SANTA CLARA — Tarell Brown spoke at his locker Tuesday afternoon. Here’s what he said about the Patriots’ offense.
Q: What is going to be key for your defense against the Patriots?
BROWN: We all have to go out there and win out one-on-one battles. They have a lot of different weapons, a lot of guys that can make plays, but we’re really fighting against Tom Brady. He has the keys to the car and we definitely have to stop him.
Q: When did you start watching film on the Patriots?
BROWN: Last night. I watched a little bit of the game. Once it got out of hand I turned it off. Then I started watching some film.
Q: Is this challenge a good measuring stick for you as a defensive back?
BROWN: Yeah, it’s a measuring stick for all of us. I think we’ll all be tested and challenged throughout the game, and that’s the good thing about it.
ME: Wes Welker and Aaron Hernandez run option routes depending on man or zone coverage. How do you match up with that?
BROWN: Play your leverage. You’ve just got to make plays. I think at the end of the day, they do a lot of reads on and off the field. We have to do the same thing – play with what you see and play fast.
ME: Are you anticipating playing in the slot and covering Welker?
BROWN: I probably will, or Carlos will be inside and I’ll be outside against Hernandez.
Q: Are you surprised they were able to put up so many points on Houston’s defense?
BROWN: No. They’re an explosive offense. Anytime you’re going into their stadium – they’re 20-0 in December. That’s something you look at, you have that in the back of the mind, but at the end of the day it’s any given Sunday. We’ll go out there and play football and bring the 49er thing with us.
Q: Do you enjoy coming in as the underdog?
BROWN: Yeah, we enjoy being the underdog. Anytime you play football, you always have a chip on your shoulder, you always have something to prove every week. This week we have to go out there and win a big game. It’s important for us.
Q: You haven’t seen a lot of Tom Brady in person, have you?
BROWN: No, I haven’t seen him much, but he’s a smart quarterback. He can make all the throws. He’s an elite quarterback in general. Period. One of the best. Any time you’re playing one of the best. You have to be on your A game.
Q: You guys sure look like you love these primetime games.
BROWN: Big time players show out in big time games. I think we’re used to the pressure. Us as a team, we’ll be ready, we’ll prepare, we’ll put our best foot forward and go out there and plan on getting a win.
ME: The defense has given up a lot of catches to slot receivers this season, like Danny Amendola and Chris Givens. Do expect the Patriots to attack you in that way with Welker?
BROWN: Yeah, I think so. I think they’re just going to throw the ball around in general. Anytime you have a front like we have that can stop the run, they’re going to throw the ball 40 or 50 times a game. We’re giving up a few catches here and there, but we’re not giving up many yards and we’re not letting guys into the end zone, so that’s the most important thing.
ME: How do you stop their offense?
BROWN: Stop Tom Brady and stop Wes Welker and the guys that make plays after the catch. They get so many yards after the catch, it’s amazing. For us, we have to be sure tacklers this week. We need to focus, break down, and more than one guy needs to get there and swarm the football.
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VF has to be pulling his hair out trying to figure out how to stop these guys. This will be THE toughest test this defense has faced including last season. Lets see how elite this defense is. They are playing like last season lately. So this will be an answer to the old saying good defenses always beat good offenses or defenses win championships.
As far as the offense: someone else brought up two tight end sets. I think that would be very dangerous. BB won’t be preparing for that. We haven’t used it often.
Grant any way on asking about that formation?
As far as the offense: someone else brought up two tight end sets. I think that would be very dangerous. BB won’t be preparing for that. We haven’t used it often.
???
What’s the ???? You think the 49ers have utilized the two tight end set this season? No reason to keep them in there to block. Set them loose and open up the playbook. Split gore out a little more often also. They should be throwing all over the patriots defense. And letting ck run more often. Kill them in the middle of the field with VD and DW. Haven’t seen it all year.
I guess that was my turn not to recognize sarcasm.
C Balls – I swung and missed on that one too until I read your post.
To quick to pounce….Damnit.
In my opinion NY and AZ showed how to beat NE. They don’t like physical games. You jam receivers on the line. You hit Brady. Then you knock him down. If you can disrupt his timing with his receivers by playing a physical game, you disrupt Brady. He doesn’t respond well to physical teams.
I believe that has to be the defensive approach to this game. On the opposite side of the ball, I expect to see Kaepernick with run. The Patriots Defense can’t stop the run and making them spy kapernick will open up more plays in the second level. Lamichael James will defintely need a few screen passes to utilize his speed. I think if SF plays the physical game they are capable of, they win 24 to 13.
