Belichick & Brady Had the Lockout "Magic Pill"

[Shouright]

The lockout delayed the opening of training camp for about two months.

It's questionable what players did with their physical conditioning during that time. It's certainly true that they were not in NFL training rooms and on NFL practice fields.

It's not a stretch to say that, overall, physical conditioning in the NFL during the first few weeks of the 2011 season is, on average, well below that of typical seasons.

The lockout also prevented teams from practicing together and coaches from implementing their systems with their players.

Bill Belichick and Tom Brady took advantage of these factors last night, by executing a well-oiled passing offense in a no-huddle format.

This had the effect of tiring and confusing the Dolphins defense significantly.

Essentially Belichick and Brady had the "magic pill" for taking advantage of the effects of the lockout -- run a no-huddle offense that at once exhausts and confuses the opposing defense.

Simple intelligence, and it worked.

The upshot -- and this is positive -- is that I don't think we should make grand conclusions about the strength of our defense based on its performance last night.

Not every team will be led by Bill Belichick and Tom Brady (actually not any team, other than the Patriots, obviously), and not every game will be the first game of a post-lockout season.

In other words, conditioning will improve, knowledge of defensive calls and assignments will improve, and the quality of our opponents will not.

Put those things together and I think you should expect better things from our defense in the near future, perhaps as soon as next week.

 

[foozool13]

Good point, but I dont think that was the only reason. Even in the beginning of the game the Pats did whatever they wanted. The pass rush was by far the reason we lost. Also this is why the Pats are who they are. They simply outsmart everyone in the NFL over and over. ****ing Belicheck, he is one smart mother ****er.

 

[Lilseb93]

Belicheck had his team in good shape and ready for the season while Miami looked fat, slow, lost, and poorly coached on defense.

 

[FinsNCanes]

As bad as they beat us up we were in this game right up untill 7 minutes or so left. If we could have just made a damn stop on defense. Take that ridiculous 99 yarder away and Brady is throwing as much as Henne did (don't now the attempts) although I know we were trying to play catch up most of the game either way.

 

[Shouright]

Belicheck had his team in good shape and ready for the season while Miami looked fat, slow, lost on defense, and poorly coached on defense.

Sure, but they ran a no-huddle quite a bit, whereas we didn't. That's part of the point.

 

[circumstances]

the conventional wisdom was that the lockout would give teams who had consistency in their staffs and schemes the advantage over teams that had coaching changes, coordinator changes, scheme changes, etc., at least early on in the season. you can hope that it isn't going to affect your team (in this case the dolphins), but there it was, on the field last night. the inability to stay fresh in the face of the no-huddle was a disconcerting wrinkle, gotta say. i would look for the overall conditioning of the defense to improve significantly as the season unfolds.