Okay, here's the FF version of going thru the game...

Didn't really break anything down - tried to make an observation here and there, but for the most part I just denoted alignment, down/distance, personnel, and result.

One thing that stood out to me was Barrington - he was down right studly at times... loved his play at ILB, and hope he is now a fixture.

The other thing that stood out to me was the amount of 2-4 dunderdummy played in the 1st half. We were starting to bleed in the 2nd Quarter running the 2-4, but dunderdummy did the right thing and abandoned it in the 2nd half.

We were starting to bleed running the 2-4, but NE didn't take full advantage by the fact that they ran the ball very little. By the end of game NE had 18 rushing attempts (17 really - Brady kneel down) and 35 passing attempts - penalties notwithstanding.

So out of 55 snaps (some penalties that wiped plays out included), dunderdummy ran the following alignments:

3-4, 23 times
2-4, 14 times
3-3, 5 times
3-2 dime, 3 times
2-3 dime, 7 times
4-3, 1 time
4-2, 1 time
Goal line defense (5 down linemen), 1 time

Gronk was kept in check with man coverage and a lot of zone help. It was exactly the type of coverage that I called for. He did manage to shake loose a couple of times, and on a couple of those he was lined up outside the numbers. Outstanding job on Gronk throughout the game.

When dunderdummy was in the 2-4, NE should have run the ball, but they didn't - and in all honesty, dunderdummy did not run his usual 2-4, he crowded the LOS, filled gaps, and Barrington played lightyears better than anyone we've had at ILB in a long, long time. That said, NE did realize most of their success against the 2-4 when dunderdummy did run it... most notably in the 2nd Quarter.

Dunderdummy did then adjust and he only ran the 2-4 1 time in the 2nd half. He did run some 2 man lines in the Dime, but he brought pressure on those snaps, and on several occassions had both Matthews and Peppers coming on the blitz from ILB positions. Excellent mixing of the blitz.

In the 2nd half, dunderdummy ran the 3-4 predominately - even running against 4 WR's and Gronk, i.e. no RB's on the field.

I give dunderdummy a lot of credit for a good game plan - abandoning the 2-4 when it was beginning to hemorrhage in the 2nd Quarter, and mixing fronts and blitzes very effectively. At the same time, he did not vary his coverage much - and given that the coverage was very effective, i.e. man up on Gronk with zone help, and excellent zone play underneath, dunderdummy made the right calls throughout the game.

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All of that said - I do not trust dunderdummy, and will never trust dunderdummy