Brady puts up more than one TD.
I didn’t even give Brady one TD. I believe that 1 td comes rushing the ball. I looked at the AZ game, the Miami game, and the Seattle Game.
In Az, Tom brady didn’t score a TD until the 4th quarter. He got some real gifts last night with past interference calls that he didn’t get against Az. AZ played a very physical game.
Then, I move onto the Seattle Game. Tom Brady threw two TD passes but only in the first quarter (a blown coverage to Welker deep) and again in the second quarter (about 5 yards out to Hernandez). He was shut out the second half of the game.
Finally against Miami, Tom Brady only threw a TD in the second quarter to Welker who had 11 yard after the catch to score. He was again shut out in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th quarter. He was sacked 4 times in Miami.
All of these defenses are physical mash mouth Defenses.
Another note, Tom Brady has been sacked the majority of the time on 3rd down and short. 8 times on 3rd and 3-7 yards. 6 times on 3rd and less than 6 yards. On down and goal, he has taken 3 of his 20 sacks this season. On 3rd and 8+ he has 0 sacks. This leads me to reason that Tom Brady doesn’t do well against press coverages.
So, I think if SF plays press coverage with Goldson playing deep you eliminate the deep threat and the quick out. In GB Goldson played 20 yards back coming up to stop the run. I expect the same game plan against NE.
http://ninerchatter.blogspot.com/2012/12/how-will-49ers-defense-stop-tom-brady.html
good job Jack
Good read. I think the key is making the Patriots offense one-dimensional. The teams that have beat us this season did so by utilizing a balanced attack against our defense.
Jack – WOW!! Thank you, what a tremendous read. A very comprehensive analysis of Patriots offense and what the keys are for Niner defense.
Professor Crab gives you a passing grade at the highest level,
“pass plus-plus.”
Outstanding work! Are you working on Pat’s defense too?
Thanks Crab – I gotta get some actual work done today, but I will start looking at it tonight and try to have something together by Thursday night, early Friday.
Nicely done Jack. I think the big one is pressuring Brady. If he’s under pressure, lots of good things can happen, particularly with our coverage guys facing him in zones. If he’s not pressured, he eats up the zone coverage and gains yardage in chunks.
I think the game will be won or lost with that battle.
Jack,
A quick question — do the Pats use one formation more than the other out of the no huddle? From just casual observation, it appears to me that the Shotgun 11 personnel grouping is used extensively when they are in no huddle tempo.
JPN,
They are going to use a wide variety of formations, and motions, but Edelman and Lloyd will almost always be the outside guys with Hernandez and Welker inside. For the most part if Welker starts out as the outside guy he is going to then motion into the formation. They also like to motion the RB out of the backfield to outside of Edelman or Lloyd, it usually will tell Brady the coverage, and creates matchup problems inside for the LB’s trying to cover little receivers.
But in the red zone they’ll line up Hernandez all over the formation, right?
Edelman and Stallworth are on IR.
I have not seen Hernandez line up outside in any formation. The only time they will go away from these two groups is deep in the red zone when they go heavy.
How about on his second touchdown catch last night?
That was out of their goalline heavy, 13 package.
Gotcha.
Nice work Jack. I love the break down. I think BB will try to break tendencies and switch up which formations he runs the ball in against our boys.
Stop the run and hit the QB and we get a W…..
Excellent as usual.
Grant – What’s the latest with Manningham?
We’ll find out tomorrow.
@Crab I believe the answer will be “Mario is working through something.”
The practice report should shed some light.
Thanks
Great read, Jack.
Excellent analysis as usual Jack. Can’t wait for your take on the 49er offense vs the Patroit D.
Here’s my two cents:
In all the years I have been watching Brady, I don’t think I have ever seen him move side to side out of the pocket. I have seen him move up into the pocket a number of times but hardly ever left or right. So it seems to me the niners need to collapse the pocket up the middle and make him run sideways if he has room to move at all. If we give him an extra second or so by moving up into the pocket, he will tear our secondary to shreds.
If the D get’s to Brady like they did Brees, then the Niners will have a good day.
We need to pressure Brady and play man tight coverage with bump. Double down on Welker and let Brady beat us without his favorite target.
Id much rather we blitz and force pressure than for Brady to destroy our zone . They don’t really have a serious deep threat that Culliver or Brown couldn’t handle 1 on 1. Getting after Brady is a must!
Holy crap! Patriots are 20-0 in December? I don’t like those numbers.
