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Arizona DC Ray Horton "We saw a "tell" in Pats’ offense"

Thoughts around this? I remember feeling this way in SB42 and the latter part of the 2007 season that JMD play calling was a little too predictable.


From: Was Tom Brady Tipping New England's plays?


"We knew that whenever [Aaron] Hernandez was in tight, it was going to be a run, so we had a run check. But when he got hurt, it screwed that up because they went to three wide receivers. What they did, and we figured out real quick was, whenever Tom Brady was under the center, they were going to run the ball and whenever he was in the shotgun, they were going to pass the ball," Horton said. "We told our players 'hey, make the run check if Tom Brady's under the center. If he's in the gun, go to the pass check.'

According to the NFL Game Summary, the Patriots ran 47 plays out of the shotgun formation. Of those 47, 39 were passes, so Horton wasn't exactly 100% on, but there was certainly a tendency for New England to throw out of that formation.


Reiss refutes this assessment (http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4730297/looking-closer-at-brady-tipping-plays) : The comments by Horton, who need not boast about the fine work of his defense on Sunday, don't completely match with what unfolded (includes false start penalty; edited 3:10 p.m. ET):

Shotgun
Runs: 9
Passes: 38

Under center
Runs: 20
Passes: 13

At the end of the third quarter, when it was 13-9 Cardinals and the Patriots weren't forced into a heavy passing mode by playing catch-up by passing almost exclusively out of the shotgun, the numbers looked like this:

Shotgun
Runs: 7
Passes: 18

Under center
Runs: 17
Passes: 11




The stats are what they are and Horton is not close to precisely accurate but... the idea that JMDs play calling is not... well Bill Walsh-ian its really starting to gnaw at me

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