him that week.
The fact that one player had a career best day and another was having one of his best games of the season should tell you how effective shutting down Gronkowski was. The Raiders actually shut down EVERY pass catcher not named Wes Welker. Which makes you wonder, did they actually shut them down or was Welker just that wide open all day that Brady didn't see a need to do anything but pass to Welker and hand the ball to Ridley who was averaging nearly 10 yards per carry? Freakin Chad Ochocinco was the second most productive pass catcher on the team that day with a massive TWO catches. This thread is either irrelevant or should be renamed "How to Let Wes Welker and Stevan Ridley Ruin Your Day" Welker - 9/158/1 Ochocinco - 2/26/0 Gronkowski - 1/15/0 Edelman - 1/11/0 Green-Ellis - 1/9/0 Branch - 1/4/1 Ridley - 1/3/0 "How The Raiders Didn't Cover Wes Welker Causing All Other NE Receivers to not be Productive"
Are you guys really going to act this way? You can draw different conclusions based on the numbers. The only way to KNOW what happened is to watch the game and focus on Gronk like PFF did! So yea, I get that Welker lit it up and no one else did much. That doesn't mean the Raiders didn't do a good job on Gronk. PFF is a pretty well respected site, I highly doubt they wrote this article claiming they watched Gronk get shut down without actually watching him shut down. I mean that's what PFF DOES - they break down individual player performances and grade them. You guys THINK you know what happened based on the numbers. I'm pretty sure that's what you want to believe too - god forbid someone could actually shut down Gronk one day. I know who I'll believe.
Well respected among who? There are a lot of people (myself included) that think they do a lot of flawed analysis. With that said, I thought this article was a very good one, and I don't think there is any disputing that Tyvon Branch had an excellent game that day. But even you have to admit, there are three facts that provide important context to the discussion. 1) Hernandez didn't play (if he did Branch likely would have been assigned to him instead, forcing someone else to cover Gronk) 2) The ground game was dominant, and Gronk's blocking allowed him to still have a positive impact on the game. 3) Welker had a huge day, meaning if other teams want to try to use this as a blueprint, they need to have a better answer for him then the Raiders did.