The Pats are 23-1 in Foxboro in December since 2002.
I’m very worried about Welker, he is smaller version of Victor Cruz. We all know the trouble that Cruz has caused Niners. Cruz & Welker both seem to get open with ease, they have the same kind of quickness and the ability to make guys miss.
We have trouble with these canny/slimey WR’s.
I see a lot of defensive holding calls in this game. The only way to slow down speed is to play physical with them. If Rogers can get his hands on him at the line (which will be tricky) and get him frustrated that could be a good way to slow this little bullet down. If they sit off of him he could light Rogers up. I think they should play their receivers and TE’s at the line. The 49ers of old with Montana and Young had problems with physical defenses throwing off their rhythm. The defense must bully them.
I’m telling you Crab. It’s the tiny white guys. They’ve been killing us this year.
Clem – Are you thowin out the race card again? :)
I compared a white (Welker) to a black (Cruz) and said their much the same, so I’m safe.
Keep it up and you’ll be known as Clem Cochran. Lol
I was going for Cowherd status there Crab :-D
The tiny white guys always crack me up. ESPN almost commits suicide by auto-fellatio whenever an Amendola or Welker has a great game. “So scrappy!”
Clem – You are in the herd!
Cruz is Puerto Rican. Don’t be short changing my people. There aren’t many Latinos in the football world. ;-)
md – Sorry Lol…you are half right about Cruz…..Hey are you going to game Dec. 30? I’m going to meet & greet bay at game.
My wife is a half-breed too. Half white and half middle eastern.
Crab… That will be the game that I miss. I will be at the cabin in Tahoe that weekend. It’s rare that I miss a game but its Tahoe and New Years and my son is looking forward to some snow (fingers crossed) and his pops showing him how to get down on the board. Skip that game and get some playoff tickets. Pole M is where I’ll be like always. Y’all should come out and join the party.
md – Tahoe sounds like a blast with your son! Don’t pull a “Sony Bono” out there. :)
Maybe I can do both (Cards game & playoff)? We’ll see.
Thanks!
Hate to say, but I sadly see two consecutive losses for the 49ers, followed by a final win against Arizona. 10-5-1. Seattle takes the division at 11-5, and the Niners go to wild card game and ?. There are just too many things unsettled on the offensive side of the ball right now. And maybe after all this Harbaugh will come down from that high horse of his.
Great prediction. Because the 49ers can’t win without Alex smith.
Get real. Seattle will lose in buffalo and aren’t winning this division. SF owns Seattle and Harbaugh owns PC. Sf at worst will split these two next games. Balee dat
Of all the elite QB’s, nobody gets thrown off their game like Brady because he is specifically a pocket passer. Brees, Rogers & Manning have escapability but once you smack Brady in the mouth, he rattles like a copperhead.
We usually play base but I would love to see VF blitz Willis or Bowman a few times. We may leave the middle vulnerable but hitting him is as important as keeping the YAC down because the hits lead to deflections, picks or incompletions on passes he normaly makes.
“rattles like a copperhead” is fantastic. You should ™ that.
When did copperheads start rattling?
They don’t, but it was still a great phrase.
Brady does have a rushing TD this season Faith.
Smh… I Didnt know copperheads had rattles. Is that a new species? Lol
My apologies to the reptilia sensitive crowd- how bout a “Texas Diamondback?”
MWN- Yeah I know but that’s the exception not the rule and I trust Willis or Bowman can cover ground if it came to that.
Just Giving you a hard time brotha. :-)
I think you guys are delusional about Brady’s inability to play
well when pressured,and are looking for bit’s,and pieces of non
perfect plays during their three loses.Tom Brady was hit hard mul-
tiple times by JJ Watt during last nights game,and still managed to
control the game,and carve them up.Nobody’s perfect,and no one
expects a blow out,but lets get real here BRADY IS A KILLER!!!
Some great timing on some ghost PI calls helped NE tremendously last night. I’m not taking anything away from Brady who played an exceptional game. I am merely saying he got a LOT of help from the refs last night.
>>I think you guys are delusional about Brady’s inability to play
well when pressured
We’ve seen Jets successful at it (back in the day when they knew how to play D), we’ve seen Giants successful at it. Brady doesn’t like the hits. Hell, what QB does? The key is to be relentless.
Roger that, Ribico. NE had Watt triple teamed lots of times. Had HOU had Cushing, it’s a different game. Let’s hope our studs can do what they’re capable of. Aldon loves the primetime lights!