Patriots Coaching Blows the Game

I think the Patriots Coaching staff deserves the blame for their shocking upset.  I know they have some young, "genius" offensive coordinator, but that genius made two major errors.  First, he fell in love with what should be the second or third option - short pass to Welker - and he was scared to force things to Randy Moss and second, he did not prepare the offense for the one situation which could cost them the game (the Giants pass rush dominating).

I love Wes Welker because I think he provideswhat a great running back can provide because Brady completes 80% of his passes to Welker for an average of 9 yards per catch.  The yards per attempt end up around 7.2 - much better than your greatest running back. 

So I think it's great that the Patriots can use Welker like a "super RB".  However, the team shattered records with the passing game and I almost don't consider these plays as part of the passing game.

The key to the passing game is using the 3 deep threats - Randy Moss, Donte' Stallworth and Jabar Gaffney.  I can understand you don't always throw into triple coverage and I know the pass rush was not giving Tom Brady a lot of time, but this is something they should have prepared for (point 2 below).

However, I refuse to believe that Brady wouldn't have been able to complete 50% of his passes to his WRs.  Brady completed 29 passes and 21 went to his short yardage targets (Welker, Faulk, Maroney, Kyle Brady).  I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but say he went 21-28 to these 4 players.  That leaves 8-20 to Moss and Stallworth (Ben Watson, Gaffney no catches).  If you disregard the 3 desperation heaves with 30 seconds to go then you have Brady going 8-17 (nearly 50%) to his deep threats.

If Tom Brady and the coaches have taken more chances down field Tom Brady would have completed a considerably lower percentage of his passes.  However, for every 10 pass attempts to Welker, Brady had 8 completions for 60 yards he averages 6 ypa.  If he had 10 pass attempts to Moss he would have had 5 completions for 70 yards (7 ypa) and two to three times as high a chance of scoring a touchdown.

Point number 2 is how the Patriots didn't prepare for the one thing that could cost them the game - dealing with the Giants pass rush.

The Patriots should have spent 2 weeks only practicing situations where Brady had 2.5 seconds to get rid of the ball and not a typical 3.5 or 4 seconds.  Everyone knows that if Brady had adequate pass protection the Patriots could score 30.  At this point in the season there is no need to practice this "normal" situation.  It is irrelevant. 

I would have practiced with 13 defenders (7 rushing Brady, 6 in the secondary) and work on timing routes with Moss, Stallworth and Gaffney that the Patriots could have called in the event that the Giants pass rush dominated with just 4 lineman rushing.  You don't have to practice short passes to Welker.  Brady's going to complete 75%+ of these passes and Welker is going to catch them.  You have to prepare for how you can get the ball to your big play makers even when you don't have the usual amount of time to do it.