Wild Kittens

by Brady's Revenge on Nov 9, 2009 5:05 PM EST

I don't know what is worse? Watching the 1986 movie "Wild Cats" with Goldie Hawn as the team's fearless coach or listening to another rant by Joey Porter. For me it has to be Joey Porter because as bad as the movie Wildcats was, Goldie Hawn was the hottest high school football coach in the world. Attendance at football games would have tripled if she were coaching my high school games. Anyway, Joey Porter continues to talk smack as he attacks Tom Brady for getting every call and the Patriots for cheating. If humiliating the Patriots the first time they unveiled the Wild Cat formation was not enough, Joey is playing the disrespect card. Hey Joey, guess what? Take a number. After going 16-0 and running up the score on every team in 2007, given the chance I am sure most teams would love to humiliate the Pats.
The Miami Dolphins are riding a wave of mutilation with the Patriots next up on their personal cutting board. Miami has not been kind to the Patriots in years past. Other than Mile High Stadium, Miami has been the Patriots playing field of horrors. In order to buck this trend the Patriots had to play perfect special teams and clearly stop the "Wild Cat" formation. Yesterday they did just that, now on to the observations.

1. Stabilizing Bookends. Kaczur and Vollmer contain Porter and Taylor's speed giving Brady plenty of comfort in the pocket. Matt Light who?
2. Shades of black and blue. It has been a long time since the fear of Rodney Harrison loomed in the secondary. With McGowan, Chung and Meriweather creating bone-crushing hits on incoming receivers, the Patriot swagger is quickly coming back.
3. 3rd Helpings. The Patriot's defense lack of execution on 3rd down must improve. The Dolphins created to many 3rd down conversions including a 4th down to help extend drives keeping the defense tired and on the field. The only time the Pats were successful getting off the field is when the defense blitzed, causing quick decisions to be made by Chad Henne.
4. The Wild Kitten. After seeing the Wild Cat formation three times now, Bill Belichick and the Patriots were able to scheme and make in game adjustments to contain this formation. Kudos to Thomas and Banta-Cain for stepping up and containing the edges.
5. Special People. Ted Ginn was held in check due to the strength of Gostkowski's leg. Game changing kick by Gostkowski after off side's penalty on Sanders pushing the ball back to the 25. Gostkowski made it hard to return kicks booted five yards deep in the end zone.

The views expressed in these FanPosts are not necessarily those of the writers or SBNation.

Tweet Comment 5 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

i dont see haw u kept the wildcat in check

we scored 2 TDs off of it

and made that one big Pat White running play

please explain

by finzrule on Nov 9, 2009 7:32 PM EST reply actions

The average yardage out of the Wildcat was lower than out of the 'Phins regular offensive set

and the TDs were from one and two yards out. That’s not anything to do with a particular system, it’s just decent Red Zone execution.

One 33 yard scramble by a QB doesn’t mean the Wildcat offence was successful against the Pats – in fact, the -11 yard sack suggests the Pats largely kept it in check, because it lost its power to confuse. Once the Pats showed they had adjusted to White’s ability to run, the ’Phins abandoned it for the rest of the game.

Token southern hemisphere guy - 14,688km from Foxboro. That's 9128 miles, for you heathens.

by Comedic.Sans on Nov 9, 2009 7:53 PM EST up reply actions

As one columnist put it, “They defended it so well that it disappeared with the game on the line, Miami declining to go to it one time in its final two drives. The gimmick was gone, the victim of a defense that didn’t panic.”

"They made an adjustment and we just didn’t handle it," Ricky Williams said. "They brought the outside linebacker up to the line to not let our tight end get off to the middle linebacker. We changed our blocking scheme but we didn’t do a good job executing."

Keep the faith!

by Marima on Nov 9, 2009 7:54 PM EST up reply actions